I worked with Scott Wampler. First, during his tenure as an editor here on /Film, where he showcased his typical good taste and tendency to not pull punches when something deserved a smack upside the head. I was not surprised when he left the job for different pastures. Frankly, Scott was too forceful of a personality to not control his own destiny. He had reached the point where a single movie website wasn’t going to contain him.
But I truly got to know Scott when I was asked to run a tabletop roleplaying episode for The Kingcast, the Stephen King podcast he hosted alongside fellow /Film alumni Eric Vespe. What started as a one-off adventure for the show’s Patreon backers — a King-flavored horror tale enacted by Scott, Eric, and frequent Kingcast guest Mallory O’Meara — took on a life of its own. We produced 18 episodes over several years. And it was during this time that I really got to know Scott.
Here’s the thing about tabletop roleplaying: When you do it right, you bare your soul. When you gather around a table to roll dice and inhabit characters and make choices and engage in communal storytelling, the “real” you emerges alongside the persona you’ve created for the game. Perhaps it’s slightly ironic that I got to know Scott, really know him, because we were engaging in acts of semi-professional fantasy. But like so much of the Scott Wampler experience, it was a contradiction that made total sense.