Lenard Lakofka
Encyclopedia
Lenard "Len" Lakofka is an American writer of material for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons
. He was an influential voice in the development of the game, as well as the author of what has been called one the greatest D&D adventures ever written. Although he was never a member of the staff at TSR
, the company that published the game of Dungeons & Dragons
, Lakofka was one of the playtesters of the new game as it was being developed, edited early manuscripts, wrote a widely-read monthly magazine column about D&D, and his home campaign setting of the Lendore Isles
was incorporated into Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting
. TSR commissioned three D&D adventures from Lakofka, but only published two of them before Lakofka's friend Gygax was ousted from TSR in 1985. The third module was not released until 1999, after TSR was taken over by Wizards of the Coast
. Lakofka continued to write sequels to the first three adventures, and a fourth module in the series was released on-line by Dragonsfoot.org in 2010, with the fifth module planned for an on-line release in 2011.
in the 1960s, Len Lakofka became involved in wargames, including Avalon Hill
's Diplomacy
. His increasing interest in Diplomacy led him to join the International Federation of Wargamers, and through the IFW met its vice-president, game designer Gary Gygax
. In 1968, Gary Gygax convinced the IFW to organize a one-day convention called Gen Con
at the Horticultural Hall in Lake Geneva WI
. Lakofka was by this time president of the IFW, and travelled to Lake Geneva to help set up, run events and clean up. At the end of the day, before taking down his sand table
and locking up the Hall, Gygax introduced a new set of miniatures rules to Lakofka and a few others. Those rules would subsequently be published as Chainmail
, a precursor to D&D.
Back in Chicago in 1969, Lakofka wrote the first issue of his own "Dippy 'zine"—a fanzine
devoted to Diplomacy—titled Liaisons Dangereuses. He would eventually publish 81 issues over the next 8 years. In 1969, he also was the organizer of Gen Con II.
began to co-develop a new role-playing game, which eventually led to the formation of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR)
and the release of the first boxed sets of Dungeons & Dragons. Lakofka was frequently a playtester as the rules were developed, and advised Gygax on rules he felt were unbalanced. Shortly after D&D was published in 1975, articles about D&D began to appear in his Dippy 'zine Liaisons Dangereuses. Although the names of both Lakofka and Gygax appeared in the articles' bylines, all of the articles were written by Lakofka alone—he added Gygax's name in order to preserve Gygax's copyright on D&D. Some of these articles were almost immediately republished in the new magazine The Dragon
. Lakofka started playing D&D in Chicago, using a player character
named Leomund. He also created a D&D campaign world called Lendore Isle.
Although Lakofka was not a member of the TSR staff, as the rules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) were being developed, Gygax passed Lakofka copies of the manuscripts for both the Players Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide
. Lakofka edited the manuscripts, and also contributed material to both books. After the rule books for AD&D were published, he created additional spells, magic items and monsters, which were subsequently published in Dragon. He also wrote several more articles about AD&D in Dragon, and continued to help organize and run Diplomacy and AD&D events at Gen Con, which was now owned by TSR, Inc.
At the first official AD&D tournament, held in January 1979 at Winter Fantasy
, Lakofka was the second-place finisher. Later the same year, Brian Blume
of TSR approached Lakofka at a convention in Seattle about writing AD&D adventures, and for $10,500, Lakofka agreed to write three modules. Dragon editor Tim Kask
also approached Lakofka about becoming a regular columnist, and in October 1979, Lakofka's monthly feature, Leomund's Tiny Hut, appeared in Issue #30.
In 1980, Lakofka submitted three modules to TSR, taken from adventures he had originally created for his home campaign of Lendore Isle: The Secret of Bone Hill, The Assassin's Knot and Deep Dwarven Delve. Gary Gygax was simultaneously creating his World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting, and Lakofka asked if "Lendore Isle" could be incorporated into Gygax's new world. Gygax agreed, and Lakofka chose the largest island in the Spindrift Isles archipelago as the location of his Lendore Isle adventures.
On top of his written contributions, Lakofka continued to be a high-profile player in the D&D world: in 1980, he was listed as the 6th-ranked player in national D&D standings; and the same year, as a dungeon master
, he placed third in the Invitational Dungeon Master's Tournament at Gen Con. (Frank Mentzer
was the winner.)
In 1981, Lakofka's first adventure, L1 The Secret of Bone Hill
, was published. Reviews were mixed. In Different Worlds
, Anders Swenson complained about the randomness of encounters, and that the monsters and townspeople were unrealistically compressed into too small a geographical area.
However, White Dwarf
's Jim Bambra gave it an 8 out 10, and liked the roleplaying situations the module afforded. James Maliszewski claimed the module was one of his favorites because it created "a very flexible 'sandbox' framework for a low-level campaign".
