subplotkudzu | We Are Worthy

As many of you are already aware, John M. Ford http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Ford died yesterday. I only knew him, as

chadu and others did, through his presence on the Pyramid message boards, where his sig lines are things of legend. (The "Frodo, PI" one still gives me the giggles when I think on it.)

He was, as

mnemex pointed out in the past, a gamer who wrote about gamers as if being a gamer were no big deal. Nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to be singled out for, just another aspect of the character's complex personality. That made his gamers real - as real as the rest of his writing.

But the thing I want to share is this: when another Pyramid poster responded to a Ford sig line with the Wayne's World "we're not worthy!', Mr. Ford's response was "Yes, you are. That's why I do it." So to all you gamers and fans out there who buy into the general public belief that you're silly or foolish or misanthropic or in any way less than others, I remind you - you are worthy.

None less than John M. Ford has proclaimed you so.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I’m rather surprised how little of John M. Ford’s writing I’ve read or owned.

From this RPG listing:

http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=1545

Of all his works, I have only read: Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues, GURPS Time Travel, GURPS Space (2nd Edition), and GURPS Traveller Starports.

I’ve only read a couple of SF and Fantasy novels he wrote, Growing Up Weightless, and The Dragon Waiting. Well, also couple of “Choose Your Own Adventure” novels he wrote under the pseudonym Milo Davidson.

It seems that Ford was only 49 when he died (cause of his death not specified); again far too early for someone to die.

::B::

You can read more here - I have rescued some of his Pyramid posts.

There was a lot medically wrong with him, and it was a minor miracle that he lived to see 40, I gather. In 1991, he told Lee Gold that his doctors thought he'd be dead a few weeks before. I know he got a kidney transplant at one point, but not much beyond that.

Apparently (from John Clute's obit) he had Type I Diabetes Mellitus, chronic renal failure from that requiring years of dialysis, and a kidney transplant in 2000.

::B::

I have a few of Mr. Ford's Pyramid Posts and Sig lines on file - things that were e-mailed out to friends when they appeared. Since they were on a public forum originally and I am in no way claiming credit for them (who would believe me?) I have nno qualms about sharing them here.

It’s Friday; let’s sit in the dining room
And tell big stories of the deaths of kings,
And palace guards and thieves and half-elf bards
And herds of orcs, and hordes of palace guards,
And giant rats and bats and cats and stuff,
All hit points spent -- for in that wound-out sheet
That reckons up the values of a soul,
Stochastics rule, and probability
Falls as it may, and dances where it will,
Allowing them a session to campaign,
To dress in plate and poke the puissant pike,
Pick tougher traps, cast more unlikely spells,
And down the page the plaintext numbers flow,
Until the odds align like hostile stars;
They load an engine with a sided stone
And lob that sucker; time to roll again!

Figure the breaks and choose no skill nor quirk
For story relevance: pick instead Berserk,
Katana, Cool, and 10-point Sense of Duty,
For you have put your points in skills for naught:
I have 16 IQ, half points
In Guns, in Bard: creatéd thus,
How can you say to me, I am not kewl?

My friend, good players choose those stats,
That interest the GM in their fate.
For NPCs need balance not one whit,
But merely numbers and attack 15,
And then the bell curve kills us one by one.
Minimax thou not; but build on hooks
And your disads be free with GM thanks;
For if he kills you off, his campaign tanks.

It’s Friday; let’s sit in the dining room
And tell big stories of the deaths of kings,
And palace guards and thieves and half-elf bards
And herds of orcs, and hordes of palace guards,
And giant rats and bats and cats and stuff,
All hit points spent -- for in that wound-out sheet
That reckons up the values of a soul,
Stochastics rule, and probability
Falls as it may, and dances where it will,
Allowing them a session to campaign,
To dress in plate and poke the puissant pike,
Pick tougher traps, cast more unlikely spells,
And down the page the plaintext numbers flow,
Until the odds align like hostile stars;
They load an engine with a sided stone
And lob that sucker; time to roll again!

