Another eulogy for a gaming friend

I wrote an eulogy for a gaming buddy last month. I was not expecting to write another one so soon.

On the same day as I’m writing this, I’ve learned that a gaming buddy from college passed away suddenly.

College was very formative for me as a gamer, particularly as far as RPGs were concerned. It wasn’t where I discovered or played them but it was the first place where I really found a community for them.

There were three campaigns in college that, quite frankly, affected the rest of my life. The friendships from those games (Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu and Marvel Superheroes) have continued to this day.

Jen was in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign and she was the DM’s girlfriend. The DM had/has an interesting way of treating her and the woman he eventually married in his games. He would let them play major roles in the stories but that meant all the bad stuff happened to them.

They didn’t get powerful magic items or such. But if there was a cursed item, it would end up in their hands. And major plot conflicts would get built up around them. In other words, Frodo stuck with the one ring was clearly played by someone dating Tolkien.

And Jen ran with it. She grabbed onto every crazy story twist that was thrown her way and ran with it. The group didn’t ‘win’ a lot but we had fun and created what I’m pretty sure was a great story.

College was when I personally really knew Jen but I also stayed enough in touch to see how, like the rest of us, she grew up. She got married to a real sweet guy and had two kids. So she leaves behind a lot of friends and family and a lot of living that she should have had a chance to live. 

I’m glad I got to play D&D with her and am so sad for her husband and children.