Gamasutra has learned that Arnold Hendrick, creator of MicroProse's 1992 RPG Darklands, has passed away at the age of 69.
The news comes by way of RPG Codex and a Facebook group for former MicroProse employees. Former MicroProse artist Matt Scibilia informed the group that Hendrick passed away on Monday May 25th, after an apparent battle with terminal cancer.
Darklands has been credited by RPG developers such as Todd Howard and Josh Sawyer for inspiring their own role-playing experiences. Howard even credited the game as being a major inspiration for the Elder Scrolls series. For Sawyer's part, he helped interview Hendrick in a retrospective discussion about Darklands, and has done numerous breakdowns of the game.
In his later years, Hendrick left a number of insightful comments here on Gamasutra that you can find here.