That is one neon T-shirt he's wearing.

Larry DiTillio (February 15, 1948 - March 16, 2019) was an American TV and tabletop RPG writer. In his own words, he broke into writing by "sheer idiot luck. After 6 years of film school (4 at NYU, 2 at UCLA Grad) I was stupid enough to go door-to-door on Sunset Boulevard looking for an agent. Most of them threw me out with horrified looks. One was so amused she agreed to read my scripts."^[1]

From 1996 to 2000, he and Bob Forward were the story editors of the influential Beast Wars television series, and he personally wrote eleven episodes. Almost immediately after "Beast Wars (Part 2)" had aired, DiTillio appeared on the alt.toys.transformers usegroup and offered to answer any questions, beginning a close interaction with early Transformers fandom, and stating: "Both Bob and I are fully aware of the old show and we are adamant about producing a BETTER show."^[2]

In the 1980s, he was one of the key writers and a co-creator of She-Ra with J. Michael Straczynski (who credited him as "the brains" behind much of the He-Man mythos) before departing Filmation over lack of credit.^[3]. Among tabletop RPG fans, DiTillio is perhaps better known as the author of Masks of Nyarlathotep, a campaign book for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game (a job he got into during a writing strike^[4]), and widely considered to be one of the greatest RPG campaigns ever written. Chaosium Inc.'s Mike Mason credited DiTillio for "a revolution in scenario design.... One of the reasons why so many people play and continue to play Call of Cthulhu is down to Larry. And for that, Larry’s contribution cannot be underestimated."^[5]

DiTillio died at the age of 71 on March 16, 2019 of Parkinson's Disease.

Writer

Beast Wars

• The Web
• Power Surge
• The Spark
• Spider's Game
• Other Voices, Part 1
• Other Voices, Part 2
• Aftermath
• Other Visits (Part 1)
• Other Visits (Part 2)
• Deep Metal
• Other Victories

Transformers Animated

• Predacons Rising

Participation in the fandom

Throughout Beast Wars' run, Mr. DiTillio (along with co-editor Bob Forward) posted regularly to alt.toys.transformers, answering questions about the show and offering teaser bits of information about upcoming episodes. The pair would also post episode scripts after shows had aired, allowing the fandom further insight into the show's creative process.

Mr. DiTillio and Mr. Forward forged notable relationships with the fandom at large and several individuals within it, culminating in Ben Yee's name actually appearing in the credits of "The Agenda" as a consultant. Mr. DiTillio further credited the fandom as influencing the show's strong ties to the original Generation 1 continuity. ^[6]

This unofficial relationship was not without its troubles, however. Of particular note was the debacle surrounding the script of the unproduced episode "Dark Glass", which resulted in Mainframe declaring a permanent moratorium on the release of episode scripts.^[7]

Both writers would appear as official guests at several BotCons.

Fiction

3H comics

Voice actor: David Kaye

Larry DiTillio interrupted an epic action sequence to make fun at 3H Enterprises' expense, and then left just as suddenly as he had appeared. Visitations

Convention appearances

• BotCon 1998

Notes

• DiTillio has a long history of collaborating with J. Michael Straczynski after Filmation, with Straczynski bringing him in to write on The Real Ghostbusers, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Hour 25, and Babylon 5, until they fell out during the latter. In the Straczynski-written Real Ghostbusters episode "Ragnarok and Roll", a character named "DiTillio" was the hunchbacked companion of a man who sought to destroy the world with a magic flute.
• In his first post to A.T.T., DiTillio said "both the Predacons and the Maximals will be getting female members in the first season, one on each side. It's a trend we hope to continue." DiTillio and Forward were in fact the reason there were one a side, pushing hard for the upcoming Airazor to be made female.
• DiTillio was interviewed as a special feature for Kid Rhino's Beast Wars The Complete First Season DVD set.
• He also featured on a "Soul of Beast Wars" interview with Bob Forward and Ben Yee on Madman Entertainment's Beast Wars season 2 box set as well as providing audio commentary on several episodes.
• DiTillio's favourite character in Beast Wars was Tarantulas.

References

1. ↑ Interview with Marv Wolfman (Wayback)
2. ↑ DiTillio's first post at A.T.T., dated 24th April 1996
3. ↑ Straczynski's memorial post on Facebook
4. ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing
5. ↑ Chaosium: "Larry DiTillio, Visionary Game Designer and Writer, 1940-2019"
6. ↑ post from Larry DiTillio
7. ↑ Larry DiTillio posts in the wake of TranCon's efforts to distribute the Dark Glass script

External links

• Larry Mr. DiTillio's Google Groups profile, under ditillio@aol.com
• An early post to alt.toys.transformers

Interviews

• December 19, 1996—CASFS.org (archived)
• August 16, 1997—alt.toys.transformers
• September 1997—BWTF.com (Part 1) (Part 2) (archived)
• September 1997—TFFW.com (archived)
• January 1998—TFFW.com (archived)
• August 1999—BWTF.com (archived)
• February 25, 2000—Radio Free Cybertron
• May 17, 2000—Cold Hard Slag (archived)