I feel a little strange posting such terrible news here, when I know many of you won't have a clue who I'm talking about. However, the Forge and all the things it represents meant a lot to Alan so I wanted to let you know that he is gone.

Alan died, at the age of 34, on Monday 29th May. He was last active on the Forge on the 24th, just 2 days before he was admitted to hospital. He suffered a massive stroke, possibly as a result of a neck injury. His organs were donated, meaning that his heart is still beating out there somewhere.

Alan was a key figure in gaming within Northern Ireland, having joined the Queen's University "Dragonslayers Society" at the tender age of 15. He went on to be its most successful president, launching a convention, Q-Con which is still running 14 years later. More recently, Alan formed "TableTopNorth", a society aimed at older gamers. He saw a future where we could all still game together into our 40s and 50s. I'm not sure we're going to achieve that without his leadership.

He was very impressed with the views expressed on this forum, and kept us all entertained by telling us about the GSN birthday thread ("Yo momma is so gamist..."), and introduced fellow gamers to Sorceror and My Life With Master. He was looking forward to running Dogs in the Vineyard.

Alan will be missed, not just because of his influence on gaming here, but mainly because he was such a great person. Some of the personal messages relating to the loss can be found on the TTN forum.

Signing off for A.Neill.

i gcuimhne ar Alan, then.

To everyone, after reading this, don't post for a minute or two, please.

Best, Ron