Original ‘Fallout’ writer and game designer Scott Bennie has died

Scott Bennie, who wrote on the original Fallout game and designed Interplay‘s adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings, has died.

As reported by PC Gamer, the game developer died at the age of 61 due to pneumonia complications.

A writer on the original Fallout while at Interplay, Bennie also wrote for Star Trek games like Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, and Starfleet Command. He also wrote for Castles 2: Siege and Conquest, as well as produced and designed Interplay’s The Lord of the Rings.

Bennie is also the one who named Fallout’s Dogmeat, though in an interview with Steemit in 2017 the writer was very modest about his work on the famous computer RPG. “I didn’t have that much to do with Fallout. A few maps, some bits of the Hub, and some system messages. And the Mysterious Stranger Perk. And I named Dogmeat – if anything endures of my writing career, it will be the name of that dog.”

Outside of Fallout, Bennie had a very extensive list of credits, having worked on games like Descent, Descent to Undermountain, Stonekeep and Champions of Norrath. He also designed tabletop RPG supplements and adventures for Dungeons & Dragons, Champions, Marvel Superheroes, Mutants & Masterminds, as well as adaptations of The Lord Of The Rings, and World Of Warcraft.

The entire Champions and Cryptic family is saddened to hear about the passing of Scott Bennie, aka Thundrax, a long time designer for the pen and paper Champions game and a avid player of CO. Rest in peace, Scott, we’ll miss you terribly. pic.twitter.com/wACrE3k3qI

— Champions Online (@ChampionsFFA) March 29, 2022

Former Interplay staff member and colleague Jesse Heinig posted a eulogy for Bennie on her Facebook. “Without getting into the dregs of “Scott was such an inspiration for living with a disability,” Scott was always a kind and inspirational person.”

“He also happened to suffer from a significant disability. These were just two facets of who he was. For the able-bodied, there’s a tendency to conflate these sorts of things or set them in contrast (“he was such a good guy IN SPITE of his pain and difficulty”/”his disability meant that he knew what it was like to be powerless”),” continued Heinig.

“But Scott wasn’t defined like that. Who he was depended on the choices that he made, and he chose to be kind and inspirational. That he did so regardless of his own hurdles was just another testament to his character.”

A number of developers also wrote tributes to Bennie on Twitter, including Fallout 2 developer Colin McComb, who wrote: “I hope he knew the esteem in which people held him.”