The Rogues' Gallery

[Higgs Boson]

You know, I never actually introduced myself here, except for a large story about how I got the name Voran Illezou which I barely use anymore, so here goes:

 Gaming History
I got into pen and paper games about 4 years ago, in middle school. Since then I have used mostly D&D. I have played AD&D, 3.5, and an oriental system called Throne Of The Shogun (Since it was abreviated to TOTS, we just called it tater-tots). Aside from pen and paper games, I am a big fan of video games, mostly FPS'. I currently play only Call of Duty 2. I am a recovering World of Warcraft addict, I was in the beta for Lord of the Rings online and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. I am in lack of a good RPG right now, the new ones are so complex and lack a good story.

 Other Stuff
I am a sophomore in high school
Live in SoCal
I am male
TV shows I watch: Stargate: Atlantis, Chuck (A very funny show, I recommend it to all my fellow nerds), The Office (American version), The Simpsons, Family Guy, 24, and House.
Website where I will host my work for now: Here
I love rock, of any kind. ( Mostly metal, though I may be called a metalhead, I do not act like one) Favortie Bands: Dragonforce, Iron Maiden, Metallica, The Foo Fighters, The Offspring, Godsmack, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai
I am a beginning guitar player, I know no solos and only a few Foo Fighter's songs right now, though I am working on   Eugene's Trick Bag
I rock climb, cycle, and do MMA.

[Ivar]

Missed this thread somehow, so here's my introduction:

Gaming systems you use
D&D 3.5, Battlestations!

General gaming history
Started playing D&D when I was very young...around 6-8.  First starting DMing with a friend around 10.  I'm more often a player than a DM recently, as I'm fortunate enough to have a gaming group with several competent DMs.  I pride myself on being a "systems" guy who can Min/Max with the best of them and test rules and systems, but who can also roleplay well if the situation calls for it.

Personal likes and dislikes
Likes: Board Games, video games(RTS, FPS), sports, RPGs(duh!),offshore fishing, beer, and women.  In gaming I love feeling like I've accomplished something, surprising DMs, working as a group, and winning.

Dislikes:I dislike bears.

Strengths and weaknesses in game design
I'm very good at breaking stereotypes in settings and trying new things to keep players on their toes.   I can churn out quality encounters and adventures but struggle with larger scale constructs like campaigns and especially envisioning an entire setting.  As a DM I'm much better with planned events than running things from the cuff.  I'm usually very consistent in my rulings.

What published settings have you used/do you like?
I have used in the past:
-Forgotten Realms - the original setting that I learned.
-Dark Sun - I LOVED the brutal nature and the changes to mechanics in this setting.  Unfortunately, never got to use it.

Major influences on your world-building
George R.R. Martin's, A Song of Ice and Fire
The Dark Sun Campaign Setting
History

[Knight of Ravens]

Life Story
Err'¦hmm. Well, the Silmarillion it's not, but a more tediously dense and rarely exciting book my life would not quite make (though guiltily I admit I enjoy reading the Silmarillion more than The Lord of the Rings anymore). Born in Virginia, a native of Pennsylvania, and as thoroughly drab and uninteresting as any, I'm an electronics contractor by trade most days, a soldier on the rest, and a writer in between. With both Active Army and Guard experience in my background, I've tripped over the world a few times in the neverending quest to make America look as bad as possible when the cameras are looking, and genuinely defending freedom when they're not. But to sum it up best, my life is boredom wracked with ennui and compounded by tedium.

Gaming Systems I use (or used)
-D&D 3.5; I'm not a mechanics-person, nor do I get to play much in the normal sense, and so the system serves its purpose for me well enough. I'm also a compulsive buyer of books, good and bad; there's usually something to work with buried within any bad premise.
-Palladium; used to be heavily into Palladium products, particularly Rifts, until the cloying odeur of bad design and tyranny emanating from the halls of power that designed it drove me away. Still useful for some inspiration.
-World of Darkness; haven't played here in some years, and couldn't remember anything about it if I tried. Nice flavor, but the game never impressed me. Played Vampire and Mage.

General Gaming History
Got into D&D at the advent of 2nd edition (1989), but over the last 18 years have barely had the slightest opportunity to play. I don't go to conventions, have no gamers in close proximity, and my attempts at online play have been fraught with general idiocy and bad planning. So instead I work as a sounding board for ideas, a writer of flavor and concepts, and a sometimes mechanical practitioner. Ultimately, I just enjoy writing something new and different. I work on or head projects at Dicefreaks, fighting the good fight to make the Cosmos more cosmic.

