Game Wish 45: Warm Fuzzies!

Perverse Access Memory: WISH 45: Accolades and Warm Fuzzies

Who are some gamers you admire and appreciate? Name three (or as many as you like) gamers you admire and/or appreciate right now, and explain why

First, Ash Haji, my very first GM in face to face gaming. I've played two very long campaigns run by him, "Vikings in Space", an epic AD&D campaign that ran for something like five years, and another lengthy Gloranthan Runequest game. Both games folded when players dropped out, sadly in the second case I was the guilty party when I relocated to Manchester. Ash has an incredible imagination, and consistently conjured up incredible and exotic adventures, which remained challenging and entertaining even when the player characters reached munchkinoid power levels at the end of a five year campaign. I can still remember the fantasy city with a tube system run by earth elementals, with the player characters buying "all zones mooncards".

Second, Maughn Matsuoka, my first on line GM. If Ash taught me much of what I know about face to face GMing, Maughn taught me all about online GMing. His GURPS Cyberpunk game "Hawaiian Vacation", with it's rich detailed background and roller coaster of a plot is for me the template of what a good game should be about. He routinely sent us detailed CAD drawings of the various locations our characters went to, including the infamous Frontier Hotel. He was always willing to give me advice when I started up my own game, and he was later to play two very different characters in that game to demonstrate that he's as good a player as his is an GM.

Third, Jill Pincott, a.k.a. Gypsy, founder of Dreamlyrics. Jill was one of the sysops in the CompuServe role playing games forum, where played in the games mentioned above. When AOL closed the forum (in a messy way documented here), Jill and a few others created a brand new roleplaying site to replace it in the space of two weeks flat. Jill has a talent for community building, which has made Dreamlyrics such a great success. Not only that, she also hosts the annual Gypsycon, where more than two dozen gamers, mostly Dreamlyrics members, descend upon her house for the whole of the Easter weekend for four solid days (and sometimes nights) of solid gaming. Demonstrating that community building doesn't stop at gaming, Gypsycon is responsible for three long term relationships (so far), including one upcoming wedding!

Of course, I can't stop at just three.

If I had to pick just one player of the two dozen or so that have played in online games I've run, it would be Nicki Jett, currently playing the revolutuonary Hollis in my Kalyr game, and the cyborg Lizard in the space piracy game AEF, as well as two memorable characters in "Hawaiian Vacation". A wonderful writer that gets under the skin of her characters, and has the talent for bringing out the best from the players around her.

Since most of my offline gaming nowadays is one shot convention style gaming, I'll mention Steve "Abaddon" Morley and Mark "L'Ange" Baker as superlative gamesmasters. Steve runs games with seemingly no preparation, and conjures adventures almost out of thin air, the most extreme being something he called "Work in Progress". There were no character sheets, and the PCs were dropped in a situation where we were in a bank, wearing ski masks and holding guns, and with no memories of how we got there. In total contrast, Mark Baker runs games with detailed, elaborate character backgrounds, loads of authentic looking player handouts, and frightening amounts of historical research, giving some very atmospheric games indeed. His In Nomine game run at last years summer Stabcon is typical, with some very strong imagery I ended up dreaming about that night.

Of course, I've got to mention Karen and Carl Cravens of phoenyx.net, who host one of my online games.

Honourable mentions, of course, to a host of other gamers, both on and offline; in no particular order, Michael Orton, Tony Cotterill, Derek Baker, Andy, David "Amadan" Edelstein, AJ Richardson, Marielle Harris, Hugh "War Dog" Foster, Pete Hat, Sasha, Sean "Pandemonium" Pagliarulo, Vince Togarelli and Maria "Fendahl" Whittaker, all of whom have excelled either as players, GMs, or generally cool people. Apologies to anyone I've missed!