OK, there was that first session of this Supers/cyberpunk Haven campaign

 I rarely post about actual game sessions and what happened in them. But I think since I have this Marvel Multiverse rpg campaign going on, and that it was literally years in the making, on top of that having a great group of players I worked hard to put together, I think it is worth it for me to make a more detailed record of the campaign, however long it may last. For myself. My blogging motto, especially in this time of record low popularity of such, is "do it for yourself. 

Also, the MMRPG seems to be a low-profile game that not a lot of people are playing. And most of them who are usually just do one shots with existing Marvel characters. I was warned early on in the process that the system was more geared to supporting Marvel style characters, especially Spiderverse ones. You have to get a fairly expensive particular expansion book to access certain powers and abilities such as climbing walls or using snares of some kind (all the books, electronic or physical, are highly overpriced so maybe another reason for a lack of popularity). 

But after spending a good chunk of last year coming up with unique characters in Demiplane (linked to Roll20), I determined that despite some arguable deficiencies with the system in general, character creation was easy. A couple of the players with little experience with it were able to do up a great character with little effort. Demiplane guides you through the process very well (the same cannot be said for the Roll20 character sheet). So, the grand experiment began. 

(note that this first session was weeks ago. As of last night we are up to 6 sessions I think. Also, this post will represent the first session and a half or thereabouts. The first three bled into each other fairly well. )

So the Justice Incorporated campaign began. You can check out the second half of this post to read about the basic info of Irish Japanese CEO Patricia Elizabeth Kyono, the set up, and the characters. 

But in a nutshell, Kyono is one of the world's top industrialists who in the old days (app. 10-20 years ago in the settings timeline) had a little hobby of starting "Justice Incorporated: Security, Investigations, and Restorations." She would dig up interesting street level exceptionals to go on jobs. Everything from protecting a neighborhood from a street gang, to going up against evil corporation shenanigans. With lesser powered, but still interesting, characters those old JI sessions felt like episodes of the A-Team, or 80's action movies. 

BTW back inj the day Just Inc. was the backup campaign for when the big boy supers' team "The Protectors" did not have enough players for the night. Two or three were perfect for a JI session. But my cup runneth over this this campaign; I have a pool of 7 players (on average around 5 will be playing in a particular sessions). But since this was a beefed up Justice Incorporated, I decided they would be more "Super" than mere street level. In this system those old JI characters would be rank 2 under this system. This campaign starts at Rank 3. That is sort of Jr. Avengers level. Think Hawkeye, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and such as that.

Often in the old days, the set up was simple. Kyono was younger, so would be coming out of a high-end night club or fancy restaurant, and either be mugged or witness some crime, and the characters would be near to take care of it. And then she offered them a job. Eeezy Peezy. 

Honestly, though I never confirmed it for myself, I always thought of Kyono maybe setting up the whole thing in hopes of meeting vigilante types. I mean, the city was crawling with them then. But for this new thing, she advertised for an "audition." In newspapers, magazines (it's the future, but print has made a comeback), and in some cases sending a drone to more high-profile characters with an offer to attend. Here is a snippet:

Wanted, exceptional individuals who might fit with a new, small team of especially effective field operatives, diverse in ability, to assist with operations related to security, investigations, and restorations. We are a private organization, and this is in regard to a private LLC. Are you highly skilled in practical combat, athletics, tactics, mental acuity, misc field science ability, and/or people skills in potentially high stress situations? Or perhaps you are a fledgling superhero who is less mercenary and looking to prove your commitment to justice but need the experience to lived out your dream of filling the shoes of Protectors long gone?

Again, check this post for more info on the characters, but for one reason or another of their own they all showed up. Seraph, a flying girl from some side dimension, was on her way into the auditions held in a Gordita Beach high school gym, and she had the first encounter of the campaign. Blimpkrieg, an inventor and balloon enthusiast, thought she might be part of the auditions testing and caught her in his net cannon. But Ra-Ta the little alien in his mini saucer showed up and blasted Blimpy with a ray. He was knocked out and would have fallen to his death, but Seraph swooped in and saved her attacker. 

With the intro of Blimpkrieg, I was setting up the first few sessions of being kind of silly and surreal. But I was slowly building up to more serious stuff. And really, I did up most of the NPCs I had available months before in Demiplane for fun, so they tended towards the "made up on the spot" feel. 

