Iconic Game Designer Greg Stafford Passes Away

Chaosium founder Greg Stafford passed away yesterday at the age of 70. An iconic game designer, he was known for the world of Glorantha, Pendragon, RuneQuest, the Ghostbusters RPG, and much more. Our thoughts and sympathies go to his friends, family, and co-workers.

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Stafford founded Chaosium in 1975. Chaosium report that he passed at his home, and that his passing was painless.

[video=youtube;_UiAhyIBK9c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UiAhyIBK9c[/video]​

 

[Kobold Boots]

RIP Greg - one with the totem, one with the earth and sky.

KB

 

[JeffB]

This is such a huge loss for me.

Not just his own works are so amazing but everything his company did to take RPGs and supplemental material to the next level.

 

[Badvoc]

Truly one of the greats of the RPG industry. His games are responsible for so many happy memories of weekend-long gaming sessions during my younger years.


What an amazing legacy of work he leaves us.

 

[Von Ether]

The passing of a legend and an era.

 

[Bluenose]

May Issaries guide him home. R.I.P.

 

[Ed Laprade]

A great loss. My first time GMing was actually with Runequest.

 

[Caliburn101]

My childhood in rpgs started with D&D but really grew wings with RuneQuest when it was first released.

Greg's passing makes me feel old, although, it must be said, he wasn't.

The word 'visionary' gets overused in our world of Instagram hyperbole - but Greg invented the first skills based rpg with realistic combat and imagined a world like no other before or since in the form of Glorantha.

He was a visionary.

A truly sad loss for everyone who ever let their imagination and a handful of dice transport them and their friends to other worlds.

 

[Paragon Lost]

Fond memories of playing Runequest back in the late 1970s. The man was creative and I loved that Runequest was the first table top rpg where we had an active combat system of parrying, dodging and blocking. So different from DnD at the time. What an interesting and creative person he was.

 

[TrippyHippy]

Greg Stafford is a gaming god - the hobby wouldn't be the same without his influence on it. He will be genuinely missed.