My buddy, Eric, was such a fun amazing DM. He was great with story telling and descriptions. He DMd for a long time. But one day after we finished his story, he encouraged me to DM a campaign for the group and I was so trash! But during that campaign, he played a bard and I remember him using Vicious Mockery. He would say “Your mother is a *****!” and then roll for damage. It always cracked us up.

He would also message me on Steam to see how I was doing. He was the only person that I would have a conversation with on steam. I haven’t played DnD or seen our group in years, due to moving away, but he would message me every few months to see how I was doing. One day, I got a message on steam from his wife that he had passed. I am still devastated.

So, now I play a new game called Dark and Darker. And I’m going to make a Bard character. I’m going to run around and insult other player’s mothers in honor of Eric. And I know he would get a kick out of it.

If any of you have a Bard NPC in an upcoming game, please consider them being a witty Bard who isn’t afraid to insult you and those you care about.

Thanks for reading this. Eric, you rock.

My wife was the light of my world and star of my table. We had tried DnD together, but our initial group size was large and she suffered from social anxiety. The pressure of needing to decide what to do prevented her from continuing with that group and that's okay.

A few years later I was asked to run a game by a friend, I ended up running Call of the Netherdeep mixing in a few one shots as we went. The size of this table was much smaller, only three total players including my wife. She was much more comfortable in this tiny party and actually seemed to look forward to the sessions! Her real personality was shy, social anxious, introverted and withdrawn. Misty's personality was a complete opposite! She was putting a brave face on and facing danger in the same way. There was a puzzle where by touching your reflection the "perfect version" of your character swaps places with you. When she touched it (despite a successful roll saying it was a trap, gods i miss her zeal) in her mind the perfect version of Misty was one with complete confidence. The rp personality change she executed blew my mind, complete 180 from how my wife usually was. She even tried to get the other players to touch their reflections!

In Call of the Netherdeep, it's possible to meet a moorbounder tamer early on and Misty became positively enamored with the idea of getting one of those derpy kittens. She wasn't the right subclass for it but after a generous bribe to the DM she found one who needed her help and she lovingly named her Snacks. Every time the party stopped at an inn or tavern, I would use the social rp opportunity to flirt with my wife saying the stupidest corniest shit I could think of to embarrass her and make her laugh and smile. My wife is not one for PDA, she was actually too shy to kiss me at our wedding much to the disappointment of our family. Misty was not, she had a habit of flirting back, going on dates, and even the occasional fade to black moment with the corny bartender.

Misty Snowdrops was a way for my wife to let go of her anxiety and go on real adventures. She gave her the permission to be the person anxiety would not let her. After each session we would lay down and have some pillow talk about the adventure, we would talk about the good and the bad and the tea. I got so much incredible feedback from her this way - i honestly looked forward to the pillow talk afterwards as much as I did the session. My table will never be the same without you my love. Walk well Misty Snowdrops.

Hi, I have recently discovered this subreddit and wanted to leave something in the memory of my late friend and the druid of our party... It was hard to find someone who would fit to be a druid as him. He was a biology major like me, with an endless love for tardigrads. In the very first session, he had tried and managed to successfully persuade a group of woodcutters to let go of woodcutting, we were level 1 people! (Don't ask me details, I do not remember). He was a worshipper of Obad-Hai instead of Ehlonna and was agreeing with Treebeard's "I am at no one's side because no one is on the side of nature" philosophy. Had a pet bear named Uncle (From an idiom in our language, Köprüyü geçene kadar ayıya dayı de - Call bear uncle until you get across the bridge) and that bear was the heart of our party, we were bringing it everywhere even when it would blow our cover. Once he spend an entire in-game day to give an ant human intelligence via magic (It was DnD 3.5), without any benefit for the mission mind you, just for fun.

One story I must tell of him is this though, we had a bridge to destroy, a wooden one. It was an army camp and we were around level 12. So I, as a Paladin distracted one side of the bridge while others tried to destroy the bridge, the plan was our Swordsage would cut its supporting beams with Mountain Hammer... Then, while verything was going to shit, Menandros looked and said "Oh... It seems I can summon elementals..." You cannot imagine the amount of deadpan stares he received at that moment...

