Eric "Shade" Jansing (1971-2012)

[Mortis]

I'm sorry to hear this. I'd like to give my condolences to his family and friends.

Like a lot of others, I only knew Shade via these forums but he came across as a great guy.

I first came here in 2004 looking for 3E conversions of Mystaran and Known World creatures but have stayed (with gaps) because Shade (and at that time BOZ) made me feel welcome and dealt with my requests/suggestions in a friendly manner.

I'm not sure if is possible but I would like to suggest that the Creature Catalogue section of Enworld be dedicated to Erik's memory.

Regards
Mortis

 

[freyar]

I could definitely get behind dedicating some part of the CC to Eric, either adding to the site's dedication or the forums if Morrus would allow it.

Clefton, thank you again for sharing your memories with us. In the same spirit, I want to mention some of the critter conversions I think Eric found memorable.

1) While he never seemed to choose favorites among monster types or finer categories, I always thought Eric seemed fond of demon lords. I remember we had fun with this one, which we decided would be a good obyrith (perhaps treading on WotC's IP a little).

2) For obvious reasons, Eric really liked the canopic shade.

3) On the other side, there are some conversions that were so frustrating that they became amusing. One that still comes up 3 years later started innocently enough as the fairly simple mold wyrm quickly spread into over 300 posts, as well as three more templates (the false keraptis, subsumed mind, and skin puppet) and another unique monster, Mossmutter.

 

[Echohawk]

3) On the other side, there are some conversions that were so frustrating that they became amusing. One that still comes up 3 years later started innocently enough as the fairly simple mold wyrm quickly spread into over 300 posts, as well as three more templates (the false keraptis, subsumed mind, and skin puppet) and another unique monster, Mossmutter.

Oh boy, I remember well that little rabbit hole from Return to White Plume Mountain!

If I recall correctly, the wizard Keraptis left behind a number of cursed scrolls, which, when read, caused the victim to believe that he/she/it was the real Keraptis (thus gaining the False Keraptis template). These false Keraptises have the ability to imprint other creatures with parts of Keraptis's mind (causing them to gain the Subsumed Mind template), creating a distributed hierarchical mind under the control of each false Keraptis.

Add to this already complicated back-story a new creature billowed forth from Bruce Cordell's mind called a mold wyrm. These are huge fungal creatures created by a leaking Basin of Boundless Life. Creature consumed by mold wyrms return to life as mold wyrms themselves. Now take a particularly large specimen of mold wyrm, and have it ingest a gnome wizard, who has previously had the misfortune of becoming a false Keraptis. Upon being devoured by the mold wyrm, this particular false Keraptis managed to reseat its (false) mind into the mold wyrm, creating a new, unique example of a false Keraptis named Mossmutter.

Like other false Keraptises, Mossmutter can imprint on other creatures, but it does this in an unusual way. Instead of becoming new mold wyrms, the creatures Mossmutter kills become Skin Puppets (gaining the final template). Each of these is a fungal mass inhabiting the creature's former skin and adding to Mossmutter's hierarchical mind.

I remember Shade being particularly tenacious about making sure the conversions did justice to Cordell's original vision of how all of these creatures fitted together. That process resulted in one new creature, three new templates, three sample creatures for those templates and one new unique creature. Along the way, we even got to revisit the sword Blackrazor from the original White Plume Mountain, now in the possession of Killjoy, an efreet False Keraptis. Even though the complexity of that project was a but frustrating at the time, I think the end collection of templates and creatures really holds together well. (And, IMHO, does a better job of modelling the hierarchical minds than the original adventure.)

 

[Cleon]

Oh boy, I remember well that little rabbit hole from Return to White Plume Mountain!

So do I, so do I.

The conversion was so complicated we still use those templates as a threat.

 

[freyar]

That was one of the few conversions that Echohawk participated in, too; I dragged him into helping me (mostly) finish it while Shade was on vacation. Once it was done, Shade posted it rather quickly to the CC database -- I'm sure he just wanted to get rid of it! But I think we all felt proud of it.

 

[RavinRay]

My best memories of working with Shade here were our very first collaboration (the jacinth dragon), and converting the Philippine monsters from Imagine (?) magazine. He enjoyed reading about my childhood experiences hearing tales about the aswang and other fearsome monsters told to make us behave.

