THANKFUL - NOVEMBER SERIES, PART 2
Having been involved with TTRPGs for the majority of my life, in looking back, I have a great many things that I am truly thankful for. One of the things that stand out the most to me are all of the imaginative creators who have helped to inspire me. Authors, game creators, content creators, and people in the TTRPG community that I have come to know over the years. So many of them have helped to fuel my own imagination and make me a better player and game master, challenging me to push my creative thought processes, to think outside of the box and to develop my abilities on both sides of the DM screen.
My earliest influence was JRR Tolkien. I remember my mother gifting me "The Hobbit", and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy when I was eleven years old. I remember getting lost in those books, reading for hours, being transported to Middle Earth by the descriptions of the characters, the scenes, and the plot. There was something about the lore that pulled me in and helped to expand my mental horizons, making me think of bigger worlds, more elaborate characters, and epic quests. I must have read those books a dozen times over the course of the next couple of years, always finding something new, reliving the chapters again and again.
Then came "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The Larry Elmore cover pulled me in when I saw it at the bookstore at the mall, but it was the way that Weis and Hickman wove the story of their heroes, how they brought Krynn to life, that captured my imagination. I read the book when it hit stores in 1984 and I could not wait for the next book. It felt like forever before "Dragons of Winter Night" finally got published in 1985. I read it voraciously and before I knew it I was creating NPCs for our AD&D games, making up names of taverns, towns, and magical weapons. I filled notebooks with my ideas and short stories. These thought processes helped to improve my roleplaying at our game table, think of alternatives to the typical hack and slash one encountered at AD&D tables in those days.
Jump ahead to July 1987 and I am in my local game store. The shop owner, Mike, was talking to a couple of the kids I played with about a new campaign setting written by Ed Greenwood whose articles I had read and enjoyed in Dragon magazine (damn I really miss that particular publication). He was showing them this new boxed set, with that great Clyde Caldwell cover. I had to learn more and I am so very glad that I did. I bought that box set and started reading through it that day. Little did I know that the world that Ed had so lovingly created, The Forgotten Realms, would become my favorite playground for the next thirty eight years. I read every bit of information that Ed wrote, I read his novels, I fell in love with the places, characters, and lore he wrote. He created a living, breathing world and I could not wait to explore every part of it. In his own words Ed described the setting:
"I wanted the Realms to be not a nice place, not a safe place, but I wanted it to be a place I wouldn't mind exploring and spending time in. As in nicer than the real world when you're a lonely nerdy kid, which I was.” — Ed Greenwood
Like me, Ed was a "lonely, nerdy kid. He turned his loneliness into something larger than life, more powerful than the pain the world had inflicted upon him. His world resonated with me and the stories he wove influenced me more than any other single creator before I found his campaign setting. To this day it remains my most favorite setting and I know the lore for that fantastic world better than any other setting or game. (Thank you Ed!)
Since finding my way to the social media platforms I have met a lot of people in the TTRPG space. I have communicated with them via email, phone calls, and even had the opportunity to meet some of them in person. As life has a knack for doing, some of those paths have diverged, taking those people out of my life. Some of them simply drifted away or found new things to put their focus on. Some of them I miss, but the one I miss the most is Daniel Estes. Daniel was taken from us by cancer, despite putting up one heck of a fight for so long, but in the few short years we knew one another, Daniel influenced me greatly. He had never actually played a game of D&D, but he knew a lot about the game from his mother, Rose Estes's, Endless Quest books from the 80s. Those books had been great reads for me and held so many fond memories for me. Those books brought us together, but it was our love of the TTRPG community that made us fast friends. He always had a kind word and a smile. His enthusiasm was infectious and his positive outlook on life inspired me to resolve not to be so pessimistic about things and to always look for the good in any situation. I have adopted that maxim in my DMing, always looking to find the good in every bad dice roll, to find a way of turning a bad session into a learning experience for everyone so that my players always enjoy our time together at the table and leave them looking forward to our next game together. Thank you Daniel for coming into my life and helping to make me a better DM, player, and person.
I simply do not have the time to name all those that have helped influence me or made our little corner of the internet a brighter place. I hope that on a regular basis I let you know that I appreciate you and that the things you create and share help to make my day a bit better. If I do not do that, please know I will endeavor to let you know that you are valued part of this community I have come to love and call home, and for that I am truly thankful.
