A brief moment of silence, if you please!

[SteveC]

Fellow EN Worlders!

A brief moment of silence, if you please, for my Thursday Night gaming group. We endured for over ten years together, and we've seen a lot of good times. Sadly, the commitments of parenting and school finally brought the group down.

In the time I have been with my dear friends from this group, we have played three editions of D&D, Alternity, Hero, Star Wars, and even had a brief stint with Spirit of the Century.

Five of the members have gotten married, two of whom were fellow gamers.

I have had the pleasure of meeting and dating my very own gamer girl (hi Lisa!)

There have been four children born to the members of the group.

Four homes have been purchased, and innumerable strains have come to backs by the moving of gaming supplies from one to another.

Members of the group have gone through school, graduation, jobs, getting fired, getting hired again, battling cancer, finding love and finding a career.

Monte Python, Ghostbusters, Firefly and many other popular gamer nerd culture references have been made into the tens of thousands.

I will miss all of my friends from this group, and perhaps we will be lucky enough to see each other for periodic board game and movie nights as children grow up. I count myself lucky to be involved in the lives of many of the children who are destined to either become gamer nerds themselves or to excel at athletics merely to spite their parents.

If I may add one request, it is to those of you who still have a monster gaming group to play with, allow me to paraphrase Excalibur and suggest that you think about it the next time you get together in the basement to play:

Look upon this moment. Savor it! Rejoice with great gladness! Great gladness! Remember it always, for you are joined by it. You are One, under the stars. Remember it well, then... this night, this great victory. So that in the years ahead, you can say, 'I was there that night, with friends and a game!' For it is the doom of men that they forget.

Thanks for the opportunity to share this. My group on Thursday (Monday, of late) was more than a group of gamers, they were friends, and people like that come into your life only once in a very great while.

Cheers!

--Steve

 

[Aus_Snow]

Damn.

Sorry to hear that.

Sounds like an awesome group for all those years though, so I'll count you among the lucky, all in all.

 

[Wandering Star]

10 years of gaming... I bet there are some stories there...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

THERE were ten of us there on the moonlit quay,
And one on the for’ard hatch;
No straighter mate to his mates than he
Had ever said: ‘Len’s a match!’
’Twill be long, old man, ere our glasses clink,
’Twill be long ere we grip your hand!—
And we dragged him ashore for a final drink
Till the whole wide world seemed grand.

For they marry and go as the world rolls back,
They marry and vanish and die;
But their spirit shall live on the Outside Track
As long as the years go by.

The port-lights glowed in the morning mist
That rolled from the waters green;
And over the railing we grasped his fist
As the dark tide came between.
We cheered the captain and cheered the crew,
And our mate, times out of mind;
We cheered the land he was going to
And the land he had left behind.

We roared Lang Syne as a last farewell,
But my heart seemed out of joint;
I well remember the hush that fell
When the steamer had passed the point
We drifted home through the public bars,
We were ten times less by one
Who sailed out under the morning stars,
And under the rising sun.

And one by one, and two by two,
They have sailed from the wharf since then;
I have said good-bye to the last I knew,
The last of the careless men.
And I can’t but think that the times we had
Were the best times after all,
As I turn aside with a lonely glass
And drink to the bar-room wall.

But I’ll try my luck for a cheque Out Back,
Then a last good-bye to the bush;
For my heart’s away on the Outside Track,
On the track of the steerage push.

The Auld Grump - The Outside Track by Henry Lawson, a song about farewells and friends.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

(solemnly observes your request)

(respectful silence)

Yours Sincerely
Edena_of_Neith

 

[SteveC]

Thanks everyone!

It was kind of strange not to have a game to go to, so I started up plans for a new game down at the FLGS. Something about the circle of gaming, I suppose.

I feel very lucky to have had the run of gaming that I had with these friends, my wish for you is that you're able to do likewise! Good friends plus a good game ... that's a good life!

So on to the next game!



--Steve

 

[IamTheTest]

Here's to the next great group happening for you SteveC.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

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My condolences on the passing of your group. Make sure you keep in touch with everyone and maybe you can do as my old group is hoping to start this year: an annual gaming weekend.

My old group has scattered, so getting everyone together has been difficult. The plan is that we will gather one weekend in the summer when people returning from out of state don't have obligations to visit local family. The two non-PRG gaming spouses will watch the children (they proposed this idea) while the rest of us game during the afternoons. After getting the kids to bed we'll play some board games that the other two spouses enjoy as well. Next day resume RPGs until people need to depart.

 

[brehobit]

Very sad indeed.

I've got a local group that has had some additions and subtractions and I fear we will be losing the third member of our founding group of five (darn college). But the group has existed now for 2+ years I think.

That said, my high school group (where everyone has kids) has been managing to get back together once or twice a year. 4 of the 6 of us are renting a house next month for a weekend. Mostly (likely only) board games, but that's fine. Just takes some effort and it helps that we have good spouses and decent incomes (the 4 of us are all engineers and live within 500 miles of each other. The other two are an artist and a "job-of-the-week" type and live 1000 miles from the rest of us).

Mark

 

[Bagpuss]

10 years of gaming... I bet there are some stories there...

And you can bet nobody wants to hear them.

Still sorry for your lose, there will be other groups I'm sure.