So around the same time some other characters were showing up and walking through the parking lot of the no longer functional high school gym. Near his bitching sports car was "Savio Totalpackage, an arrogant Cuban fitness streamer and his followers "The Savio Squad" doing jumping jacks and calling passerby's out for not being as awesome as him. A quick and mildly violent moment or two took placed, with Savio and his pals standing down in the face of some intimidating characters. 

Savio and his "Totalpackage." He was one of the few NPC's
that were only Rank 2 (the player characters started at 3). Not much
of a threat, though to normal people is fairly badass,
normal people being pretty much rank 0. But he was there to
be sort of a joke. Though I have kind of a fondness for him. I grew
up on the beach in SoCal knowing guys like this.

Savio's babe. "Shotty Too Hotty"

Btw, Savio did not even get in teh school gym. Due to his parking lot bullying and trying to bring his whole gang in with him, he was denied entry to the event. He would hang around outside though, where he and some of the other failure would meet to scheme to start their own group. More on that later. 

You are going to find that they aren't the only kind of goofy characters. In fact, most of the three dozen or so attendees were of silly variety. they all gathered in his defunct gymnasium, with a research team, a couple scientists, lot of security, and plenty of equipment for testing folk. Even a couple stuntmen to spar with more hands-on types. 

Many of the attendees were just athletes looking for an exciting gig. Like the masked former player turned street hero calling himself "Basketball Jones."

You could hardly tell he had a bad knee
while he was dunking those baskets

The athletes were out pretty fast. The more promising people were set at another bleachers while the finals were happening. 

There was not a ton of action. I did not want much in the way of fighting. This was about getting to use the rolls from the character sheets for various testing. It would turn out that this was a pretty high role play group. So it worked out well. Lots of character development. 

There was a near fight tahat I wished could have happened. A strong woman named "Sally Strong" was tired of showing how much weight she could lift (she had Might 2, which is sort of pick up a bus level), and when player character Igneous, a man with rocklike skin and related to Titans of old, stepped up to be tested by staff, Sally jumped in and wanted a punch up with him. 

Sally is not evil, she just has a chip
on her shoulder

I was hoping for a little combat practice, but Iggy grew to 24 feet tall and that was enough for her to back off. 

Iggy has Sturdy 2, Might 2, and 
has some kind of lava power not 
yet tapped into. Oh, and he can
grow up to 100'. He is peaceful, 
almost Buddhist in nature

I was hoping for a bit of knocking around, but Iggy has size change so grew to 24 feet and that was enough to back her off (for now. Their punch up would happen in a later session). 

When the man in black character "Paladin" (he is part of a modern-day continuation of the Knights Templar or some such) finished a sparring test, and was heading to the potential winners bleachers, them from Magnificent Seven on a boombox was heard, and clomping into the gym on horseback was a young woman. She is kind of my favorite creation for this, which is why I featured her in a hectic encounter moment. Her name is Juniper West, or "Cowgal."

I have a pretty deep background for her. She was raised on a wealthy horse ranch and formerly was a fitness model streamer who got popular when she toon on the Cowgal persona. Even speaking in an exaggerated old west accent. Characters would not find out until a later game, but she was mentored by a former Justice Inc member "The Marshal" (who was a player character back in the day) and trainer her in fighting and shooting skills. But she is more of a troublemaker, doing stunts with a drone filming her for Youtube clicks. She was not attending the audition in hopes of getting a job. She was just there to cause a scene and get digital content for her channel. 

I was also thinking ahead to a later session where I was going to have June West be a community leader of sorts for the popular "Urban Cowboy" scene and a nightclub catering to them. 

So in the gym she shot rubber bullets at nearby archery target pads, swung her lasso around, and got of the horse to try to catch Paladin who was walking by. he deftly grabbed the rope, and found she was being playful about it. She flirter with him but he was not having it, and she was escorted out of the gym by security. 

The character Paladin is still a mystery to me. Belongs to an 
ancient order of early Christian soldiers. Sort of like
from Indian Jones Last Crusade. Trained in some
 other part of the world. Comes off fairly blunt and direct 
(i.e. his is kind of a prick). Because of his directness he would
soon become defacto leader and mouthpiece of the group. 

