RIP Scott Ruggels

[Lord Liaden]

It makes me wonder how many of the familiar names we no longer see around here just decided to move on, as opposed to, you know, moving on.

[Ragitsu]

34 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

It makes me wonder how many of the familiar names we no longer see around here just decided to move on, as opposed to, you know, moving on.

 

In that respect, the internet has contributed an awful lot of ambiguity to the human social experience...and we're only in - what - thirty-five or so years?

[BoloOfEarth]

FWIW, years ago I wrote some instructions to help my wife to handle things when I die - one for the funeral itself which includes who to contact, and the other about all the crap she's going to need to deal with after the funeral. 

 

The first set of instructions gives her Dave Mattingly's email address among the people to contact, and the second set lists my PINs and passwords, as well as (among other things) telling her to ask a gaming friend of ours to post a notice on the Hero Games Discussion Boards, in the Non-Gaming Discussion list, about my death.  I included my handle here, since he wouldn't know it otherwise.  (Both sets of instructions are locked up in our fire safe, so I'm not overly worried about someone getting their hands on my PINs and passwords.)

 

So one way or another, I'm fairly confident you all will hear of my passing, if and when it comes.  (I say "if" because hey, thus far I figure I've been immortal.  Only time will tell, right?)

[Cancer]

My wife was an attorney by training, and was executor for two estates in her last months (one a family friend who died at 90+ shortly before the pandemic hit, the other her father also 90+ who died about 18 months before she did).  So she had both training and very recent experience with dealing with estates in which she had an interest.  Spurred by that in addition to her own illness, we had our wills, directives to physicians, etc., done (with another lawyer, someone we'd known since we were all undergrads in the late 1970s), made sure our executors -- each other -- and backup executors knew where the full assemblage of documents are (the lawyer's firm does that) and set up financial arrangements with our financial advisor, etc. 

 

She also put together that compendium of accounts and PINs and so on, like you describe.  Do not overlook the possibility of a splinter case: that you and significant other are, e.g., killed in the same car accident, so resolving your affairs falls to a third party, someone who would be flying truly blind.  And if you have things under biometric security, or even e.g. old-fashioned mechanical safes, make sure that the survivor or executor can get into those when they need to, e.g., the combination to the safe is not locked in the safe.

 

Those instructions with IDs, PINs, etc. ... have your spouse look those over, and think hard about whether everything is there.  Maybe even do a dry run for a month, where one spouse "plays dead" and the other has to do all the bills that month, check that everything that appears in the bank statement is something they know how to adjust or turn off; take turns.  Make sure you haven't made an "obvious" but incorrect assumption in your list of accounts and access information about what the other knows (this may be the case for the oldest of your set-ups, accounts that you've had for 20+ years).  We had a couple of slips there.  Not major ones, but slips, things where it is taking time to figure out where and how to handle those.

 

Be aware that the surviving spouse may be required to present the full legal documentation in order to gain access to accounts that are not in both people's names.  There have been adjustments to laws about that sort of things, because there have been cases where angry divorcing spouses have closed accounts belonging to the legally-still-married other person.  Also, the speed with which those legal documents come is ... not of the 21st Century.  Figure a month and a half.  Finally, those legal documents are public documents.  Most courts have websites on which those documents are made routinely available.  There are multiple scumbag outfits who slurp up all the documents of newly declared probates and and then hit everyone named in those documents with their not-quite-illegal come-hithers.

 

Odd unappreciated details may also become important in unexpected ways.  Example: my wife and I both had Visa cards through Costco, but because those had been set up through her law office business 20+ years ago, that meant that the accounts, while linked, were separate and mine was subordinate to hers.  When Citibank was informed of her death, they locked both accounts immediately and also immediately sent them out to a bill collector.  That wasn't a real problem, but it was a surprise.

Edited June 9 by Cancer

[LoneWolf]

RIP Scott

 

We should have a way to honor those who pass away.  Maybe a site badge or something similar, or a page that has just a list of those who have passed.   
 

[Duke Bushido]

I just wanted to say something to honor Scott.  I have the past few days been in touch with a few other friends who knew him.  Chris Goodwin was the first to tell me of his passing (I don't Facebook), then I got a few e-mails from mutual acquaintances.

