Jim Ward

James Michael Ward (born May 23, 1951 ) is an American game designer and fantasy author who worked for TSR, Inc. for more than 20 years.

Ward was one of the players in Gary Gygax's early Greyhawk games as Gygax developed the Dungeons & Dragons game.

The Dungeons & Dragons character Drawmij was named after him; "Drawmij" is simply "Jim Ward" spelled backwards.

James Ward married his wife Janean in the early 1970s, and they have three sons together, Breck, James, and Theon.

Rob Kuntz and Ward's Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976) expanded the original D&D game by introducing gods.

Ward designed Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), which was the first science-fantasy role-playing game, and published as TSR's fourth role-playing game.

Ward co-authored Deities & Demigods (1980).

In the early 1980s, Ward and Rose Estes formed an education department at TSR, planning to market classroom modules to teachers.

Ward ran Kuntz's adventure "The Maze of Xaene" as the D&D tournament module for the 1983 EastCon convention, although that module was never published by TSR.

Ward wrote Greyhawk Adventures (1988), a hardcover supplement that presented new rules for the Greyhawk setting.

Ward, with David Cook, Steve Winter, and Mike Breault, co-wrote the Ruins of Adventure adventure scenario that was adapted into the game Pool of Radiance.

In 1989 he was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame.

When TSR produced a second edition of AD&D (1989), Ward instituted changes such as removing assassins and half-orcs as player character options from the game, explaining this decision in Dragon #154 (February 1990) that "[a]voiding the Angry Mother Syndrome has become a good, basic guideline for all of the designers and editors at TSR, Inc"; Ward printed many upset replies from upset in Dragon #158.

Ward can be glimpsed early in the Dragon Strike tutorial video playing the man who is slapped in the face at the king's party.

Ward designed the Spellfire collectible card game.

Ward was eventually made the VP for Creative Services, but left TSR because of disagreements with how the company handled its crisis involving book sales in 1996.

Ward designed the Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game.

Ward was a co-founder of the d20 company Fast Forward Entertainment with Timothy Brown, Lester Smith, John Danovich, and Sean Everett.

From 2000 - 2005, he was President of Fast Forward Entertainment, an independent game development company.

Ward wrote Sete-Ka's Dream Quest (2006), an adventure gamebook published by Margaret Weis Productions.

He wrote the Halcyon Blithe novel Dragonfrigate Wizard (Tor, 2006), which he considered one of his better and prouder creations.

Ward joined Troll Lord Games, writing supplements such as the boxed set Towers of Adventures (2008) and the Castles & Crusades supplement Of Gods & Monsters (2009); Ward was also made the editor for their Castles & Crusades magazine, The Crusader Journal.

Ward also wrote the horror fantasy game Tainted Lands (2009), based on the "SIEGE" system from Castles & Crusades.

In 2010, Ward was diagnosed with a serious neurological disorder that required treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

His friend Tim Kask has helped to establish a fund to help Ward offset some of the medical bills.

Ward wrote for Gygax Magazine beginning in 2013, including a new Metamorphosis Alpha adventure "They All Died at the International Space Station," which was also released as a standalone product.

Ward was co-author of GiantLands by Wonderfilled, which was announced on Kickstarter in 2019 and shipped in 2022.