I posted this picture over on Facebook the other day after I heard the extremely sad news about Darrell's passing, but I thought I would re-post it here for non-FB users. This photo was taken a few weeks back on the last day of the Bitter Ender tournament down in Raleigh, NC. This merry band of non-contenders includes from left-to-right, Phil Palmer, Darrell, Gary Bartlett, my son Chris, and Jeremy Maciejewski. I'd like to say that Darrell was a part of making gaming history that day by playing the first ever simultaneous double-board, 6-player game of Terraforming Mars!
I had the distinct pleasure of knowing Darrell for slightly over twenty-years. Always engaging to talk with, Darrell always had an interesting story to tell about one of his recent awesome excursions to some interesting place that made you wish you were travelling with him. I had the pleasure of playing Darrell a number of times over the years at various tournaments, always a gentleman, always polite, always competitive, never a negative word to be said about anyone or anything.
I like to think of the ASL community as a brotherhood of individuals with a passion for both gaming and history. A group that is as much interested in playing the game as it cares about the welfare of the game and those who revel in playing it. To that end, we all lost a brother this past week. Too soon gone. I will miss him.
Very sad. Darrell was always willing to playtest the dreaded night scenarios with me. I wonder if he was just 'too nice" to win much. Or maybe literally enjoyed the game more than he cared about winning.
