(I’m coming down with a bad cold, I’m drugged, and I feel more than a little melancholy. Friendly warning.)
My first published work was in Amberzine. “John J Wick.” It’s an awful piece of crap. He published it anyway.
When I list my most inspirational or influential game designers, Eric will be in the top two. I haven’t decided just yet where to place him, but I hope that’s good enough.
While most people will talk about Amber Diceless as the way they will remember Eric, I think the first thing I always think of is another game. A very different game. A game just as fun, but all together… different.
I think of this game.
That was the first time I saw Eric’s name on a game. I remember playing the hell out of that game. I remember loving that game. For all its quirks and strangeness, it was all rather fitting.
And, of course, he’ll be remembered for Amber. The game that caused so much controversy at our game store, in our group, and in gaming. “Diceless? What’s the fucking point?” was the most common response I heard, and when I hear about people tackling second editions, I hear about throwing dice back into the mix, but Eric got something right. Amber doesn’t need dice.
(It needs a slight overhaul since its first publication, but it don’t need no stinkin’ dice.)
Some folks don’t know how to bring The Fun. Eric knew how to bring The Fun to a game. Showed me how to do it. Character creation in TMNT and Amber were a riot. More than half the fun of actually playing. And if you read those two games, you’ll see a lot of the young John Wick in there, soaking it all up.
Eric taught me it was okay to break rules. Even the most sacred rules. A roleplaying game needs dice. Yeah, and tell me why? Just because every other RPG has dice?
Fuck no. Fuck your rules. I’ll make the game I want to play and to Hell with the rest of it!
Without Eric, I would have never put Void Points or Ancestors into L5R. Without Eric, there would be no Drama Dice in 7th Sea. Without Eric, I would have never found the ven.
Without Eric…
He won’t get mentioned in any newspapers or get a nod on the Colbert Report or anything like that… and without any disrespect to the recently departed who meant a whole lot to very many people…
I just want to say that Eric meant at least as much to me as Gary did to you.
Dear Eric,
I heard you were sick and I just wanted to let you know if there’s anything I can do to help, don’t hesitate to ask.
I tried to think of a way to tell you how important you are to me as a gamer and a designer. I thought a very long time and I finally found a way to say it.
Eric, I’m gonna be gaming on Friday. If I never heard of Eric Wujcik, it would probably be something off the rack, but it’s something I wrote myself and it’s going on sale this year with a ton of pre-orders.
I have you to thank for that, Eric. You showed me games could be more than just table top diversions. You showed me they could also be dangerous. You showed me they could also be art.
You showed me I wasn’t alone. And that’s more than I could ever do in return.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
John