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Jean Wells
Oeva Jean Wells Koebernick (July 25, 1955 – January 25, 2012) was an American writer, artist, and editor in the field of role-playing games. She was the first female game designer to be hired by TSR, Inc. Her career at TSR stalled after she wrote a controversial Dungeons & Dragons adventure module that was withdrawn on the eve of publication and subsequently rewritten.
Jean Wells was born on July 25, 1955, in Jacksonville, Florida, to Walton and Ellen Loft Wells. During a college canoe camping trip, she participated in an impromptu session of Dungeons & Dragons. She was fascinated by the game, and once back on campus, she quickly ordered her own set of the rules, and joined a local group called the "D&D Gang of Statesmen Complex". After several gaming sessions, she realized that she liked the role of dungeon master more than player. In her words, "It gave me an opportunity to use my creativity in an area I already liked, Medieval History and Fantasy."
Wells also ordered a subscription of The Dragon from TSR Hobbies, and in the July 1978 issue, she noticed an ad for "an alert and talented person [with] design and editorial talent and a good general knowledge of games" in TSR's design department. Although she was still at college studying to be an elementary school art teacher, and her only gaming experience was the D&D she had just started playing, she applied for the position. After some back-and-forth correspondence with Gary Gygax during the fall of 1978, she flew to TSR headquarters in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in January 1979 for a three-day visit. Despite her lack of experience, Gygax hired her as the first female in the design department. Wells later recalled that, "he knew I didn't know how to really write rules... He was hiring my imagination and would teach me the rest."
However, Wells had arrived just as TSR was, in her words, "exploding", and Gygax did not have time to introduce her to the world of game design. As a result, and especially because she was the only woman in the design department, Wells felt out of place. She later described herself as "the token female".
She moved into a nearby house nicknamed the "TSR Dorm", since all the renters were TSR staffers—she actually took over the bedroom of Larry Elmore, who had just left TSR—and she started to date Skip Williams.
Her first work was editing the adventure module S2 White Plume Mountain by Lawrence Schick. In addition, she also contributed interior art for the adventure module Lost Tamaochan, as well as artwork to the fourth printing of the original Monster Manual, including drawings of an eye of the deep, a giant Sumatran rat, and violet fungi.
She was the inaugural author of "Sage Advice", a D&D advice column that first appeared in The Dragon starting with issue #31 in November 1979. She tried to bring some humor to the column, believing that some of her young readers were taking D&D too seriously. One such example appeared in her first column, when she was asked how much damage a bow did in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Her answer was, "None. Bows do not do damage, arrows do. However, if you hit someone with a bow, I’d say it would probably do 1-4 points of damage and thereafter render the bow completely useless for firing arrows." She continued to handle the "Sage Advice" column until issue #39 (July 1980).
In 1980, she did the design and layout of Brian Blume's The Rogues Gallery (which included her own D&D character Ceatitle). She was also the editor of Gary Gygax's module B2 Keep on the Borderlands, her bestselling piece of design work, since it was included in later printings of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which sold over one million copies.
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Jean Wells
Oeva Jean Wells Koebernick (July 25, 1955 – January 25, 2012) was an American writer, artist, and editor in the field of role-playing games. She was the first female game designer to be hired by TSR, Inc. Her career at TSR stalled after she wrote a controversial Dungeons & Dragons adventure module that was withdrawn on the eve of publication and subsequently rewritten.
Jean Wells was born on July 25, 1955, in Jacksonville, Florida, to Walton and Ellen Loft Wells. During a college canoe camping trip, she participated in an impromptu session of Dungeons & Dragons. She was fascinated by the game, and once back on campus, she quickly ordered her own set of the rules, and joined a local group called the "D&D Gang of Statesmen Complex". After several gaming sessions, she realized that she liked the role of dungeon master more than player. In her words, "It gave me an opportunity to use my creativity in an area I already liked, Medieval History and Fantasy."
Wells also ordered a subscription of The Dragon from TSR Hobbies, and in the July 1978 issue, she noticed an ad for "an alert and talented person [with] design and editorial talent and a good general knowledge of games" in TSR's design department. Although she was still at college studying to be an elementary school art teacher, and her only gaming experience was the D&D she had just started playing, she applied for the position. After some back-and-forth correspondence with Gary Gygax during the fall of 1978, she flew to TSR headquarters in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in January 1979 for a three-day visit. Despite her lack of experience, Gygax hired her as the first female in the design department. Wells later recalled that, "he knew I didn't know how to really write rules... He was hiring my imagination and would teach me the rest."
However, Wells had arrived just as TSR was, in her words, "exploding", and Gygax did not have time to introduce her to the world of game design. As a result, and especially because she was the only woman in the design department, Wells felt out of place. She later described herself as "the token female".
She moved into a nearby house nicknamed the "TSR Dorm", since all the renters were TSR staffers—she actually took over the bedroom of Larry Elmore, who had just left TSR—and she started to date Skip Williams.
Her first work was editing the adventure module S2 White Plume Mountain by Lawrence Schick. In addition, she also contributed interior art for the adventure module Lost Tamaochan, as well as artwork to the fourth printing of the original Monster Manual, including drawings of an eye of the deep, a giant Sumatran rat, and violet fungi.
She was the inaugural author of "Sage Advice", a D&D advice column that first appeared in The Dragon starting with issue #31 in November 1979. She tried to bring some humor to the column, believing that some of her young readers were taking D&D too seriously. One such example appeared in her first column, when she was asked how much damage a bow did in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Her answer was, "None. Bows do not do damage, arrows do. However, if you hit someone with a bow, I’d say it would probably do 1-4 points of damage and thereafter render the bow completely useless for firing arrows." She continued to handle the "Sage Advice" column until issue #39 (July 1980).
In 1980, she did the design and layout of Brian Blume's The Rogues Gallery (which included her own D&D character Ceatitle). She was also the editor of Gary Gygax's module B2 Keep on the Borderlands, her bestselling piece of design work, since it was included in later printings of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, which sold over one million copies.