RPG A Day 2020--Day 5--Tribute

For day five the topic is ‘tribute’. I would use this day as a remembrance of someone I’ve lost with an RPG connection. Fortunately, all of my gaming friends are still above ground at the time of this writing as far as I know. If I’ve lost any of the semi-anonymous Roll 20 players I’ve gamed with over the years, I sincerely hope they are playing a great campaign in the sky, but I really don’t know enough to pay tribute to them. This goes for game creators that have passed as well. There are better tributes for them on the web, and my own knowledge would lack in comparison. That means I’ll pay tribute to a favorite of mine, my Dad.  The best episodes of Good Times were when James Evans—the dad—was still around. Well, a lot of the best episodes from the Mark Markham show are in the years when the dad was still around too—season 40 when young, baby Chloe shows up and Mark becomes the dad not withstanding of course.

My Dad never got into the hobby or much of any other as I can remember. No time for it really.  He worked 40 hrs a week at one job in addition to any part-time/odd jobs he could pick up. It wasn’t as hard to raise a family of four in the 80’s in this manner, but it wasn’t a comfortable way to live even back then. I think I previously relayed the story of one time when he tried playing the old TSR Marvel Superheroes game with me and my little brother. Dad played as the Hulk and he roamed the city looking for gang members and said he wanted to “Stomp ‘em!” Now, there was a little more to it that I’ll leave out  since I don’t want my Dad getting “cancelled” by the SJWs a decade after his passing, but I’ll leave it to your imagination. It was (somewhat) acceptable humor in the 80’s and he mainly said such things to get me and my brother laugh. It certainly worked back then. 

I don’t remember if I’ve told where I got that MSHRPG set from. Well,  Dad took the pair of us to Dragon*Con in Atlanta. Primarily, it was to add to my comics collection. I can’t remember if that was the year I bought a ton of Judge Dredd comics or not as those early Dragon*Cons tend to run together—even back when I was far too young to drink. He did a lot of things like that for the two of us. I didn’t get my driver’s license until age 18, so he must have taken us to more than one. When dad took us my brother and I really didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t go to the panels or any cosplay stuff. We went directly to the dealer’s room and hung out there the entire time. It was in the dealer’s room that one of the TSR guys sold me on the set playing me through a quick scenario as The Thing. I read through the rule book and judges guide again and again over the months and years that followed—and sometimes freshen up on it today.

I remember one of those reading occasions being in the backseat of a car as my Dad drove the family on a non-Dragon*Con related summer vacation to one of the State Parks in Georgia. For those of a certain age, you know how boring a road trip could be back then. Looking at scenery as it goes by can only hold a kids attention for so long, so I was glad to have something to read. I remember seeing the waterfalls there and that there was some problem with the area that kept us from swimming, but we had some kick-ass ice-cream. We didn’t have much money to spend, but Dad—and Mom who is still with us BTW—tried to make memories with us as much as they could. So, in my entry I pay tribute to Dad a man that showed me how to have fun and create memories. I can’t think of any skills as essential as those for any GM—or teacher come think of it. Thanks Dad.