Richard Tucholka (February 9, 1954 – April 27, 2017) was a writer, game designer and publisher, best known for his work in the creation of the

role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, eith ...

'' Fringeworthy'' and '' Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic''.

Career

In 1974, Richard Tucholka, a computer technician in Michigan, collaborated with Robert Sadler on a number of pieces of fiction. One of their stories was a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

adventure story called ''

The Morrow Project ''The Morrow Project'' is a science fiction role-playing game created by Kevin Dockery (author), Kevin Dockery, Robert Sadler and Richard Tucholka and published by Timeline Ltd. It is set after a devastating nuclear war. It was first released in ...

'', about people who awake from

cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th International Institute of Refrigeration's (IIR) International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington, DC in 1971) endorsed a univers ...

sleep 150 years after a nuclear holocaust. After completing two chapters, the two left the story in hiatus. The following year, Tucholka was introduced to the ''

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 ...

'' role-playing game (RPG), and he quickly realized that

could become an RPG. Using the story's setting as source material, Tucholka created the game background, and he and Sadler approached Kevin Dockery to add military realism to the game. After playtesting it at a local Michigan games convention, Tucholka, Sadler and Dockery formed Timeline Ltd. in 1979 to publish the new RPG. Almost immediately, Tucholka and Sadler left Timeline due to creative differences with Dockery and formed their own games company, Tacky Tack Games, based in

Pontiac, Michigan Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, Pontiac is part of the Metro Detroit, Detroit metropolitan area, and is vari ...

. Their first product was the light-hearted microgame ''Geriatric War'', a fast-paced game where "characters battle over a few pension checks that survive the Social Security collapse of 2018". Tucholka then created and published more serious RPGs such as '' Fringeworthy'', the first RPG about dimensional travel, '' Bureau 13'', the first horror RPG, and '' FTL: 2448'', a space opera RPG. Given the more serious tone of these works, the company name was changed from Tacky Tack Games to the more professional-sounding

Tri Tac Games Tri Tac Games is a publisher of role-playing games based in Pontiac, Michigan. The company is built primarily on the work of Richard Tucholka, its founder and president. Company history Tri Tac Games was founded in 1978 as "Tacky Tack Games". T ...

in 1983. Tucholka continued to create new games for Tri Tac, including '' Bureau 13'', '' Hardwired Hinterland'', ''Monster Squash,'' ''Pterroductyl,'' ''The Viral Vegetable Wars,'' ''Drive By,'' ''War on High,'' ''Escape From Westerville State,'' ''Baby Boomer,'' ''Duck Trooper,'' '' Beach Bunny Bimbos with Blasters'' and ''HOLES''. He also created supplements and adventure scenarios for other games, including ''Invasion U.S.'', ''Cloistrs'', '' Rogue 417'', ''Weirdzone'', ''Hellsnight'', ''Haunts'', ''Starcharts'', and the ''DM's Book Of Nasty Tricks & Misfit Magic''. Tochulka was also a staff writer for '' Stardate'' and '' Stardrive'' small press

magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

, and was the guest of honor at more than a dozen science fiction and games conventions.

Personal life

Tucholka's hobbies included gardening, house restoration, reading, and

B movies A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second half of a double feature, ...

. He was a fan of science fiction, and his personal collection of SF novels numbered over 18,000. He died of cancer in 2017.

Death

Richard passed away surrounded by his many friends and his wife, after a prolonged battle with cancer.

Awards

Tucholka's creation ''Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic'' was voted Best Fantasy RPG of 1991 by the RPGA Network at Gen Con 1992.

Bibliography

* ''Beach Bunny Bimbos with Blasters'', 1991,

* '' Stalking the Night Fantastic'', 1983 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic'', 1984 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic'', 1992 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''Bureau 13: Special Edition'', 2007 edition, Tri Tac Games w/Nick Pollotta * ''Bureau 13: d20 Edition'', 2008 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''Bureau 13: EXTREME'', 2009 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''Bureau 13: Brass & Steam'', 2014 edition, Tri Tac Games ** ''Bureau 13 Adventures: Hellsnight'', ''Haunts'', ''The Lost Files, Vols 1 & 2'', Tri Tac Games ** ''Bureau 13: Black Powder 1859-1889'', Tri Tac Games ** ''Bureau 13: Scenes for Horror, Industry and Adventure'', Tri Tac Games * '' Fringeworthy'', 1981 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''Fringeworthy'', 1984 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''Fringeworthy'', 1990 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''Fringeworthy: d20 edition'', 2009 edition, Tri Tac Games ** ''Rogue 417'', 1985 edition, Tri Tac Games ** ''Invasion US'', 1985, Tri Tac Games ** ''Fringeworthy: PORTALS 1'', Tri Tac Games ** ''Fringeworthy: PORTALS 2'', 2008 Tri Tac Games ** ''Fringeworthy: PORTALS 3: Exploration Notebook'', 2012 Tri Tac Games ** ''Fringeworthy: PORTALS 4: Exploration War & Secrets'', 2014 Tri Tac Games ** ''Fringeworthy: Cloisters: A Century After the Winter War'', 2012 Tri Tac Games ** ''Fringeworthy: Weirdzone'', 2010 Tri Tac Games *Fringeworthy: Special Edition Sourcebook for the d20 OGL System: 2009 edition, Tri Tac Games * '' FTL:2448'', 1982 edition, Tri Tac Games * ''FTL:2448'', 1985, Tri Tac Games * ''FTL:2448: Starcharts'', 1984, Tri Tac Games * ''FTL:2448: Cop 2448'', 1984, Tri Tac Games * ''FTL:2448 The Light Fantastic, Book One'', 1990, Tri Tac Games * ''FTL:2448 Frontier 2448, Book Two'', 1990, Tri Tac Games * '' Tri Tac Genesis'', 2014, Tri Tac Games * '' Tri Tac Genesis II'', 2014, Tri Tac Games * '' Incursion'', 1992, Tri Tac Games * '' Incursion II Canadians Across the Galactic Empire'', 2012, Tri Tac Games * '' Incursion III Poles Across the Galactic Empire'', 2014, Tri Tac Games * '' Hardwired Hinterland'', 2009, Tri Tac Games * ''Cloisters'', 2012, Tri Tac Games * '' Murderhoof'', 2014, Tri Tac Games * ''

'', 1980 (1st edition), by Timeline Games, Ltd. Game authors: Kevin Dockery, Robert Sadler, and Richard Tucholka.

References

External links

Tri Tac Games

Washington Post
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucholka, Richard 1954 births 2017 deaths Role-playing game designers Board game designers People from Pontiac, Michigan Place of birth missing Place of death missing