RIP Dana

I gamed with Dana, Ken, Steve, and Edwin. They brought me in on the fly, and really threw me into an amazing game. I loved our session so much, I stayed with them. We played for months and months and months. Truth is, if not for some real-life issues, I would have stayed with them for nearly a full year.

And yeah, we gamed until 5 or 6 AM a lot. We went without sleep. But it was for fun and companionship and an awesome game.

And even after the fact, Dana and I would stay up for hours and hours and hours after, simply talking. I really got to know a very different kind of person than I ever had known before.

Dana certainly was a thinker. He had such a knack for philosophy and the theoretical, and so we argued many pointless points heatedly yet happily. He had endured his own lifetime of hardship, and he shared life lessons and harsh, raw advice with me. He told me about the hard truths, the bold lies, and the conspiracies in between. He taught me that the decisions we make are black and white, and that we see the fruits and consequences of our choices in shades of grey.

Dana loved AD&D. Perhaps he and the game were kindred, in that the game was vague enough to allow him creativity and thought, and debates like he loved. He DM'd much for me, leading us through many modules both famous and forgotten. His impact on my gaming life is, by far, the greatest and most worthwhile of any I ever had.

As Bochi mentioned, Dana loved wine. He was not quick to call himself a connoisseur, but he drank to savor and learn. I do recall when he finished 1.5L of red wine in a single night, all because he wanted to enjoy it and nothing else.

I came to know a person out of their prime. He was aging and dying, falling apart day by day. As sad as his condition was, he fiercely tried to make the best of it. I believe that when I joined his life, he felt a deep purpose. A purpose to leave behind something, to impart a gift and say he did something worthwhile in the end. I believe he felt he should teach me what I would open my ears to, to help make me a better person and lead a better life. This effort was not in vain, and I truly am empowered for it.

This is not my farewell to Dana, but a concrete memory shared to you of Dragonsfoot and Presposia.

If more people like Dana existed, the world would be better for it.


So now you are gone, and I wish I could have been there at the end, or even after to lay you to rest. I would have buried you with Cabernet in one arm, and the DMG under the other. May you game with angels and demons, as your grand adventure continues on.

-Ry

It's been a year now. I'm just taking a moment of silence, recognizing the memory of a dear friend departed.