It is just... unfortunate that these beautiful traits, these memories were not enough to pull him from his depression. It has been 5 years now and I still miss him. I did only thing I could do and made him an immortal hero in my campaign but... it is not the same. He would always love to live in a DnD universe because "Gods were doing something there" So, if one day you need a druid NPC for a cause that would benefit nature, please let him enjoy more adventures in those magical realms... Thank you for your time, sorry if I took so many of it.

We miss you bro, may you rest in peace. Never played a druid, and I highly doubt I can ever will...

On Sunday we lost our favorite player to brain cancer.
Keith is my younger brother.

In 2018 he asked me to run a "One-Shot" for him and some friends so that we could play again like we did as kids. (I had not played since 2006)

That "One shot" has been going every month since then. Our last session was in January.

And now I'm shattered.

I'm so glad he got me back into the hobby. We'll have a memorial game soon. The tables at the family gathering will be covered with dice. His ashes are getting forged into a sword (His only request)

I just wanted to share his character in the comments if anyone wants to use a Gnome Cleric of the God Mask as a random NPC.

Word of advice: When your little Bro wants to game with you, make it happen. You won't regret a single minute of it.

Character Description- Zook is a Cleric of the God Mask. He's mischievous but kind hearted. He did nothing but good his whole life even if through sketchy means. For what it's worth, Zooks father once saw a ring with a Lion on it and obsessed over discovering the origin of the ring and it's symbolic meaning. (Zook discovered that for his father in one of our sessions.)

Zook Turen Character Sheet

Our friend passed away suddenly, the news is still fresh, some of us are still sleeping because of different timezones and will read it waking up. We were playing online together since September, twice a week. Strong links have developed already.

I'm not the DM, I'm only a player. Our DM was already depressed. I also am. We're not the ones suffering the most from it of course.

I don't know how to help everyone. For now I'm organising a mourning on the time we were supposed to play, because someone has to do it.

I'm sorry I don't know what I'm looking for by posting here.

Edit: thank you everyone for your support, I didn't have the strength to answer but it's much appreciated and well needed.

A week ago one of my dear friends and the reason why I got into ttrpgs sadly passed away. Unfortunately Anne was battling ALS for a few years now and it had finally come to an end.

She always loved to GM but the last year sadly this wasn't working for her anymore so I took over the roll as GM. She would play everytime she could her mother helping her with her charactersheet. When it became harder for her to speak we all talked and told her we were completely fine with ending the campaign a little earlier. Which she agreed with but it unfortunately her health only got worse so we didnt get to have our final session.

Her character for the campaign was a high elf called Nova who is a druid, circle of stars. It was very clear to us all that this was one of her favorite characters she had ever played.

For the cremation we put the wooden dice set that she loved, with her. Which was a way for us to honor her during the ceremony. But we all felt the need to honor her in game aswell maybe even give a role or something for her character in our next campaign as were wanting to play in the same world.

Weve just been struggling with how we would even do that. A bunch of my friends made it very clear that they didn't feel comfortable with having her character die too. Which I completely agree with. Ive also noticed that I find it super difficult to even get a good closure for her in game and I dont even know if Im ready yet to let this piece of her go.

If anyone has any ideas to honor her and her character in game please let me know.

I don't really know the format for these, because grief manifests differently for everyone, but my best friend and most reliable table companion (as a player under me as a GM, as a fellow player, and as a GM for a while) passed away very suddenly over the winter holidays, and my therapist says that doing something to commemorate him might help, so here we are.

My buddy Brian loved lots of things, but above most anything he loved music. He could play any instrument you could put in front of him, he taught music to middle schoolers for most of his career, and, upon being shown most fantasy RPG games, ran a bard. He was, to my knowledge, the only Gold-Star Bard I've ever come across; over more than a half dozen different games, campaigns, one shots, etc, he played bards and only bards, but managed to breathe unique life into each and every one of them. Whether it was Nok the Snake Oil Salesman or Phineas the Pirate (his character he played in my campaign for about 3 years), every table he sat at was better for his presense. He was charming, charismatic, could throw together a rhyme if he needed a la Scanlan from Critical Role, and always had a bright idea to solve a problem, usually by getting around it entirely. He always had a voice, a core concept and an attitude towards others set for each character, and while I can put stats together to make a million different PCs, I'll never be able to animate them the way he did. His love of RPGs in general (we played several in addition to DnD) was focused mostly on what he thought was the perfect balance that 5E brought to the game; one of not just mechanical specificity, but freedom to act out what you believed your character should do in a given moment with the Backgrounds, Bonds, Ideals and Flaws system (not trying to start a version war, just relaying his opinions). He lived long enough to beat BG3 with an "Oops, all Bards" team even though we never got to play that together, and enjoyed playing many other board and card games with me. His last days were, thankfully for me, spent with me hanging out and watching Dropout in between games of Arkham Horror and Marvel Champions.