In 1983, TSR published Lakofka's second adventure, L2 The Assassin's Knot
. Reviews were again mixed. Rick Swan, in The Space Gamer, thought the murder mystery of the plot was "a very pedestrian affair", and the adventure was "just plain dull". Dave Morris in White Dwarf disagreed, calling it "an entertaining murder mystery for AD&D characters" and scoring it 7 out of 10. In 2004, Erik Mona
and James Jacobs ranked The Assassin's Knot as the 29th greatest AD&D adventure ever written.
Lakofka also continued to write more articles in Dragon in addition to his monthly column. When Gygax was creating the World of Greyhawk, Lakofka suggested that based on the migration patterns of various Greyawk races as outlined in the campaign setting, that "his" Lendore Isles would have been mainly settled by Suel
. When the twelve gods of the Suel pantheon of gods were simply listed in the 1983 edition of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting, with no details or powers given, Lakofka took it upon himself to flesh out descriptions of each god. In 1984, Lakofka published this information as a major five-part series in Dragon.
was scheduled to be released in 1986, and Lakofka planned to write two more "L" series adventures. However, in a power struggle at TSR at the end of 1985, Lakofka's long-time friend Gary Gygax was ousted from the company. The new company management did not want to do business with friends of Gygax, and plans to publish Lakofka's third adventure were shelved. Lakofka also stopped writing his Leomund's Tiny Hut column for Dragon; his final column was published in April 1986 (Issue #108).
After this, Lakofka moved from Chicago to California, and wrote no more AD&D material for TSR. It was not until TSR was taken over by Wizards of the Coast
in 1997 and the World of Greyhawk setting was revived that Lakofka was approached about finally publishing Deep Dwarven Delve as part of the 25th Anniversary Collector's Boxed Set. Because of changes to the D&D rules over the intervening decade, Lakofka worked with WotC staff to update the adventure. Lakofka states that WotC lost his final rewrite before publication but rather than telling him, someone at WotC inserted new material into an older manuscript before it was published. Lakofka claims as a result that about 20% of the final product is not his own work.
Lakofka continued to work on further adventures in the series, and in 2009, the fourth installment of the Lendore Isles series, "Devilspawn", was released by Dragonsfoot.org as a free download. Lakofka plans to release a fifth module in the series through Dragonsfoot, and has mused about writing up to 4 more installments after that.
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
. He was an influential voice in the development of the game, as well as the author of what has been called one the greatest D&D adventures ever written. Although he was never a member of the staff at TSR
TSR
The Three-letter abbreviation TSR has a variety of meanings, depending on context:-Science and technology:* Terminate and Stay Resident, utility programs used in MS-DOS* Thermo Sulfate Reduction, relevant to the Kraft process...
, the company that published the game of Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
, Lakofka was one of the playtesters of the new game as it was being developed, edited early manuscripts, wrote a widely-read monthly magazine column about D&D, and his home campaign setting of the Lendore Isles
Lendore Isles
In the Dungeons and Dragons World of Greyhawk campaign setting, the Lendore Isles, also known as the Spindrift Isles, are a collection of five large islands in the Solnor Ocean, just off the eastern coast of the former Great Kingdom...
was incorporated into Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting
World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting
The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting and the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting are two closely related publications from TSR, Inc. that detail the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...
. TSR commissioned three D&D adventures from Lakofka, but only published two of them before Lakofka's friend Gygax was ousted from TSR in 1985. The third module was not released until 1999, after TSR was taken over by Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
. Lakofka continued to write sequels to the first three adventures, and a fourth module in the series was released on-line by Dragonsfoot.org in 2010, with the fifth module planned for an on-line release in 2011.
Before D&D
While living in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in the 1960s, Len Lakofka became involved in wargames, including Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
's Diplomacy
Diplomacy (game)
Diplomacy is a strategic board game created by Allan B. Calhamer in 1954 and released commercially in 1959. Its main distinctions from most board wargames are its negotiation phases and the absence of dice or other game elements that produce random effects...
. His increasing interest in Diplomacy led him to join the International Federation of Wargamers, and through the IFW met its vice-president, game designer Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
. In 1968, Gary Gygax convinced the IFW to organize a one-day convention called Gen Con
Gen Con
Gen Con is one of the largest and most prominent annual gaming conventions in North America. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card-style games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, board games, live action role-playing games, collectible card games, non-collectible...
at the Horticultural Hall in Lake Geneva WI
Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...
