In the dead of night, when
game designers are asleep in
their beds, visions of new modules
dancing in their dreams, one man,
a figure shrouded in mystery, sits
at his lonely desk in the TSR building,
patiently reviewing manuscripts.
Every so often, this shadowy
figure scratches a comment on the
paper, then reads on.

Meet Harold “Wisconsin” Johnson.
TSR’s Director of Game Design. You
may not know his name, but he is an
important contributor to every game,
module, and accessory published by
TSR.

Harold supervises all of the TSR staff
game designers: David “Zeb” Cook,
Doug Niles, Tracy Hickman
and Jeff Grubb. He also manages
the Acquisition Department, staffed
by Jon Pickens and Bruce Heard. Harold
has final responsibility for all games and
game accessories published by TSR, and
also decides what specific items the company
will publish each year.

As you might imagine, Harold is very
busy, running from meeting to meeting
with a harried expression on his face, his
memo pad filled with a thousand notes
concerning each product in development.
One minute he is checking final typesetting
in the Graphic Arts Department, the next he
is deep in conversation with a designer,
helping him solve a major technical problem.
Harold’s eye for detail is legendary.
“I’m a very good proofreader,” he says
modestly.

Harold was born in Evanston, Illinois. He
attended Northwestern University and got
his B.S. in Biology in 1977. He was introduced
to his first D&D® game in 1976 by
friends in Nebraska, and he quickly became
an avid player. In 1977, he attended his
first GEN CON® convention in take Geneva.
“I was very surprised to find that TSR was
located so close to Chicago,” he said.

When he graduated from college, Harold
worked at odd jobs, continued to play
games, and thought about his future. In the
fall of 1978, he saw an ad in DRAGON®
Magazine for a job as a Games Editor at
TSR. He applied and got an interview, but
wasn’t selected. Refusing to become discouraged,
he applied again for another job
as a Game Designer. This time, he got the
offer, but before he joined the company,
TSR asked him to become an editor, because
they needed an editor more than they
needed another designer just then. Harold
accepted, with the promise that he could
transfer into game design. . . . but his future
beckoned in a different direction.

His first assignment was as Copy Editor
on the Dungeon Masters Guide, to which
he contributed the rules on destroying artifacts.
At the same time, he began working
on a tournament module that later became
Cl, Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. “That
was to prove to the company I could write,"
he says. He also created all the PC and NPC
character record sheets for the AD&D®
game system.

Less than seven months after Harold
joined TSR; he was promoted to Manager of
Production, with responsibility for editing,
layout, and dealing with the printers —
from design turnover to manufacturing
turnover. This was the year that TSR’s
growth really took off, and the company
jumped past the $1 million mark and kept
on growing. In the years that followed,
Harold was at various times Assistant to
the Vice President for Research & Development,
Manager of Game Design, and Manager
of Editing.

In 1982, Harold was promoted to Director
of Games Research & Development, a
position he has held ever since. The same
year, he married his wife V.J., and in 1984
they had their first child, Allison.

During his tenure with the company,
Harold has been responsible for hiring
Frank Mentzer, Jon Pickens, Tracy Hickman,
Pat Price, and many others. Although his
first love has always been game design, his
management responsibilities have carried
him away from his own
work to provide mentoring,
oversight, and direction to
others. He has had
credited role in many projects, including
co-creation of the concept
for the DRAGONLANCE® line.

Harold’s eagle eye, experience, and
knowledge of game design have earned
him the respect of peers and subordinates.
“Harold has the ability to find any weak
point that lurks in a design,” said Jeff
Grubb. “He has contributed to every design
that has come out of this department.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cl HIDDEN SHRINE OF TAMOACHAN
A2 SECRET OF THE SLAVER?S
STOCKADE
IJAC1 JUDGE?S SURVIVAL PACK
IJ4 THE GOLDEN GODDESS