Don Turnbull (game designer)

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Don Turnbull
BornPreston, Lancashire, UK
DiedRibble Valley, Lancashire, UK
OccupationJournalist, editor, game designer
NationalityBritish
Period1965–2003
Genre
Wargaming, board games and role-playing games

Don Turnbull was a journalist, editor, games designer, and an accomplished piano and pinball player.[1] He was particularly instrumental in introducing Dungeons & Dragons into the UK, both as the managing director of TSR UK Ltd and as the editor of the Fiend Folio.

Early career

In his early career Turnbull was as a high-school teacher of mathematics in the north of England.[2] However, he was an early and enthusiastic follower of wargaming, subsequently winning awards as a designer.[3] A feature which assisted his work as a game developer was the use of correspondence to run board games.[4]

Albion magazine

In July 1969 he published the first issue of

Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone of Games Workshop sent copies of their first issue of Owl and Weasel to the subscribers of Albion to get their business.[8]: 43  After pioneering work with Diplomacy, Don began to write for the magazine Games & Puzzles,[9] before becoming involved with the new role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons
.

White Dwarf and Games Workshop

Turnbull was a contributor to Owl and Weasel and one of the founding contributors to the magazine White Dwarf. This influential magazine did much to develop role-playing games in the UK. His first contribution to White Dwarf was the "Monstermark" system, a way of assessing the relative strength of monsters that might be encountered in a role-playing world.[10] He quickly became a regular reviewer and by issue six was the editor of a regular feature, "The Fiend Factory", which presented descriptions of monsters that readers had created for themselves. In these early issues he published sections from his own "Greenlands" dungeon.[10] After his work for Games Workshop, Don was hired by Gary Gygax to manage the UK operations of TSR, Inc.[11]

TSR UK Ltd.

TSR hired Turnbull to edit a second book of monsters, which he named the

grell
and many others.

TSR founded TSR UK in 1980, and Turmbull led this new undertaking.[8]: 13  In his role as managing director of TSR UK Ltd. he oversaw the publication of a range of titles, including his own "Underwater" modules in conjunction with Dave J. Browne: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, and The Final Enemy. These have been described as having "Probably one of the best storylines of any module series."[12] These early TSR UK adventures U1–U3 (1981–1983) were incorporated into the Greyhawk setting after the publication of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting (1980).[8]: 24  The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh was elected the 27th greatest D&D adventure of all time by the official D&D magazine Dragon.[13]

TSR UK Ltd. also produced the "UK" series of modules: UK1

Imagine
.

Final years

TSR UK Ltd. was compromised by the management problems faced by its

American parent company.[15] In February 1987, Turnbull was brought on as the new CEO of New Infinities Productions.[8]: 237  He spent a number of years in the US working for Gary Gygax, and then subsequently as a freelance journalist[15]
and occasional restaurant chef.

As gaming changed, with the new-found popularity of collectible card games, Turnbull returned to the UK and started a new career as a computer programmer, first in Cambridge and then in a village in Lancashire.[15]

He remained an active player of both the piano and of pinball, having a grand piano and an Attack from Mars pinball table at his homes in Cambridge and Lancashire. He also continued to play role-playing games until shortly before his death, running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in the world of "Urnst" with his friends.[16]

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Reynolds, Harold, The Bad Pets Lists, "Diplomacy A-Z Version 6.0"". Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  2. ^ "Turnbull, Don, Albion 15, "UK Diplomacy Zine Archive"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  3. ^ a b "Emrich, Alan (2008). Charles S. Roberts Awards". Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  4. ^ "McNeil, Andrew (1979). The Making of Avalon Hill's Kingmaker". Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  5. ^ "Agar, Stephen (2008). UK Diplomacy Zine Archive". Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  6. ^ "Agar, Stephen (2008). UK Diplomacy Zine Archive". Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  7. ^ "Agar, Stephen (2008). UK Diplomacy Zine Archive". Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7
    .
  9. ^ "Bloomfield, Eamon, BoardGameGeek. (Mar. 2, 2011)". Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  10. ^ a b "Bold, Steve (2004). White Dwarf Library". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  11. ^ "Sacco, Ciro Alessandro (2005) "The Ultimate Interview with Gary Gygax"". Archived from the original on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  12. ^ "The Acaeum". Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  13. ^ "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  14. ^ "The Acaeum". Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  15. ^ a b c "Agar, Stephen (2003) "The League of the Last Days"" (PDF). Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  16. ^ "Howard, Bill (2010) "Greyhawk Site"". Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  17. ^ "Emrich, Alan (2008). Charles S. Roberts Awards". Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  18. ^ "Burgess, Jim (2012). Postal Zine Archive: The Abyssinian Prince". Retrieved 28 June 2012.

External links

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