This token design season has me reminiscing for some of the forum elders who were active when I started actively posting with any regularity around 10 years ago.
It was really imposing to join an online community with such deep roots even at the time, and I can still recall the warm welcome I got.
I thought I would put a little note here to acknowledge the people I who haven't posted in months or years, and whose company in these discussions I'm missing. There are a bunch more people I could have included - but I drew the line at people I haven't seen post in quite a while.
Adeya
- A great Wizard player, who really embodied the roleplay elements of sacrifice to the Mad Evoker's Charm
Arcanist Kolixela
- Tireless advocate for Wizards back when people though a +1 focus as a UR ring or casting spells as a scroll with a standard action from a slotted URs were good token support for Wizards. Arcanist sold me my first Rod of Seven Parts I believe.
Brad Mortensen
- Brad was very passionate about a variety of topics - especially as related to the TD economy. He had one of the very first online stores. While Brad and I frequently got into arguments on the forums, we'd also frequently talk via direct messages, finding common ground, and apologizing for getting on each others nerves.
Dennis Burdick
- Through Dennis' forum store I learned about the concept of a "pick your purple." Dennis used to volunteer as a DM. I recall he posted some of the first chase builds I've seen - he had a ranger build with the might set, and a sideboard selection of the celestial set that was my first window into what a complete BiS build looks like.
Eversuede
- Eversuede had one of the first forum stores, and a lot of good prices. He'd include sweet little notes with token purchases that said things like "True Tokens for a True Player." I bought some of my early Eldrtich tokens from him.
Harlax
- One of the first times I encountered a "team" of players, Harlax was a member of team Synergy, and a prolific poster in design threads.
henwy
- Thinking about henwy is what inspired me to write this post. I remember once several years ago, henwy was talking about token design, and described how he and some other old timers would show up to "ride the brakes." At the time I was all gas in terms of token design - now I identify much more with henwy's position. Henwy was also a member of a group of people who would put on absolutely hilarious skits as part the famous Hickman's Killer Breakfast event at Gen Con. One year his crew brought a pop-up cardboard castle prop and refused to be killed, while catapulting plush cow toys from behind it in the manner of the French knights in Monty Python's Holy Grail.
Incognito
Incognito created (I think?) and ran True Grind for many years. Similar to Dr. Suess's Lorax, Incognito sort of 'spoke for the monsters' - arguing against overpowered player effects. I remember getting some one on one time with Incognito at the first True Dungeon Celebration at Walker's Bluff - he joined me at a table and we chatted for a while and I felt like I was talking to a celebrity.
lazlo_hollyfeld1985
- It would be impossible to sum up consummate Rogue Chad's contributions to TD, so I won't try. I'll just say without Chad we wouldn't have TD the way it is.
MasterEd
- Ed was a Monk player before Monks became cool. Ed was always going above and beyond in TD, from setting up a storefront in the storyscape area with his giant rolling cart, to creating a TD focused podcast, to spinning up initiatives with TD HQ like trying to use computer vision in an app during coaching. For a few years Ed would give me a call on the phone every once in a while to talk tokens and TD, and I always felt special because of that.
Steve
- If I understand correctly Steve was a Games Workshop employee at one point (or, if not, then a distributor or reseller). He always had interesting things to say about the gaming industry, and how he saw what TD was doing in that context. He also imparted a valuable lesson in forum communication that I fail to consistently apply, which is: "If you try to convince someone of an idea in a gaming forum twice and they still don't agree - there is no point in taking it further - they are never going to agree."
Anyway - those are some forumites who are in my personal "forumite hall of fame" who haven't been around in a minute.
If you've got some hall-of-fame posters you miss, I'd be curious to learn about them - I know there were many before my time.
