Tribute

I fondly remember my first real exposure to roleplaying. I was fifteen. My mother and my sisters were shopping for crafts and other such girly things in a mall in St. Louis. I quickly separated from them and made my way to closest bookstore. Acknowledging my “nerd-dom” I skipped right over the popular literature and made my way to the fantasy section. I’ve always been drawn to fantasy. At this particular point in my life, I knew absolutely nothing about pen and paper rpgs. While searching for the latest Wheel of Time novel, my eyes fell upon this hardback book simply titled: Vampire: the Masquerade. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It seemed so inviting, and with each page turn I felt this book was closer to a “must-buy” status in my head. After a bit of skimming I came across a perplexing notion, this book was no ordinary work of fiction. It claimed, as I continued to read on, to be a game. I was at first naïve to this notion and started looking for another box; there must be figures or a board of something elsewhere. But I found nothing. And, on the next page, the book told me that all I need is my imagination… and this book as a guide. This has got to be too good to be true, I remember thinking. I decided to give it a try/buy, since the latest Robert Jordan work was not out yet anyways. I actually ended up purchasing Vampire: the Dark Ages instead of Masquerade for the absolute silliest of reasons: I thought the cover looked better. As soon as I was home I took my first step into the world of roleplaying. I read it cover to cover in just 2 days. I remember devoting most of a Saturday tucked away in my bedroom trying to make sense of this complicated game without rules. I finished the book and immediately started a migraine. I was lost. None of it made sense to me. A couple of days later I tried to read it again. It left me with the same results, new headache to boot. My high school girlfriend mentioned that one particular guy played these roleplaying games and might be able to help. I really needed to figure this thing out. I took her advice and looked him up. In fact, we had the same math class, so I started there. His name was Jarrett Heintz. Jarrett and I had been in a few plays together, but other than that, I knew very little of the guy. Jarrett was a vault of roleplaying information and filled in the blanks to a lot of my questions. Subsequently, he was running his own roleplaying game called Werewolf: the Apocalypse. A few weeks later, he asked me if I would like to sit in on one of his sessions. Now, this made sound a little weird, but Jarrett’s sessions were kind of legendary amongst the dorky folk at Alton High School. His players talked so vividly of the experiences that lots of people wanted to play, so much that sitting in on a group was the first initiation step towards getting to play. I accepted his proposal, hoping that I might earn my way into the group. At least this way I could learn more about the roleplaying process if I ever started up my own group. I sat in and was amazed. The plots were so deep; the players actually dressed and spoke as their characters. They even had theme music. Very dorky, for sure, but I was engrossed in it all. Luckily for me, I was accepted in the group and slowly became one of their regulars. If I could sum up all of these experiences into one word, I would have to say: EPIC. Everything we did was larger-than-life. The feeling of being in character and running in those games was truly incredible. We all continued to play through high school, all the way up to graduation. And, after a short break, J managed to start up a new group in college. Many of the faces had changed, but the core feel of the group and the game had not. I was a car ride away and did my best to drive up on the weekends to game. Of course, it also helped that my future wife was at that school as well. The games went strong until college finally ended. I joined the military and Jarrett went on to grad school in Montana. Everyone was quite busy with the necessities of life. It looked like our roleplaying would have to take a break, for a short while at least. I’m happy to say that our group is back, though many of the faces have yet again changed. But I hold true to the belief that the passion of the game, the longing for creation, and the intensity of our imaginations have not wavered. Why am I writing about this? Well, today is Jarrett’s 25th birthday, and I think the last ten years of roleplaying ought to be recorded somewhere. That’s why I started this site in the first place, to make sure that the memories, OUR memories, are recorded. It’s important to mention that while our group is back, it is missing one key player. Jarrett is the guy who started all of this, and our group would not be here if it were not for his advances in storytelling. So, be sure to wish him happy birthday. You might even want to hop on our other website, Dreaming Eye, and give him a shout. Thanks for the memories Jarrett. I hope to game with you soon again.