On the afternoon of Sunday the 27th, Rick Brill was fatally struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle in Hermantown MN. Rick was a great man and a friend to many in the gaming community. You can read the various obituaries about him online, but one thing they will fail to mention is how much of a force in the gaming community Rick was.
Rick was a common face at local cons in the Midwest and at major cons throughout the US. He worked on the staff for Living City and wrote adventures for Living City and Living Greyhawk. He was active in many of the RPGA living campaigns as well as the Adventurers League and many other company’s organized play campaigns. Two decades in gaming made Rick a lot of friends, but what made Rick important to so many people wasn’t just the fun he brought to the table or the efforts he made to help campaigns succeed. It was the relationships he helped form. He met people and made introductions. He was outgoing and strove to meet new gamers and make connections. Many of the thousands of people I know in gaming were brought to me through Rick. It’s that sort of thing that made so many people want to get to know Rick. So many people tried to attend his funeral, that there was not enough room in the church for everyone who wanted to remember him.
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Rick was involved in a number of player run groups that fostered that community: Clan Shado (LC), The House of the Crimson Throne (LG), The Legio Lex Talionis (Legends of Arcanis), and Clan Blood Eagle of the Linnorm Kings (Pathfinder Society). These are just a few of the groups that brought gamers from around the country, and different OP programs, together. These gamers wanted to do something for Rick’s family. In honor of Rick, a number of charities have been set up to help make sure his family is taken care of and that his daughter Samantha can afford to go to college. Rick was a big supporter of education and worked at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Labovtiz School of Business and Economics.
So with the help of the Adventurers League (Wizards of the Coast), Pathfinder Society (Paizo Publishing), and Legends of Arcanis (Paradigm Concpets), his friends have gathered a number of items that will be auctioned at Dan’s Con of the Vale 16th (sponsored by Cold Iron Conventions), October 30-November 1 in Brookfield WI. All of the above OP campaigns have donated unique certs that will be auctioned off to attendees as part of what is being called Certs for Sam. You can find out more the specific items being auctioned on Cold Iron Conventions Facebook page as they list them in the days leading up to their convention, but the story and text of one of the unique certificates from the DnDAL will be previewed here first.
One of Rick’s best known LC characters was the elven bladesinger Jean-Dorial Encarthan. Author Jean Rabe, then one of the staff behind the convention Milwaukee Summer Revel and a TSR employee, sponsored a charity auction for animal shelters that auctioned unique certed animals for player characters to adopt. Rick’s character was so well known that one of the animals, a parrot, was named Jean-Dorial. The lucky winner of this cert? Paizo’s very own Jason Bulmahn; though he may have needed some help from WOTC’s Chris Tulach to afford it! In honor of this storied animal, Jean-Dorial has returned to D&D as one of the offerings of from the D&D Adventurers League.
Jean-Dorial: You have bonded with the fiercely loyal and overtly brash Jean-Dorial, a talkative bright red parrot. Jean-Dorial uses the same statistics as a raven (Player’s Handbook) with the following modifications: increase JD’s base AC to 15, JD’s hit points are equal to three times your character’s level, JD has evasion (as a rogue) and as a reaction may move his speed and cast spare the dying. JD must complete a long rest before being able to cast spare the dying again. If you choose, you may bond JD as a familiar or animal companion but should he die, he cannot be re-summoned without a raise dead or similar magic. If you bond JD as an animal companion, the rules regarding his AC and hp supersede the rules above when/if you are of sufficient level for your class benefits to exceed that above. If you bond JD as a familiar, he may not be dismissed like a normal familiar. He simply won’t stand for it. When you acquire JD he knows the following phrases in common that he uses frequently with a surprisingly deep voice: “You gotta be &%$@ing me!”, “Ha!”, “Go Packers!”