This is the game Dave and I played more than any other. Sometimes we would play three player (hi John), or even four (hi Bruce), but they never seemed to work as well as our epic two player scraps. Because we both loved the books, the background and the game system, we would play endlessly. Any thought of boredom or sleeping banished from our minds.

I suspect my record was something like Won 1, Lost 23: (Dave cheated by putting in real effort on deck building, I scrabbled something together an hour before), but such is the quality of narrative in this game, and the closeness of the action, that the result doesn't matter.

But the driver of this, like many of the games listed here, was the social side. While playing, we would chat about family, work, games and of course the gamers who had just gone home ("Jammy bastard!", "He would never have pulled that off without me").

Good times, good memories.

I think this is the game on which Dave was most proud he had worked. It captured two of his interests (games and JRRT) and he considered it an honour to be part of the process and to produce the precis.

It is also the game that generated the most phone calls. Dave would call me in the evening, or at lunchtime, and recount the epic trek of the nigh before. You could tell he was fired up with this one. Talk was of upping hobbits or toning down Shelob, but while I had to wait many months to see the final version, Dave lived it to the full.

I met Dave last year in Essen when Merfyn Lewis introduced us, and we hit it off from the start. He and I and Merfyn and Sue (who was there with me) played games at the convention and at his hotel at night. He talked a lot about Lord of the Rings, both the playtesting and his role in the theming, and told us stories about teaching the game at Essen when it had first come out. He was indeed proud of his role in its development. We exchanged e-mails after Essen, and talked about him visiting us in the US. I was incredibly sad when I heard what happened. I couldn't make the funeral either, but what I did instead was I bought a bunch of LOTRs and gave them away to people with photos and stories about Dave as my sort of memorial service. He was a REALLY nice, great guy. In many ways, he was the magic of that first Essen convention for me. I didn't go again this year, even though I could have, and partly it was because it just seemed sad and depressing.

I have only just heard about Dave's death and am greatly saddened by it.
I met Dave a couple of times. He spotted my name and address from a gaming website I used to run and when he was in Devon for a work-related seminar he was presenting he popped over to Totnes for an afternoon to show me some of the games he had worked on. He soon realised we shared many gaming and non-gaming interests and we really hit it off. It was while playing Knizia's Lord of the Rings with him that I first managed to dump the ring into Mount Doom! When he came down a few months later he arrived with a surprise, presenting me with a copy of the Gandalf card from the game signed by the artist John Howe. It was such a thoughtful gift and one I will treasure.
He was a class act and a lovely bloke. I wish I had had the chance to spend more time in his company.
Bill Eaton

Dave introduced this to Mike Siggins, Mike Clifford and I. The playtest of a Reiner game was alwsyas a novel experience, but Dave decided to guide us through the game. We played under Dave's guidance with the penultimate type of game - a group game, which Dave was the narrator and the game was in the balance until the final moment when the last surviving hobbit just failed to drop the ring in Mount Doom.

It sort of typified Dave's playing characteristics - easy to get along with, fun, never overplaying his hand and always welcome in a game group. Oh and look, Dave has just won the game. He was the archetypal quiet person who came from nowhere to win the game and in the most pleasant way. It was always good gaming with Dave.

As I understand it, he was the one that gave this game its name.

When I last spoke to Reiner, he was going to rename a card for Dave, and two for the boys. I will check up.

The latest Emissaries and Inquisitors expansion to Blue Moon contains a card Farquhar The One Hyla, who is the Emissary of the Hyla, who come bearing wise advice. The text on his card, which was there before the card took its new name but seemed appropriate to keep, is "I applaud your quest for enlightenment. However, the path will be difficult, and may take you to unexpected places."

In his eulogy at Dave's funeral, Reiner noted that even the name Blue Moon came from Dave, and Dave and his colleagues were the people who did the lion's share of the testing of this game.

Finally, the additional rules sheet for Emissaries and Inquisitors will have Reiner's text "Dedicated to the memory of David Farquhar. His friendship and immeasurable contributions to Blue Moon and many other games will be sorely missed."

Is that Dave's face on the card?

Doug,

No, I don't think so.

David

I strongly suspect Dave was a Subbuteo hustler, challenging gullible children, losing the first game and then suggesting 'a little wager to make the next one interesting'.

Proudly laying out my new Astroturf pitch, I had no idea of the whopping that was to be dealt out by Dave's deadly finger. We played a round robin, in which I came last with a phone number 'goals against' record, and Dave came top, unbeaten. There were mumblings and grumblings, and it was evident he had endured a misspent youth.

At the next session the pitch, Celtic, oversize balls and plastic goals came out again. I still got hammered. But Dave met his match in Mike Clifford who, as we all know, has had a misspent life.

I think of that game every time I look over at the shelf and see Attika. I'm glad you mentioned Dave making you feel welcome because that was something I was really grateful for as well. Having gone overseas to Essen for the first time and knowing basically no one, it seemed with Dave that, in no time at all, I was just hanging out with old friends.