It is with great sadness that I share the news of the passing of another great from the history of role-playing, Peter L. Rice. I received word of his passing from his wife a little while ago.

Known primarily as one of the principals of The Companions, the studio who created such classic system-neutral fantasy adventures as The Curse on Hareth, Plague of Terror, and Streets of Gems, Mr. Rice was also the author of a few novels set in the FASA Renegade Legion universe.

While I never had the honor of meeting Mr. Rice in person, I have enjoyed many hours playing and reading modules he created together with William John Wheeler, his partner at The Companions. Mr. Wheeler passed away back in 2009, so hopefully the two of them will enjoy gaming together again in the afterlife.

His wife has suggested that anyone who wishes to honor him can donate to the Wounded Warrior Project, as he was a Vietnam veteran. She will be in my thoughts, along with the rest of his family, as they mourn his loss.

Such a great team of writers.  The Companions modules are probably my favorites.  I have never had a group of players so incensed with rage and vengeance than when young Honest is pushed from Norbert Lincol's saddle to be trampled as the players approach in Streets for Gems.  Making him one of the players' most hated villains.  Not to derail the post from a direct tribute to Peter Rice, but Gems for Death lists several modules that I have never heard of being published - Abbey of Odeo, Lord of Hatred; The Miners of the Damned; and The Thieves of Arnhelm.  Were these perhaps published in magazines, or not at all?  I know Sacrifices to the Orc Lord were planned but never released... at one time I had collected together all the hints and clues from the Gems modules as to what STTOL may have contained.  Not sure I still have those notes.

The Places of Mystery series are still some of my favorites to drop in on my players - they are enigmatic and the players have loved them all.  

Still a pity that Peter Rice is gone.  Hopefully some of the unpublished material from Companions will surface.

Cheers!

Zardok

It should be an easy job to have them digitised and uploaded to DrivethruRPG in their original format the same way all the Judges Guild stuff was first republished.
Outside of that, one has to deal with WotC.

Deadlord wrote in Loss of another great from RPG history:Coincidentally, I was just flipping through Curse on Hareth two days ago, trying to decide if it goes in the Keep or Sell/Trade pile.

...and? What did you decide?

I believe I have two, one with the cardstock wrapper and one without. All I care about is usability; if it is playable and I can dig up a PDF of it I'd parole the two I have.