In Memorium: James O'Rance

[Dragonhelm]

I found out today that a major Nexus contributor, James O'Rance, passed away - four years ago. Had I known it then, I would have reported it. So sorry about the late notice on this one. :redface:

James O'Rance Article

Tal confirmed this is the same JOR that we all knew.

James was already well established in DL fandom when I came along. He had a very comprehensive 3rd edition conversion that served as some of the first content on the Dragonlance Nexus, allowing us to be in the running for the official Dragonlance fan site.

What James was most known for in Dragonlance fandom was his work on Taladas. He ran the Taladas fan site for years, which included a series of five netbooks.

James had given the Nexus permission to host his site. A while back, I updated it to be a bit more modern. We will continue to host his materials so that his work will live on.

Dragonlance Nexus: Taladas

So here's to James O'Rance. A really nice guy who continues to inspire us today.

[Sturm]

Didn't know him but impressed by his work, and grateful for it. Really inspiring!

[Havard]

Wow, I am a huge fan of his work. I used to visit his site long before it was moved to the Nexus.

Such sad news.

RIP.

-Havard

[ripvanwormer]

I used to talk to him when we were both on the Planescape mailing list. I liked him a lot.

Besides his Dragonlance work, he wrote three epic live-action roleplaying scenarios for Planescape: City of Blood and Darkness, The Door to Everywhere, and Immortal Sins (all available on the Mimir's downloads site). He had his own Planescape site at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/2894, but unfortunately I can't find it archived anywhere.

[ripvanwormer]

Ah, here's his old Planescape site: https://web.archive.org/web/20000301060 ... index.html

[Big Mac]

I found out today that a major Nexus contributor, James O'Rance, passed away - four years ago.

Wow! That's sad.

James was already well established in DL fandom when I came along. He had a very comprehensive 3rd edition conversion that served as some of the first content on the Dragonlance Nexus, allowing us to be in the running for the official Dragonlance fan site.

What James was most known for in Dragonlance fandom was his work on Taladas. He ran the Taladas fan site for years, which included a series of five netbooks.

James had given the Nexus permission to host his site. A while back, I updated it to be a bit more modern. We will continue to host his materials so that his work will live on.

Dragonlance Nexus: Taladas

So here's to James O'Rance. A really nice guy who continues to inspire us today.

I was always impressed by James's work on Taladas. I would have liked to have seen him involved (in some way) with an official 3e Dragonlance Taladas Campaign Setting hardback.

I actually wrote to him back in 2012 (maybe shortly before he died) about the Ghostwalk map he created under the name "sim_james". He was kind enough to get back to me. (Sadly the Ghostwalk map he worked on got deleted.)

[rabindranath72]

Loved his work; I used it in my first forays into D&D 3e with Dragonlance. RIP