Thank You, Dave Tampier; An Unfortunate Lateness 1954-2014

The "Thank You" series was inspired by my post to the late Aaron Allston, as well as the passing of industry greats Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. There were many things I needed to say to these men and never got the chance. I don't intend to let that happen again.

Unfortunately, it did.

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AD&D artist, Dave Tampier died March 24th of this year. It's a sad turn of events that it's taken 4 days for many of us to find out. Dave Tampier's art is the definition of iconic and bookmarks a unique place in many of our childhoods. His artwork was the first many of us saw of the game that would change our lives; the cover of the 1st edition Player's Handbook has been parodied ad nauseum for it's place in pop culture history. Many of the most famous illustrations from the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide were drawn by Dave, not to mention the panoramic action scene that graced the first DM's screen—an image thousands of us starred at game night after game night.

Thank You, Todd Lockwood

The "Thank You" series was inspired by my post to the late Aaron Allston, as well as the passing of industry greats Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. There were many things I needed to say to these men and never got the chance. I don't intend to let that happen again.

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I love storytelling. Whether it's music, novels, film or poetry, I love following the emotional paths a good story will lead me down. I've spent years studying the art of storytelling. Unfortunately, the more you write, the harder it is to read. Knowing how the best stories are constructed means that when a writer, even a brilliant writer, makes a common or repetitive error, in gnaws at you. It becomes hard to enjoy the story behind the construct--the tale the writer meant to tell. I wouldn't change that for the world, but it makes enjoying the thing I love more challenging.

Luckily, there's one storytelling medium I'm still naive about, one that I can't break down or analyze, one I can enjoy for the often unknown affects it has on me.

Thank You, Steve Kenson

The "Thank You" series was inspired by my post to the late Aaron Allston, as well as the passing of industry greats Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. There were many things I needed to say to these men and never got the chance. I don't intend to let that happen again.

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One of the best parts about being a gamer of the roleplaying variety is that games that are designed to help you create your own worlds--by definition--give you the tools to personalize those systems almost infinitely. As Rogue Genius Games' Owen Stephens posted recently, playing with these systems, testing them to see what they can and can't do is just as much fun for some of us as playing them.

In other words, Theoretical Gaming is just as satisfying as the practical kind.