Update: Sadly Jennell passed away Jan 10, 2024. Jennell Jaquays, one of the founding creators of this hobby, needs our help.

[Sacrosanct]

Rebecca Heineman also is probably responsible for a fair number of your memories as far as old CRPGs--designed Bard's Tale 3, Dragon Wars, programmed Wasteland, Bard's Tale, Out of this World, and some ports of Wolfenstein 3D, then project leader for Baldur's Gate II and Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

Yeah, Rebecca is a pretty accomplished individual as well. Starting with winning the Space Invaders championship in 1980

 

[Mannahnin]

She created many of the ideas and methods of this hobby we take for granted now. Please help if you can.

A lot of your old-school memories, particularly non-TSR ones, probably have her fingerprints on them somewhere. She did a large number of very early D&D modules, most famously Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia, for Judges' Guild, one of the first big third-party publishers of D&D material back in the 1e era, as well as a bunch of other non-TSR publishers like Chaosium, West End, and Iron Crown. She then moved into video games, and was a level designer for iD, though she went back to illustrate for TSR shortly before they got bought out.

Rebecca Heineman also is probably responsible for a fair number of your memories as far as old CRPGs--designed Bard's Tale 3, Dragon Wars, programmed Wasteland, Bard's Tale, Out of this World, and some ports of Wolfenstein 3D, then project leader for Baldur's Gate II and Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

It's always shocking to see that someone with such a resume and accomplishments can be in such need later in life. :/

 

[billd91]

It's always shocking to see that someone with such a resume and accomplishments can be in such need later in life.

That's the American economic system in a nutshell.

 

[MGibster]

It's always shocking to see that someone with such a resume and accomplishments can be in such need later in life. :/

When it comes to a career in RPGs, it can be tough to make a good living at it. Mike Pondsmith was a pretty big name in the 1990s with his own company, R. Talsorian Games, producing Cyberpunk 2020 and some others, but ended up making RPGs his part-time job so he could go work for Microsoft. What I'm getting at is that even a lot of the folks who are big names, those whose fingerprints are all over the hobby, didn't really make a lot of money. And I would expect a lot of people who worked on video games in the 80s might be in a similar position. For every Robertta Williams there's more who didn't manage to make bank.

 

[Quickleaf]

Made small contribution. Sending Jennell Jaquays and friends/family my thoughts.

 

[Mannahnin]

When it comes to a career in RPGs, it can be tough to make a good living at it. Mike Pondsmith was a pretty big name in the 1990s with his own company, R. Talsorian Games, producing Cyberpunk 2020 and some others, but ended up making RPGs his part-time job so he could go work for Microsoft. What I'm getting at is that even a lot of the folks who are big names, those whose fingerprints are all over the hobby, didn't really make a lot of money. And I would expect a lot of people who worked on video games in the 80s might be in a similar position. For every Robertta Williams there's more who didn't manage to make bank.

True, apart from Gygax and Arneson, virtually no one ever made a fortune on RPGs. But even with her work in the much bigger video and computer games industry she still doesn't have the coverage and resources.

 

[Clint_L]

What kills me are the people who are getting divorced so that no one can go after their spouse for their medical debt after they die.

That...is just brutal. That is unbelievably heartbreaking. How can that be a thing?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

That...is just brutal. That is unbelievably heartbreaking. How can that be a thing?

'Murikuh.*

On the plus side, we did get rid of debtor's prisons.

For now.


*The slightly more involved answer is that generally the debt will be the responsibility of the surviving spouse by operation of law- for example, if the debt was accrued through a joint credit card. There's also complicated reasons involving estate law and the intersection of community property in certain states. But the long and the short of it is ... it shouldn't be that way, and yet it is.

 

[Sacrosanct]

That...is just brutal. That is unbelievably heartbreaking. How can that be a thing?

It's crazy. A couple years ago after we paid $6000 after insurance for my son to get stitches on his nose, he said he won't ever go to the doctor again, no matter how much he's in pain or suffering. Which both infuriates and saddens me. Cuz that's how people end up with serious health issues or worse, with ruptured appendixes, staph infections, and late-identified cancer.

 

[MGibster]

That...is just brutal. That is unbelievably heartbreaking. How can that be a thing?

I had a job auditing mortgage applications that were rejected to make sure the bank followed all applicable laws and policies. A lot of them were rejected because the applicants had bad credit, but of those who had bankruptcies, about half of them were due to medical issues. i.e. They had so many medical expenses they had no choice but to declare bankruptcy.