Remembering Doug Rhea

 

This weekend was Doug Rhea's Memorial Gathering at the Frog God Games Warehouse in Dallas.

Now I won't pretend to have known Doug very well, or be lucky enough to consider him a friend, but I did get to spend time with him just bullshitting at his North Texas RPG Con, and he came across as a stand-up guy. 

I went to this gathering mostly because Doug was more of a "friend of a friend" and I wanted to be there in support.....because I could.

The weekend was rather interesting on a couple of levels. It was not
somber although it was mostly sober. People didn't just sit around telling stories about Doug, although there were a lot of stories of the man told, mind you. No games were played, no dice rolled, but it was definitely a weekend of gamer fellowship. Lots of people catching up with each other, talking about their lives, their games, and about NTRPG. Stories about Doug were woven in here & there and honestly I was kind of surprised.

Now I'm not trying to bring the focus around to me, but with the guys I normally hang out with a significant percentage of the stories would most definitely be NSFW. I would expect a similar event being held for those I interact with on a daily basis (old military brothers) would be far less sober, more games, and stories about events that would get people fired or thrown in jail these days!

But with this event and Doug, the stories told about him could've been written by a modern PR firm. The underlying theme of each and every story was how kind, generous, and thoughtful he was. Compared to wo many in our industry
the man was practically a saint! Thing is, I didn't sense even an ounce of bullshit in any tale told about Doug. These weren't tall tales or some sort of idolization about the man who brought North Texas RPG Con into the world.....no these were stories about a guy who loved sharing his passions and a man who was rather compassionate and giving of himself.

By the time I walked away from the warehouse Saturday afternoon I fully realized that I missed a few opportunities to get to know Doug better, but I am glad that I did get to play in one of his games. I also realize that I need to be a little more grateful for the gaming I do get to partake in and I should be a bit more mindful of appreciating those I get to sit with in this hobby, at and away from the table.

There's a tradition from my time with KenzerCo to remember a gamer with a specific poem. Since that's a different group of folks I figure those here may not be familiar with the poem of The Empty Chair, by Jolly Blackburn.

The Empty Chair

Eulogy for a Gamer

There is an empty chair,

at the table this day.

A hallowed place where,

a friend once played.

The roll of his dice,

my ears long to hear.

Or perhaps it would suffice,

if he should suddenly appear.

With character sheet in hand,

and a bag of Cheeze-doodles to share.

All his friends would stand,

as he sat in the empty chair.

I hear his voice a-callin’,

and it ties my heart in a knot.

For he cries, “Though a comrade has fallen,

You must play for those who cannot.”

We conquered worlds on the run,

he and I in the name of fun.

And as others may come and go,

I make both both friend and foe.

But what I long for most,

is our past now long a ghost.

Doug Rhea

1963-2021

Talking About "Players' Maps"...

I have no idea if this map was the players' map of a homegrown dungeon, a module or something from Dungeon magazine.

I do like the idea that they made notations for the areas to check more thoroughly when there is no where else to go. Apparently they also found the well down.

At least it wasn't one of those dungeons where I filled in every block of the hex paper with dungeon. Because I have those ;)

The Awesome Loot From my 3x Era of Non-Gaming

It occurred to me, as i has going through the list of Goodman Games 3x adventures with 1e feel, that I never really played during the 3x era. Instead, I collected and I read.

I have a shitload of 3x WtC sourcebooks - for shit I never played or had any real opportunity to play. My one 3e gaming experience (excluding DDO) was a combat playtest using the Klooge VTT. I did a lot of spending on 3x for a system I never played ;)

My prized possessions though are as follows:

The Necromancer Games release of The Wilderlands -  I love that boxed set, even if I may never get a chance to run it. We are pretty set on using the Southland from Points of Light, but the only thing that could change that is a vote for the Wilderlands.

Goodman Games' Castle Whiterock. An excellent megadungeon - I think I burned out my gaming group with Rappan Athuk ;)

Goodman Games' Gazetteer of the Known World - Maybe more then I actually need for a settng, but nearly on par with the Wilderlands as settings go.

Swords & Wizardry Whitebox Boxed Set - I found his as I as finding the OSR. Bought two copies. Gave one away to my to the winner of a round robin AD&D combat scenario with my old (high school and college) gaming group.

And of course boxes of assorted 3x stuff in storage...

GenCon 1993 - Looking Back 20 Years to My One and Only - I'm Spell Jammin! I Hope You Like Jammin' Too!

