Len Lakofka

Lenard Lakofka
Born	1944
Died	Oct 23, 2020
Nationality	United States
Years active	1971-1986

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Wikipedia	Lenard Lakofka

Lenard Lakofka (born 1944), usually credited as Len Lakofka, was a Dungeons & Dragons writer and long-time friend of D&D creator Gary Gygax. Lakofka is best known for the L-series AD&D adventure modules, and as the namesake of the character Leomund.

Lakofka died on the morning of Oct 23, 2020. He was fondly remembered by AD&D players for his contributions to the game.

Life and career

Early involvement

Lakofka began playing Avalon Hill board games in 1960, taking part in some play-by-mail games. He later came into written contact with the International Federation of Wargamers (IWF), where Gary Gygax was vice-president. Terry Stafford introduced Lakofka to Gygax, and the two played an Avalon Hill board game together. Lakofka was invited to a convention organized by the IWF on Saturday, Aug 24, 1968, held in the Horticultural Hall in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Lakofka aided in setup at what would be Gen Con I.

On the following Sunday, Gary Gygax invited Lakofka to play an early version of his new medieval miniatures rules based on 40mm Elastolin miniatures, which would form the basis of the game later released in 1971 Chainmail. This version had not yet acquired the fantasy rules for which Chainmail was famed.

Lakofka wrote numerous articles for various magazines, including the IFW's Spartan. In the December 1968 issue of Spartan, he wrote an article titled "Icosahedron: A Game of Tactics", introducing the concept of a home-made twenty-sided die to readers. Lakofka suggested it could be used to generate numbers from 0-9, a numeric range used in play-by-mail systems. In May 18, 1969, Lakofka published the first issue of his fanzine Liasons Dangereuses, in association with the IWF.

Lakofka is credited for his assistance in the second edition of Chainmail, though later editions and printings would omit his name. While the fantasy element of this game was controversial in the wargaming community, Lakofka (who visited Gygax to play the game on several occasions) praised it in a review in the fanzine International Wargamer, describing it as "utterly delightful!" At ths stage, Lakofka was president of the International Federation of Wargaming. Lakofka subsequently ran Gen Con II in 1969.

By 1970, Lakofka was pursuing a master's degree at the University at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. In June of that year, he began an article series in the fanzine Atlantis, issue #25, parodying play-by-mail Diplomacy games, in which he called himself "King Leomund of Eyeaff Dubbleue" (a pun on "IFW") and Gygax "Gygax the Blue".

In November 1971, the vice president and treasurer of the IFW resigned, putting pressure on Lakofka's time and ultimately leading to its later dissolution. Lakofka lend his support to a new convention called the International Game Show in Chicago, covering wargaming and Diplomacy, but struggled to print issues of the International Wargamer zine. In March 1972, he announced that Gary Gygax had retired from wargaming and the IWF, and after difficulties with publication and shipping, the zine ceased publication by summer of that year. Lakofka was absent from Gen Con V hosted that year, and the IWF gradually dissolved. He would not attend another Gen Con until Gen Con VIII, held on August 20-22, 1975.

In 1975, Lakofka was the editor of a Diplomacy fanzine named Liasons Dangereuses. Issue #61 was mentioned in Strategic Review as containing six pages of spells for tabletop games, as well as a statement by Lakofka that the biggest hit of Gen Con VIII was TSR's Dungeon! board game. Liasons Dangereuses included articles on wargames and Dungeons & Dragons, including some credited as co-authored with Gygax, although Gygax did not write these articles, and merely shared the by-line to preserve copyright on Dungeons & Dragons content. Among them were a fire mage subclass, a magic-using dwarven craftsman, and rules for a hobbit druid His fire mage subclass, the Pyrologist, also appeared in fanzine The Wizard.

Other Diplomacy fanzines which Lakofka wrote for inlcuded Diplomacy World, such as in issue #11 1976; and Brontosaurus.

He served as judge at a 64-man miniatures tournament Gen Con IX (1976). In Dragon #1, which published Lakofka's own miniatures rules, he was described as a long-time Diplomacy player, judge, and publisher. TSR's Little Wars magazine was also promised to play-by-mail Diplomacy game with Lakofka as judge. He was heavily involved in later Gen Cons, running D&D on Sunday of Gen Con XI in 1978 and serving on the convention committee for Gen Con XII in 1979. He took second place in the first D&D Masters Tourney at TSR's Winter Fantasy convention, held in January 6-7 1979. At the Second Official Invitational AD&D Masters Tournament at Gen Con XII (1980), he was killed early on and took only 34th place out of 36. He ranked 19th in Masters III: The Search for the Armadillo Amulet at Winter Fantasy in Jan 5-6, 1980; Gary Gygax himself ranked 47th. He was involved in running Gen Con XIII in 1980 as a day manager, and came third in the D&D Invitational, defeated by fellow day manager Bob Blake and new TSR hire Frank Mentzer.

