FormCritic you forced me to do it.  I just had to know why you changed your avatar and what did it mean.  My search is over.

http://spartanedge.com/november8/061108-dallas.html

Edit:  I was busy searching this out as you were posting the explanation... funny... minutes apart.

leadjunkie wrote:FormCritic you forced me to do it.  I just had to know why you changed your avatar and what did it mean.  My search is over.

http://spartanedge.com/november8/061108-dallas.html

Edit:  I was busy searching this out as you were posting the explanation... funny... minutes apart.

Did you search out Dallas Egbert, or did you somehow trace where I got the photograph?

If you traced the photograph....how did you do that?

I usually don't think of Egbert as a tragic figure...if for no other reason than that the legend of his disappearance did so much harm to role playing games and caused such an unreasoning panic in so many well-meaning minds.

A part of the legend of Dallas Egbert was that police believed he may have been kidnapped by THE DUNGEON MASTER (add dramatic musical flourish) and was being held prisoner in the steam tunnels...for some reason...or other...pretty much.

News articles of the day left out details of Egbert's story...such as drug use, depression, social isolation (a genius teenager at college), parental pressures and inner conflicts over homosexuality.   They made it sound as if Egbert's only flaw was....DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS (add musical flourish).  News stories about the disappearance tended to emphasize off-hand comments from the police about D&D and the steam tunnels.  Had someone taken the game too far (sinister musical flourish)?

Remember the gay gunman who shot Gianni Versace toward the end of his multi-state fugitive killing spree?  Imagine if Andrew Cunnanin (sp?) had been a D&D player...and what the press would have speculated....

In fact, Egbert was only a marginal D&D player by the standards of people on this forum.

Egbert's story was referrenced in the comic strip Knights of the Dinner Table:  One of the Hackmaster players (Bob?) in the comic strip was one of the infamous "Ball State Seven," who made national news by getting lost in the steam tunnels under Ball State University while LARPing.  Bob got separated from the others when he "went to look for food."  According to fictional TV figure, Ted Koplov, Bob was found whimpering in a corner, clad in only his underwear.

Dallas Egbert's "disappearance" (his parents didn't know where he was but another relative did) was not directly connected to his suicide.  He killed himself two years later, upstairs in his parents' home.  (I am dredging up the details from 20 years ago...anyone feel free to correct me if I have them wrong.)

His name has become iconic of the ridiculous claims that were made about Dungeons and Dragons back in the day.  Today, I imagine that most parents are relieved that their kids are hacking up imaginary monsters with their friends rather than taking drugs or using the same time downloading internet porn.  Perspective...perspective....

Mark  

Did you search out Dallas Egbert, or did you somehow trace where I got the photograph?

If you traced the photograph....how did you do that?

I did not recognize the photograph, so I traced it's source.  Right click on your avatar, click on properties in the menu.  The URL for the photo is displayed.  I then went to that address which displayed just the photo.  From there I started removing sections of the address one folder at a time until I got to the index of images.  In that index I saw that there were several images of Dallas.  I tried to gain clues from the file names.  I used the dates, the name, etc.  That didn't get me anywhere, so I went to the domain (spartenedge) and googled just that domain with keywords that I thought might be relevant.  Within a few minutes I found the story and knew right away I would find the picture on that page.

The story brought back a lot of memories.  I started playing D&D in 1977 and well remember the the hyperbole and speculation that surrounded that story.  Many of my friends parents frowned on D&D because of this ridiculous press coverage.  Living in the Bible Belt didn't help much either.  I myself was accused of Satan worship.

I'll give the articles you have pointed to read later when I have more time.

ATOM wrote:I was the third! You would think more people would recognise a true American Pioneer such as R.E. Howard.

I knew the name, read some writings, but knew little of the man and definitely not what he looked like until Mark's avatar appeared.

ATOM wrote:Every one else must have thought that you have a thing for wearing 1920s clothing?

leadjunkie wrote:I did not recognize the photograph, so I traced it's source. Right click on your avatar, click on properties in the menu. The URL for the photo is displayed

Hot-linking is what gets people in trouble.  People who host the image or code can change it anything they want.  A certain presidential candidate's MySpace page was recently affected by hot-linking; his page proudly proclaimed "Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage . . . particularly marriage between passionate females."