I received a sad email from Jean Rabe, the prolific fantasy author and anthology editor well-known for her Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels. Jean spent many years running the RPGA, and has been a pillar of the fantasy role-playing community since back in the day when Gen Con was a little get-together at Parkside College in Kenosha. I have her permission to share this.

"Hi Gang:

My mother in law is being admitted to hospice, the doc told her she's got less than 3 months. Said her heart is failing and her lungs are filling up, and they can't do anything else. As you might guess, she is not taking this well...my father in law is taking it even worse.

So ... I thought I'd try to get some of my buds to drop her a card. Not a Get Well card, 'cause she ain't getting well.

Maybe a thinking of you or a Valentine's Day or something. I'm hoping cards will help her stop crying.

I know that you don't know her...and she doesn't know you. But I also know that some of my buds did a card campaign for my father in law when he went through that nasty chemo. It meant the world to him. He kept all the cards in a shoe box and periodically takes them out and reads them.

So...if you've a spare stamp and a Dollar Store (where I buy most of my cards 'cause they're $1 or 50-cents).

Mary Rabe
Good Samaritan Home
2130 Harrison St. Room #621
Quincy, IL 62301

Thanks for considering this,

Jean"

Please consider sending a note with comfort, good wishes, prayers, or positive energy to this poor lady. Let's rally as a community of readers, fantasy fans, and gamers behind one of our own.

Please pass this on to fellow gamers and readers!

Happy New Year to all,

Mary Konczyk

One of the first modules I wrote on my own (without a co-writer) was called An Evening of Wealth and Taste for the last campaign under the Invisible King Program. I wasn't really sure how it was going to be received. It was not exactly standard fare. I wanted to take the Origins experience of the LA LARPs and create a module version where the PCs would be acting as the entourage of powerful people at a gathering of potential patrons for archaeology. The module usually ran 6-7 hours, had a boat load of NPCs and asked a lot from GMs to juggle. Summaries of the outcomes were solicited to influence the direction of future mods.

As Tony and other know, getting feedback from players is hard. Not a lot of home play turn in summaries. Among the dozen-ish responses we did get was one from Jean Rabe. She also took the time to included a very nice note. Apparently I hit a chord with her group, who she said loved the module and had found it different from most linear fare. As a fan of her modules in the old Living City campaign (and of course her later writing) I really appreciated the praise and that fact that she took the time to write something to a newbie in a campaign outside RPGA control.

I am very sorry to hear that her mother in law is sick, and am especially sympathetic because my own Mom is wrestling with Myoloma - a kind of blood cancer. Remembering that she set aside time to send me a note over an old living arcanis module, I made a point to set aside 20 minutes today to write a note. Its now in the mail.