Lakofka was a guest at the Game Master's Workshop sponsored by the Maine Wargamers Association on July 18-23, 1981. In 1982, he was an RPGA charter member. In 1987, he was credited as a tournament author alongside Dan Kramarsky and Bruce Rabe for the AD&D Game Masters, "God's Blood" and "Working for the Wizard". authored an adventure module for Gen Con 20.

D&D writing

Lakofka never worked as a full-time employee of TSR, but served as a freelance writer for the company working from his home in Chicago.

He is credited for his assistance in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition core rulebooks. He was involved in editing the Players Handbook (1e) (1978) and Dungeon Masters Guide (1e) (1979), and contributed some spells and other elements of the books.. One of his most important contributions was to limit the power of hold person, which Gary Gygax wanted to have a chance of killing the opponent via system shock, but which Lakofka believed would be too deadly. He is also thanked in Unearthed Arcana (1e) (1985), including for new druid and cleric spells.

His most significant contributions to Dungeons & Dragons include the L-series adventure modules: L1 The Secret of Bone Hill (1981), L2 The Assassin's Knot (1983), and L3 Deep Dwarven Delve (1999), the last of which was written in 1979 but not released until 1999 due to "turmoil at TSR". These three module were based on Lakofka's own campaign setting of the Lendore Isles, which were incorporated into the World of Greyhawk. Lakofka previously ran Deep Dwarven Delve in 1979 at Gen Con XII, though the work was revised before finally seeing print.

Lakofka created the character of Nolzur in the magazine Footprints #14. The character of Leomund is based on a character he played.

In 1995, Lakofka contributed a history of the Suel or Suloise empire to the World of Greyhawk fanzine Oerth Journal #1. His article uses the idiosyncratic spelling Seul/Seuloise, used only by Lakofka in L2 The Assassin's Knot (1983).

He submitted 44 articles to Dragon Magazine between issue #1 in 1976 and #108 in 1986, including the "Leomund's Tiny Hut" series of articles. Among his most significant contributions to D&D through the magazine are the character Leomund, the chime of warding, the inner planes, the fireball fly and giant lightning bug, the spells ceremony, endure cold, endure heat, magic stone, magical vestment, meld into stone, and various spells and items named for Leomund. To the World of Greyhawk he contributed the Lendore Isles region, regional demographics for the World of Greyhawk, and the Suloise pantheon (including Lendor).

Subsequent work

In 2009, Lakofka released LC4 Devilspawn, an unofficial sequel to the L-series of adventures, and the rulebook LC4 The Lendore Isle Companion. He also wrote an unpublished module L5, set in the town of Kroten, located centrally in the Lendore Isles. He intended to write a sequel L6.

Bibliography

Books

• Chainmail (1971): Help and suggestions
• Players Handbook (1e) (1978): Special thanks
• Dungeon Masters Guide (1e) (1979): Special thanks
• L1 The Secret of Bone Hill (1981): Design
• L2 The Assassin's Knot (1983): Design
• Unearthed Arcana (1e) (1985): Contributor
• Cult of the Dragon (1998): Additional and original design
• The Scarlet Brotherhood (1999): Special thanks
• L3 Deep Dwarven Delve (1999): Design

