Jeff Butler

Being a child in the 1950’s exposed a young boy to toys and TV shows that inspired the call to heroism: Marx playsets, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, The Adventures of Robin Hood (with Richard Green), and all the movie reruns of Flash Gordon, Captain Blood, etc.

Re-enacting adventures with toys graduated to playing wargames, first with Milton Bradley’s Battle-Cry!, leading to Avalon Hill’s Tactics II, and others. Then, as a freshman at UIC, sitting through a less than invigorating Physical Science class, a classmate sitting next to John noticed his doodles and invited him to draw some artwork for the monthly newsletter of the International Federation of Wargaming. That classmate was Len Lakofka who was already a member. 

This friendship led to hosting Tuesday night wargames through the UIC’s Games Committee, membership in the IFW, and participation in the GenCon conventions, initially at Horticultural Hall. From working the GenCon concession booth, John became active in running games. Bob Mijonovich. During this time, John became friends with Gary Gygax. Gary came to UIC for several games conventions and Gary’s game design talents were expressed in Diplomacy  style games such as Indianomacy, mostly played by snail mail. Then, Gary invited John and his Chicago gaming friend, Bob Mijanovich, to come to his house to playtest a new game, Dungeons and Dragons. Gary ran the game crisply so the first-person adventure feel tied all John’s adventure movies and TV shows into a game. The need for timely decision making and the anxiety of the unknown was beyond any game John had previously played. Encountering a room with the ominous warning of FORBIDDEN, John felt that by entering it with Gary’s young son, Ernie, it couldn’t be that bad. John and Ernie were immediately transported to the center of the Earth!

John would go on to run games and write rules for games, often incorporating role-playing drama. In 2007, he combined 39 sets of rules into one rules set, The Games of War: A Treasury of Rules for Battles with Toy Soldiers, Ships, and Planes. This tome covered games from ancients through sci-fi, land, sea, and sky, even civil unrest. John credits his running games and writing rules with Gary’s mentorship. Gary’s life planted many seeds of friendship and creativity.