Saying Goodbye

Yesterday, an old gaming friend passed away. I hadn’t seen him in years, not since I moved out of Chicago in 2014. I knew he hadn’t been in the best of health but it was still a shock. I think it was a shock to everyone.

I met George in 1999 when I joined a D&D group. I’d met some of the members at my first GenCon and I accepted their invitation to join the group. That was the start of a lot of friendships and I’ve kept in touch with many of them, even after moving away. They were an eccentric bunch (and to be fair, I fit in just fine) George wasn’t the craziest person there but he had his moments.

And, of course now, so many memories come back. I remember him insisting on pretending to be George iII when he took the king role in Citadels. I remember a game of We Didn’t Playtest This at All where he got a banana from the kitchen when the Bananas Repel Zombies card got played. And used said banana to repel zombies. I remember him not being interested in Memoir 44 because he wanted a war-game that would last a lot longer than an hour or so.

But most of all, I remember all the many hours of Dungeons and Dragons.

My longest running character in those campaigns ended up becoming the sidekick to his character. A large part of that was because I felt that, with everyone wanting to be the hero, being a supporting character was the real way to shine. And I still hold out that its better the be a good ensemble player in any RPG than trying to be _the_ protagonist. But my down-to-earth rogue played off well with his pompous noble fighter. And there were other campaigns and other characters We started off in second edition and converted character to third edition and then refused to convert to fourth edition. (I have good memories of fourth edition but with other groups)

And I remember how he lived on the far west side, on the other side of the city, when I first met him. And how I would give him a lift at weird o’clock in the morning after the games, in the complete opposite direction from where I lived. I don’t remember a lot of the hours of conversations we got in during those drives but I do remember enjoying them. If they weren’t about D&D, they were about fantasy literature or movies.

I remember his solemnity at a mutual friend’s funeral. I remember his wedding where Halloween dress was encouraged. I remember his advice, which wasn’t always good, and his jokes were usually were. 

And now he’s no longer with us. He was part of a group of friends that helped make Chicago a home for me. My life is richer for having known him and the world is a little sadder without him.