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Apr. 6th, 2007 05:04 pmMy friend, Magic Rat, did not make it. He passed away some time Friday AM, apparently without regaining consciousness. I doubt he suffered: based on the description that the game store owner gave me, even though he seemed responsive after the initial event, it was a pretty massive stroke.
His name was Jason, he was born in Hawaii and grew up in El Paso where he attended college. His family moved to Phoenix and we worked together at Flying Buffalo in the early 80's. Aside from a friend from high school whom I've known for just about 30 years, Jason was among a group of friends that I've known the longest. I didn't get to game with him much lately, but frequently when I was in town we'd get together for a movie. When I was in Phoenix two weeks ago we saw 300 in a digital projection theatre then shot the breeze for the better part of an hour in the parking lot and at an In-And-Out Burger place.
Jason would have been 50 in August.
He came over to my condo quite often to watch movies. I had a very nice set-up: Marantz DVD and Laserdisc and receiver, 26" TV, Bose and B&W speakers. In fact, now that I think about it, in a used bookstore he spotted the laserdiscs that I bought of Millionaire's Express (Sammo Hung flic) and another Chinese Kung Fu movie whose name escapes me for the moment but starred Michelle Yeoh and was about the "founder" of Aikido, she played the main character. The tofu fight is absolutely amazing. Great movies.
We slew a lot of dragons together. Over the years we played Champions, Espionage, Top Secret, Pulp Heroes; Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes; Deadlands, probably D&D, Star Wars, DC Heroes (the original exponential system), Marvel Superheroes, Villains & Vigilantes, Tunnels & Trolls, Amber the Diceless RPG, 7th Sea, Spycraft, and probably a lot more role-playing systems that I can't remember plus uncountable board games. We were pretty evenly matched when it came to backgammon. We also spent a ridiculous amount of time online playing Diablo II, initially over 33.6k and later 56k dialup. He ran games that I played in, I ran games that he played in, others ran games that we both played in. In at least two campaigns our characters had relationships beyond that of the superhero team, in one case (Jason's Ghostdancer, a girl who didn’t know who she was prior to her death and my Holly, a female warrior/demon hunter from another dimension) we shared a house, in another (Jason's Wizard of Speed and Time/vampire hunter and my Asian female martial arts assassin sent to kill the heroes) were romantically involved.
Jason gave me some good suggestions for some of the games that I've designed. And, like with most of my friends, I spent lots of hours working on his and his parent's computers, usually getting a meal out of it and on more than one occasion some green stuff, and it wasn't wasabi. His mother is an excellent cook, we always looked forward to what Jason would bring to pot luck parties.
When we were at Flying Buffalo, it was not uncommon after a Saturday night game to see the eastern sky brightening.
One of my favorite gaming moments of all time was with Jason. In the original DC Heroes RPG, what I thought was perhaps the coolest thing was that you could have Batman and Superman on the same mission and both could be effective without dominating the mission. The difference in power level between the two is huge, there was no comparison in that area. But Superman could fight the Superman-level villains that no one else could touch while Batman mops the floor with thugs. Well, Jason was running Supes and I was running Bats. A bad guy threw a Kryptonite grenade at us which would have decimated Superman: I did a dive for cover on top of the grenade and saved his bacon. I will always remember that moment.
We also shared taste in comedy. Both of us were huge Python fans back when Python was fairly new, we also liked Firesign Mystery Theatre.
He's the first Ex-Buffalo (that I know of) from that era to have died, which is a little surprising. Jim has been undergoing treatment for cancer for about two years (or more) now, Ben has had a pacemaker implanted and has had some pretty severe illnesses, and Terry had his heart swell so much that they didn't think he would make it out of the hospital. Terry was a Vietnam vet who was partially disabled due to losing part of one leg and Agent Orange exposure. He's living up in Las Vegas.
The funny thing is that I called my parents to let them know, and so that they'd know that I'll probably be in town next week for the funeral. It turns out that they'll be here in Las Cruces tomorrow and won't be in Phoenix next week! (three of my Dad's five sisters are in 'Cruces) My dad looked at his up-coming work schedule (he's scheduled tighter now more than before he retired!) and they decided that this would be a good week to come up here.
*Sigh* It's going to be a long weekend, especially since my boss isn't sure that I can be spared right now to be gone for three days. I won't be very happy if I can't attend the funeral; but if I can't, I can't. Another funny thing is that when I started working for the City of Phoenix, I got sick in my second week and had to take Leave Without Pay (LWOP). If I have to take three days off from here, that’s $500 out of my pocket. No big deal, I’m used to not making much, so if my first paycheck is somewhat diminished I’ll survive.
