Francis Gregory Stafford (February 9, 1948 – October 10, 2018) was an American

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 ...

, publisher, and practitioner of

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

. Stafford is most famous as the creator of the fantasy world of

Glorantha Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. Overview It was first introduced in the board game '' White Bear and Red Moon'' (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including ''RuneQ ...

, but he was also a prolific games designer. He was designer of '' Pendragon'', he was co-designer of the ''

RuneQuest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson (game designer), Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford (game designer), Gre ...

'', ''

Ghostbusters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, three eccentric ...

'', ''

Prince Valiant ''Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur'', often simply called ''Prince Valiant'', is an American comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full s ...

'' and ''

HeroQuest ''HeroQuest'', is an adventure board game created by Milton Bradley Company, Milton Bradley in conjunction with the British company Games Workshop in 1989, and re-released in 2021. The game is loosely based around archetypes of fantasy role-pl ...

'' role-playing systems, founder of the role-playing game companies

Chaosium Chaosium Inc. ( ) is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include ''Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fic ...

and Issaries, designer of the '' White Bear and Red Moon'', '' Nomad Gods'', '' King Arthur's Knights'' and '' Elric''

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

s, and co-designer of the ''

King of Dragon Pass ''King of Dragon Pass'' is a 1999 strategy simulation fantasy video game published by A Sharp. Set in the fictional world of Glorantha, the player controls the fate of a barbarian clan settling in the dangerous frontier region of Dragon Pass. ...

computer game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mo ...

Gaming industry career

1970s: Chaosium

Greg Stafford began wargaming with ''U-Boat'' by

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the compan ...

, and in 1966 as a freshman at

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1846 when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It has an enrollment of roughly 1,000 undergradua ...

he began to create the fantasy world of

. After rejection from a publisher, Stafford created '' White Bear and Red Moon'' set in Glorantha, and after three different companies were unable to publish the game, he founded

. He took part of the name from his home, being near the

Oakland Coliseum Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, often shortened to the Oakland Coliseum, is a multi-purpose stadium in Oakland, California, United States. It serves as part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, located next to Oakland Arena. In 2 ...

, and the other part of the name from "chaos." ''White Bear and Red Moon'' (1975) became the first game published by Chaosium, and was also Stafford's first professional game. He designed the board game '' Nomad Gods''. He also designed the wargames '' Elric'' (1977) and '' King Arthur's Knights'' (1978). Stafford wanted the world of Glorantha to be part of an original role-playing game; this ultimately resulted in ''

'' (1978) by Steve Perrin, which was set in Glorantha. Stafford and Lynn Willis simplified the ''RuneQuest'' rules into the 16-page ''

Basic Role-Playing ''Basic Role-Playing'' (''BRP'') is a tabletop role-playing game which originated in the ''RuneQuest'' fantasy role-playing game. Chaosium released the ''BRP'' standalone booklet in 1980 in the boxed set release of the second edition of ''RuneQ ...

'' (1980). He designed the miniatures game ''Merlin''. Stafford considers his

Arthurian According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a leader of the post-Ro ...

chivalric Chivalry, or the chivalric language, is an informal and varying code of conduct that developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It is associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood, with knights being members of various chival ...

role-playing game '' King Arthur Pendragon'' (1985) his masterpiece.Interview with Greg Stafford
on ''Phantasie'' website. URL checked 2008-02-13. He co-designed the ''

'' role-playing game (1986). Stafford designed the ''

'' roleplaying game (1989), which featured a basis in storytelling along with other innovations. He decided to produce a fiction line for '' Call of Cthulhu'' after he realized that many

Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of weird, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Lovecraft ...

fans in the early 1990s had never actually read any fiction by Lovecraft but were only familiar with him through the ''Call of Cthulhu'' game. Stafford co-designed the computer game ''

'' (1999).

1998–2000s: Issaries

Stafford left Chaosium in 1998, taking all of the rights for Glorantha, and founded the game company Issaries. Stafford asked

Robin Laws Robin D. Laws (born October 14, 1964 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist. Career Robin D. Laws ...

to design a new role-playing game based on Glorantha, which became known as '' Hero Wars'', published in 2000 as the first fully professional product for Issaries. Stafford published the second edition of ''Hero Wars'' in 2003 using the name he preferred ''

'', as Milton Bradley allowed the trademark on the name to lapse. Stafford moved to Mexico in 2004, so production from Issaries ended at that time.

Later years

Hasbro let the ''RuneQuest'' trademark lapse, so Stafford picked up the rights to the game and licensed it to

Mongoose Publishing Mongoose Publishing is a British manufacturer of role-playing games, miniatures, and card games, publishing material since 2001. Its licenses include products based on the science fiction properties '' Traveller'', ''Judge Dredd'', and ''Parano ...

to release a new edition in 2006.

