Goodman Games

The story behind Trampier is a legend... apparently he simply vanished one day and was never seen again. No one in the RPG industry has seen or heard from him (that I know of) for at least a decade. Some say he's a taxi driver in Milwaukee, but no one seems to know for sure.

That's why I always ride taxis when I'm in Milwaukee....

Wow. That is a damn cool story.



*laugh* And that makes it even cooler. I love it.

...best known as the creator of the "Wormy" comic strip that ran in The Dragon Magazine... The comic suddenly stopped appearing after issue #132, in the middle of a storyline.

A few issues later there was a brief note from the editors stating that "Wormy" would never be appearing again. No explanation was given. Artist and writer Trampier pretty much vanished and has never been reliably heard from since. In a casual conversation with fellow Dragon artist Phil Foglio at the 2000 Origins Game Convention, Mr. Foglio stated that at some point the "Wormy" strips just stopped coming into Dragon magazine and all checks mailed to Trampier were returned as undeliverable. Inquiries by TSR at his residence showed that he had moved with no forwarding address.

Rumours that he had died were denied by Tom Wham, who was for a while Trampier's brother-in-law. Wham stated in the 1990s that he had actually had some contact with Tramp and that he was fine. He gave no further details. A February 15, 2002, article in the Daily Egyptian newspaper in southern Illinois featured a taxi-driving David Trampier in Carbondale, including a photograph. Gary Gygax and other TSR staff of the time confirm it is the same David Trampier who drew Wormy.

Trampier has been found. I can't say by whom. But he refuses to do fantasy illustration anymore. So he's effectively still lost.