 

[Echohawk]

My best memories of working with Shade here were our very first collaboration (the jacinth dragon), and converting the Philippine monsters from Imagine (?) magazine. He enjoyed reading about my childhood experiences hearing tales about the aswang and other fearsome monsters told to make us behave.

Yeah, that was back in 2007, I think. I still have a PDF compilation of Monsters From the Folklore of the Philippines scanned from Imagine 15 (which is where those creatures came from).

Come to think of it, the pages of Imagine provided quite a number of interesting conversion (including the Canopic Shade, one of Shade's favorites). If it was legally permissible to release compilations of the CC conversions in PDF form, I'd love to see a "Creature Catalog: Monster of Imagine Magazine".

 

[freyar]

Shade was always an equal-opportunity monster junkie, open to hearing about monsters of all sorts. He welcomed them all to the CC, just like he welcomed us.

The "Monsters of Imagine" is a nice idea. I actually wonder how much we're allowed to do in the CC sometimes anyway --- it's possible PDFs would be ok.

 

[Cleon]

Yeah, that was back in 2007, I think. I still have a PDF compilation of Monsters From the Folklore of the Philippines scanned from Imagine 15 (which is where those creatures came from).

Come to think of it, the pages of Imagine provided quite a number of interesting conversion (including the Canopic Shade, one of Shade's favorites). If it was legally permissible to release compilations of the CC conversions in PDF form, I'd love to see a "Creature Catalog: Monster of Imagine Magazine".

Ah yes, I remember those. The Taumet took us the longest, if I remember rightly, partly because it came with a set of magical artefacts.

My favourite Imagine monster was the Mountain Hag, mainly because it appears in a great adventure in the magazine.

 

[Big Mac]

My favourite monster conversions have to be the ones that were only partially designed in the original products. My all time favourite would be the Silver Silactic.

I'm not sure if is possible but I would like to suggest that the Creature Catalogue section of Enworld be dedicated to Erik's memory.

...and...

I could definitely get behind dedicating some part of the CC to Eric, either adding to the site's dedication or the forums if Morrus would allow it.

Eric helped push the Creature Catalog so close to finishing all the monsters, that I think I'd love to see the process get finished and turned into one or more netbooks* that are dedicated to his memory, a bit like the way that CGR1 The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook is dedicated to TSR designer Curtis Scott.

* = There is so much here, that I'm not sure it would fit into one netbook. And it is possible that niche netbooks (like Creature Catalog presents: Monsters of Imagine Magazine" or "Creature Catalog presents: Monsters of Kara-Tur") could be dovetailed with appendices that include some of the information we have here in non-conversion threads. The collectors lists would be useful. We have had some rambling conversations about the individual monsters, but perhaps a couple of small quotes could be included as notes in a sidebar or in a "how the monsters got converted" appendix. It would need to be summarised, but perhaps you could show how the conclusions were reached.

Shade donated a ton of his free time, so that people that like 3rd Edition rules and pre-3e campaign settings could use the two things together and I think that something like a freebie netbook would float around the 3e grognoid community forever and that a dedication foreword could let people that don't even play D&D yet know what a great contribution Shade made towards 3e gaming culture**. That would be a "show not tell" thing that would just get spread way beyond ENWorld by osmosis.

** = Alongside many other cool people that post in the threads here. If I ever get over the pond to GenCon, I'd love to hook up with you all and thank you the way I should have thanked Eric.

I do think that netbook PDFs (specifically free ones) would be OK, as people would still need to buy pre-3e material and 3e core rulebooks to use them. (And if you stuck one of Echohawk's collectors lists in the back, it would drive sales of the commercial products.)

With the Creature Catalog still not quite finished, a number of niche netbooks would allow for some stuff to be published now, while other stuff could get done further down the line.

EDIT

Not at all. The obituary mentions a college fund for his children.

If the Creature Catalog was converted to one or more netbooks, do you think it would be appropriate (and legal) to mention the college fund in an appendix at the back? I already said that a netbook (that held useful stuff that lots of gamers would want) would be a great way to get the message across. If there are gamers out there that are willing to donate cash to Kickstarter projects, maybe a percentage would throw a bit of "thank you" cash towards Eric.