(so this was about when we had to knock off session one for the evening. I have to say everybody seemed pleased. Most of them probably were expecting a little character into then some big superhero fight in the streets or something. And I will admit, in the old days we often started a campaign that way. But I really wanted it to feel unique, a little serious and a little silly, and to go against expectations for a genre like this. And as always in my games, going back to childhood, a little bit of superhero deconstruction. Whatever it was, it is a great group, and it their role play and character development as we went really go me jazzed. This was working out! )

OK, then session two the following week:

The characters really did not have to do a lot to be the winners of this. I mean, predetermined by me, but secretly Kyono, who was watching via camera, had pretty much decided on all of them before the auditions even started. A lot of work to put on these auditions, but a good way to make the folk who would work for her feel special and also let her see what other talent was out there. 

So they were told they were chosen byh "Wilmington," Kyono's exec assistant, and would be driving via roomy luxury vans to meet their new benefactor and boss. 

Though I used Kyono a ton in the old campaigns, it was too long
ago to remember any other named assistants or employees, So I did Wilmington up and just said he has been around forever. I imagined him pretty capable, like Alfred from Batman. 

So I had it in my mind to have Cowgal and the runner's up from the audition have met in the parking lot. There had been this diminutive, bald scientist guy (to be played by Bryan Cranston) at the event, and he would be the leader of this little group who would end up calling themsleves "Redeemers," and when they eventually foud out about Justice Inc they would become their own little team for hire. They would be showing up in a couple sessions, to be used to go against the player characters in what I hoped would be a nice dust up. Give them their first foes. 

from left going clockwise: Hiesenbrain, Schnozz, Count Carl, Savio Totalpackage, Sally Strong, and Ragdoll.

So tghe player group were driven to Center City business district, to the offices of Justice Incorporated in the venerable Winston Building. This older era skyscraper was the setting for Just Inc. in the old sessions as well. 

This campaign will for sure be filled with " 'member berrys." I am already tapping into the old stuff for my own nostalgia feels if nothing else. Even having the Winston Building in a campaign again gives me the vapors. 

With the first half of session two havikng been finishing up at the auditions, the entire second half would be the groups first meeting with Kyono and would take up the rest of the session. At least a half hour of which was the group just having refreshments in the offices and waitng for Kyono to show up. The players really engage with each other, and finding people of that style is what I vet for in any campaign I do. And as usual it was paying off. They did not care that this was not high action. At least not yet. 

The meeting would bleed well into session three. Just awesome. 

So next time, the meet and greet with Patricia Elizabeth Kyono, the official meeting and job pitch, and a tour of the Justice Incorporated offices (expectations to be managed😏)

Until then, cheers and hope the summer is being enjoyed!

I think Gilligan's Island helped inspire my Superhero Setting

 

I mentioned once or twice that my Futuristic supers/cyberpunk setting HAVEN was based in large part on the Pacific island techno nation described in Superhero 2044. But there are plenty of inspirations, and why I like it to be a pastiche of genres. Comics (both superhero and otherwise), cyberpunk, future noir, supernatural, etc. 

It may not be pretty, but I can't
stop displaying it..

But it's that weirdness magnet nature of it. A place of magic and intermittent gateways to and from other places. The kind of stuff that for centuries gave it a haunted reputation that kept pacific islanders or adjacent Asian countries from inhabiting it for extended periods. Which meant that the United States could colonize it with no shame.

Though many Karens and Darrens may disagree

There were two weirdness attracting locations in my childhood TV time that caught my attention. One was a show called Green Acres (existing in the same continuity with other hick shows produced by Paul Hennig such as Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction). 

Hennig with our favorite
 (and most feared) TV Granny 

Starring old timey character actors Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor. Two New York socialites move to a rural dump of a farm, and tons of surreal and fourth wall breaking things start to happen. The husband is baffled, and the wife is clueless (it kind of felt like everybody was in on a conspiracy to drive Mr. Douglas insane). I don't think there were ever aliens or anything, but clearly there were odd things going on in Hooterville. As I got older, I was convinced a cult was at play in the county. 

As an aside, when I eventually watched reruns post puberty,
I was convinced everybody was sleeping with Mrs. Douglas.
I had weird fantasies I guess😇

The other weird show was Gilligan's Island. And a strong case for weirdness magnet. That pacific island often seemed small in the distance shots. 

But in general, depending on the particular episode sometimes, it would have to be much bigger. The Gilligan fandom wiki describes it at between 200 to 400 square miles. That is between the sizes of San Francisco and Rhode Island. Fairly sizable. But like anything in that show it was changeable. Sometimes it just had a volcano. Sometimes it also had a mountain range. And though the castaways sometimes found washed up crates of supplies, it clearly had enough food sources to keep everybody healthy, and the Skipper plump. Freshwater sources, and even natural gas. But it seemed changeable. And maybe part of its magic was it actually changes sometimes. 

