Erick Wujcik

Gaming career

Wujcik started off as head of the gaming society at Wayne State University, The Warriors and Warlocks of the Wayne Weregamers Society, also known as the Wayne State Weregamers, where he met and befriended Kevin Siembieda. By 1980 the Wayne Weregamers became known as the Detroit Gaming Center, and Wujcik and Siembieda moved the group from the Monteith House, scheduled for demolition, to an off-campus building run by a non-profit; Siembieda became Assistant Director for the Center with Wujcik as Director. Wujcik published the science-fiction adventure Sector 57 (1980) under the Detroit Gaming Center banner. Wujcik worked as a computer columnist for The Detroit News where he wrote their weekly "Computer Column" from 1979 to 1981. That served to be a springboard for him to co-found Palladium Books with Kevin Siembieda and to work on developing numerous role-playing games and supplements for such settings as Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, After the Bomb, Rifts, and many others, including Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game and Paranoia.

Siembieda obtained the rights to produce a licensed roleplaying game based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book, but he did not approve of the freelancer's final product so he had Wujcik redesign the game, which was done in five weeks, and it was published as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness (1985). Wujcik designed Revised Recon (1987), a role-playing game revision of the miniatures warfare game Recon (1982). Wujcik also designed the Ninjas & Superspies role-playing game in 1988, which built on his long-term interest in Japan and involved extensive research on his part. Wujcik also wrote the RPG After the Bomb for Palladium. He also freelanced for West End Games, and wrote one of the early adventures for the Paranoia roleplaying game, Clones in Space (1986) and contributed to the Acute Paranoia supplement (1986).

While working at West End Games, Wujcik discovered that the company held a license for Roger Zelazny's Amber novels, which were among Wujcik's favorites, and he offered to design an Amber RPG game even through West End would not guarantee to publish it. While playtesting the game, Wujcik found that it worked better without dice, but West End did not agree, so he acquired the RPG rights to Amber. He began developing the game for R. Talsorian Games in the early 1990s, but encountered creative differences there as well. Siembieda encouraged Wujcik to set up his own company to publish the game, and Wujcik founded Phage Press, hiring his cousins Lisa and Ron Seymour to deal with the business side of the company. Amber Diceless Roleplaying was finally published in November 1991 by Phage Press. Wujcik did not like the manuscripts submitted for the game's supplement Shadow Knight (1993), so he rewrote the book himself. James Wallis brought his Bugtown game to Phage to be produced, but creative differences with Wujcik led Wallis to pull out of Phage in 1994 and start Hogshead Publishing. In 1996, Wujcik convinced Matt Howarth to re-license the Bugtown rights to him, although Wujcik never actually published a game based on the comic. Wujcik wrote the book Mystic China for Palladium in 1995.

Wujcik was also the founder of the gaming convention known as Ambercon. In 1997 he went to work for Sierra Studios and was lead game designer on the game Return to Krondor (1998). He also served as a game designer at Outrage Entertainment for the game Alter Echo.

Wujcik served as chief editor of Amberzine, a fanzine for the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, publishing the work of such notables as Ray Bradbury, Henry Kuttner, and Roger Zelazny. He was also an editorial contractor for the Detroit Historical Museum, and gave seminars on a wide range of topics related to the writing, design and development of role-playing games.

Wujcik wrote the books Rifts China 1 and Rifts China 2. At the end of 2004, Wujcik licensed the rights to Amber Diceless Role-playing to Guardians of Order.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Wujcik worked in the electronic game business, on titles from Sierra, THQ, and Ubisoft. From 2004 to 2006, Wujcik was Game Design Studio Manager for UbiSoft China, in Shanghai. Wujcik was also Adjunct Assistant Professor of Game Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University between 2003 and 2008.

In early 2007, Wujcik became the senior game designer/writer for Totally Games. Until his death in June 2008, Wujcik was Senior Game Designer and Writer for Totally Games, located in Marin County, California.

Illness and death

On December 22, 2007, it was announced that Wujcik had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The same day, Kevin Siembieda set up a website for well-wishers to leave Wujcik messages:

Erick Wujcik, age 56, is dying of cancer. Until a few weeks ago, Erick was healthy and doing fine. He was enjoying his work at Totally Games, a videogame company, when he thought he had come down with the flu. When he couldn't shake it, he went to the doctors. The diagnosis was unexpected, to say the least. Pancreatic cancer that had spread to his liver. There was no advance warning. It was a shock. Erick presses forward with the willful exuberance he has exhibited all his life.

In his final months, chemotherapy treatments had failed to eradicate Wujcik's cancer and were halted. He entered hospice care in his home in San Rafael, California.

On June 6, 2008, Kevin Siembieda released an update on Erick's condition:

I'm sorry to report that Erick is quite ill now and suffering from the consequences of a failing liver. His deteriorating condition is not a surprise, but it is unwelcomed. Erick has beat the odds and fooled the doctors – fooled everyone – by lasting as long as he has, but then Erick has always been full of surprises and magic. But even the power of the "Wuj" has its limits, and I fear it won't be long now.

Erick Wujcik died the following day, June 7, 2008.

Awards and honors

In August 2008, the first – and, to date, only – Liftetime Achievement ENnies were given out during the awards ceremony at Gen Con. Along with Dungeons & Dragons creators Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, Erick Wujcik was recognized for his contributions to the gaming industry. However, being aware of his diagnosis and uncertain of his prognosis, EN World decided to present Wujcik with his award on January 26, 2008, at a gathering of family and friends to celebrate his 57th birthday. Kevin Siembieda later offered remarks in remembrance of Wujcik at the official ceremony.

Wujcik was also inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Hall of Fame by the Game Manufacturers Association at the 37th Origins Awards on June 25, 2011.