A post on DAT at Tor.com:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/03/david-a-trampier-obituary

Quote from: Benoist;739367Tom is at Gary Con right now. It's in full swing this week end.

Silver lining: at least he's surrounded by people who'd respect Dave and his contribution and feel the loss with him.

Quote from: Warthur;739407Silver lining: at least he's surrounded by people who'd respect Dave and his contribution and feel the loss with him.

Absolutely.

Dang, this sucks. It seems there aren't too many old-timers left, especially the last few years. RIP.

Quote from: Akrasia;739374He was the greatest of the classic FRPG artists, in my opinion.

Agreed wholeheartedly.

Tremendously underrated, by the same token.

A shame.

He also did the illustrations for Avalon Hill's Titan, I believe.

Co-designed Titan (including the pre-AH edition), actually, according to BGG and Wikipedia. Apparently he also had a hand in the pre-AH expansion that was rolled into the AH edition.

This page adds that he published a couple articles, including an analysis of Titan (in The General): http://crypticarchivist.blogspot.com/2014/03/rare-dave-trampier-art-part-2.html?m=1

Quote from: Sacrosanct;739377To say he was an inspiration to me is an understatement.  Notice something familiar with the cover art to one of my games?

I do actually, but not what you think. See the shadowmage on the purple card in the top right? That's one of our group's player characters, I commissioned Storn Cook to paint it a couple of years ago as a gift for the player's birthday.

Storn retained the publication/selling rights, so no worries there, it's just a small world that's all!

Another piece of my youth is gone. I liked DAT's work and Titan is one of my favorite board games.

There is apparently a larger story though concerning how he "disappeared" and stopped drawing. I don't know if anyone can explain in fully though. Maybe it will take a half dozen people who knew him to come together and add up the pieces. Phil Foglio has a life beyond TSR. Other artists moved on to do book covers or game cards. Trampier didn't. I just wonder why. Not making enough money? Okay, be a taxi driver to supplement the income but why stop drawing and game design all together?

Just sad.

'nuf said.

Wow; I had forgotten he did the Divine Right map. That map is so awesome it inspired me to spend 6 months creating a dedicated rpg for it. It remains one of my favorite childhood gaming memories.

Quote from: Doughdee222;739712Trampier didn't. I just wonder why. Not making enough money? Okay, be a taxi driver to supplement the income but why stop drawing and game design all together?

Maybe he just needed a change.

It can be very hard for people who are so passionate about their likes to understand how creators decide to change.  But they are human beings, and people give up hobbies and change careers all the time.  It's possible Tramp never saw his art as anything but an extension of his gaming, for instance.  There are people who follow their dreams only to discover that reality can interfere with it--people open small businesses all the time only to close them later.

This has happened to other people.  Roger Moore left TSR right when it became WoTC, and apparently abandoned the gaming hobby altogether.  Considering how prolific a writer he was in the early days of the hobby, and how long he stayed at TSR, that seemed strange but from what people have reported, he just wanted a change in his life.  (He's been to a few GenCons since then but mostly cause his son was interested in things like Magic: The Gathering).

RIP

A huge stylistic influence on the nascence of the hobby, to be sure.

How can anyone look at that map and not have their imagination immediately fired up?