Jean Wells

Palace of the Silver Princess After the success of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, Wells was assigned to write an adventure for the "B" (Basic) series that would teach new players how to play D&D. She consulted her editor, Ed Sollers, about every detail, and the result was B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. In keeping with the design of the first D&D module of the "B" series, B1 In Search of the Unknown by Mike Carr, Wells left several rooms and areas of the module incomplete so that players could customize those areas themselves. As she related, "I was trying to show the players that there was more to a 'dungeon' than just the building. I didn't complete the palace, trying to show them this map could be a mini base map for their game. The players could discover the part of the dungeon that had been caved in wasn't any longer and the DM could expand it. I was assuming that they were trying to learn to set up their own world and I was trying to help."

During the editorial process, Wells wanted to replace artwork by Erol Otus that had transformed her "ubues"—new three-headed monsters—into hermaphrodites whose heads were caricatures of TSR staffers and management. However, she was told that the artwork couldn't be replaced without causing unreasonable printing delays. while Frank Mentzer later stated that it was specifically the Otus illustration with the caricatures of TSR executives.

Wells herself related that another member of the design department complained to Kevin Blume, and that subsequently she and her editor, Ed Sollers, were called into Kevin Blume's office and asked to explain why a module designed for a younger audience contained S&M.

On January 24, 2012, Wells was admitted to hospital, and died early the next morning.

Legacy The piece of work Wells was best known for, the orange version of Palace of the Silver Princess, is an extremely rare item, since most copies were destroyed before its release. One copy rated in VF/SW condition was sold at auction in March 2008 for $3050, making it the highest price paid for a single non-unique D&D module.