The Rogues' Gallery

[Kalos Mer]

It STILL seems to me that a good thing to have for the guild would be a thread where everybody introduces themselves and gives a short biography.

Those people uncomfortable with revealing even vague personal biographical information over the internet can focus on gaming history.

Things Potentially to Include
-Gaming systems you use
-General gaming history
-Personal likes and dislikes
-Strengths and weaknesses in game design
-What published settings have you used/do you like?
-Major influences on your world-building

And so on.

For the sake of clarity, I recommend putting bold-faced headings into your entry.  

Since my alignment is decidedly chaotic, though, I'm leaving the specifics up to you.

[Elven Doritos]

Placeholder until I rewrite this, it was 5 years old.

[Kalos Mer]

Life Story
Born and raised in Connecticut, Kalos Mer (who goes by "Herecgunina" on the Wizards boards) is currently twenty-one years old and a senior at Brown University, where he is studying towards a bachelors degree in Classics. He is a general lover and student of the pre-modern world in general, lining his bookshelves with books on Old French, Old Norse, Old English, Old Irish, Classical Armenian, &c.  An occasional poet, Kalos's actual ambition is to join the ranks of the dusty old scholars.  

He is the primary creative force behind the Tasothilos campaign setting.

Gaming Systems I use
-D&D 3.25 (I accept most changes made from 3 to 3.5, but I never could stomach parting with the old system of damage reduction (+1,+2,+3...), and a couple other things.
-On rare occasions, d20 Modern/Star Wars/WoT
-I've experimented with a lot of other systems, including old-school Star Wars, non-d20 Call of Cthulhu and probably about a half dozen others
-I've recently played a few different games of Ars Magica, and I like it a whole lot.

General Gaming History
I was introduced to AD&D 2nd Edition in 1995 (I was in 3rd grade at the time). Though the first couple years were pretty 'informal' (we didn't care so much about rules or plots as just telling little fantasy stories about elves and dwarves), I eventually got hooked up through a friend of mine with a group that gamed over ICQ and did some pretty good stuff. I started DMing around 1998-9, made the transition to 3.x reluctantly about six months after it was released, and have been working with it ever since.

Published Settings
Forgotten Realms: FR bores me, but at the same time it's a very flexible world. I own the FRCS and MoF, and when I just want to game without having to design anything I use FR.
Planescape: My favorite setting ever. I love the factions, the law/chaos focus, and the general notion of philosophers with clubs (or +4 swords).
Ravenloft: Tried it, but with a very inexperienced DM so it game out just being clumsy undead-hunting instead of real horror. May give it another chance.
Eberron:  I'm a touch too traditional to really get into it for my own sake, but at the same time I really admire what it accomplishes.

Personal Likes and Dislikes
Likes: World Creation, the classical world, ancient poetry, religious studies, history, anthropology, hats, Greek particles, green apples (good call, Cymraegmorgan!), and salsa (the topping, not the dance).
Dislikes: Most 'important' literature of the 20th Century (exc. people like Tolkien, Pound and Eliot), Anime/Manga, and fake whipped cream (the kind from a can).

Strengths and Weaknesses in game design
I'm very good at designing cultures that for the most part feel like they could have developed organically. I'm strong in mythology and I'm also strong with languages, though for the most part I've been cheating in my own world by making the languages sound similar to real ones.
I'm particularly bad at the implementation of mechanics, the place of high-fantasy elements in the world, and building logically consistent climate/geography.

Influences on my Design
I work part-time in my university's humanities library, and I spend all of my breaks browsing.  I get lots of ideas that way.

Particular creators who've influenced my major setting include Herodotus and Strabo, Tolkien, George Lucas (very slightly), Robert Jordan, and Jack Vance.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Gaming systems you use
D&D 3.5, and when the mood strikes me, some White Wolf

General gaming history
Started playing D&D when I was 8 with my older brother and his friends... they probably had to tone it down a bit for me, but I honestly don't remember ;)  Talked some buddies of mine into playing with me when I was 13, I've been DMing ever-since (except for an online campaign right now that my brother's running).

Personal likes and dislikes
Likes: Jazz and classical music, most jambands (Phish, DMB, Dead), playing piano and drums, creating worlds, dogs (my three, in particular), pumpkin-flavored candles, sailing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Smallville, hanging around with my buddies at Nattie Greene's in downtown G-boro and drinking their homebrews (no pun intended).
Dislikes:The Sims, Miscrosoft, GWB, the WAR, kids that yack on their cell phones while they're sitting at a dinner table in a restaurant.

Strengths and weaknesses in game design
Strength: I'm pretty creative, and have good ideas.
Weakness: I'm not that great at implementing those ideas mechanically.
Strength: I can run a long-term campaign and my players enjoy it.
Weakness: My campaigns tend to be extremely quest-oriented (save-the-world-type stuff), which means once the campaign's over, the world's no good for campaigning in anymore :)

What published settings have you used/do you like?
I have used in the past:
Kingdoms of Kalamar Not too bad, but the campaign focuses on too much of the political aspects, and not enough of the good adventure aspects.
Forgotten Realms I have nothing bad to say about FR.  Sure, it's super high-magic, and all the NPC's are near-gods, but hey, I have a lot of good memories of the world.
Eberron Don't care for it.  Trying too hard to be unique through gimmicks.  Plus, there are many things in the main campaign book that are extremely poorly explained, and it's my opinion that I shouldn't have to buy supplements just to play a campaign.
Midnight Best durned setting ever published.

