Don Turnbull (game designer)

Donald Joseph Turnbull (2 June 1937 - 5 August 2003) was a journalist, editor and gaming enthusiast. He was particularly instrumental in introducing Dungeons & Dragons into the UK, both as the Managing Director of TSR UK Ltd and as the editor of the Fiend Folio.

Early career

Don Turnbull’s early career was as a high-school teacher of mathematics in the north of England. However, he was an early and enthusiastic follower of wargaming subsequently winning awards as a designer and developer. In July 1969 he published the first issue of Albion, one of the first European zines, supporting correspondence play of the board game Diplomacy. Although it only had a small number of subscribers, Albion was influential and ran to fifty issues. It was an informal publication that provided games reviews and gave an account of ongoing games. In October 1970, Turnbull started another zine, Courier, which was used to discuss the active correspondence games, with Albion turning into a review magazine, covering a range of board and war games. After pioneering work with Diplomacy, Don began to write for the magazine Games & Puzzles, before becoming involved with the new role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons.

White Dwarf and Games Workshop

Don was a contributor to Owl and Weasel and one of the founding contributors to the magazine White Dwarf. This influential magazine did much to develop role-playing games in the UK. His first contribution to White Dwarf was the “Monstermark” system, a way of assessing the relative strength of monsters that might be encountered in a role-playing world. He quickly became a regular reviewer and by issue six was the editor of a regular feature, “The Fiend Factory”, which presented descriptions of monsters that readers had created for themselves. In these early issues he published sections from his own “Greenlands” dungeon. After his work for Games Workshop, Don was hired by Gary Gygax, to manage the UK branch of TSR, Inc.

TSR UK Ltd.

Don Turnbull is best known as the editor of the Fiend Folio. This book was published in 1983 by TSR UK Ltd., and had its genesis in the many monsters that readers had submitted to “The Fiend Factory” in White Dwarf. Like its companion volume the Monster Manual, the Fiend Folio provided a listing of creatures that player characters’ could encounter as part of the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game system. It was the pages of the Fiend Folio that introduced a wider audience to the githyanki, the grell and many others.

Also in his role as Managing Director of TSR UK Ltd. he oversaw the publication of a range of titles, including his own "Underwater" modules in conjunction with Dave J. Browne: Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, Danger at Dunwater, and The Final Enemy. These have been described as having the "..best storylines of any module series."

TSR UK Ltd. also produced the "UK" series of modules: UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave by Dave Brown, Tom Kirby, and Graeme Morris; UK2 The Sentinel by Graeme Morris; UK3 The Gauntlet by Graeme Morris; UK4 When a Star Falls by Graeme Morris; UK5 Eye of the Serpent by Graeme Morris; UK6 'All That Glitters... by Jim Bambra; UK7 Dark Clouds Gather by Jim Bambra and Phil Gallagher. Some of these modules had their origins as the "GamesFair" tournament adventures. Don Turnbull was also the publisher of the UK based RPG magazine: Imagine.

Final years

After TSR UK Ltd. was compromised by the management issues faced by its American parent company, Don Turnbull spent a number of years in the U.S. working for Gary Gygax, and then subsequently as a freelance journalist. As gaming changed, with the new-found popularity of collectible card games, Don returned to the UK and started a new career as a computer programmer, first in Cambridge and then in a village in Lancashire. He remained an active player of role-playing games until shortly before his death, running a campaign in the world of "Urnst" with his friends.