Not sure how to wrap this up. Guess I'll take questions if needed, but I wanted to honor him somewhere and this seems the place to do it. Thank you all.

It has been 10 years officially today, since I lost you my dear L. Our next game was to be a surprise proposal, the ring I picked out matching the one your character was to be gifted by your goddess. It has been a century since I last heard your laugh, felt the warmth of your eyes on me. I kept your dice, they comfort me when my characters go through loss, and have given me the best rolls during times where that one roll was the decision of fate. I miss you L. Our group could never finish the game, the story was never the same without you. You were our glue, the bright moonlight when we needed it. I still envision your bright laughter whenever the moon shines bright at night.

I have been putting this off cause it feels too real but just over a month ago my best friend died. While I was helping his mom and sister clean up his place we talked about keepsakes and memorials. It was too heavy for me at the moment but when I was unplugging cables from his computer I found his old mini from a campaign that I ran a while ago, it must have fallen off his desk at some point.

Gar'agh (pronounced Gary) was a cleric of Pelor and the oldest dwarf around. He didn't like to get involved in questing since his husband had passed away but was brought out of retirement to save the realm from an influx of the undead, even though he thought "What's the point of me doing anything when some kid is going to find a magic sword in a field or something and end up a chosen one?"

Gar'agh was the rock of the party, the only real front liner, he would post himself in front of the enemy and make them try and go around him. Even though Gar'agh didn't make it through the whole campaign, he fell to a vampire lord around 3/4's of the way through, he was my friends favorite character. We talked about that campaign a lot and Gar'agh even made special appearances in some one shots that we ran over the years.

I don't really know what I want to happen here. If folks want to use Gar'agh in their campaigns I think that would be cool. I guess I mostly just wanted to put a little memorial out there in a place that would appreciate it.

Love you brother, miss you every day. I'll keep Gar'agh safe on my bookshelf for you, right next to your Pratchett books.

My friend who had been a player in 2 campaigns spanning 3 years, and my friend in real life spanning 32 years, succumbed to his mental health a couple months ago. Tonight, we finished the second campaign that he did not get to see through to completion. It has been an emotional time seeing his name and his characters name in my notes, and my players completely understood finishing the campaign early... but man was it/is it hard. I'll miss you, Ben. I hope whatever adventure comes next is one that treats you better than the illness treated you in this one. You were a light in the dark for so many and a hero on the table for your friends.

3 days ago, one of our group's friends and D&D mainstays passed away. He had multiple health issues that eventually culminated in his heart giving out. It's ironic, though. As the comedian of the table but also the oldest person, his heart was the greatest thing about him.

It's only been a few days but our community already misses him so much. He may not have been the most serious player or put in a bunch of effort on his backstories, but you could always rely on him creating the goofiest/funniest character you could think of. He was also always online in case you wanted to game or just hang out. He was the Dad of our group (even though he didn't want kids). Now he gets to join the rest of the universe and move on to the next existence, but that doesn't mean we aren't going to miss him every single day.

Love you, Stubz. I can't wait to see you again.

Today, suddenly and unexpectedly, we lost our dear friend Ugrath (Murat), a hero of many realms and many faces. In our current campaign, he was our party’s human Investigator. A hero with a pragmatic worldview and a strong sense of duty, he had a sharp eye for traps whether verbal or physical, and an even sharper one for the weaknesses of his enemies. Both on and off the table, Ugrath was a trustworthy, immensely capable brother-in-arms. He offered his help to all generously, in abundance, and always accompanied by a relevant trivia or an interesting memory. Our table and our lives were blessed to have him.

We are struggling to accept this loss, trying to will reality to undo this injustice. It is not fair.

