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Lynn Willis (died January 18, 2013) was a wargame and role-playing game designer, best known for his work with Metagaming Concepts, Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), and Chaosium.
Lynn Willis | |
|---|---|
| Born | United States |
| Died | January 18, 2013 United States |
| Occupation(s) | Game designer, writer |
Willis began by designing science fiction wargames for Metagaming Concepts, starting with Godsfire in 1976.[1]: 78 He designed the MicroGames Olympica (1978) and Holy War (1979).[1]: 79 Chaosium published Lords of the Middle Sea (1978),[1]: 82 and Willis joined Chaosium in 1978.[1]: 83 GDW published Bloodtree Rebellion (1979). Willis's relationship with Chaosium proved the most enduring; he would turn to role-playing games. He helped founder Greg Stafford trim and refine the RuneQuest rules into Basic Role-Playing, the rules that would serve as the base for many of Chaosium's RPG lines.[1]: 85 He wrote the Call of Cthulhu campaign The Masks of Nyarlathotep (1984) with Larry DiTillio.[1]: 86 He was included in the design credits for Worlds of Wonder (1982) and the Ringworld RPG (1984).
With other members of Chaosium, he co-wrote the Ghostbusters RPG for West End Games, which won the H.G. Wells Award for Best Role-playing Rules of 1986.[2] Willis co-designed the fifth edition of Call of Cthulhu with Sandy Petersen, and when Keith Herber departed from Chaosium in 1994, Willis replace him as the editor of the Cthulhu line.[1]: 90 He worked with Petersen again for the sixth edition of Call of Cthulhu.[3] Willis created the game Elric! with Richard Watts as a new Basic Role-Playing version of Stormbringer.[1]: 91 After Greg Stafford left the company in 1998, Willis stayed on with Chaosium as its editor-in-chief.[1]: 94
Willis left Chaosium in late 2008 due to ill health; at the time, he was the longest serving employee at Chaosium, having 30 years of experience with the company.[1]: 95
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On September 11, 2008, the President of Chaosium, Charlie Krank, informed the public that Willis had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.[4] Willis died on January 18, 2013.[5][6]
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