There are certain memories of my one and only GenCon that majorly stick out in my mind.

Meeting the guys at Palladium Games, buying Rifts and getting the core book by Kevin Siembeida and Kevin Llong signed is certainly one of them. They were very approachable guys (even if Kevin S has turned into the C&D Nazi in later years). GenCon lead to the infestation of Rifts in my group for a long time, even if I was never the one to run it.

It's also where I bought Dangerous Journeys, EGG's first major RPG after getting the boot from TSR (Cyborg Commando is far from a "major" RPG).

Then there was the SpellJammer set up that was being run by Slade Henson when I found it. It was a large, space asteroid thing with dozens of miniatures and terrain elements. You chose a miniature and wandered around until you got killed - or something like that. It was impressive.

I observed for a few minutes before jumping in as another player died. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but Slade was really hamming it up, so whatever it was, it was fun.

Suddenly, Slade turned to me and said (I'm paraphrasing after 20 years): "You think you can handle running this for 5 minutes? I gotta take a leak!".

That shit-ton of panic hit. How the fuck am I going to run this? I don't even know what the rules are.

"It's simple - high roll on a D20 wins - one hit kills. Play it up, be descriptive. I really gotta hit the can. Just 5 minutes."

So I did it. I actually have no memories of how well I did. I think I was too damn nervous to be able to remember. I do recall Slade was gone for over 20 minutes. It apparently was a bit more than a piss break ;)

In any case, he thanked me and I moved on to the next shiny in the room. But I can say, for about 20 minutes, I ran a TSR event at a GenCon. I just wish I could remember the details ;)

A Card For Each PC - DM'ing Prior to the Home Computer Age

Yep, before we had computers, laptops, iPads and the rest of the computer age helping us run our games, index cards were the shit!

I wish I remember where I got the idea from.  If I had to guess, some issue of Dragon magazine, but I read all the gaming mags back then, so it could have been from nearly anywhere.

I used the 4x6 cards, as the 3x5 were just a tad to small to be useful.  I would write in the basic captions and the players would fill in the details.  I would then refer to these cards during the game, so I would know the stats, saves, weapons, items, etc of the players without needed to ask them.  The back of the card lists items and the thieving abilities.

I was a generous and benevolent DM during the campaign in question.  At the time we had 3, maybe 4 players, and not one was a healer if I recall correctly.  I'm going to say this was a AD&D 2e campaign, as I'm pretty sure those were the rules we were running with mostly.  None of us knew the politics behind EGG leaving TSR, and there was no internet to float the stories and rumors in.

So yes, the stats were inflated, and Paul dual-classed, which probably wasn't too hard to level, as we gamed every Sunday and during the summers we even snuck some extra sessions in.  Still, we had a blast, and at least these characters weren't using my "% increase" house rule that I ripped from UA's Cavalier class.  I quickly learned that was a path to madness.

Paul is the friend that we had dinner this past Sunday in memory of.  I actually found his index card (and Dave's and Brian's - they were at the dinner too) Sunday afternoon as I was moving and boxing even more gaming stuff.  Good looking out lad.  You brought back some fond memories on a day that had the potential to be truly depressing :)

My First Time Was Magical

My first time playing AD&D was magical. There was something about the dice, the crude map on graph paper, killing skeletons and the like that just can't be recreated. Heck, my first time was a one-on-one session with just the DMG - my friend Kenny had to call another friend with the Player's Handbook just to find out when my fighter Cyrus leveled up.

I believe that was early in the summer of 81. For my birthday my mother got me copies of the DMG, the PH and a set of dice that I still have to this day. There was magic in having the world of RPGs opened up to me. Holy crap, I've been a gamer for 30 years!

When the Game Ends...

Fourteen years ago, I graduated from the Police Academy. It was a great moment, as it marked the true beginning of a great career, but it also marked the end of an era - the end of my gaming group, at least as far as gaming went.

For the first time, I was not going to be off on Sundays (our normal gaming day). Heck, I wasn't going to be off on Saturdays - my new weekend was Wednesday / Thursday. Working steady evenings, there was no way I could game. As my house was the weekly gaming location, a group that had been gaming regularly since high school, over 12 years... ended. I'm not sure we realized it at the time tho'. The campaign was never wrapped up properly.

Thankfully, the group has still remained close friends, even if we don't roll the dice anymore. MMORPGs with voice chat allow us to continue some of the social aspects of our old game sessions, but I do miss my time behind the DM screen. Oh, and filling Ring Dings with canned cheese... those reactions were priceless ;)