Carl Sargent

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Greyhawk Creator
Carl Lynwood Sargent
Nationality: British
Birthplace: Caerleon, Monmouthshire (UK)
Born: December 11, 1952
Died: September 12,2018
First Greyhawk Work: The City of Greyhawk (1989)
Notable works: From the Ashes, Iuz the Evil, Ivid the Undying, The Marklands
Alias: Keith Martin, Sergeant Silver (GH)

Carl Lynwood Sargent (11 December 1952 – 12 September 2018)[1][2][3][4] was a British parapsychologist and author of several roleplaying game-based products and novels. Most of his role-playing works were published between 1987 and 1996. He authored many products for Dungeons & Dragons (particularly for the World of Greyhawk setting), and for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Shadowrun roleplaying games. He also authored various Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and novels, some under the pseudonym Keith Martin. Sargent's departure from the gaming industry in the late 90s has been the subject of much speculation and curiosity among fans.

Early life and education[edit | edit source]

Sargent (born December 11, 1952, in Caerleon, Monmouthshire) was schooled in South Wales and the West of England. He then attended Churchill College, Cambridge, majoring in the natural sciences, and graduated with honours in psychology in 1974. He received a PhD in 1979 for a work which bore on parapsychology, and went on to undertake post-doctoral research in parapsychology at the Psychological Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. Sargent was the first parapsychologist to obtain a Cambridge doctorate.[5] He taught psychology at the same university.[citation needed]

Death[edit | edit source]

Sargent passed away on September 12, 2018. The gaming community wasn't aware of his death until several weeks later, when word was passed and his obituary was shared. Fans have left memorial condolences there.

According to fellow writer Sean K. Reynolds, Sargent was unable to work due to injuries suffered in a serious car accident.[6]

Fantasy games[edit | edit source]

Sargent started playing Dungeons & Dragons in 1978 through friends. TSR UK were based in Cambridge, and they met with Sargent after he had submitted an article to Imagine magazine. The TSR UK crew later left to work for Games Workshop.

Sargent authored various Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and novels for Games Workshop from 1988-1995, some under the pseudonym Keith Martin.[7]:46 Games Workshop moved its last remaining role-playing game line, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, to its new subsidiary Flame Publications in 1989, and Sargent was one of the freelancers that aided this new company.[7]:50 Sargent still did work for TSR, and his From the Ashes (1992) moved the setting of the Greyhawk world into a period of heavier conflict.[7]:25

He later worked as a freelance designer, and was brought in by TSR to work on Greyhawk. Most of his role-playing works were published between 1987 and 1996. He has authored many products for the Dungeons & Dragons (particularly for the World of Greyhawk setting), Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Shadowrun roleplaying games.

Greyhawk works[edit | edit source]

  • Sargent, Carl. "Campaign Journal: The Adri Forest." Dragon #208. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1994.
———. "Campaign Journal: The Sea Barons." Dragon #206. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1994.
———. The City of Skulls. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993.
———. "Fiend Knights and Dark Artifacts." Dragon #206. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1994.
———. Five Shall be One. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1991.
———. From the Ashes. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1992.
———. "Greyhawk Campaign Journal: Risen from the Ashes." Dragon #191. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993.
———. Iuz the Evil. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993.
———. Ivid the Undying. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1995 (unpublished). Available online:[1]
———. The Marklands. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993.

Parapsychology[edit | edit source]

Sargent held a PhD in psychology (or experimental parapsychology), which he earned in 1979. He performed numerous ganzfeld experiments, designed to draw out psi abilities, at the University of Cambridge (a photograph of Sargent performing such an experiment appears in the Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, page 129). Many of his experiments were made using students from the science and geography departments opposite the Psychology department on the Downing Site, paying £2-3 per experiment; the main task would be to guess the color or value of the next card to be chosen.[citation needed] His published works in this field include Explaining the Unexplained: Mysteries of the Paranormal, co-authored with Hans Eysenck. The book received a positive review in the New Scientist by John Beloff who described it as "an introduction to parapsychology that one can put into the hands of an inquiring student without embarrassment."[8]

In their book Sargent and Eysenck argued that the experiments of William Crookes with the medium Daniel Dunglas Home were evidence for supernatural powers.[9] Sargent wrote a negative review of Ruth Brandon's The Spiritualists, a book which claimed Home and other spiritualist mediums were fraudulent.[10] R. W. Morrell commenting in the New Scientist on the review wrote "Carl Sargent would have us believe that D. D. Home was not caught out as a fraud. Sadly for Dr Sargent, though, he was", Morrell concluded that Sargent had displayed a personal gullibility.[11]

Criticism[edit | edit source]