You will forever be in our memories Ugrath. You shall never be forgotten.

I miss you Donald. It’ll be five years in July, but it’s barely gotten easier since I heard the news. That moment will be engrained in my memory until I die. I joined the discord call and our friend said there was something important to talk about. I was about to ask if we should wait for you to join the call before we talked about it, but for some reason I can’t explain, I didn’t. That was the night I learned what happened.

Our party had been split in half for the months preceding this, separated by some rift between dimensions that we ran into, ultimately the result of you licking the runes in a hag’s hut we encountered (still one of the funniest moments I’ve ever experienced in a campaign, thanks to nobody but you). After that, it was just me and you in the plane of ash, in the brass gambit, fighting in tournaments to earn enough money to make it back to material plane. You were in the sidelines cheering me on (and totally not cheating by casting buffs on me), but I should’ve been there for you to cheer you on. I’ll never be able to stop thinking about what I might’ve been able to do to stop what happened, but as someone who’s been depressed I don’t blame you, and I can only hope that you’re at peace now.

It took a long while for us to play again after that, we ultimately decided that Gnonk stayed back in the brass gambit, and became a legendary figure among the people. He was a legendary figure in my life too. He was always able to make me laugh and smile, and I remember he was so excited because the next session was going to be the one where the party met up again. I just wish you could’ve been there for it.

It’s been nearly 5 years and I still think about you every day. The legend of Gnonk, the Verdan Bard, will live on as long as I do. And if I ever have kids, it will live as long as they do, and as long as whoever else comes after them. I will make your legacy live on as long as possible, because a man only truly dies when he is forgotten, and you live eternally in my heart.

I apologize if this isn’t the proper way to post on this subreddit, I just don’t know any other place that would be appropriate.

Yesterday I found out my closest friend Thomas was killed in a car crash. The last time we played he retired one of his favorite characters Rowan Clay Cassidy the gunslinging warlock, and brought his old character Torev Melbnot back into the campaign. But now he's gone, and I don't know what to do.

His wife played in the same campaigns as the rest of the group, and I can't imagine her wanting to continue without her husband. The entire group doesn't know what to do, and all our campaigns have been put on indefinite hiatus.

Thomas was the man who got me into TTRPG's. Some of my fondest memories as a child was playing a stupid game with virtually no rules under the stairs during middle school with him and other friends. I lost count of how many characters and adventures we went on together.

He was the glue that held our group together. He's the one who found most of the misfits that make up our group and brought them all together. I fear that our group will simply drift apart without him.

Any advice you could give would be appreciated.

Hey all, this sub was recommended to me a couple of months ago. I hope lost pets are welcome here.

Five and a half years ago, my husband and I had decided we wanted to adopt a pitbull puppy. A friend connected me to someone she knew who was fostering a mama pitbull who had a litter of 6-week old puppies. We met the litter and couldn’t decide between two puppies, and the foster suggested we flip a coin. Well, I just so happened to have a d20 in my purse, like the nerd I am, so we decided to roll for both and adopt the highest roll. We rolled for Riggs first, and it was a natural 20. That was that. When I found a chew toy shaped like a d20 a few days later, we had to get it for him.

We brought Riggs home to live with us the day he turned 8 weeks old, which was a Saturday - our weekly D&D night. We put a blanket underneath our nap table and he went right to sleep for the whole session. For the last five and a half years, he’s been a staple of joy and entertainment for all of our players, and he’s been featured in every game we’ve played since, from one-shots to full blown level 20 campaigns. Most recently he was the mascot/titular pet of the “Sad Dog Saloon”. The markings around his eyes always made him look like he was constantly deeply concerned about something, and his pouty noises when he wanted attention always made us joke about what a sad dog he was. When it was time to name a tavern our party acquired, my brother came up with Sad Dog Saloon and it stuck immediately.

We found out in October that he had cancer and said goodbye last month when it was clear that his good days were about to end. I posted about him on the pitbull sub shortly after we got his diagnosis, and someone there recognized my dice in one of his photos and recommended I share him here as well. I hope that he can bring joy to all of your tables the way he did for ours.

Pollie was a lovely cat who joined our (first) campain a few months ago. During a game, she came to a player as he was about to make an important role. He showed the D20 to her. She rubbed her face on it and then he got a natural 20.

