Influential board game designer Jack Kittredge died on October 25, aged 82. Kittredge was part of the Future Pastimes collective, and he helped create some of the defining board games of the 1970s – most notably Dune and Cosmic Encounter.
Cosmic Encounter first released in 1977. Co-designed by Kittredge with friends Bill Eberle and Peter Olotka, the trio had been working on the title since 1972. They’d go on to form Eon Products, the game’s original publisher, after having their design rejected by Parker Brothers because ‘space doesn’t sell’.
To the modern board gamer, that seems a ridiculous statement. Every second board game on the store shelf is space-themed these days. But Cosmic Encounter was a rarity at the time – one the designers would have to fund and market themselves to find success.
Over time, Cosmic Encounter went from cult hit to one of tabletop’s most influential designs. It helped shape ideas we now take for granted in the gaming space, from player interaction to variable player powers. 49 years and multiple editions later, Cosmic Encounters’s thematic balance of battle and negotiation is remembered fondly by many – and the hobby would look very different without it.
Tabletop Gaming Magazine reports that everyone from Magic: The Gathering’s Richard Garfield to Pandemic’s Matt Leacock cites Cosmic Encounter as a major inspiration. Heck, Olotka even claims it was the first board game to add expansions. Kittredge helped design many of these expansions, and he continued creating with friends throughout the ’80s and ’90s.
Beyond Cosmic Encounter, his most beloved title is 1979’s Dune, the first tabletop game to adapt the works of Frank Herbert. Again, Kittredge – along with Eberle and Olotka – helped set a trend that continues to this day.
As BoardGameWire reports, Kittredge is credited with designing Dune’s dial-based combat system, as well as brokering the license deal with Avalon Hill that allowed the designers to retain control of their design work. For a long time, Dune was a rare collector’s item, but Gale Force Nine revived the game with a 2019 reprint, supported by its original designers. It went on to win a Golden Geek for best thematic game.
Kittredge would gradually move away from board game design to focus on Many Hands Organic Farm, a sustainable farm he founded in 1984 with his wife, Julia Ann Rawson. Kittredge’s obituary describes him as an author, a lifelong activist, a supporter of the arts, and a community organizer. Fellow Future Pastimes member Greg Olotka says “Jack truly defined and lived the life of a pioneer”. His wife survives him, along with their four children: Daniel, Paul, Ellen, and Charles.
Source: Wargamer