White Wolf The Arctic wolf (''Canis lupus arctos''), also known as the white wolf, polar wolf, and the Arctic grey wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, from Melville Island to Ellesme ...

obtained the rights to ''

Pendragon Pendragon, or (, ''pen dragon''; composed of Welsh , 'head, chief, top' and / ''dragon'', 'dragon; warrior'; borrowed from the Greco-Latin word , plural , 'dragon , ; ) literally means 'chief dragon' or 'head dragon', but in a figurative sense ...

'', and published its fifth edition in 2005, while their ArtHaus imprint released ''The Great Pendragon Campaign'' (2006), in which Stafford laid out the huge role-playing campaign taking place between the years 485 to 566. Nocturnal Games then picked up the rights to ''Pendragon'', and Stafford worked with them to produce a 5.1 edition of ''Pendragon'' (2010). He moved from

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, to

Arcata, California Arcata (; ; ) is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay (United States), Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. A ...

, in 2007, having lived in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

for some years. In June 2015, Stafford and

Sandy Petersen Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen (born September 16, 1955) is an American game designer. He worked at Chaosium, contributing to the development of ''RuneQuest'' and creating the acclaimed and influential horror role-playing game Call of Cthul ...

returned to Chaosium Inc., with Stafford taking the positions of President and CEO. Stafford died at his home in Arcata on October 10, 2018, at the age of 70.

Glorantha

Greg Stafford's interest in roleplaying and gaming originated in his adolescent fascination with

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

. During his adolescent years he read anything he could find on the subject, and when he exhausted the libraries, he started to write his own stories in his freshman year at

, in 1966. This was the start of the world of Glorantha. Stafford's 1974 board game ''White Bear and Red Moon'' had featured the violent struggle between several cultures in the Dragon Pass region of Glorantha. The heart of the game was a conflict between the

barbarian A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

Kingdom of Sartar and the invading Lunar Empire, a theme which has remained central to Gloranthan publications since then. As Stafford was founding his company Chaosium, the game ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' (and the concept of

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...

s) was gaining great popularity. Role-players were keen to use the ''White Bear and Red Moon'' setting in such games. So Chaosium published ''

'', written by " Steve Perrin,

Ray Turney Ray Turney is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Hendrik Jan Pfeiffer, Art Turney and Ray Turney originally planned to publish information on the fictional world of Glorantha from '' White Bear and Red Moon ...

, and Friends". Stafford left Chaosium in 1998. For some years, Stafford slowly wrote several

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

s set in Glorantha. Novels that he is known to have been working on are ''Harmast's Saga'', ''Arkat's Saga'', and his "Lunar novel". He was one of the designers on the Glorantha-based video game ''

''.Review of King of Dragon Pass, rpg.net
URL checked 2011-01-14.

Shamanism-related works

Stafford was a practicing shaman and member of the board of directors of '' Shaman's Drum'', a journal of experiential shamanism. He had some short articles of Arthurian interest published. Stafford lived in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

for 18 months, tutoring English as a foreign language, and exploring places of archeological and shamanic interest.

Honors and reception

Fantasy author David A. Hargrave pays homage to Stafford in the

Arduin ''Arduin'' is a fictional universe and fantasy role-playing game, role-playing system created in the mid-1970s by David A. Hargrave. It was the first published "cross-genre" fantasy RPG, with everything from interstellar wars to horror and histo ...

series of supplements, the most widely known example of this being the Stafford's Star Bridge 9th-Level

mage Mage most commonly refers to: * Mage (paranormal) or magician, a practitioner of magic derived from supernatural or occult sources * Mage (fantasy) or magician, a type of character in mythology, folklore, and fiction * Mage, a character class in ...

spell (

I, page 41). Stafford was inducted in the

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the gaming industry. They are presented by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for games released in the preceding year. For example, t ...

hall of fame in 1987. In 1999 ''

Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

'' magazine named Greg Stafford one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons, "at least in the realm of adventure gaming." Stafford won the

Diana Jones Award The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The original award was made from a burned book encased in lucite. The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded ...

in 2007, for ''The Great Pendragon Campaign'', published by

and in 2015 for ''Guide to Glorantha'', coauthored with Jeff Richard and

and published by

Moon Design Publications Moon Design Publications are publishers of tabletop role-playing game books set in Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. They were founded in 1998 by Rick Meints and Colin Phillips in the UK. History Rick Meints was an ...

He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being featured as the king of hearts in

Flying Buffalo Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with '' Nuclear Destruction'', a play-by-mail game which started th ...

's 2011 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck.

References

External links

The Stafford Codex
– Stafford's personal website.
Glorantha
– Leading site on Stafford's universe

games.
Chaosium
– Company he founded and current publisher of his games. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stafford, Greg 1948 births 2018 deaths Shamans American animists Beloit College alumni Chaosium game designers People from Arcata, California Artists from Berkeley, California Artists from Hartford, Connecticut