Rest In Peace, Barron Vangor Toth

The co-creator of Raw Deal, Barron Vangor Toth, has died. I can’t really put into words the kind of person he was. I think that someone who knew him can definitely talk about him better. This link is to a biography from his own site: http://barronvangortoth.com/classic.php?doc=bio.

I met him at Gen Con, and he was a sight to see. With a name like Barron Vangor Toth, your mind will bring up a Viking, and he definitely had the size to pull it off. He was a gentle giant though, especially considering that it was literally a pin in the backside for him to attend large events, as back problems had been plaguing him for most of his life. And while I only spoke with him briefly, I did have a lot of contact with him online. Over the years, I went from being a customer that would communicate with him on the boards, even being confuse as Barron himself, albeit in disguise, on TeamCanadaOnline. Later, another mistaken identity situation would come up, where he mentioned me, from my posts on Yahoo to a friend of his, and his friend mentioned Walter Kovacs from TeamCanadaOnline, and when I first e-mailed Barron, he learned the two posters were one and the same.

 Barron had his “haters”, as Stu would put it. He was the type of person that had an opinion, and wouldn’t suffer fools gladly. While some had problems getting along with him, I never really did, even when I was arguing with him. However, those arguments are likely part of what allowed me to eventually work with him. As a lead playtester I was part of a group of about five people that were in continuous contact over the development process, and while it’s nothing like a real friendship, I at least got to know a little bit more about Barron’s thought process.

 Anyway, the World is a little less interesting with Barron Vangor Toth gone. Canaan-Axl was probably up there, waiting for him. And maybe he can let Andre know, personally, that he finally got his card.