Sargent's ganzfeld experiments were criticized for being open to error and fraud. Susan Blackmore, who visited Sargent's laboratory in Cambridge, detected several minor errors and failures to follow protocol during an experiment. She made these allegations after coming to a personal epiphany that she did not believe in parapsychology, and after becoming disillusioned when meeting Sargent whom she considered a "personal hero".[12] The allegations also came after Sargent had noted errors which disproved her own research. She wrote that when she "got a positive result in my first telepathy experiment, it was [Sargent] who pointed out an obscure statistical error which, when corrected, reduced the result to chance. I was disappointed". Writing for Skeptical Inquirer Blackmore stated that Sargent "deliberately violated his own protocols and in one trial had almost certainly cheated." Psychologists reading Daryl Bem's review in Psychological Bulletin would "not have a clue that serious doubt had been cast on more than a quarter of the studies involved" Sargent and Chuck Honortons.

Criticism unproven[edit | edit source]

Blackmore was never able to provide actual evidence other than her own speculation.[13] To the contrary, she later admitted the results of the most notable experiment of which she was suspicious were given to an independent evaluator, who confirmed the test findings. [13] She "thought up possible ways to cheat", would "set traps" for Sargent, and would afterward unseal study material,[12] attempting to later disprove results which she described as "the truth".[12] The erroneous results were only estimated to have made a 3% difference had her speculation been proven. With otherwise a 46% success rate of the tests, the 3% difference would still be less than a single, standard statistical deviation.[13]

"Blackmore’s reported suspicions led to an investigation in 1984 by the Parapsychological Association. A committee chaired by Dr Martin Johnson made a brief report concluding there was not sufficient evidence to support the charge that Sargent’s experimental procedures were ‘unethical’."[13] The PA "felt that Blackmore’s use of covert maneuvers to obtain information about possible fraud may or may not be considered unethical, depending on the premises upon which one makes such a judgment". The PA further reprimanded her for ‘making her report essentially confidential and then apparently allowing its contents to be “leaked” ’ (p. 3).[13]

Blackmore would continue to make disparaging commentary about Sargent's research repeatedly—even after his death[12]—despite saying "We will never know what really went on forty years ago", acknowledging there was no solid evidence to support her claims.[12] She wrote a response to Sargent's obituary, saying she had been advised it was "unreasonable ‘to accuse someone of fraud and ruin their career’ but [she] tried not to do that for a long time". She went on to do precisely that, dismissing her behaviour because "we should remember how young we all were."[12]

Sargent would later leave the field of parapsychology altogether.[14]

External links[edit | edit source]

Disclaimer:Any lore presented through the following links does not necessarily adhere to established officially published content, and the views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the editors of this wiki.

Further reading[edit | edit source]

Parapsychology publications[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

Citations[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Carl Lynwood Sargent. Funeral Zone.
  2. ↑ Carl Sargent (1952-2018). Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks , 12 November 2018.
  3. ↑ Carl Sargent (1952-2018). Society for Psychical Research.
  4. ↑ Summary Bibliography: Carl Sargent. isfdb.org.
  5. ↑ Nicholas, Humphrey (1999) Leaps of faith: science, miracles, and the search for supernatural consolation, Copernicus ISBN: 0-387-98720-7. OCLC: 868998341.
  6. ↑ Where's Wormy. Messageboards. Paizo , 13 June 2006. Retrieved on 3 March 2023. "Carl Sargent was in a serious car accident and suffered major injuries. He's basically unable to work because of the long-term effects of those injuries. ... IIRC (and it's been a few years) I heard it from Roger Moore, who was an employee at TSR overlapping with my time there."
  7. ↑ a b c Appelcline, Shannon (2011) Designers & Dragons, Mongoose Publishing ISBN: 978-1-907702-58-7.
  8. ↑ Beloff, John. Explaining the Unexplained 784. New Scientist, 16 September 1982.
  9. ↑ Brandon, Ruth. Scientists and the Supernormal 783–786. New Scientist, 16 June 1983.
  10. ↑ Sargent, Carl. A Clash of Beliefs 580. New Scientist, 24 November 1983.
  11. ↑ Morrell, R. W.. True Believers 763. New Scientist, 8 December 1983.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Blackmore, Susan. A response to the obituary for Carl Sargent (PDF). Retrieved on 3 March 2023.
  13. ↑ a b c d e Chris Roe. Blackmore-Sargent Controversy—A Reconsideration. Psi Encyclopaedia. Society for Psychical Research, 22 September 2021. Retrieved on 3 March 2023.
  14. ↑ Blackmore, Susan. What Can the Paranormal Teach Us About Consciousness?. Csicop.org.

Bibliography[edit | edit source]

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Index is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, and his work as continued and updated by Eric Johnson, Richard DiIoia, Jason "PupickDad" Jacobson, a French fan group, and numerous other fans over the years. The wiki page for the EGI has a list of sources, full product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

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