Vale, Greg Stafford (1948 – 2018)

It’s hard to overestimate the impact Greg Stafford had on my life. I met him in person for the first time this summer, at GenCon, but I first met his mind and his creations 38 years ago, when I was 12 years old, as a shiny new gamer picking up RuneQuest 2nd edition for the first time. I played RuneQuest for years, at that formative time in life when years really do feel like years. Apple Lane, the Rainbow Mounds, Gringle’s Pawnshop, I know these places almost as well as I know any place on earth. Humakt and Orlanth and the Red Moon went deep into my gamer DNA. RuneQuest and Glorantha changed me as a person, and I’ve been exploring both ever since.

I was thrilled to bits to meet Greg this summer. At the Chaosium writing workshop on the Wednesday before the convention, he came to our table – me, Jeff Richard, Chris Spivey, Jason Durall, Dan McCluskey, David Larkins – and sat down, and told us how over the moon he was to see his creation flourishing and inspiring others. It was an amazing moment for me, to be writing in Greg’s world and being welcomed into the tribe by the shaman himself.

We had two or three more chats during the con – a delightful, fun-filled, friendly man, clearly firing on all cylinders all the time. I watched him talk to awestruck young fans, and told him I was an awestruck old one. I got the chance to thank him and tell him what his work had meant to me.

Now I’m in tears, and thinking how devastated everyone else out there must be, those who knew him well, deeply, for many years. My condolences go out to you all, and especially to Suzanne and all his family.

We are all us.

Sarah, Normandy, 12th October 2018