arilliusbm said

Sacreligion said

THIS IS NOW OFFICIALLY A TRACY HICKMAN THREAD

DestroyYouAlot said

Best I can do is this story about Dragonlance creator Tracy Hickman:

Back in early 1985, I was living out of Amarillo, moonlighting at the local textile mill as a computer technician, back in the day when we weren't a dime a dozen. That meant I'd game during the day and hit it up with a number of gaming groups from the local community college.

I first met Tracy in a public steambath down in El Paso. Tracy's Mormon, but back then, he was pretty confused and would start cruising whenever he got away from home. We'd hit the sauna together and one day I gave him a couple of good loads and we started talking about D&D. Turns out that he first got offered the job at TSR because the powers that be at TSR thought Terry Brooks was queer and didn't want the bad rep. So they hired Tracy who was beyond reproach. Clean record, Mormon, beefy, hairy back, cut, but beer can thick.

That was a golden age, the early '80s. Folks don't know it, but back then, conventions were great cruising grounds. Lots of spotty, nervous virgins who needed to get off one way or the other. Hell, I was into the Chicano boys myself, but I was, still am, heavy, beardy and with pretty strong BO, so I wasn't gonna get any from them.

So I started hanging 'round convention washrooms. The rules were simple, they'd get done and, if I was feeling generous, I'd give them a reach around. Most were grateful for the opportunity. For almost all of them it was the first intimate contact they ever got and, in some cases, the last. This was just as AIDS was hitting the news, so I also carried a stack of rubbers in my first ed PHB.

I'm not gay and neither were most of the people I hooked up with. There ain't nothing gay bout spending time with other dudes. Sometimes, stuff happens. Yeah, whatever happens, happens. No one has to know how anybody gets done or why. It just happens. You pump, dump and leave and no one has to be the wiser.

Tracy wasn't gay neither, he just needed to bust a nut. He'd ask me to call him Laura sometimes in a high-pitched voice, but I always figured he had a Dragonlance fantasy.

That's what it was like back in the day, I tell you. Just ask any grognard at a convention and he'll tell you all about it, if you have a moment to wait and listen.