 

I was struck dumb for a bit.  I knew he had been on dialysis for some time, and that dialysis is terminal.  Still, he had been on it for some time, and, at least until the end, was doing better than most.

 

I believe, personally, that this was because Scott would never entertain the idea that his donor kidney was not just around the corner.  Scott was _not_ delusional; he was irrepressible.  He had a _huge_ personality, but was constantly in control of it.  Frankly, I wish I knew how he did it. 

 

He was an unusual mixture of formal and casual at all times.  It's hard to really explain, but suffice it to say that he would discuss any topic at great lengths in an intimate setting, but manners were always important.  His boundaries never felt like borders or triggers; they were simply reinforcements for civility.  He was an absolute pleasure as a conversationalist, even if his end of the talk was "well, I am not well-versed in the subject, but I will listen to what you have to say, and see what interests it strikes."  And a good thing even that would be, as he had a knack for tactfully (or untactfully, if warranted, but always courteously) pointing out logical fallacies and outright errors in understanding, even if he, as he would put it, wasn't "well-versed."

 

Amusingly, there weren't a lot of topics he could not discuss at least in part.  He enjoyed reading and learning; I have to believe for every work of fiction he consumed, he chased it with a textbook chosen at random.

 

Scott was not what I have over the course of my life come to think of as a typical "California guy."  His views were markedly...  Well,"not California," for the most part.  No; he wasn't a pundit, and was able to see pros and cons to any point of view.  I don't think anyone didn't know that he loved firearms and wargaming as much as he loved art.

 

And that was how I "met" him, actually.  Twice, twenty-odd years ago, I had comissioned character art from him.  I was always too ashamed to tell him that it, along with a few game books, was lost in a move.  He was quite affable and easy to talk to, at least we always seemed to get along.

 

We had spoken semi-regularly for four or five years before I learned of his connection to the early days of Champions (I knew him as a freelance artist who had done a couple of pictures used in Traveller products- if I remember correctly, they were in a couple of issues of the Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society.  I was referred to him at a con when another guy was showing off some character art he had commisioned from various artists.  I liked Scott's interpretation of Traveller.

 

Over the years he helped me develop some basic Photoshop skills and even to use a lot of the online design-a-character machines back in the heyday of Flash apps and sites.

 

I remember asking about HERO Forge when I got stuck.  Not with the interface, but trying to design a very particular figure from several references.  He helped and, in his usual direct-but-courteous manner, mentioned that he generally charged for design work.  I told him that, as I was wanting the figure as a birthday gift for my daughter, he could name his price.

 

Four minutes later, he sent me a link to a perfectly-designed figure true to all the inspirational pieces.  I asked him what I owed him.  "No.  That is a gift, to a young gamer.  Keep her playing; keep her interested in making new stories.  That's enough."  (For the record, I paid him anyway: he did charge for design work, and I certainly wasn't getting anywhere blending the various elements).

 

 

It was Scott and his sharp mind and crisp-as-yesterday memory who helped me figure out how I was playing a type-writer and mimeograph and pencil-written version of Champions in Georgia before the game was published:

 

he remembered the original players, who would form groups of playtesters, recruiting players of their own, and apparently Glenn Thain was not only pretty sloppy about not recovering copies of the game from players, but also Jim's-  my first Champions GM- GM for a few weeks.  Seems Glenn never asked for Jim to return his copy, and he liked the game enough to keep it, and start a new group when he got to Georgia.  Sorry, that's not really relevant, but there were so many side stories he shared, and so many details-  

 

I never got to play a game under Scott, but the way he could put a picture in you mind, with remarkably few words....  I really wish I had been given the opportunity to do it at least once.

 

 

 

And I have probably gone on too long, yet I could go on for hours more.  I really wish that his kidney had come.  Scott and his world-traveler head of hair was one of the most unique and interesting people I have ever had the sheer undeserved luck to have in my life, and there will forever be a Scott-shaped hole in my enjoyment of old-school gaming.

 

Hermes guide you well, Traveller.

 

 

 

Edited June 12 by Duke Bushido