Figure the breaks and choose no skill nor quirk
For story relevance: pick instead Berserk,
Katana, Cool, and 10-point Sense of Duty,
For you have put your points in skills for naught:
I have 16 IQ, half points
In Guns, in Bard: creatéd thus,
How can you say to me, I am not kewl?

My friend, good players choose those stats,
That interest the GM in their fate.
For NPCs need balance not one whit,
But merely numbers and attack 15,
And then the bell curve kills us one by one.
Minimax thou not; but build on hooks
And your disads be free with GM thanks;
For if he kills you off, his campaign tanks.

"This is Lowell Thomas, reporting from the IJN Admiralty Bathroom.
Yamamoto is heaving into sight now, through clouds of steam rising
from the ornate bronze tub, which I am told displaces three tons. Let
me clarify, that is the bathtub's displacement, not the Admiral's. He
is turning now, and I believe he is waving at the crowd -- yes, that's
definitely a wave from Yamamoto. It is surely a sign of the man's
great reserve that the presence of more than thirty high-ranking
officers, and a dozen international correspondents, at the bath that
launches this truly impressive bathchamber, should so little perturb
him.
"Escort vessels are now being launched: I can see a magnificent
floating candleholder -- no, a flotilla of three -- making colored
smoke, and now a large yellow duck. We'll try to get close and see if
it squeaks, so listen closely, ladies and gentlemen. Did you hear
that? What a spectacle!
"Uhm, a young lady wearing, well, I cannot tell you for fear of
angering General Sarnoff, but she is asking us to move away from the
railing in very definite terms. I believe this will conclude our
broadcast today. Yamamoto passes in review: a memorable sight."

John M. Ford
Div. of Inappropriate Technology
Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
Creators of ED MURROW GETS BLITZED:
"This . . . is London. I think. I can't see over the table."

> Purity Test Question #354- Use the words 'orc' 'relationship' and
> 'sapphic' in a sentence with a straight face.

"My relationship with that orc is indeed Sapphic," the lady Arwen
said.
"You mean, you write poetry and stuff?" Pippin offered, and was
promptly beaten senseless by Gimli.
"It must be said," Gandalf intoned at his intoniest, "that this
surprising development -- foretold as it was by ancient scrolls --"
"Which scrolls?" asked Frodo, who knew of such things only what
his Uncle Bilbo had muttered during one of his Ring-induced episodes.
"They are assuredly not in the open stacks," Gandalf replied with
a touch of irritation and a long hit of Rivendell Gold. "As I was
saying, the lady did drop her conversational cluster-bomb with a
straight face."
"Brilliant adjectival construction, old hatrack," Elrond said sourly.

John M. Ford
Div. of Inappropriate Technology
Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
Creators of SARUMAN AT KAMINO:
"We do most profusely apologize, O worthiest customer," the
unctuous customer representative said. "We are still new at mass
cloning on this scale."
"It's okay," the dingy white wizard replied. "My boss is not what
you'd call an aesthete. Of course, this does mean you'll knock a few
bucks off the net, right?"
"Please! We're not Ixians."

Why are there so many folks in the shadows?
What are the secrets below?
Freethinking, alchemy, weird censored history,
How does your grassy knoll grow?
All we've been told is a load of moist fewmets,
Nothing's what it seems to be,
Some day I'll find them, the Rainbow Cabalists,
The Ipsissisimi and me.

How many wizards are behind the curtain?
What's in the pool under glass?
Heavens to Murgatroyd, it looks Cthulhuoid,
You'd better guard your behind.
We shall show all those who called us eccentric.
Not now. Eventually.
Some day I'll find them, the Rainbow Cabalists,
And then they'll illuminate me.

John M. Ford
Div. of Inappropriate Technology
Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow
Creators of THE SECRET HISTORY OF APPLIANCES:
"You do not understand, young filament. Light bulbs are meant to die
many deaths, coming back on ever-higher planes of lightbulbery. This
is the Way Things Are. An LED is not a light bulb that has achieved
immortality. It is a wicked light bulb that is condemned to spend
many generations trapped in a cheap blinky toy before it can again
enter the Great Cycle of Burning Out in Inaccessible Locations."

The closest thing to an official online wake is at Making Light (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/008033.html#008033).

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