David James Ritchie (October 6, 1950 – September 6, 2009) was a

game designer Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

and author.

Early life and education

David Ritchie was a

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in Stark County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, eighth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 70,872 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Canton–Massillo ...

native who graduated from Lehman High School in Canton and then went to

Grove City College Grove City College (GCC) is a private, conservative Christian liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1876 as a normal school, the college emphasizes a humanities core curriculum and offers 60 majors and si ...

in Pennsylvania where he met Deborah, who he later married.

Career

David Ritchie was working for

Simulations Publications, Inc. Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) was an American publisher of board game, board Wargaming, wargames and related magazines, particularly its Flagship (broadcasting), flagship ''Strategy & Tactics'', in the 1970s and early 1980s. It produced an ...

(SPI) when it was taken over by TSR in March 1982. In the following months, as SPI employees either quit or were fired, Ritchie became the last remaining holdover from SPI. He designed '' The Omega War'' in his final months at SPI, before leaving in late 1983 to work for

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. ( ) was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. The name "COLECO" is an abbreviation derived from the company's original name which combines the first two letters of "C ...

. Ritchie, along with Jon Pickens,

David "Zeb" Cook David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer, best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. Cook designed several games, wrote the '' Expert Set'' for ''Dungeons & Dragons'', worked as lead designer of the ...

, Harold Johnson,

Rick Swan Rick Swan is a game designer and author who worked for TSR. His work for TSR, mostly for ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'', appeared from 1989 to 1995. Swan also wrote '' The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games'' (1990), published by St. Martin' ...

, and Ed Carmien, co-wrote the adventure module OA2 '' Night of the Seven Swords''. Pickens, Jon,

, Harold Johnson,

, Ed Carmien, and David James Ritchie. ''Night of the Seven Swords'' ( TSR, 1986) Ritchie and

Dave Arneson David Lance Arneson (; October 1, 1947 – April 7, 2009) was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), ''Dungeons & Dragons'', with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's fundamental ...

wrote a series of four adventures that further detailed the world of Blackmoor which Arneson had created, and they were published by TSR as ''DA1: Adventures in Blackmoor'' (1986), ''DA2:

Temple of the Frog ''Temple of the Frog'' () is a 48-page 1986 adventure module for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. Its module code is DA2 and its TSR product code is TSR 9175. Another version of it was originally released in 1975 as part of the Bla ...

'' (1986), ''DA3: City of the Gods'' (1987) and ''DA4: The Duchy of Ten'' (1987). Ritchie wrote the 1991 book ''Connecticut: Off the Beaten Path'' with his wife, Deborah. Ritchie died in his Connecticut home on September 6, 2009, at the age of 58.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, David 1950 births 2009 deaths American board game designers Dungeons & Dragons game designers Grove City College alumni Writers from Canton, Ohio