Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Paul Jaquays: Renaissance Gamer

I mentioned Mssr. Jaquays in passing a couple days ago. This guy did it all. He wrote what many consider some of the best dungeons ever created (Caverns of Thracia and Dark Tower from Judges Guild), edited gaming magazines (Dragon and Dungeoneer), plus he was one hell of an illustrator. Check out these fab Dungeoneer covers.

'Well, most of the best freighter pilots can be found here. Only watch your step. This place can be a little rough.'I love the yellow robot in the lower left. He looks like C-3PO after he retired and let himself go. Check out this close-up:

Dear God, is that robot wearing a swearer vest?!?(Incidentally, this little guy was the inspiration for Unit BX-652, a character sketch I wrote for Dr. Rotwang's awesome RPGsite thread about 'Casablanca in Space'.)

Here's the great spaceship cover for issue 12. Here Jaquays really shows off why the folks at GDW chose him to do the spaceship art for Supplement 9: Fighting Ships.

'Trouble with the nebula, sir, is all that static discharge and gas clouds our tactical display. Visual won't function and shields will be useless.'That background is absolutely fantastic. I want to be on that ship, heading into that nebula. That's the exact emotional effect I want to get from this type of sci-fi art.
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Posted by Jeff Rients at 9:53 AM

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:51 PM

    I ran Caverns of Thracia right after I ran Verbosh, both of Judges Guild fame.

    Those were the two best mods and nights I think we had.

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  2. Dr Rotwang1:27 PM

    Actually, I've been on that ship, and yes, you do want to be on it; the beds are all Tempurpedics and the rooms all have HBO.

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  3. Anonymous11:55 PM

    My favorite Jaquays stuff is the JG Book of Treasure Maps (the first one). The art in the book really sets the tone for the adventures really well. I also loved his art for the few RQ products he illustrated - like, say, JG's Broken Tree Inn.

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  4. Anonymous7:01 PM

    Paul Jaquays wrote a stupendous adventure for Dragonquest, The Enchanted Wood. I think this was the best RPG adventure ever, and I played a lot of them in that era. It had 6 different ways to start the adventure, one of which would surely suit even the strangest bunch of PCs. There were many excellent NPCs and a very open framework which allowed the PCs a lot of freedom while still drawing them into the mysteries of the Wood. An epic ending too, if the PCs even got there. If they didn't there was still enough happening to make several expeditions to the place.

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