And totally a taboo place. It is large enough to surely have been able to support at least a small population. But was never settled, even though it has multiple nearby islands, presumedly smaller, that supported natives. Not just that, but secluded, often hostile tribes. By the 1960's there should not have been much of that in the pacific. So if Gilligan's Island is at least partially part of some extra dimensional space (like The Isle of Dread is in some later editions of DnD), some other nearby islands may be as well. Some of those natives also practice what seems like a form or Caribbean Voodoo. 

The island also has, at times, chimps, and even a gorilla. Not species native to the Pacific. One could say they were part of a ships cargo that got wrecked in the past. But maybe also interdimensional gateways. Also in one episode a spider the size of a dinner table, though of course that could be from radiation, but hey, still weird. 

It's kind of jacked up and crippled looking, so 
the radiation thing makes sense. 

In the past, I have had monsters on the island of my setting Haven and will likely in this campaign. For example, keeping with the Pacific supernatural themes, am planning to have the group have to face an evil, anti-colonial shaman controlling a giant animated totem. 

Kind of racist, maybe potentially?

So lots of other weirdness. A jungle boy shows up. An advanced robot. A surfer who somehow surfs in on a tsunami from Hawaii...which the wiki says is over 200 miles away. Yeah. There is something to this island. 

When a young Kurt Russell decided the acting
life was for him. Hubba hubba. 

When the stuntman in the suit decided
the acting life was for him. 

OK, yeah, so these poor chumps were stranded on a magical, maybe cursed island. It was sort of the Twin Peaks of the Pacific. As a kid I thought it was all pretty funny. As an adult, it makes me think. But I am a gamer so it damn will should. It's all about imagination. And the show and its elements sure tapped into it. 

I will admit, when I was a kid and was altering the Pacific island nation setting from Superhero 2044 into my own vision, Gilligan's Island was probably not always on my mind. But over those early campaigns and the ones well into adulthood (crossing three decades) it no doubt got mentioned. But I am sure my young mind was informed by its elements. Without the show, for me the Pacific would have been being a Southern Californian surfer growing up and being exposed to Pacific Island people and culture, and otherwise what I saw in old war movies. Not all that weird. 

But the touches of weirdness are not all Pacific Ocean in flavor. The worldwide crisis of WW3 around 40 years ago caused the biggest migration crisis in known history, and Haven has very diverse populations. Caribbean, Russian, Latin American, and others reside in Haven. And in certain enclaves in New America City. The southernmost part of the city, "The Bottoms," comes up against swamp land, and the beliefs of groups like Caribbeans and Creole bring some of the mystique in their history to the proceedings. Old Town and The Bottoms is steeped in a certain amount of mystery. Old buildings. Think the Bradbury Building in Bladerunner. 

One of the characters for sure keeps things Weird. He is Ra Ta, a little alien who flies around in a small UFO. His player is an 18-year-old with school and work, so he pops in for an hour or two here and there. So I just assume he comes in and out of a liminal space. He and the player are pretty funny, so I don't mind. 

But yeah, bottom line, I like my weirdness whatever the genre. And I get my inspiration wherever I find it. Just as it should be. YMMV.

Cheers

The Evolution of a Superhero setting

 

So in my earliest days of hanging out and playing as a kid at "OSR Famous" Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica, I had access to a lot of older post DND game systems. Bunnies and Burrows, Empire of the Petal Throne, Bushido, etc. But since I was a comic book collecting kid, Superhero 2044 had an instant fascination for me. I mean, the over itself was very Marvel looking, despite none of the characters being Marvel. 

Well, that may be Doctor Strange.

When I got my hands on the game, I used its setting for a brief period as described in the book. And why not? The artwork in the book was very evocative. Especially for a 70's rpg.

This image just makes you want
to do a superhero fight right now!

Anyway, I would very soon create New Haven, and it was very based on Superhero 2044's high tech futuristic Pacific Island nation Inguria. It was also called Shanter Island, and we had a hard time as kids not calling it "Shatner Island."

