Prolific fantasy artist, illustrator, video game designer, role-playing game writer and activist Jennell Jaquays has passed away at the age of 67. Her death was due to complications from Guillian-Barré Syndrome  according to her wife, Rebecca Heinemen, herself a veteran video game designer and programmer. In addition to Rebecca, she is survived by two sons from her first marriage.

Jennell discovered the role-playing game industry in its very early stages while in college. Coming across Dungeons and Dragons in 1975 – a year after it was first published – she created The Dungeoneer fanzine along with several college friends. The Dungeoneer was one of the first RPG periodicals, with the first issue being published in June 1976, at the same time that D&D publisher TSR’s first issue of The Dragon Magazine – which also had some of Jennell’s work within the pages. The Dungeoneer had a short, six-issue run, but it was noteworthy in featuring the first of what would become known as “adventure modules”, largely written and illustrated by her. She continued to contribute to both the unofficial fanzine as well as TSR’s official publication over the next two years, including her art gracing the cover of The Dragon’s issue 21 in December of 1978.

By this time she had come to work for a licensed third-party publisher of D&D material, Judges Guild. One of the company’s founders had bought The Dungeoneer a few months earlier as Jennell was graduating from Spring Arbor College in Michigan. At Judges Guild she was an illustrator and designer of adventure modules. Her two stand-alone modules, Dark Tower and Coverns of Thracia are still considered classics to this day. They were among the first scenarios which imagined the dungeons as being more than “monster hotels” as she put it, but having been designed by the original occupants with a purpose before becoming overrun. Dark Tower was nominated for the H.G. Wells award for Best Role Playing adventure in 1979.

Freelancing for the Industry

After leaving Judges Guild in late 1979, she continued on a freelance basis while also providing artwork and designing games for many of the RPG and table-top gaming industry leaders; TSR, Chaosium, Metagaming, West End Games, Iron Crown Enterprises, Steve Jackson Games, Flying Buffalo and Games Designers’ Workshop. For the latter, she created all of the starship illustrations found in a supplement for the popular Traveller space RPG. Her work for Chaosium included illustrating many of that company’s early RuneQuest works, including co-writing Griffin Mountain, which is considered one of the greatest RPG campaigns produced and was also nominated for the H.G. Wells award in 1981.

She also expanded her range of skills to sculpt miniatures compatible with RuneQuest’s Glorantha setting for the company Martian Metals. Among the over a dozen minis she sculpted are the comical Ducks (a playable race in RuneQuest) the monstrous Walktapus and the bestial Broo.

Both of TSR’s in-house magazines – Dragon and Dungeon – received featured Jennell’s artwork in their pages or on their covers. In 1987 she collaborated with fantasy author and game designer Frank Mentzer to create the epic adventure module I-12 Egg of the Phoenix.

Outside of the gaming industry, she also provided illustrations and cartoons for her local newspaper in Jackson, Michigan.

In 1993 she was hired full-time by TSR as an illustrator, providing artwork for a variety of their books, modules and periodicals. She was also involved as a creator in the company’s Dragon Dice game and was promoted to Director of Graphics before leaving the then-troubled company prior to its acquisition by Wizards of the Coast.

Video Game Pioneer

Even as she was providing artwork for the physical gaming industry, Jennell also stepped into the nascent video gaming world. In 1980, fellow game designer and Flying Buffalo alum,  Michael Stackpole, brought her on board to work for Coleco. There, she developed and designed home arcade versions of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong among others. She eventually became Director of Game Design for the company and was instrumental in creating one of the first art and design studios for video game development in the video game industry.

After departing Coleco in 1985, she continued to work in the video game industry on a freelance basis. Just as she had with the table-top and RPG industry, she provided her services to the video game giants of the era including Epyx, Interplay and Electronic Arts. Among her projects was Interplay’s Lord of the Rings vol. 1. In 1997, she joined id Software and created level maps for their Quake series of games, working on Quake II and Quake III Arena.

After leaving iD in 2002, she joined fellow developers from that company at Ensemble Studios until its closure in 2009. During that time, she co-founded a video game education named The Guildhall at SMU which was located at the Plano, TX campus of Southern Methodist University.  Creating much of the curriculum, she continued as an advisor for many years.

After Ensemble’s closure, she was appointed as senior designer with Iceland-based CCP Games which produced massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) including those based on White Wolf Publishing’s properties.

Activism and Lasting Impact

She continued to be very active in the gaming industry while also co-founding digital game developer and publisher Olde-Sküül, Inc. in Seattle, her Dragongirl Studios for her art and RPG publisher Fifth Wall Fantasy.

Herself a trans woman, she served as creative director for the Transgender Human Rights Institute in Seattle, being involved in the petition to outlaw so-called “conversion therapy” of LGBT youth. The petition prompted then-President Barack Obama to call for the banning of the practice in 2015.

Among the gaming world, her impact is still felt. In 2004, Dragon compiled a list of “30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time” to mark the game’s 30^th anniversary. Dark Tower was the only non-TSR entry. Artist John Kovalik, best known for his work on the Munchkin card game, named his cartoon website Dork Tower as a salute to her module.

In late 2023, Jacquays was diagnosed with Gullain-Barre syndrom. Donations intended for her care will now go to covering her medical bills, and can be given here.

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