Paul,
Thanks for a great remembrance. The comments on the stories are right on, the fear that we wouldn't make it out or stop what we'd released...
The innovations and re-defining ideas for theater of the mind. I'll remember Dave pulling out the shoe box of random scrolls, each carefully sealed, some with real seals. The slow unrolling and reading each line aloud, hoping with each additional line you'd stay sane and not visit Limbo (or worse!). I still treasure the few I have.
Looking at a spread of treasure cards and trying to guess which you wanted. The chill of a DM's card notation, knowing that something about the item was really hidden, and could bite you when least expected.
Listening to odd and spooky music, picked to put the mood of the mental theater just right.... for the unexpected. The stack of LP's somehow working out for the game. Dave introduced me to Hawkwind, wish I could remember some of the others. I think he'd love some of the Goth/Industrial as there's mood music for days there. Lots of songs like Heather Alexander's 'March of Cambreth' from other categories. I wish he could hear them, though I'd fear the consequences.
Great memories, and too damn few! Wish I'd made more time for trips to game with him. Really wish we'd had time to let him play, as an older DM I realize how precious that can be for recharging a storyteller.
It's funny, as i know several DM's who independently used all those and other tricks to set scenes. Dave didn't necessarily invent several of the methods he used, but he could add his own signature twist - that's Arduin! It's the twist's and turns, thinking you've figured out an angle and realizing you're wrong... then hoping it won't be fatal. Or choosing to die, in a final stand, so part of the party can be safe. A friend an I died in Skull Tower, holding a door on the fourth level so the rest could escape. Pity to loose the character, but what a great way to go! I'm still proud of that role play.
Dave, thanks for these and other great memories.
And as for his crossover to Arduin, I believe. Dave could tell some whoppers, but one of the last conversations with him involved where in SF the gate to Arduin was, and when. At 20-something I thought he was pulling my leg, spinning yet another yarn. I was a hard science geek, even if my relaxation was FRP. At a later period in my life, when I've seen too many corner cases and just plain weird, I have a moment or two and hope he's there, kicking tush and telling tales.
True story, we were in the City to go to an art show (Jeff Tritel) as his (Dave H's) roommates were moving to Concord (IIRC) and needed him kept busy while they moved the heavy stuff. Out of the blue, driving through GG Park, he mentioned the bandstand as a location and some notes on moon cycles, etc. He talked about wanting to cross over, someday. Sure wish I wasn't driving that day or had a recording. I thought it a great joke, even if Dave was melancholy that weekend. That was Saturday afternoon, sometime Monday morning Dave passed after a friend drove him back to the old house Sunday night. Even now, it was just too weird as I think back.
Am I pulling your leg? Decide yourself, I'm just sharing some facts, another of the odd Dave Hargrave stories. Dave would likely have wanted it that way, a literary Schrodinger's Cat to the end.
And to add to the publication list, there was a SciFic game, Star Rovers IIRC, that Dave wrote most of. Also the Alarums and Excursions 'zine Lee Gold published. Most of that stuff is packed away, so my memory may be off slightly on exact names.
Great inspiration and huge footprints to walk in......
-Robert
(occasionally zoned in my older posts)
/returning to lurk mode