Published Settings
Dark Sun: One of my favorites, the outlandish and alien feel of Athas was an intensely cool thing to worry at. Cannibalistic halflings rock!
Eberron: I missed the setting design contest by a bare few days, but in many ways I'm glad. I like Eberron and the bold freshness of its approach (and several points I might have included in a submission of my own were also there), but I too have a problem with its dependency on sourcebooks and some really wanky decisions for the mechanics. I keep an eye out for anything of interest, but have never played in Eberron.
Forgotten Realms: I can't say I hate it, but FR is not my favorite place. Too much detail, too many apparently (and inexplicably) powerless ubers floating around, and the shadow of a whiny, angsty ranger that has inspired millions of fanboys to design scimitar-wielding, misunderstood rejects of evil societies in a very unjustified sincerity does not endear me to it.
Planescape: Fantastic and beautiful, with an awesome level of material to mine for new ideas, it suffered from an interest in law vs. chaos and the most ridiculous series of belief systems I've seen this side of L. Ron Hubbard. Good, but not playable in my opinion.

Personal Likes and Dislikes
Likes: Writing, dragons, world creation, dragons, reading, dragons, movies'¦did I mention dragons?
Dislikes: Stupidity. And that encompasses a lot more territory than I can list.

Strengths and Weaknesses in game design
I like to think I'm good at drawing new conclusions and motivations from old material, and that I have a decent philosophical grasp on most RW cultures; enough so to create interesting cultures and characters that break stereotypes and clichés. I hate clichés. As for weaknesses, pretty much (I think) mechanics, particularly spell design and the vagaries of synergistic tweaking.

Influences on my Design
I like to think I'm not specifically influenced by fantasy literature at large; I don't get to read as much as I'd like, and most of what I have seen I don't care for (apologies to all, but The Wheel of Time bored me to tears). Tolkien, as much as I admire and love his work, is not one I care to emulate or draw from (though his effect on the genre is fairly difficult to dodge in the end).

[Hibou]

Woot, a House watcher!

[Tillumni Sephirotica]

*waves* Hey!  just a crasy bugger from Denmark dropping by. not much to tell though...parents part of the seventies boat refugee wave following the vietnam war, grew up in denmark. have a unfinished engineering course. currently studying marketing, do abit of drawing on the side and generally not good at these kind of intro thread thing. *smile sheepishly*


Gaming history

started out with D&D 2.nd edition, after I got sucked into fantasy when I swallowed the dragonlance chronicle in one go in my younger days, and mainly ran adventure with brothers and some class mate, and it's been a down hill slope every since. were I've dabbled in systems such as besm and star wars d6 systems, and even played some online games where I actually also do the RP part of mmorpg.

Used Gaming system

AD&D 2.nd edition -> D&D 3.5.  the system that got me started and the system I've used the must. even if it can be abit clunky at times.
BESM 2.nd and third edition. elegant, fast paced and perfect for over the top rp'ing, not just anime inspired rp'ing. nothing like having the players take on a dragon with a frigging bazooka.
d20 advanced magic. my favored d20 magic system, only used it in one campaign, but boy does it make spell casting in combat feel more epic.
starwars d6. okay, so the Jedi got rediculous in the end, liked the system, hated how restrictive the setting was though.

Published settings
forgotton realms. first setting I ever played. the trick to it? had my players make character from the more archetype realms, throw them through some adventure. then have them end up in a far away corner for faerun where nothing is like it is along the sword coast *grins*

everything else have pretty much just been home brew that I've winged in a undefined part of Toril.


strenght and weakness
good strenght...studied all kind of subject and have abit more then average knowledge on them, ranging from warfare and economics, to shipbuilding and basic cooking and being able to apply it to world building
weakness... lack of decispline to write it all down and putting it into proper structure.

influence

well, pretty much anything can influence me, ranging from games and book, to a good old fashion evening with discovery channel, and even text book from my classes. major inspirations for the current campaign world though is septerra core, eberron, bits and pieces from varius fantasy stories and the monster manuals.

[Ghal Marak]

Well, I guess I better introduce myself.

-Life Story: Well let's see here. Born, raised, and currently living in Alabama. I work at pretty much everywhere. I do odd jobs for various relatives/businesses/ect. But mostly I work at a bank. I'm a gamer, mostly centered on RPGs, FPS, and RTS. I stay away from racing games and puzzle games though. Other than all that... I don't do much else.


