David A. Trampier facts for kids

Quick facts for kids David A. Trampier
David A. Trampier from The Daily Egyptian, 2002
Born	April 22, 1954 Saint Louis, Missouri, United States
Died	March 24, 2014 (aged 59) Carbondale, Illinois, United States
Nationality	American
Pseudonym(s)	Tramp, DAT
Notable works	Wormy AD&D Players Handbook Monster Manual Titan

David A. Trampier (born April 22, 1954 – died March 24, 2014) was a talented American artist and writer. He is best known for his amazing artwork that appeared in early versions of the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Many of his drawings, like the cover of the first Player's Handbook, became very famous and recognizable. Trampier also created a fun comic strip called Wormy, which was published in Dragon magazine for many years.

Later in his career, in the late 1980s, Trampier suddenly stopped working in the gaming world and preferred to live a private life. The exact reasons for this were not clear, but it might have been due to a disagreement with the company TSR. It was known that he didn't want anything to do with TSR or the company that took it over, Wizards of the Coast. For a long time, no one knew where Trampier was, and some even thought he had passed away. However, his brother-in-law, Tom Wham, said this wasn't true, even though he also didn't know where Trampier was living or what he was doing.

What Was David Trampier's Career Like?

Cover of the original AD&D Player's Handbook, with art by Trampier

In 1977, a company called TSR, Inc. began making a new version of their Dungeons & Dragons game. This new version was called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). Unlike earlier rulebooks, which were simple paperbacks, the AD&D books were high-quality hardcovers. They had colorful art on the outside and many black and white drawings inside.

The first AD&D book was the Monster Manual, released in 1977. Trampier, along with other artists like David Sutherland and Tom Wham, drew many pictures for this book. People really liked the detailed illustrations.

The next hardcover book, the Player's Handbook, made Trampier very well-known when he was only in his mid-twenties. Trampier's cover showed a temple with a huge, devil-like statue, being explored by a group of brave adventurers. This cover picture became strongly linked with the game until new art replaced it in 1982. Trampier also drew many pictures inside the Player's Handbook.

He continued to be a very important artist for TSR in its early years. Some of his other famous works included:

• Cover art and some inside drawings for the Gamma World role-playing game (1978).
• The map board for the wargame Divine Right (1979).
• Cover art for the Dungeon Master's Screen (1979). This won an award in 1979.
• Cover art for the AD&D adventure The Village of Hommlet (1979).
• Inside art for the Dungeon Masters Guide (1979) and Deities & Demigods (1980).
• Many inside drawings for other AD&D adventures.

What Was the Wormy Comic Strip?

In September 1977, Dragon magazine (Issue #9) introduced a new comic strip by Trampier called Wormy. The main character was a dragon named Wormy who smoked cigars, played pool, and enjoyed wargames. Later issues showed his friends, who were trolls and ogres. The stories were told from the point of view of the monsters, who are usually the bad guys in Dungeons & Dragons. The wizards, warriors, and other heroes that players would usually play were always shown as unwanted visitors. Wormy appeared in Dragon magazine for 10 years, until April 1988.

What Was the Titan Board Game?

In 1980, Trampier and Jason McAllister created a "monster slugathon" wargame called Titan. Trampier also did all the artwork for this game. The goal of Titan was to defeat the armies of other players, using victories to grow stronger until only one army was left. Trampier and McAllister first published the game themselves. It was then re-published by Avalon Hill in 1982 and became quite popular. Articles about Titan appeared in Avalon Hill's General magazine, and the game was printed until Avalon Hill closed in 1998. In 2008, a new edition of Titan was released by Valley Games, but it did not use Trampier's original artwork.

Why Did David Trampier Disappear?

In the late 1980s, David Trampier suddenly stopped being active in the gaming world. The last Wormy comic appeared in April 1988. Even though the comic was in the middle of a story, no more Wormy comics were ever published. In August 1988, the editors of Dragon magazine told readers that Wormy would no longer appear.

Kim Mohan, who was the editor of Dragon at the time, said that checks sent to Trampier for his work were returned without being cashed. This made people think he might have passed away.

How Was David Trampier Rediscovered?

David Trampier was found again by chance. In February 2002, a student reporter named Arin Thompson was writing an article for her university newspaper in Carbondale, Illinois. She spent a night shift riding along with a local taxi driver. This taxi driver turned out to be David Trampier. He told Thompson he had moved to Carbondale from Chicago about eight months earlier. Thompson didn't know about Trampier's past as an artist. She published her story and Trampier's photograph in The Daily Egyptian newspaper on February 15, 2002.

News spread that Trampier was still alive. Many companies and people contacted him, asking if he would draw new art, re-publish his old art, or appear at conventions. However, Trampier politely refused all these requests. He wanted to stay out of the fantasy gaming world and continued to drive his taxi. One person who reached out was fellow cartoonist Jolly Blackburn. Blackburn just wanted to talk about a Wormy comic collection. Blackburn reported that Trampier "politely asked me not to call him again and to lose his number." He seemed tired of all the calls and just wanted to be left alone.

In 2003, Wizards of the Coast said that Trampier was "alive and well" but "not currently working in gaming or comics." In 2004, his brother-in-law Tom Wham said he believed Trampier "still exists somewhere in Illinois."

In 2008, Trampier visited a game store in Carbondale to see the new edition of Titan that had been published. This was his only contact with the gaming community for several years.

David Trampier's Final Years and Death

In late 2013, David Trampier faced some difficulties. He had a mild stroke, lost his job when the taxi company closed, and found out he had cancer. Needing money, Trampier contacted Scott Thorne, the owner of a local game store. He offered to sell eight of his original artworks, including the famous cover art for the 1979 Dungeon Master's Screen. Thorne bought the artwork and tried to convince Trampier to have his Wormy comics republished. Trampier was careful about this offer and wanted to make sure TSR would not be involved. He seemed surprised to hear that TSR had been taken over by Wizards of the Coast almost 20 years earlier. Thorne suggested that another company, Troll Lord Games, might be a good publisher.

Trampier agreed to display some of his original artwork at a local games convention called Egypt Wars. This would have been his first public connection to fantasy gaming since he disappeared 25 years before. Representatives from Troll Lord Games were also going to be at the convention, and Thorne hoped Trampier might talk to them about a publishing deal. However, Trampier sadly passed away on March 24, 2014, just three weeks before the convention.

How Did David Trampier Influence Others?

Rich Burlew, who created the webcomic The Order of the Stick, has shown great respect for Wormy as an early D&D comic strip. He said he felt amazed that his comic was published on the back page of Dragon magazine, where Wormy used to appear. In the last issue of Dragon magazine (September 2007), Burlew included a reference to Wormy in his comic, showing a dragon similar to Wormy fleeing.

In 2014, Scott Taylor of Black Gate magazine named Dave Trampier as an honorable mention in a list of the Top 10 RPG Artists of the Past 40 Years. He said that Trampier had a unique depth in his art that other early TSR artists didn't quite match. When Trampier died, Taylor wrote that Trampier was like a "bridge" connecting people to amazing visual adventures.