It was explored in the 1800's by an English sea captain, was the site of combat in WW2, and fell under American control eventually. Nuclear war ravaged the US eventually, and Inguria became its own nation, and eventually joined the European Commonwealth. The nation eventually took in Formian refugees from space, who now lived among the human population. They are described as carnivores who at times might prey on humans, but not much more is written on that. I would evolve away from a lot of the stuff, especially the Formians. I always had the setting be only 20 years in the future, as opposed to Superhero 2044's close to 70.

So in my version, the island was considered very taboo by Pacific Island and Asian people of the Pan Pacific. So though about the size of Hawaii, it was never inhabited permanently for hundreds of years. I decided this was mostly because it was a "weirdness magnet" that attracted strangeness. Gateways to other dimensions and galaxies. And lots of supernatural magic being around. This fed into my desire for a pastiche kitchen sink setting. Where comic book stuff, cyberpunk, future noir, and future supernatural stuff could go on. 

After the US took control after WW2, it became an out of the way place to build some industry, and of course secret science labs. The worker population eventually demanded a city grow out of the jungle, and New America City was born. 

So for decades I had a paper map, but for this recent stuff I did up a revised map of Haven. 

New America still contains all the neighborhoods I devised during those years of steady campaigns. Beverly and Sunrise Park, based on Beverly Hills and West Hollywood/Brentwood. City Center, based on Manhattan and Century City in Los Angeles. Chavez, a working-class part of town. Old Town and Chavez where the first inhabited areas of the city by laborers back in the day. And the Bottoms was the oldest part of town, abutting the marsh and lake areas, and very diverse from the refugee crisis after the great war decades ago. So Pacific Island, Caribbean, and various world supernatural elements might mingle. 

So since I have used Haven in the 80's, 90's, and a little mid 2000s, have retconned a bit over the years. Why not? Most comic companies more or less reboot about every 10 years. Iron Man's origin was in the Korean War I think. Later Vietnam and even later in the Middle East. So I do something similar. I still want to use some NPC's going back to my teens, and I don't want them to all be elderly. Though I have had time go by. Important long time NPC, the Japanese Irish CEO (one of the only non evil ones) who was in her late 20's in old games, will be in her 50's now. But still lovely. 

Wears a ring, but just to keep wolves at bay. 
She is married to her company.

So here is some history from the game Discord "Info Dump" text channel. It by now is only a bit inspired by the setting of Superhero 2044, but very much its own thing that has evolved or 40 years of games. 

"Konoah" was in older times a mostly uninhabited Pacific Island. a bit bigger than size of Hawaii, pacific peoples never permanently inhabited it because as far back a oral history goes, it was considered a cursed and taboo place. Where gods and demons freely visit. Legend has it that it is a place that touches on the edges of other worlds and realities. That it is a realm not always considered as part of the normal world. Such was its reputation. Even fierce nations such as Japan historically avoided it, as it was feared as a place where monsters dwell and relalities collide.. In the early 1800's it was put on many modern charts. Its first real occupation occurred during the 1930's, when The United States established a military base there

During WW2 America kept dominion over the island, though Japanese forces attacked the military fields multiple times. After the war, it was widely reported that the US atomic bomb was developed stateside, when in reality it was secretly mostly created on Konoah. At this time it was renamed by the US as Shanter Island after Samuel Shanter, the chief scientist of the secret government labs started during the war. Into the 1950's Shanter was utilized heavily for scientific and industrial work. As laboratories, office buildings, and a few high tech factories grew, a local populace that worked on these areas, as well as in the military defense fields boomed and a town slowly grew into a city. "New America Town" became "New America City" by the early 1960's. in 1965 the island was rebranded as "Haven."

The island became famous as it was a place where science and industry lived alongside tropical beauty. It became not just a place of a booming permanent populace, but also a tourism trade grew. In 1980, in this reality, Haven was designated as the 51st State of America. As the mainland's Silicone Valley became the high tech capital of the free world, Haven had its own technological breakthroughs and heavy global corporate presence. But at the same time the island local remained steeped in mystic superstition. As the new millennium approached, and the city grew with a newer image in the north districts, while the southern "Old Town" area of the city still presented the old esthetic of retro technological concerns along with the spiritual reputation of the island state. Old neighborhoods such as "Mutie Town," "Electric Avenue" in old town (in the 60's and 70's the high tech sector but now the lower end of the economic scale) and "The Bottoms" with palm tree lined old avenues, and the "Down City" area with its well lit office buildings and shopping areas surrounded by once well maintained mini lakes and canals and adorned with a landscaped portion of the shadowy southern jungle outback that always seems to be creeping into the more lighted areas.