Thank you all for your prayers and good vibes. It's a mercy for everyone that everything was over so quickly.
His name was Jason, he was born in Hawaii and grew up in El Paso where he attended college. His family moved to Phoenix and we worked together at Flying Buffalo in the early 80's. Aside from a friend from high school whom I've known for just about 30 years, Jason was among a group of friends that I've known the longest. I didn't get to game with him much lately, but frequently when I was in town we'd get together for a movie. When I was in Phoenix two weeks ago we saw 300 in a digital projection theatre then shot the breeze for the better part of an hour in the parking lot and at an In-And-Out Burger place.
Jason would have been 50 in August.
He came over to my condo quite often to watch movies. I had a very nice set-up: Marantz DVD and Laserdisc and receiver, 26" TV, Bose and B&W speakers. In fact, now that I think about it, in a used bookstore he spotted the laserdiscs that I bought of Millionaire's Express (Sammo Hung flic) and another Chinese Kung Fu movie whose name escapes me for the moment but starred Michelle Yeoh and was about the "founder" of Aikido, she played the main character. The tofu fight is absolutely amazing. Great movies.
We slew a lot of dragons together. Over the years we played Champions, Espionage, Top Secret, Pulp Heroes; Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes; Deadlands, probably D&D, Star Wars, DC Heroes (the original exponential system), Marvel Superheroes, Villains & Vigilantes, Tunnels & Trolls, Amber the Diceless RPG, 7th Sea, Spycraft, and probably a lot more role-playing systems that I can't remember plus uncountable board games. We were pretty evenly matched when it came to backgammon. We also spent a ridiculous amount of time online playing Diablo II, initially over 33.6k and later 56k dialup. He ran games that I played in, I ran games that he played in, others ran games that we both played in. In at least two campaigns our characters had relationships beyond that of the superhero team, in one case (Jason's Ghostdancer, a girl who didn’t know who she was prior to her death and my Holly, a female warrior/demon hunter from another dimension) we shared a house, in another (Jason's Wizard of Speed and Time/vampire hunter and my Asian female martial arts assassin sent to kill the heroes) were romantically involved.
Jason gave me some good suggestions for some of the games that I've designed. And, like with most of my friends, I spent lots of hours working on his and his parent's computers, usually getting a meal out of it and on more than one occasion some green stuff, and it wasn't wasabi. His mother is an excellent cook, we always looked forward to what Jason would bring to pot luck parties.
When we were at Flying Buffalo, it was not uncommon after a Saturday night game to see the eastern sky brightening.
One of my favorite gaming moments of all time was with Jason. In the original DC Heroes RPG, what I thought was perhaps the coolest thing was that you could have Batman and Superman on the same mission and both could be effective without dominating the mission. The difference in power level between the two is huge, there was no comparison in that area. But Superman could fight the Superman-level villains that no one else could touch while Batman mops the floor with thugs. Well, Jason was running Supes and I was running Bats. A bad guy threw a Kryptonite grenade at us which would have decimated Superman: I did a dive for cover on top of the grenade and saved his bacon. I will always remember that moment.
We also shared taste in comedy. Both of us were huge Python fans back when Python was fairly new, we also liked Firesign Mystery Theatre.
He's the first Ex-Buffalo (that I know of) from that era to have died, which is a little surprising. Jim has been undergoing treatment for cancer for about two years (or more) now, Ben has had a pacemaker implanted and has had some pretty severe illnesses, and Terry had his heart swell so much that they didn't think he would make it out of the hospital. Terry was a Vietnam vet who was partially disabled due to losing part of one leg and Agent Orange exposure. He's living up in Las Vegas.
The funny thing is that I called my parents to let them know, and so that they'd know that I'll probably be in town next week for the funeral. It turns out that they'll be here in Las Cruces tomorrow and won't be in Phoenix next week! (three of my Dad's five sisters are in 'Cruces) My dad looked at his up-coming work schedule (he's scheduled tighter now more than before he retired!) and they decided that this would be a good week to come up here.
*Sigh* It's going to be a long weekend, especially since my boss isn't sure that I can be spared right now to be gone for three days. I won't be very happy if I can't attend the funeral; but if I can't, I can't. Another funny thing is that when I started working for the City of Phoenix, I got sick in my second week and had to take Leave Without Pay (LWOP). If I have to take three days off from here, that’s $500 out of my pocket. No big deal, I’m used to not making much, so if my first paycheck is somewhat diminished I’ll survive.
Thank you all for your prayers and good vibes. It's a mercy for everyone that everything was over so quickly.
