Monday, July 7, 2025

Frank Mentzer Announces New Company Temporal Studios




Just the other day, the Youtube Channel of Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo Organizer Ron Meischker had TSR game designer legend Frank Mentzer on their show. Frank made the announcement that he was setting up a new company that would be called Temporal Studios (link to website). The project sounds ambitious as there are plans to delve into gaming history, conducting interviews with other RPG legends (Frank name dropped a few in the interview) and print and PDF publication. 

Frank has previously worked for TSR, Gary Gygax' New Infinities and Eldritch Enterprises. In 2017 he unsuccessfully launched a Kickstarter for his D&D campaign Empyrea (also known as Aquaria).

In recent years, Frank has had some health problems, but in the youtube interview he seemed optimistic, saying that modern medicine had helped him avoid the fate of some of his good friends like Jim Ward. 


-Havard

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Scott Haring, Game Designer, has passed at 67


Scott Haring, a veteran game designer passed away on July 1 from pneumonia.  I just learned via my friend Ciro Sacco and Dungeonmaster Magazine.



Scott Haring, a veteran game designer and editor that started working in the game industry in 1982 has passed away, wrote Steve Jackson in his Daily Illuminator newsletter. Steve Jackson worked many years at Steve Jackson Games as Car Wars line editor, Autoduel Quarterly editor, Pyramid editor and Internat Sales manager. Here is the announcement: "Scott Haring, for many years a member of our staff (most notably as the Car Wars line editor in its most glorious days), passed away on July 1 from complications of pneumonia. He was 67. Scott was always fun to be around. His desk was covered with toys and baseball paraphernalia (as Andrew was to football, so Scott was to baseball). He also had a great singing voice, a talent which rarely crossed over with game design. Too bad office karaoke was not a thing back then! But when he put on the editor hat, he was one of the few people I would trust, without checking, to write or edit good copy. He was a pro". He worked at TSR too where he designed products for Classic D&D (The Republic of Darokin was a fine product), AD&D and Marvel Super Heroes. For the last twenty years he vas a freelance. The magazines he edited were always very interesting to read and he tried, along other brave people, to produce an independent gaming magazine - The Gamer - that lasted very little but it as a fine read.


My favorite work by Haring was Gaz 11 the Republic of Darokin, which was one of the first of the gazetteer series that I owned. It is always sad to learn about the passing of so many of the creative people who helped shape our hobby. 


Rest in peace.


-Havard



 

Frank Mentzer Announces New Company Temporal Studios

Just the other day, the Youtube Channel of Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo Organizer Ron Meischker had TSR game designer legend Frank Mentze...