‘Return to Perinthos’ – A Memorial Megadungeon for Jennell Jaquays Goes Physical, Crowdfunding Now
Return to Perinthos, memorializing RPG legend and queer activist Jennell Jaquays, is crowdfunding a physical book to benefit her family.
Jennell Jaquays was truly a legend in the RPG industry during its early days, working for TSR, Chaosium, and many other major players. She also worked in video games, including designing levels in Quake and Halo Wars—and outside the games industry, she was a staunch activist for queer and trans rights, helping to bring about Leelah’s Law.
Not long after her passing, a group of designers and creators came together to create a memorial project both to memorialize Jaquays and help her family cover the costs of living and dying in the US healthcare system. The project, Return to Perinthos, will be a 200-page wire-bound book connecting more than 80 different dungeon tiles and keys.
As a community effort and memorial fundraiser, the project is being released under the Creative Commons ‘CC BY-NC 4.0 license,’ and all proceeds from the campaign will be donated to Jaquay’s family. Here’s a look at the memorial campaign.
Return to Perinthos
The goal of this fundraiser is fund the printing of Return to Perinthos, a megadungeon a la Caverns of Thracia. It will be a U.S. letter-sized approximately 200-page wirebound book. You will be able to plop over 80 dungeon tiles and keys right onto your gaming table.
The content for the book was created by the Jennell Jaquays Memorial Game Jam. It has been a community effort, and we are still looking for volunteers to help with production of the book. If you are interested in donating writing, illustrations, editing, or layout instead of making a monetary contribution, you can volunteer using the instructions on the Return to Perinthos Volunteer Site. Volunteers will be able to purchase a copy of the book for only the cost of printing once we have received physical copies.
As part of this community effort, Luke Gearing, has graciously agreed to write a setting that ties all of the disparate dungeon tiles together. The book will also feature an unpublished Q&A with Jennell Jaquays that was donated by Tavis Allison with permission from Goodman Games.
The crowdfunding campaign runs for another 10 days, with the community hoping to finish the project by the end of March, to start fulfillment by May. Though the intial crowdfunding campaign runs through February 26th, the campaign will remain “open” through April 2024.
Check Out Return to Perinthos on Crowdfundr
Jaquays will be sorely missed.