Since then, this D20 has been notorious for rolling high, all thanks to Mighty Pollie's blessing.

Unfortunately, Pollie passed away this weekend.

Our next game is on Saturday and I would like to incorporate a nod to our feline companion in the session. Any suggestion would be appreciated as I am a relatively new DM. (For those who know this campain, we are nearing the beginning of final chapter of Dragons of Stormwreck Isle)

My friend started showing signs of MND a year and a half ago. When he got his actual diagnosis we set up a dnd game for him to play every week as an activity he could participate in without feeling like he was losing his ability to interact socially with the world. He used to play as a teenager and remembered it very fondly. We’ve played every week since and watched his decline.

Last week he passed away.

His character was Kaelun, an eleven ranger with an animal companion called Flint.

We set the game up for him, all other players had never played before. As the DM I’d like to do something in game to commemorate him. We will discuss as a group whether we want to continue or not, but if we do I want to make sure he gets the honour he deserves in game.

Would welcome any suggestions you have about how we could do this.

Thank you for this space.

From Leo:

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My friend, may you find peace, you went too soon, planned so many games we could have played and even wanted to do a twinning character with me but I was too busy with college requirements and couldn't join the campaign. The moment we learned you left us our hearts sank, we were both angry and sad, why leave? Why not just stay, have fun, and finish even one more campaign?

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I hate myself for only looking at the discord chats and didn't even try to chat, didn't even wish you good health, just watched. My characters cry, their teammate, my maniac saintess candidate I couldn't make, she cries and deep down swore to follow her best friend whom she couldn't join in the frontlines to the afterlife dragging down every enemy she comes across. I'm sorry I couldn't try hard enough to make my character in order to join the campaign, I'm sorry I just spectated the discord chat, I guess I'm just not that good of a friend to just let you leave without me saying goodbye. I write this with the letters from the friend group:

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From Leanne:

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Dear Ronnie,

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I write this to express my gratitude for having friend like you. The shame of not being able to tell you all these things in person.

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The first time I known you was memorable. Your bright, and ever so ecstatic when it came to DND. The way you wrote notes upon notes for your understanding of your friends player character, as well as your own. You have a way in making your characters come to life with your roleplays that I always smile and laugh because I always think it’s so you. Thoron Rootstone has your sweet and kind personality. Greed was ever so insightful and always curios. Tauron is very brave.

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You wanted to make a one shot campaign, right? You were so excited and you were up making notes too.

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I hope we can get to meet again and finally play next time. I’ll miss you in every campaign.

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Your dearest,

“Mother”, Aimer, Laevmiel, and Evelyne

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From Kieve:

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You were more than someone at the table. You were part of the story. Part of the laughter between rolls, the silence before battle, the dumb plans that somehow worked, and the moments we will keep carrying even when the campaign goes quiet.

There are people who simply play characters, And then there are people who become part of the world with you...You were one of those people...I hate that your seat is empty now. I hate that there are adventures we will not get to finish together. I hate that when the dice roll again, I will still expect to hear your voice...But I will remember you. Every fight. Every joke. Every ridiculous plan. Every scene we shared.

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And if Cain were to say it, he would say.. “The curtain fell too soon, my friend, But your part was not small...It was unforgettable.”

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So until we meet again beyond whatever veil waits for us…

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Rest well, dear friend. May your next campaign be kinder. And may we fight beside you again someday.

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- Cain (K.)

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From Game master Juan:

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Dear Ronnie,

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I remember how when you first joined this band of weirdos. You met Pearl online, shared your same interest in DND, joined, and found out the BF of that member was an old acquaintance. That was a funny coincidence, as if fate had brought you to us.

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In all my 3 years of DM, no one other player except Kieve and I had the same interest in learning how to DM until you came. When you ask me for tips, I was so happy. To pass down my experience and knowledge to you was a great feeling.

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When you told us you were starting a campaign with your own friend group, I was happy and excited. I wanted to watch how you went and told your own story and letting others live within that beautiful world you made.

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You described the vivid scenery, you narrated their actions, even as you stuttered because you were embarrassed I was watching, I saw how talented you are at weaving a world within your mind.

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You were one of the greatest people I had the pleasure of playing DND with. Your enthusiasm and energy cannot be recreated. Your departure has left a void in our world that we can never hope to replace.

