Hail The Warden!
Legendary Dungeon Master
Our only other sanctioned Game Master in WARP, residing in our GARP Guild, is none other than the legendary James M. Ward. Jim puts the “school” in old-school, having signed on with the TSR team back in 1974 and devoted himself to the RPG genre for over 20 years. In that stretch of time he managed to write the first science fiction role-playing game, METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA in 1975; the first apocalypse role-playing game, GAMMA WORLD in 1978; and numerous source materials for D&D and AD&D including many articles in DRAGON Magazine, favorite hardbound books DEITIES & DEMIGODS and GREYHAWK ADVENTURES, and finally the best selling SPELLFIRE and DRAGON BALL Z CCGs.
Jim continues to stay on cutting edge in game design having crafted major products for Troll Lords, Goodman Games, Fireside Creations, and GiantLands including: OF GODS AND MONSTERS, STORYTELLER’S THESAURUS, TAINTED LANDS: THE HORROR RPG, THE LOST 77 WORDS Apocalyptic RPG using a deck of cards instead of dice, DRAGONSCALES a fantasy RPG also using a deck of cards, the GIANTLANDS Apocalyptic/Fantasy RPG and the FORGOTTEN RUINS Fantasy role-playing game. THE WARDEN is a science fiction detailed starship of 680 pages sold by Troll Lords. DOOM OF THE WARDEN is a science fiction kickstarter tournament adventure sold by Goodman Games and is the MA equivalent to Tomb of Horrors in AD&D.
One might describe Jim’s design philosophy as the “Monty Hall” method. He likes to give away a great deal of treasure and then enjoy the looks of surprise on his player’s faces. He does have a slightly deserved reputation of endorsing the “total party kill”, although he makes certain to clarify his viewpoint, “I, as the DM/GM, don’t kill player characters, player characters kill player characters.” Currently Jim hosts our exclusive Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha campaigns for a handful of lucky Guild Members.
James M. Ward on James M. Ward:
He married his high school sweetheart and she’s put up with him for 50 years. He has three unusually charming sons, Breck, James, and Theon. They in turn have given him six startlingly charming grandchildren, Keely, Miriam, Sophia, Preston, Teagan, and Noah.