Into the 90's New America City grew, and its northern sectors reflected its focus on science and industry that many of the more privileged people got to enjoy. Long before Hong Kong adopted a city scape of light, the Uptown of New America City lit up the Pacific with neon and laser light.

In 2001 the attack on the World Trade Towers in America began a domino affect that started World War 3. During this period besides escalating world conflicts and refugee crisis', and with anti-mutant sentiment grew across many parts of the world the use of mutant hunting Sentinel machines also grew and the combination of AI aggression in general and activities of military powers of the world in lead in January of 2005 to nuclear strikes across the world but most significantly in parts of the United States, Russia, China, India, and other pockets in the middle east. It was not full scale global nuclear war, but the civilizations were heavily impacted and the great nations of the world faced great crisis. Years of strife and governmental turmoil and and break down were suffered. The global market collapsed.

Some places, such as Japan, Hong Kong, and the newly organized Western European Commonwealth continued to survive and became the new world powers to varying degrees. Haven came out of it fairly unscathed. The newly implemented Weather Control satellites, which Haven had shared the tech with the previously mentioned countries, helped shield these places from some of the affects of short term nuclear winter and Fallout. Haven announced its status as a sovereign nation the day before new years eve 2005, a democracy still close to its American roots. Over the following decades while the once great powers of the world continued to try to recover from apocalypse, Haven leads the new world powers into an age of progress with a theme of the world arising from ashes through science and industry.

Haven announced its status as a sovereign nation the day before new years eve 2005, a democracy still close to its American roots. Over the following decades while the once great powers of the world continued to try to recover from apocalypse, Haven leads the new world powers into an age of progress with a theme of the world arising from ashes through science and industry.

Haven is a democracy, and always has 2-4 viable parties during elections periods, and sadly the Republican and Democratic parties still exist, perhaps evolved/devolved, but in the last two or three decades alternatives often win.

Science Police: originating uniquely in Haven after 2005 as an anti-nuclear/terrorist force, by the late 90's in Haven the Science Police changed into policing dangerous technology in general, and meta humans in general. Now Sci Pol exists across nations as a global force similar to United Nations, but with the aforementioned focus.

The late Lou Zocchi - who knew?

 

I have not been known to write about game designers and other such personalities on this blog. The one exception is probably Paul/Janelle Jaquays, who was a big influence on my childhood rpg mindset. You can search Paul Jaquays in this blogs search function for several related posts, but maybe my most significant post about her was here almost 15 years ago. 

But today I read about this guy who passed away last week, Lou Zocchi. In my mind in recent years, I only knew of the guy as a dice designer. But looking a bit into his history, it is a safe bet that I have heard the name since I was a kid. And it rings dim memories from the deep past. Probably saw the name a hundred times in old gaming periodicals. 

Since I am posting about my Superhero gaming of past and present lately, including the first one Superhero 2044, I must have known at some point that Zocchi published the second, full color cover version of Superhero 2044 in 1977. Damn, that should be pretty important to me since that game inspired a lot of my future comic book gaming. 

And as a kid, before I got into rpgs, I had an elementary school buddy, a Korean kid named Michael Yim, who loved Avalon hill wargames, and Zocchi was involved in that early on. And including Star Trek related stuff, he has his hands in various ways in my precious Judges Guild, including printing some of their out-of-print material, which was likely most of what I got my hands on in the 80's. That shit inspired my campaigns for my entire life. 

And of course I knew the name Game Science. Mostly known for dice, he was an advocate for proper dice that truly rolled randomly. I mean, even as kids we suspected dice of being uneven. We all had dice we swore by. That D20 that seemed to get a natural "20" a third of the time. 

He also invented the D100, and I remember how blown away I was by it back in the day. I was still recovering from the D30. He also was the first to make D3, D14, etc. 

I remember we used to joke about what
a D1000 would look like. It would 
probably just roll off the table and 
phase thorough a wall into Liminal Space

So yeah, a revolutionary to be sure. Oh, he also blunted the D4..

I never owned one. I am sure it is less painful. Yeah,
admit it. You have stepped on the regular one
like a hundred times. Like me. 

So glad to read a bit about him, even though its after he is gone. The guy lived to a ripe 97 years old, so good on him!

Cheers!