The Ravens Nest

RIP: 1956-2024

Believe it or not, you’ve been touched by the work of Jennell Jaquays. You might not know it but she worked with Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu RPG) and many others in gaming and was project lead on conversions of games like Pac-Man, she lead the project on Quake III: Arena and how I came to know her work was pictured right above.

This one came across my radar when someone pointed out that it was coming to Kickstarter and it was the first KS I backed. The Egyptian-Themed Megadungeon appealed to me and, if Temple of Elemental Evil is any indication, I think Goodman Games does a great job in their Original Adventures Reincarnated Line. I know I’m digressing a bit but I want to start this article off by saying that I know I said that The Dark Tower OAR by Goodman Games would never make my pinned thread on Twitter once it’s in but, as The Dude would say, “New shit has come to light…man!”

With that, I’m retracting that statement. I will be posting it once it’s in. Not for Goodman Games but for Jennell, herself.

Jennell has done a ton of work. Lemme give you the CV here. Her work includes but is not limited to home conversions of many arcade games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, she was a level designer at Id Software for Quake, she did work for TSR and the Judge’s Guild.

Yep, that artwork, also hers. Go check out her Wikipedia page, I’m sure it will be eye-opening. Jennell’s work in gaming in general can’t go understated. Even if you didn’t know who she was, you certainly have touched something she’s worked on in the past.

Jennell is a legend in gaming creator circles. This is a loss for our hobbies that cuts long and deep. It goes without saying that someone that contributes to this level and has work known that far and wide has left a legacy and one that is worth preserving.

The real shame in this is that she lived long enough to see The Dark Tower Kickstarter become a success but she didn’t live long enough to see the final product. My only request to Goodman Game is to preserve it as she intended for it to be preserved. Look at what made it great and do that.

For Jennell and the legacy she’s created, I can put my differences with Goodman Games aside.

The brighter side to all of this is that, once books are in hand, I can really explore that work because, as I understand it, it’s one of her most celebrated. To be able to add that to my library and play it is a rare privilege and, the downside, is that I’ll never get to play it with her running it.

I’d like to remind us all while we’re here that preserving the legacies these creators leave for us is of the utmost importance right now. It’s the one way we can honor those who’ve come before us, those who are still among us and those that aren’t. Without them, there’s a very real possibility that we don’t have this hobby as it is, was or ever shall be.

Jennell, thank you for all the work you did. Thank you for making it memorable to the point where it stays on our minds because we do love it so much. We love you and miss you already.

We know, however, that you’ve gone on to play at The Table of Titans where, one day, we too will join you.

Play on, Jennell and shine on…

-Raven Wulfgar 12:30pm

Southern NJ, near Philadelphia, PA.