. Lakofka was by this time president of the IFW, and travelled to Lake Geneva to help set up, run events and clean up. At the end of the day, before taking down his sand table
Sand table
Sand table is a term for using constrained sand for modeling or educational purposes. The original version of a sand table may be the abax used by early Greek students.-Abax:...
and locking up the Hall, Gygax introduced a new set of miniatures rules to Lakofka and a few others. Those rules would subsequently be published as Chainmail
Chainmail (game)
Chainmail is a medieval miniatures wargame created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Gygax developed the game with fellow Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association member Perren, a hobby-shop owner with whom he had become friendly, and the game was first published in 1971...
, a precursor to D&D.
Back in Chicago in 1969, Lakofka wrote the first issue of his own "Dippy 'zine"—a fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
devoted to Diplomacy—titled Liaisons Dangereuses. He would eventually publish 81 issues over the next 8 years. In 1969, he also was the organizer of Gen Con II.
Involvement with Dungeons & Dragons
In 1972, Gary Gygax and Dave ArnesonDave Arneson
David Lance "Dave" Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game , Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s...
began to co-develop a new role-playing game, which eventually led to the formation of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR)
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
and the release of the first boxed sets of Dungeons & Dragons. Lakofka was frequently a playtester as the rules were developed, and advised Gygax on rules he felt were unbalanced. Shortly after D&D was published in 1975, articles about D&D began to appear in his Dippy 'zine Liaisons Dangereuses. Although the names of both Lakofka and Gygax appeared in the articles' bylines, all of the articles were written by Lakofka alone—he added Gygax's name in order to preserve Gygax's copyright on D&D. Some of these articles were almost immediately republished in the new magazine The Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
. Lakofka started playing D&D in Chicago, using a player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
named Leomund. He also created a D&D campaign world called Lendore Isle.
Although Lakofka was not a member of the TSR staff, as the rules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) were being developed, Gygax passed Lakofka copies of the manuscripts for both the Players Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide
Dungeon Master's Guide
The Dungeon Master's Guide is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons...
. Lakofka edited the manuscripts, and also contributed material to both books. After the rule books for AD&D were published, he created additional spells, magic items and monsters, which were subsequently published in Dragon. He also wrote several more articles about AD&D in Dragon, and continued to help organize and run Diplomacy and AD&D events at Gen Con, which was now owned by TSR, Inc.
At the first official AD&D tournament, held in January 1979 at Winter Fantasy
Winter Fantasy
D&D Experience is an annual gaming convention that takes place on the east coast of the USA every January or February...
, Lakofka was the second-place finisher. Later the same year, Brian Blume
Brian Blume
Brian J. Blume is noted for being a business partner of Gary Gygax in TSR, Inc., producers of the fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.-Biography:...
of TSR approached Lakofka at a convention in Seattle about writing AD&D adventures, and for $10,500, Lakofka agreed to write three modules. Dragon editor Tim Kask
Tim Kask
Timothy James Kask is an American editor and writer in the role-playing game industry. Kask became interested in board games in his childhood, and later turned to miniatures wargames...
also approached Lakofka about becoming a regular columnist, and in October 1979, Lakofka's monthly feature, Leomund's Tiny Hut, appeared in Issue #30.
In 1980, Lakofka submitted three modules to TSR, taken from adventures he had originally created for his home campaign of Lendore Isle: The Secret of Bone Hill, The Assassin's Knot and Deep Dwarven Delve. Gary Gygax was simultaneously creating his World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting, and Lakofka asked if "Lendore Isle" could be incorporated into Gygax's new world. Gygax agreed, and Lakofka chose the largest island in the Spindrift Isles archipelago as the location of his Lendore Isle adventures.
On top of his written contributions, Lakofka continued to be a high-profile player in the D&D world: in 1980, he was listed as the 6th-ranked player in national D&D standings; and the same year, as a dungeon master
Dungeon Master
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the Dungeon Master is the game organizer and participant in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure, while maintaining a realistic continuity of events...
, he placed third in the Invitational Dungeon Master's Tournament at Gen Con. (Frank Mentzer
Frank Mentzer
Jacob Franklin "Frank" Mentzer III , is an American fantasy author and game designer best known for his work on early materials for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. He was a performing folk musician from 1968 to 1975, and played one concert at the White House during the...
was the winner.)
In 1981, Lakofka's first adventure, L1 The Secret of Bone Hill
The Secret of Bone Hill
The Secret of Bone Hill is an adventure module written by Lenard Lakofka for the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and published by TSR in 1981. It is designed for novice and intermediate players with characters of levels 2-4...
, was published. Reviews were mixed. In Different Worlds
Different Worlds
Different Worlds was an American role-playing games' magazine, now defunct.-History:Different Worlds was launched in 1979 by Greg Stafford to promote the role-playing games from his own editing house, Chaosium...
, Anders Swenson complained about the randomness of encounters, and that the monsters and townspeople were unrealistically compressed into too small a geographical area.
