Maybe it was the reality that an age had passed. That something that you really enjoyed would never be the same. Maybe Frank's passing gave me a longing ... for those shared moments ( ... Did I say moments? Hours ... Days ... Years? More like lifetimes) gaming.
Our most often gaming sessions involved D&D. Dungeons and Dragons to the uninitiated. Before you start rolling your eyes. Of all the kinds of games out there, RPGs (Role Playing Games) are the most creative. More than just the strategy of chess, this takes more than a few pages from "The Prince" and "The Art of War." Acting can be involved as well as a communal effort in storytelling. The very principles of J.R.R. Tolkien's sub-creation are at it's very core. Art and music are added in for good measure.
At one time, I was a professional Dungeon Master. Perhaps the only one ever employed by the City of St. Petersburg, and most certainly the first. And what they didn't know ... Anyway ... I certainly had my moments, but I loved the games that Frank Tona rolled up. He had a talent for creating and D&D was just one of the outlets he expressed himself through. At out best we were dueling DMs. Alternating between adventures, honing one another's skills. One that still gives me nightmares was his twist of turning the Eagle's "Hotel California" into a nice little visit to Ravenloft. Oh the horror of it all! We all had sour stomachs as we sat around the table.
One of the things that we discussed together as DMs, as we moved from paper to spreadsheets, was how cool it would be to have a way of using this new technology to display the fantasy surroundings. I thought about using Photoshop, but we both didn't have the program. If we had the code chops I have no doubt that we would of come up with something all those years back then.
But now there isn't a solution ... but multiple choices of solutions. They are called TTS (Table Top Simulators.) And the best thing is you can game over the internet and play pretty much like we use to around the table. Except for stealing the last piece of pizza.
I'm hoping for an upgrade.
Frank would of loved this. I know he would of. And he would of made the most of this. I miss him so ... on this and so many other levels. My deer friends David and Kevin Wilson added fuel to the fire after a post saying about missing gaming with Frank. For both Christmas and my birthday they gave me 5th edition books. Thank you two for understanding.
Oh yeah ... to all of you reading this blog ...
SAVE!!!
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