François Marcela-Froideval (10 December 1958 – 17 June 2025) was a French role-playing game creator, video game producer, and comic scenarist.
Life and career Froideval had a major influence on the introduction of role-playing games in France, mainly as editor-in-chief of the Casus Belli role-playing magazine. During this time, he was one of the three authors who established the French term for a "munchkin", Gros Bill, from the nickname of an overly powergaming player once in Froideval's group.
He left for the United States in 1982 to join TSR, Inc., where he worked for four years. His writing contributions include several Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules and monster manuals in collaboration with Gary Gygax, like Oriental Adventures. Gygax credited Froideval with the idea to add a seventh ability score to the game tracking the appearance of characters, called comeliness.Dragon Magazine, issue 67, Nov 1982, p61 Back in France, he focused on translating and publishing TSR games until 1989.
Marcela-Froideval wrote the scenario of several French videogames, working for Infogrames (Drakkhen) and Cryo Interactive (Dragon Lore series).
In 1989, he wrote the scenario of the first Black Moon Chronicles comic album with drawer Olivier Ledroit. He kept on writing the scenario until the end of the series in 2008.
Froideval dedicated the Black Moon Chronicles series to Gary Gygax in the last album End of Times through these words:
He wrote scenarios for Black Moon spin-off series and other French comic series.Comic biography at Bedetheque
Marcela-Froideval died aged 66, on 17 June 2025, in Paris, France.https://www.libramemoria.com/defunts/marcela-froideval-francois/8c66cdde73604415a3edde0f6c587da5
References
External links
Francois Froideval at Black Moon Chronicles Dargaud website Francois Froideval at Lambiek Francois Froideval at Bedetheque