The What and the Who
Greetings fellow adventurers. Welcome to a simple explanation of me, The Harper, as I am called in gaming circles, and also to my club, the Guilds of WARP. I wanted to take a moment to examine both the “What” and the “Who” of The Harper’s WARP.
Here’s what you see…
The ‘What’ part of this missive is our club, hailed The Guilds of WARP in gaming circles worldwide. We are an organization that continues to grow and evolve. Next year we will achieve our 50th year as a club. Gamers often ask where WARP’s name comes from? Easily answered that one is. WARP is the town of my origin, Wilmette, Illinois. Our initial club name was the Wilmette Association of Role Playing, founded in June of 1976.
Over the years as multiple Guilds were added into the club (initially based on where I was residing at the time) the W in WARP was renamed to World making us the World Association of Role Playing, with our Guilds designating the P in WARP for Players. Thus, our second Guild, VARP, is the Vermont Association of Role Players. WARP is known for our large contingent of gamers who design and play many types of games. A small sampling includes board, card, computer, RPG, strategy, and video. Our members reside all over the world, mostly participating in our club campaign, which has run continuously since July 4th 1978, when I began DMing. WARP also provides our special tournament sessions, which are played at conventions across the United States. Notable tournaments include my self-designed Beyond Barrier Peaks series, followed by the Founders & Legends Incarnate series that I co-created with GARP Guildie Luke Gygax. Most recently WARP’s James M. Ward memorial tournament made its debut in 2025.
This leads me directly into more discussion of the “Who.”
People often ask me where my title of The Harper came from? The first issuance of The Harper moniker, I believe, was uttered by Jennell Jaquays at Gen Con in1979. I had brought to the convention one of my metal Ral Partha miniatures for the painting competition at Gen Con. Jennell noticed my efforts and we ended up in conversation. I described my backstory of a terrifying monster she created for Caverns of Thracia. After presenting to Jennell my take of one of the key horrors within Thracia (I did the same again next year with the Chosen Sons of Set – From Dark Tower), I remember her telling me I wove a compelling tale like an actual Bard would and then she gave me my honorific. I’ve used it ever since.
As a side note, in 2023, Jennell (who was a Guild member with our Southwest Guild, TARP), finally agreed to provide me with a sketch of the Immortal King (my favorite individual from her Caverns adventure) as a thank you for all of my and our club’s support of her work. Sadly, Jennell passed away before she had a chance to render the King. I am reminded of her great significance in my life every time someone mentions The Harper. And being “named” has gained significance in our club — each named member has an interesting backstory. But that’s more an aspect of WARP’s ‘Who’ and I’ll address that next time. So, I guess this note of my What and Who should really indicate the designation part one of two…
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