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Thoron Rootstone, you finished your journey and ended the Crawling Star.

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Greed, while your journey was cut short, the memories you made with the party will not be forgotten.

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And to Ronnie, I want to experience another world you have made with the creativity of your mind and the passion of your heart again.

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Goodbye Ron, We miss you.

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From Pearl:

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Ronnie

It all started when a random dude liked my story and I saw La La Land on his bio I don’t really slide in peoples dms just cause we have the same interests but something really made me open a conversation with you at first it was all random stuff about movies then our Partners and you even go to me to ask girlie advices for your Gf. You were a good friend Ronnie though I think fate it must be when you mentioned DnD and how you really want to play it but you have no one to well guess what, we have a whole Gc and a multiple Dc servers that’s all about DnD and it realy must be fate!! You are an old classmate of my Partner you clicked right in the gc!! And I was so happy to have you there we all were.

Mallory to Thoron

Well! Well... Now I can make more troubles no one will cast entanglement!... Oh look I will burn the whole villageee oh noooo.. someone cast entanglement.. please… Thoron… you were the only person who can put me back on my place I hope to be entangled around your vines and again.

Ronnie I do hope you had a great time with us you will definitely not be an orphan anymore though you’ll be meeting your parents now. I hope we can still exchange below the belt jokes when we see each other again. You may rest in peace I bet youd be rolling Nat 20s on where you are right now.

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Aimer to Thoron:

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Hey Mister! Me and my brother are wandering around in the forest, it’s been very peaceful since the group parted. We were just thinkig about things and I thought, “We could have tried going piggy back on the big misters.”

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Let’s meet again so that we can go piggy back on you Mister!

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Laevmiel to Greed

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Death appears

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As cold arrives

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Life comes

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At winter’s end

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Where cycles meet

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Like day to night

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Our paths collide

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In the next life

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This message is made by Zerg Runefeet to Greed:

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Greed, how are you doing? It's been a while, I sent this using an artifact I made just to travel dimensions though I can only send small things like this letter, everyone's been well after you were able to get back to your world, although I'm old now nearing the end of my life I sent one of my children to an academy to train in magic engineering. I remember our time trying to get that dragon bone and laugh, they're extinct now believe it or not. Anyways, although I don't think I can make anything better than this artifact because I'm too old, I'm here to say we all miss you, Cain... I don't know about him, I'm sure he does too. I might not get a reply but it's fine, just know we think of you all the time, until next time. - Zerg Runefeet

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Your journey has come to pass, you have met friends that you spent time with, laughed with, did stupid risky things with, and those friends you made laugh and smile will join you there when it's time, please wait for us no matter how long it takes. We will miss you, now and forever, Goodbye.

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I just found out about this subreddit and wanted to put an old friend for you guys to meet and play with. His irl name was Pablo, but we knew him as Jizargo. He was a black tabaxi rogue who spoke with somewhat of a Spaniard accent. And he always referred to himself in the 3rd person and had funny quips one liners.

Pablo used to play with us in a Feywild campaign. Unfortunately, he got covid. A month after getting it, he was intubated in the hospital, and a month after that he passed.

But for our campaign, we talked about it and want to ‘finish’ his story, and our DM delivered. He was also our DMs childhood best friend and we met Pablo through him.

Our DM had us surrounded by Fumorians, and we were about level 5 at the time, so we ran. But in a blaze of glory, Jizargo stayed back and fought the Fumorians to give us time to run back to the Aladrian king to warn him of the Fumorians plans.

After the session, we poured out his favorite rum that he forgot at our house once, in honor of him.

We never got to see Jizargo pass, it was only assumed that he did. He was a rogue, and a master in stealth, so maybe he did survive. Who knows?

So, if you have room for a funny Spaniard tabaxi that refers to himself in 3rd person, I think I know just the one. And I know Pablo would be happy too.

