So, last night before our D&D game got going (we're currently fighting our way through the newest iteration of the Ravenloft adventure) we were talking about old, old modules from the dawn of time. Pulling a few off the shelf to see if we could settle an argument about credits, I noticed that the editor of T1. Village of Hommlet (1979) was one Timothy Jones. That's a name I don't remember ever coming across before in mentions of who was at TSR in the early days. He shows up again (as "Tim Jones") as one of the seven editors of Laurence Schick's T2. White Plume Mountain (1979). He's also one of the twenty-one people thanked for their contribution to the game in Gygax's Preface to the PLAYER'S HANDBOOK (1978). Most of those names are well-known to anyone with an interest in the Old Days at TSR; I'm curious why Jones fell off the radar. The evidence suggests he was a TSR employee, one of the editors, circa 1978-79, but with the exception of the late Dave Sutherland all of the old timers I knew at TSR had come on board in 1980-82. Anyone know anything about his career at, before, and after TSR?
--John R.
(TSR 1991-1996, 1997-2001, 2002-2005)
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I've never noticed his name either. From a quick search I found he also wrote an article in Dragon #21, Dec 78, titled 'That "Other" Dungeon', which describes variant rules for the Dungeon boardgame used in the tournament at Gen Con XI. It mentions that he was one of the judges for the tournament, and that the material was compiled from various authors - so again in this article, he was serving in an editorial role.
Howdy John,
Long time since we last talked. Hope all is well with you and yours.
Tim Jones was a Star Wars fanatic and was Mike Carr's roommate. He played in a number of Lake Geneva D&D campaigns and in particular played in the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign, he played TerJon. He worked at TSR and got and editing credit for that and for developing Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits. According to Dave Sutherland III, he may have been the person who created the drider (abomination drow-spider hybrids).
Futures Bright,
Paul Stormberg
Howdy John,
Long time since we last talked. Hope all is well with you and yours.
Tim Jones was a Star Wars fanatic and was Mike Carr's roommate. He played in a number of Lake Geneva D&D campaigns and in particular played in the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign, he played TerJon. He worked at TSR and got and editing credit for that and for developing Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits. According to Dave Sutherland III, he may have been the person who created the drider (abomination drow-spider hybrids).
Futures Bright,
Paul Stormberg
Tim Jones was my DM in 1980 when I was 13 years old. He told us that he edited some of the books and modules - and sure enough, his name was there. Any doubt that we had about what he said was erased when we played. Not only was his understanding of the rules complete, but his adventures were fun stories that were full of intrigue and mystery. We went some entire sessions and all we did was get a hotel room and shop for supplies - all because he was such a good story-teller.
Tim also told us stories of playing with Gary and the other guys. Stories that, at the time, were not in any books or articles. But since then have been verified in the flood of accounts that have come out in the recent couple of decades. I've been to a couple of tournaments and had some very good DMs, but no one as good as Tim. So I have no doubt that the Tim that was my DM was the Tim listed as the editor. What got him down to rural Georgia at the time is a question that I don't know the answer to, as is where he is now.
Tim Jones was my DM in 1980 when I was 13 years old. He told us that he edited some of the books and modules - and sure enough, his name was there. Any doubt that we had about what he said was erased when we played. Not only was his understanding of the rules complete, but his adventures were fun stories that were full of intrigue and mystery. We went some entire sessions and all we did was get a hotel room and shop for supplies - all because he was such a good story-teller.
Tim also told us stories of playing with Gary and the other guys. Stories that, at the time, were not in any books or articles. But since then have been verified in the flood of accounts that have come out in the recent couple of decades. I've been to a couple of tournaments and had some very good DMs, but no one as good as Tim. So I have no doubt that the Tim that was my DM was the Tim listed as the editor. What got him down to rural Georgia at the time is a question that I don't know the answer to, as is where he is now.
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