#22 – Jim Henson – Puppeteer

The death of Jim Henson actually came as quite a shock to my younger self. I was barely 7 years old at the time, and so Mr. Henson’s creations were still a big, big part of my life. I think a part of me was just terrified that all of the characters he had created would simply poof out of existance along with him, but of course they didn’t. It took me a while to understand that the really great artists leave behind work that lives well beyond their lifetime, and this was true of Jim Henson’s work in a very literal sense.

Puppeteers, also called Puppetmasters, are a rather rare class in RPGs. They tend to fill the same gamespace as either Monster Tamers — sending critters into battle while they hang back — or Black Mages — using their creepy critters to cast offensive magic — so Puppetmasters don’t tend to show up unless the roster of classes is genuinely huge. Mr. Henson’s design here is actually against the grain of most Puppetmasters, too, since this class tends to emphasize the creepy puppet aspect. And Muppets could certainly do creepy (I point you to the Skeksis of The Dark Crystal for examples), but Mr. Henson himself was basically a big puppy dog.

Category: 2011, Fantasy