Tom Wham
Born1944 (age 79–80)[citation needed]
Chester, Illinois, United States[citation needed]
NationalityAmerican
Known forFantasy art, Illustration
Websitewww.tomwham.com

Tom Wham (born 1944) is a designer of board games who has also produced artwork, including that for his own games.

Career

Early life and Guidon Games

Born in Chester, Illinois,[citation needed] Wham worked a variety of odd jobs during his early adult life. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, he worked for the Guidon Games hobby shop in Maine[1] where he got his first game, a variant on a Civil War naval miniatures campaign, published.[2] One of Wham's books was published in the same series of "Wargaming with Miniatures" books from Guidon Games that began in 1971 with Chainmail.[3]: 6  In 1972, Wham got a job with Don Lowry at Guidon Games, in the shipping/layout department of Campaign magazine; there, he co-authored a set of Civil War naval miniature rules, Ironclad.[4] Afterwards he became a prison guard in his hometown, then held an office job in Denver.[2]

TSR

In May 1977 he began working for TSR, Inc. at their Lake Geneva, Wisconsin headquarters as a general office worker, the company's 13th employee.[4] After running the Dungeon Hobby Shop for a summer, he was moved upstairs to the company's art department.[4] Wham worked with Dave Sutherland and Dave Trampier on the original Monster Manual.[4] Wham began doing some creative work for the company, contributing a handful of illustrations for the original AD&D Monster Manual, including the creature called the beholder.[2] Other work included co-editing (with Timothy Jones, Mike Carr, and Brian Blume) the first edition of Gamma World.[5] He also made a deal with Tim Kask, editor of The Dragon, to do a game in the centerfold, called Snit Smashing; this led to other games in Dragon, including The Awful Green Things from Outer Space.[4] These games, printed on cardstock and included in the centerfold of the magazine, usually featured artwork supplied by Wham.

Notable games published this way include:

After TSR

After TSR, Wham collaborated on books with Rose Estes, and did his own novelette in Christopher Stasheff's The Exotic Enchanter.[4] More games followed, including Kings & Things (with Rob Kuntz), the SimCity card game, and Iron Dragon.[4] Later efforts include a reprint of Snits and Awful Green Things from Outer Space from Steve Jackson Games, and Planet Busters by Troll Lord Games.[4]

Wham designed the board game "King of the Tabletop" with Robert J. Kuntz, which was published in Dragon #77 (September 1983); the game was expanded and published separately as the Origins award-winner Kings & Things (1986) by West End Games.[3]: 241 

Since leaving TSR, Wham has designed many more games, including collaborating with James M. Ward on the board game Dragon Lairds, published in April 2008, and Feudality published by Z-man Games Inc. in 2011.[6]

References

  1. ^ Sacco, Ciro Alessandro. "The Ultimate Interview with Gary Gygax". thekyngdoms.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  2. ^ a b c Knorr, Bryce (August 1980). "Wham's Revenge: his games". Dragon #40. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, Inc. V (2): 14–17.
  3. ^ a b Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Wham, Tom (2007). "Puerto Rico". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 251–253. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  5. ^ Fewer, Greg. "Gamma World: Science Fantasy Role-Playing Game (1981) :: Pen & Paper RPG Database". Archived from the original on 10 September 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  6. ^ Tom Wham.com

External links

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