However, White Dwarf
White dwarf
A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a small star composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. They are very dense; a white dwarf's mass is comparable to that of the Sun and its volume is comparable to that of the Earth. Its faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored...
's Jim Bambra gave it an 8 out 10, and liked the roleplaying situations the module afforded. James Maliszewski claimed the module was one of his favorites because it created "a very flexible 'sandbox' framework for a low-level campaign".
In 1983, TSR published Lakofka's second adventure, L2 The Assassin's Knot
The Assassin's Knot
The Assassin's Knot is an adventure module written by Lenard Lakofka for the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and published by TSR in 1983. It is designed for novice and intermediate players with characters of levels 2-4....
. Reviews were again mixed. Rick Swan, in The Space Gamer, thought the murder mystery of the plot was "a very pedestrian affair", and the adventure was "just plain dull". Dave Morris in White Dwarf disagreed, calling it "an entertaining murder mystery for AD&D characters" and scoring it 7 out of 10. In 2004, Erik Mona
Erik Mona
-Career:Erik Mona served as the editor-in-chief of Dragon magazine since 2004 and Dungeon magazine from 2004 to 2006; at the time, both magazines were published by Paizo Publishing, until the license through Wizards of the Coast expired in September 2007...
and James Jacobs ranked The Assassin's Knot as the 29th greatest AD&D adventure ever written.
Lakofka also continued to write more articles in Dragon in addition to his monthly column. When Gygax was creating the World of Greyhawk, Lakofka suggested that based on the migration patterns of various Greyawk races as outlined in the campaign setting, that "his" Lendore Isles would have been mainly settled by Suel
Suel
Suel may refer to:*Suel, ancient name for Fuengirola, Spain*Suloise, a fictitious human race in Dungeons & Dragons...
. When the twelve gods of the Suel pantheon of gods were simply listed in the 1983 edition of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting, with no details or powers given, Lakofka took it upon himself to flesh out descriptions of each god. In 1984, Lakofka published this information as a major five-part series in Dragon.
After TSR
Lakofka's third adventure, L3 Deep Dwarven DelveDeep Dwarven Delve
L3 Deep Dwarven Delve is a Fantasy Adventure Module or "module" for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons .-Publication history:...
was scheduled to be released in 1986, and Lakofka planned to write two more "L" series adventures. However, in a power struggle at TSR at the end of 1985, Lakofka's long-time friend Gary Gygax was ousted from the company. The new company management did not want to do business with friends of Gygax, and plans to publish Lakofka's third adventure were shelved. Lakofka also stopped writing his Leomund's Tiny Hut column for Dragon; his final column was published in April 1986 (Issue #108).
After this, Lakofka moved from Chicago to California, and wrote no more AD&D material for TSR. It was not until TSR was taken over by Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
in 1997 and the World of Greyhawk setting was revived that Lakofka was approached about finally publishing Deep Dwarven Delve as part of the 25th Anniversary Collector's Boxed Set. Because of changes to the D&D rules over the intervening decade, Lakofka worked with WotC staff to update the adventure. Lakofka states that WotC lost his final rewrite before publication but rather than telling him, someone at WotC inserted new material into an older manuscript before it was published. Lakofka claims as a result that about 20% of the final product is not his own work.
Lakofka continued to work on further adventures in the series, and in 2009, the fourth installment of the Lendore Isles series, "Devilspawn", was released by Dragonsfoot.org as a free download. Lakofka plans to release a fifth module in the series through Dragonsfoot, and has mused about writing up to 4 more installments after that.
Further Reading
- Gygax, Gary. The World of Greyhawk (TSR, 1980).
- Gygax, Gary. World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game SettingWorld of Greyhawk Fantasy Game SettingThe World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting and the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting are two closely related publications from TSR, Inc. that detail the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game...
(TSR, 1983). - Lakofka, Lenard. The Assassin's KnotThe Assassin's KnotThe Assassin's Knot is an adventure module written by Lenard Lakofka for the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and published by TSR in 1983. It is designed for novice and intermediate players with characters of levels 2-4....
(TSR, 1983). - Lakofka, Lenard. Deep Dwarven DelveDeep Dwarven DelveL3 Deep Dwarven Delve is a Fantasy Adventure Module or "module" for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons .-Publication history:...
(TSR, 1999). - Lakofka, Lenard. The Secret of Bone Hill (TSR, 1981).
- Lakofka, Lenard. The Nystul and Lendore Isle Campaign, Footprints e-zine, 2005, available at www.dragonsfoot.org.
- Lakofka, Lenard. The Clergy of Phaulkon, Footprints e-zine, 2005, available at www.dragonsfoot.org.
- Lakofka, Lenard. The Church of Osprem, Footprints e-zine, 2006 available at www.dragonsfoot.org.