RPG pioneer and noted game designer James "Jim" M. Ward suffered a heart attack sometime between Sunday and Monday.
 
According to a Facebook update by Eldritch Games partner Frank Mentzer on Facebook, Ward is recovering, but will stay in a Milwaukee hospital until he fully stabilizes.  Although it will probably be only two or three days, he will be unable to fulfill his commitments to attend the Nexus game convention in Milwaukee this weekend.
 
Though there was no official statement, Mentzer, who is a colleague of Ward at Eldritch Entertainment, thanked everyone for the good vibes and well wishes on social media. 
 
Fantasy author Margaret Weis also commented “Please send prayers and think really good thoughts for our dear friend, James M. Ward, one of the giants in the gaming industry, who suffered a heart attack last night.  Reports are that he is doing well.”
 
Ward was a friend of Gary Gygax from the very early days of Dungeons & Dragons development.  He and Rob Kuntz wrote Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes in 1976 for TSR, which was the first introduction of gods into the game.  He also is the creator of Metamorphosis Alpha, the first science fiction RPG, also published by TSR (see "Jim Ward's 'Metamorphosis Alpha'").  He worked at TSR for 20 years, and left in 1996. He designed the Dragon Ball Z collectible card game, as well as helping with the Tomb Raider, Wheel of Time and  Babylon 5 CCGs.  He founded the d20 company Fast Forward Entertainment with Timothy Brown, Lester Smith, John Danovich and Sean Everett (see "Fast Forward Takes Over Campaign").  He later joined Troll Lord Games as a writer and later the editor for Troll Lord's Castles &Crusades magazine, The Crusader Journal  (see "Jim Ward Editor of 'Crusader'").  He currently works for Eldritch Enterprises with Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask and Chris Clark.
 
Ward was diagnosed with a serious neurological disorder in 2010 and a fund was set up to offset his medical expenses (see "Jim Ward Fund Requests Donations").