Len Lakofka facts for kids

Lenard Lakofka (born January 10, 1944 – died October 23, 2020) was an American writer. He created stories and rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Even though he never officially worked for TSR, the company that made Dungeons & Dragons, Len Lakofka was very important to the game's growth.

He helped test the game rules as they were being made. He also edited early versions of the game books. Len wrote a popular monthly column in a D&D magazine. He also wrote two official D&D adventures. His own game world, the Lendore Isles, was even added to Gary Gygax's World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting.

Len's Early Life and Games

Len Lakofka was born on January 10, 1944, in Illinois. His parents were Alex Lakofka and Elsie Schumacher.

In the 1960s, while living in Chicago, Len Lakofka became very interested in wargames. One of his favorite games was Diplomacy by Avalon Hill. His love for Diplomacy led him to join a group called the International Federation of Wargamers (IFW). Through the IFW, he met another game designer, Gary Gygax.

In 1968, Gary Gygax convinced the IFW to hold a one-day game convention. It was called Gen Con. It took place at the Horticultural Hall in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. By this time, Lakofka was the president of the IFW. He traveled to Lake Geneva to help set up, run games, and clean up. At the end of the day, Gygax showed Lakofka and others a new set of rules for miniature figures. These rules were later published as Chainmail. This game was an early version of D&D.

Back in Chicago in 1969, Lakofka started his own fan magazine, or "fanzine". It was called Liaisons Dangereuses and was all about Diplomacy. He published 81 issues over the next eight years. In 1969, he also helped organize Gen Con II.

How Len Helped Dungeons & Dragons

In 1972, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson started working together on a new role-playing game. This led to the creation of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). In 1975, they released the first Dungeons & Dragons game sets. Len Lakofka often helped test the rules as they were being made. He gave advice to Gygax on rules he thought were unfair.

Soon after D&D came out, articles about it started appearing in Lakofka's fan magazine, Liaisons Dangereuses. Len wrote all these articles himself. But he added Gygax's name to the articles. This was to make sure Gygax's copyright on D&D was protected. Some of these articles were quickly reprinted in TSR's new magazine, The Dragon. Len started playing D&D in Chicago. His main player character was named Leomund. He also created his own D&D game world called Lendore Isle.

Even though Len Lakofka was not a TSR employee, he helped a lot with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). As the rules were being developed, Gygax gave Lakofka copies of the books. These were the Players Handbook and the Dungeon Master's Guide. Lakofka edited these books. He also added some of his own ideas to them. After the AD&D rulebooks were published, he created more spells, magic items, and monsters. These were later published in Dragon magazine. He also wrote more articles about AD&D in Dragon. He continued to help organize and run Diplomacy and AD&D events at Gen Con. By then, TSR, Inc. owned Gen Con.

At the first official AD&D tournament in January 1979, Lakofka came in second place. Later that year, Brian Blume from TSR asked Lakofka to write AD&D adventures. Lakofka agreed to write three adventures for $10,500. The editor of Dragon magazine, Tim Kask, also asked Lakofka to write a regular column. In October 1979, Lakofka's monthly column, Leomund's Tiny Hut, first appeared in Issue #30.

In 1980, Lakofka sent three adventure stories to TSR. These stories came from adventures he had made for his own Lendore Isle game world. They were The Secret of Bone Hill, The Assassin's Knot, and Deep Dwarven Delve. Gary Gygax was creating his World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting at the same time. Lakofka asked if his "Lendore Isle" could be part of Gygax's new world. Gygax said yes. Lakofka chose the largest island in the Spindrift Isles as the home for his Lendore Isles adventures. This was the first time material from someone other than Gygax or Rob Kuntz was added to the Greyhawk setting.

Besides writing, Lakofka was still a well-known player in the D&D world. In 1980, he was ranked the 6th best D&D player in the country. That same year, as a dungeon master, he placed third in a special tournament at Gen Con.

In 1981, Lakofka's first adventure, L1 The Secret of Bone Hill, was published. People had different opinions about it. Some thought the monsters and townspeople were too crowded in a small area. But others liked the roleplaying parts of the adventure. Many players found it a great starting point for a low-level game.

In 1983, TSR published Lakofka's second adventure, L2 The Assassin's Knot. Again, reviews were mixed. Some thought the murder mystery plot was boring. But others called it an "entertaining murder mystery" for AD&D characters. In 2004, two game designers, Erik Mona and James Jacobs, ranked The Assassin's Knot as the 29th greatest AD&D adventure ever written.

Lakofka also kept writing more articles for Dragon magazine, in addition to his monthly column. When Gygax was creating the World of Greyhawk, Lakofka suggested that his Lendore Isles would have been settled mainly by the Suel people. This was based on how different groups moved around in the Greyhawk world. In the 1983 edition of the World of Greyhawk, only the names of the twelve Suel gods were listed. Lakofka decided to write detailed descriptions of each god and their powers. In 1984, Lakofka published this information as a big five-part series in Dragon magazine.

Len's Work After TSR

Lakofka's third Lendore Isles adventure, L3 Deep Dwarven Delve, was planned for release in 1986. Lakofka also planned to write two more "L" series adventures. However, at the end of 1985, there was a big change at TSR. Gary Gygax, Len's long-time friend, was no longer part of the company. The new leaders at TSR did not want to work with Gygax's friends. So, plans to publish Lakofka's third adventure were stopped. Lakofka also stopped writing his Leomund's Tiny Hut column for Dragon. His last column was published in April 1986.

After this, Lakofka moved from Chicago to California. He did not write any more AD&D material for TSR. It wasn't until Wizards of the Coast (WotC) took over TSR in 1997 that things changed. The World of Greyhawk setting was brought back. WotC then asked Lakofka about finally publishing L3 Deep Dwarven Delve. It was to be part of a special 25th Anniversary Collector's Boxed Set. The D&D rules had changed a lot over the years. So, Lakofka worked with WotC staff to update the adventure. Lakofka later said that WotC lost his final updated version. Instead of telling him, someone at WotC used an older version and added new material to it. Lakofka believed that about 20% of the final published adventure was not his own work.

Lakofka continued to work on more adventures in the "L" series. In 2009, the fourth adventure, L4 Devilspawn, was released for free download by Dragonsfoot.org. Lakofka also created a fifth adventure, L5 The Kroten Campaign. This was released in three parts as a free download by Dragonsfoot.org. Lakofka thought about writing up to four more "L" adventures, but they were never created.

Starting in 2019, Lenard became a regular on the "LordGosumba" Twitch channel. He discussed Greyhawk and D&D there. You can find recordings of these shows on YouTube.

Len Lakofka was also a very good bridge player. In 2006, he was listed among the top 500 bridge players in southern California. In 2008, his team from southern California came in second place in a national bridge competition.

Len's Passing

Len Lakofka passed away early in the morning of October 23, 2020. He was at his home with his husband, Gary Jackson. He had a type of blood cancer called myeloid leukemia. He was cremated after his passing.