I first was introduced to DnD about 3 years ago by some friends (in-person). Naturally as many in person RPG games go, scheduling and getting people together was difficult. Because of this I sought out an online game with players who enjoyed the game and building story. It was at this time when I jumped onto Roll20 for the first time and joined a game with a player named David.....little did I know over the next 3 years him and I would play across 5/6 different servers and many games together (some long multi-year campaigns). David and I developed a friendship bond where we would have our characters butt heads over a multitude of things for story building purpose, some players at first thought that it was out of character.....but we would laugh after as to how many ridiculous things we could make other players think we took issue with beyond our PC's.....after a couple years I took the plunge and started my own campaign with a homebrew world and David was one of the first people to step up and take a "digital seat". Along this journey we got to know each other quite well, family, daily lives, things that stressed us out, or personal issues we were dealing with, and I viewed David (whom I'd never met in person but knew quite well through voice and video) as more than just a friend. He became almost like another brother. This morning his brother notified the community of his passing, and it hit harder than I expected....I truly felt that I had lost a friend of many years. I knew this day was coming one day because of some personal health issues.....but I wasn't ready for it.....not yet. So I find myself writing this, unsure how to memorialize him, and without the exact words that sound poetic. But in honour of my friend....my brother David, I made a little digital vigil in remembrance of some of his most memorable characters. RIP David.

I miss you.

Baltec was a loveable goofy fighter with an 18 STR back in the AD&D 1e days, when an 18 STR came with a percentile to boot. Bruce was all that stuff, too, except maybe the 18 STR, in reality he was more of an INT guy. Outside the d&d table.....we played chess, MTG, Warhammer (fantasy, back when there wasn't an "old world"....just...a world). We laughed. Bruce and Baltec both, never failed to make everyone laugh. I miss them both. We....hadn't been in touch in a long while. For no special reason, just lives going in different directions. That, too, breaks my heart. I miss you, Bruce.

None of us remember who you played in my modified Curse of Strahd campaign… but you were one of my mentors in this space/community and… when we lost you to cancer… pre pandemic… it not only tore our specific group apart but broke the hearts of everyone you had ever known or played a game or two with… I most certainly but I’m sure that everyone you ever knew miss you so much and we all wish you were here instead of being shuffled off this mortal coil… despite it being over 3 years ago now… it’s still incredibly heartbreaking and painful to remember that your gone… I raise a glass, however hypothetical to you and your family Mark… wherever you are.

This is in memory of Havik a fighter who was the groups protector, gold gatherer and just go get it done person.

Ralph in real life was my friend for the best part of 20 years; we met volunteering for a youth group and would spend Friday evenings teaching young people life skills; It wasn’t until I moved away 5 years ago that I learnt that many years ago he had played AD&D and when shortly after I started a campaign online he joined the party. We took a small break when I had my child as my partner was also a member of the party. We restarted all be it a bit add-hoc depending on how much sleep was being had at the time.

Ralph had been battling cancer throughout this time and lost his battle in December 2025. He will be missed as a friend, party member and role model.

My friend Ricky passed away two years ago this week, and I just found this subreddit and was immediately moved to tears, so I feel the need to share.

Ricky was a bright light in every room he entered. He never let there be a serious moment, always looking for the next bit to send everyone into hysterics. He was a year younger than me in school, and I didn't really get to know him until my senior year. After having choir and theatre together for years but never really speaking, we joined speech & debate at the same time, and I needed volunteers for my senior project (a choral ensemble). That year, we had a lot of fun growing closer through practices and rehearsals, and when the competition season ended, our debate teacher shared that we were going to be doing acting and speech exercises for the rest of the year. When asked for suggestions, I offered D&D, and when no one else knew how to play, I got the absolute joy of watching everyone in that class, but most especially Ricky, discovering the magic of the silly little dice game I loved.

In my campaign (which was rather silly) he decided he wanted to play a character called Gnome Chompsky. He revealed to me his long-time live of all things gnome and his (at the time) small collection of gnome-themed memorabilia, such as garden gnomes, small figurines, plushies, and stickers. Delighted, we moved onto figuring out the rest of the character who, despite all evidence to the contrary, was not a gnome but a human fighter named Gnome.

We had such a great time together, and he seemed to love playing D&D! Eventually, though we fell out of touch for a few months after I graduated, we found our way back to the same friends. We started playing D&D together again, and did so for three more years. And while Gnome Chompsky didn't make a return he always stuck with me. When we had Ricky's funeral, we buried him with half his (rather large by that point) gnome collection with him.

So remember Gnome Chompsky, and remember Ricky who I wish had gotten to spend more time at the table.