Magazine articles

• Len Lakofka's Fantasy Miniatures Rules, Dragon #1 (Jun 1976), p.13
• Notes On Women & Magic, Dragon #3 (Oct 1976), p.7
• Blueprint For a Lich, Dragon #26 (Jun 1979), p.36
• Good Evening: Are You Wild About Vampires?..., Dragon #30 (Oct 1979), p.7
• All Good Things Must End..., Dragon #31 (Nov 1979), p.30
• If You Meet These Monsters, Don't Let Them Bug You, Dragon #32 (Dec 1979), p.16
• Smoothing Out Some Snags In the AD&D Spell Structure, Dragon #33 (Jan 1980), p.16
• 'Segment of Action' System..., Dragon #34 (Feb 1980), p.34
• Experience: By Doing and Learning, Dragon #35 (Mar 1980), p.14
• How To Make a Pantheon You Can Have Faith In!, Dragon #36 (Apr 1980), p.17
• Leomund's In a Rut, Dragon #36 (Apr 1980), p.29
• Presenting...The Monties, Dragon #37 (May 1980), p.16
• Rearranging and Redefining the Mighty Dragon, Dragon #38 (Jun 1980), p.10
• Starting From Scratch, Dragon #39 (Jul 1980), p.20
• The Inner Planes, Dragon #42 (Oct 1980), p.24
• Action In the Melee Round, Dragon #43 (Nov 1980), p.26
• Monsters: How Strong Is Strong?, Dragon #44 (Dec 1980), p.28
• Missile Fire and the Archer Subclass, Dragon #45 (Jan 1981), p.32
• The Thief: A Special Look, Dragon #47 (Mar 1981), p.20
• Mission Control, Dragon #48 (Apr 1981), p.63
• A Recipe For the Alchemist, Dragon #49 (May 1981), p.56
• Working Your Way Up To First Level, Dragon #51 (Jul 1981), p.22
• Adding Depth To the Flanaess, Dragon #52 (Aug 1981), p.18
• Just a Door? Not Any More, Dragon #53 (Sep 1981), p.56
• Shield and Weapon Skills, Dragon #57 (Jan 1982), p.10
• Beefing Up the Cleric, Dragon #58 (Feb 1982), p.5
• Magic For Merchants, Dragon #62 (Jun 1982), p.56
• Make Charisma Count For More, Dragon #63 (Jul 1982), p.19
• Keep Track of Quality, Dragon #65 (Sep 1982), p.13
• New Monsters For Low Levels, Dragon #66 (Oct 1982), p.54
• The Cloistered Cleric, Dragon #68 (Dec 1982), p.30
• Let Them Entertain You, Dragon #69 (Jan 1983), p.54
• Bureaucrats and Politicians, Dragon #74 (Jun 1983), p.8
• For NPC's Only: The Death Master, Dragon #76 (Aug 1983), p.10
• New Charts, Using the '5%' Principle, Dragon #80 (Dec 1983), p.48
• Presenting the Suel Pantheon, Dragon #86 (Jun 1984), p.30
• Gods of the Suel Pantheon, Dragon #87 (Jul 1984), p.23
• Gods of the Suel Pantheon, Dragon #88 (Aug 1984), p.8
• Gods of the Suel Pantheon, Dragon #89 (Sep 1984), p.20
• Gods of the Suel Pantheon, Dragon #90 (Oct 1984), p.24
• Gods of the Suel Pantheon, Dragon #92 (Dec 1984), p.22
• Specialization and Game Balance, Dragon #104 (Dec 1985), p.28
• Tone Down the Demi-Humans, Dragon #105 (Jan 1986), p.10
• Creating Tailor-Made Monsters, Dragon #108 (Apr 1986), p.9

Reception and influence

Gary Gygax thanked Lakofka in the dedication Unearthed Arcana (1e) (1985), saying "To Len Lakofka, who keeps after me as he has from the earliest days, and has lent me both material and stimlating discussion."

In Good Evening, Dragon #30 (Oct 1979), p.7, editor Tim Kask spoke highly Lakofka: "If you read the forwards and prefaces in a number of the D&D and AD&D books, you will notice the author's name mentioned in most, if not all, of them. That he can speak with authority is authenticated there."

In Why gamers get together, Dragon #64 (Aug 1982), p.61, Ken Rolston described a D&D game run at Gen Con by Len Lakofka, praising his ability to evaluate the players' failed attempt and encourage them with feedback on how they could improve.

In Dragon #300 (Oct 2002), p.20, Kim Mohan described Lakofka as one of the writers whose creativity he came to respect when he joined the company in 1979.

In 30 Greatest Adventures, Dungeon #116 (Nov 2004), p.72, Lakofka's adventure module L2 The Assassin's Knot (1983) was listed as #29. Reviewer John Rateliff described it as highly underrated, and featuring one of the best assassin's guilds in an adventure module. He praised its innovation of giving a timeline for the villains' actions, which broke the D&D tradition of passive adventure locations.

In The Top 10 Issues of Dragon, Dragon #359 (Sep 2007), p.22, issue #76 of the magazine was listed as #2. Lakofka's For NPC's Only, the Death Master was cited as a notable article. The Death Master class was adapted to D&D third edition in Dragon Compendium Volume 1 (2005).

In 2020, James Maliszewski of oldschool roleplaying blog Grognardia described Lakofka as "one of the most underappreciated contributors to the growth and development of Dungeons & Dragons." He cited Lakofka's L1 The Secret of Bone Hill (1981) as one of the best starting modules ever written for D&D.