-Gaming systems you use: For the first game I ever try to run, it would be D&D3.5. Maybe after that branch out into some others, not sure yet.


-General gaming history: Well, I'm new to playing D&D, having only started a few months ago. Systems I have played in before would be; D&D 3.5 Core, Ebberon, Briefly (about 2 days) used Forgotten Realms, Shadowrun, d20 Modern, and d20 Future. I have played in a couple of homebrew systems before, but my memory is a little foggy on it.

-Personal likes and dislikes:
Likes= Pizza, Robots, Undead, Games, Movies
Dislikes= Wasp, Undead, work, wasting time

-Strengths and weaknesses in game design:
...I'm not sure yet on my strengths, but I do know that a weakness of mine is lack of ideas of my own.

-What published settings have you used/do you like?
I have no major like/dislike with any system. I am system unbiased. That being said, I have had very little contact with any system other than D&D3.5. So for now I can't say much on this.

-Major influences on your world-building:
Well, let's see. A lot of things really, but I can't remember them all. I don't even have a thread for my world yet, so it's kinda moot at this point.

Huh, well I didn't exactly tell a whole lot about myself. I ought to come back later and fill it in more or something.

[Locknpop4life]

im an actor and a gamer. ive never made a world but ive been in the process of making one with a friend of mine for a few months now. there is no thread yet but there will be soon enough. and i play an undead warrior on wow.

[The Mad Hatter]

HELLO! *waves*
I have time to fill this out, hurray! :]
I've only started world building about 2 days ago really...sooooo yea, this will take some getting used too ^_^;;;

-Gaming systems you use:
PS1 and PS2/computer.

-General gaming history:
I've been playing D&D since I was in 6th grade but stopped around highschool. Started up again in college and still going ^_^

-Personal likes and dislikes:
Likes: Food, sleep, drawing, anime, video games, cards, Alice in Wonderland, reading, crazy people, being creative, Music, and piercings (plus a lot of other things)
Dislikes: Dying in a game before I'm able to save, not enough sleep, good food gone bad, rude people, running into things :/

-Strengths and weaknesses in game design:
Weaknesses: I just started and I don't know the whole whats what about it.
Strengths: I feel I'm pretty good at coming up with ideas and I have a bunch of crazy things running through my head.

-Major influences on your world-building:
ummm my life and my brain...I really don't know how to answer this :/ everything I've done? yeaaaa

So that's just some little info about me, yep. I'll be posting more later when I get the hang of this ^_^

[Illiterati]

Little is known of the true history of the infamous gentleman scholar known only as Illiterati that cannot be unstitched from the convoluted weave of mystery and speculation with which he cloaks himself. What has been generally accepted as genuine fact (and little there is of it) is the following:

Born in the closing decades of the 20th Century in a small town unworthy of recognition in the cold foothills of northern old Albion, Illiterati first rose to prominence after graduating from one of Brittania's finest (if not most notorious) halls of academia. Already had he made his mark among the quadrangles and lecture theatres of that great institution with his eccentric ramblings and egotistic boasts of '˜creating entire worlds and wonders, gods and geographies, denizens and dreads, with nothing more than ink and parchment and the genius graced upon me by Fate herself'. And it is no surprise to find that it was here that he became more than intimately acquainted with the works of such noted establishments as Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf and Black Industries.
Following this, however, came a period of unabashed frivolity with most time spent alternating between socialising with fellow bohemians and striving to overcome a terrible addiction to those electric-powered thinking machines of recreational entertainment.
Finally coming to his senses, he found employ in one of the numerous libraries which line the length and breadth of fair England, immersing himself among the collected works of the world's greatest literary figures, where he remains to this day; his faint scribblings noticeably audible above the courteous silence which hangs over the tome-laden aisles.

[Jharviss]

So...[/i]

Illiterati was born in the 1980s, went to college, gained a reputation for being weird, got into role-playing, spent some time being useless and playing computer games, and now works at a library?  Is that right?

If so, welcome aboard!

[AllWillFall2Me]

Don't forget, He's English!

[AllWillFall2Me]

Hola!
 The Life story of AllWillFall
Western Washington stock, born, raised, and for 18 years resident. Now in college on the Eastern side of the State, learning new things, meeting new people and having a blast. First got his hands on D&D 3rd edition because, as an 11 year old, he liked the pictures in the Monster Manual. Within 2 months, he ran his first game, and has since become a man who receives  phone calls at three in the morning over other gaming group's rule disputes. Rather than receive an allowance, he merely requested monthly books from age 10 to 19, garnering himself quite the collection.  

