Howdy,
This question is for Dustin Clingman, but I thought I'd ask it here as anyone might answer.

Is there anyone in the Central Florida area that gamed with Dave Arneson still around and playing, if so where?

Thanks

There are definitely still folks in the Central Florida area who gamed with Dave. I'm still here and there are a number of other folks around. I'm not sure if they are still playing, but folks are around. Are you looking for a game group? I would check out the FRAG Orlando group if they are still active.

Best!

Dustin

Thanks for the reply Dustin. To answer your question, YES, I am looking for a group. Even though I live in Brevard county, I could probably work something out. I mean MegaCon 2012 is coming up soon.

Only recently did I realize who Dave Arneson was and how much he made himself available to gamers. And I feel I missed out. Even though I can't game with Dave anymore, I can game with folks that gamed with him. In an odd sort of way that makes me feel a bit better about squandering my opportunity to have one of the founders of our hobby be my DM.

The more I read about DA the more I think I understand at least a bit about his personality. From his love of Godzilla and Gamera movies to his philosophy of not letting the rules get in the way of having "fun", the more I think I would have liked to hang out with the guy.

Oh, and I looked up FRAG in Orlando and it seems they are dormant if not defunct ;(
Though there might still be someone on the other end of an email addy, Gerry Ruiz?
I will try emailing him.

Thanks again.

Hey Dustin, what is the story behind the Reanimator in the Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor? Does that monster come from some story Dave told? Its a cool monster but a bit mysterious and I wondered how it came to be.

Congrats with your Dustin! :)

-Havard

Late reply, but THANKS!!!!

Hi Dustin,
if you have some time, perhaps you could shed some light on the ?

-Havard

Apologies for such a slow response time. I did not see this question until today.

I don't have too much to add here as those deeper explorations on the Mage Wars were written by other folks. That said, given the immense power of the time, I would not believe that Mages would use the arbitrary line on a page to define a boundary that was really about protecting a power source. I would imagine more of a "regional" approach to the overuse of hard territory.

Dustin,
do you have any memories of the games Dave ran for the ZGG group? I believe your character in those games were the basis for the Docrae race?

-Havard

Sorry for the slow reply!

Dave did run games for some of the folk who participated in the ZGG work. Alot of them were remote. The games we did play with Dave (before and after his stroke) were quite fun. His daughter Malia and her husband Luke were often in attendance. We were additionally supported by Arthur (a fellow instructor from Full Sail) and a number of guest players and friends who were in town at the time.

Dave was very free wheeling and taught me quite a lot in those sessions. He had a good idea of the encounters we would face and he did not spend a ton of time looking up rules or referencing materials. I felt like he had it all there in his mind, just waiting for us to discover.

We did have some players who helped find arcane rules, but the greatest lesson here was to never let getting bogged down on "rules" detract from the play session.

My character in that game was named "Biggen Gurble" - He was a 3rd Edition halfling barbarian. Dave didn't like this character concept, but he allowed it. To him, halflings were Hobbits, so this particular guy was distinct in Blackmoor for that reason. When we went to press, we wanted to preserve that original conceptualization and as such, the Docrae became a branch of the halfling line, but really a distinct race unto themselves.

We played weekly for months in that game. When Dave had his stroke, he was taken out of commission for a while, but eventually resumed. He had a partial slur just after the incident and found that running the game helped him regain some of that control that was lost.

All in all, great fun! I really miss that guy.