 Gaming Systems I use
D&D 3.x, Eberron, nWoD, Scion

 General gaming history
As I noted, I started with D&D at 11, in the 6th grade, and hve been a role-player ever since.

 Strengths and Weaknesses in design
Strengths: nigh memorization of D&D rules, creative, and mathematically skilled
Weaknesses: Notoriously flighty due to poor memory skills and fascination with new, lazy when not interested in topic, and  strangely confused when forced to make fluff and crunch. Capable of both fine, but not together.

 Major Influences
I am a voracious reader, capable on good days of 2.5 pages a minute. This, combined with a reclusive childhood, has given me a vast library of science fiction and fantasy. My main influences game wise are the d20 system, my preferred system of use, and other than that it depends on the game. If i'm making an island adventure, I'll pull from PotC, Jurassic Park ,and anythign else that seems appropriate. i am a big fan of Paizo adventures and settings, and borrow ideas from them frequently.

[Illiterati]

So...[/i]

Illiterati was born in the 1980s, went to college, gained a reputation for being weird, got into role-playing, spent some time being useless and playing computer games, and now works at a library?  Is that right?

Verily.

[Zombie]

Gaming Systems I use
Dungeons and Dragons, Mainly 3.5
 General gaming history
I have been playing D&D for about  10 years, I have only really started DMing recently. I am on my second go around as a DM, the first one didn't go so well. I am currently running a published module in the world of Greyhawk. Even though we are only a couple of sessions into the campaign, I already see the limitations of using published modules and campaign settings. I am already planning my next campaign in which I will be designing a setting and campaign. I already have much of the setting mapped out, if not fully on paper, in my head. I came here to hopefully get some ideas in planning and designing my world. Luckily, I have a very good group of gamers to work with, which helps.
 Personal likes and dislikes
I like reading (scifi and fantasy), Video Games (MMORPG's, FPS, Strategy), Movies, RPG,s (D&D) and Music. I dislike stupid people (ignorant, racist, bad people), bad movies (chick flicks, badly written movies, generic pablum to alleviate the masses), bad books(romance, etc.), bad video games(more generic pablum), and most of all bad music (pop crap, country crap, rap crap, pablum, etc.).
 Strengths and weaknesses in game design
Strengths: Creativity, Character design, Long Term Plot Design
Weaknesses: Implementing my great ideas, Playing my great characters, short term plot design, improvisation, tying it all together.
 What published settings have you used/do you like?
Forgotten Realms - Like the idea, but it's sometimes way too much
Greyhawk - Original is always the best
I like to pull good ideas from where I find them. Like I said above, I see the limitations inherent in any published material, such as it was written by somebody other than you and is sometimes hard to inject your personal tastes into someone else's baby.
 Major influences on your world-building
Authors: David Gemell, Tolkien, David Farland, Eddings, Jordan, Simon R. Green, Tad Williams, Feist, Lovecraft, Brian Lumley
Movies: Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribean, honestly not a lot of my influences come from movies except the occasional character idea or dialogue.

Well that's about it. I'll try to post my campaign idea soon for critiquing, criticizing, etc.
Thanks

[GnomeWorks]

Howdy, all. I'm GnomeWorks.

Gaming systems you use
I pretty much exclusively use D&D 3.5, heavily modified.

General gaming history
I started with D&D 2e back in '94 or so, and been playing rather regularly since. Converted rapidly to 3.0 when it came out, and took around six months to convert to 3.5 (at the request of my players at the time, despite playing a psionics-heavy game).

Personal likes and dislikes
I'm a big fan of steampunk.

I'm not so big a fan of so-called "high fantasy."

Strengths and weaknesses in game design
I'm a mechanist, through and through. That has its own set of inherent strengths and weaknesses.

I'm prone to coming up with new concepts and ideas and implementing them without completely considering their ramifications.

What published settings have you used/do you like?
I haven't and I don't.

Major influences on your world-building
I have borrowed something from pretty much everything I have read or watched in the past seven or eight years. My setting attempts to make Firefly meet Samurai Champloo, Lord of the Rings meet Cowboy Bebop, Neuromancer meet A Knight's Tale, and Chrono Trigger meet Pirates of the Caribbean, all while attempting to maintain internal consistency.