Major influences on your world-building
Robert Jordan's, The Wheel of Time
Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
Raymond Feist's The Riftwar Saga
Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Angel

[Numinous]

My username is Natural 20, as you can see(unless of course you're blind, in which case, I'm sorry). I'm an expert at game material plagiarism, and I am becoming notorious for stealing people's quotes... The good news is that I am trying to wean myself off of other people's ideas throught he building of my campaign setting, Godswalk(yes, I'm aware that it's redundant). Besides the plagiarism thing, my main quirks are copying a person's style of humor, using overwhelming amounts of ellipses(...), and being overly polite on message boards.

I started getting into role-playing games through a failed attempt to modify D&D so I could understand it and basing the whole system around a point-buy method. Needless to say, I failed miserably. I am happy to say however, that the time invested in that project granted me the insight necessary to understand the 3.5 rules . I am currently a reluctant DM for a group mostly comprised of fools... I ask anyone running an online campaign of any sort to contact me, as I would love to play. The small fact that may prove surprising is that I have never DM'ed what I would call a real game, or even played in one for that matter. I have played and DM'ed numerous one-shot, hack-and slash sessions however, which proved to be quite unsatisfying...

Strengths
I simply can't help but think up interesting characte concepts, and I have a gift for speaking eloquently when necessary. As previouly mentioned as well, I have a talent for seamlessly blending any ideas I find on the internet or in source-books seamlessly into an adventure, setting, etc.

Weaknesses
I have horrible procrastination issues, and so most of my constant ideas go to waste because i fail to follow through with them. Therefore, most of my dungeons are badly designed, make-it-up-as-you-go affairs. As I have no real experience and I have an isolated group to play with, I also lack experience in handling normal game problems. i also seem to have a problem thinking big, as almos all of my dungeons are 5-foot hallway with square room affairs.

Motto
It ain't stealing if ya ain't caught. I honestly hope to change this however, perhaps with the aid orf my new project...

Influences
The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, the Forgotten Realms books, and undoubtedly the Dragonlance novels. anime was a strong influece, but it is now fading fast, so bis and pieces might drift into my work.

Titles and Abbreviations
If you are too lazy to type out my name, you may refer to me as crit, or d20. My various titles are the lord of critical (threats) and ruler of the dice, mainly chief deity of d20's
Please note that anyone who fails to refer to me by my username or proper title will be cursed to never roll a critical for the rest of their role-playing career.

  ~ Natural 20

[Yair]

Howdy All!, again.   And hey look at that lucky #7

I am have been gaming since I was in my final years of middle school, my younger step-brother got me started in gaming with AD&D. I moved to the warmer clime of Southern Utah about 8 yrs ago and when I moved from CT I was leaving my gaming group behind and figured I wouldn't be playing ever again. Ah, how the Fates shine upon you sometimes! I have been blessed with a group of people I now call friends. After playing/DMing for about two decades now I found myself last year wanting to create a World I could call my own. As a result, I began the creation process of my; umm...I mean our world. It is known as "Arda ie Linque" presently and is currently on blocks. After running one campaign in it I realized there were many holes to be filled. Well. there you have it...

-Gaming systems you use
D&D 3.5


-General gaming history
see above story

-Personal likes and dislikes

Likes: Gaming, reading, hiking, fly fishing, going to the movies, good food and fine wines
Dislikes: cold weather (thus the move to UT), wind, traveling


-Strengths and weaknesses in game design
Strengths: This is tough, I know more where I need help. But let's see.....map design, creating an image in my mind of what i want.
Weaknesses: Applying my ideas, crunch and fluff for cities and nations, and plotlines


-What published settings have you used/do you like?
D20 - Eberron, Forgotten Realms, some Greyhawk
I have also played in several Rolemaster Campaigns


-Major influences on your world-building
Mostly I get my ideas from books I have read, movies or TV shows I have seen. None inparticluar, although a good part of the idea for Arda came from Terry Brooks' Shannara series.

[CYMRO]

Cymro(new board, new name :D ).
I am a Cancer with a Capricorn Moon, and Leo Rising.  
I have been playing D&D since my fourteenth birthday, when I received the ADD1st edition PHB, DMG,MM, and DDG(Melnibone and Cthulu version). I finally set aside 1E almost three years ago for 3.5.


 


The Altvogge homebrewed variant of 3.5.
D&D Miniatures.
The only other game I play now is online, DiscWorld ZMUD.




Back in the old days, especially in college, I played Top Secret in addition to D&D.
Tried last year playing Exalted.  


Personal likes:


I like politics, Godiva chocolate, D&D, history, fishing, hunting, golf, yoga, movies, mashed potatoes, women with self-confidence, green apples, and autumn.


and dislikes:


Rap music, brussel sprouts, Exalted, hurricanes, extremism coupled with ignorance, mold, bugs.


 
Strengths and weaknesses in game design  

I have good world sweeping concepts, good abilities at class design, and, I think, interesting fluffy details for my world. Non combat NPC interaction I do well.
On the bad side, I find in writing adventures I struggle against the dungeon crawl hack and slash mentality. My monster combat tactics tend to be formulaic.
I suck at traps.  



 


I used Greyhawk on and off for years while playing 1E.
That is it. Greyhawk or homebrew.


Major influences on your world-building


The collected works of Michael Moorcock Terry Pratchett, and Kenneth Roberts.

Various politic history books by George Trevelyan, Robert Leckie, Paul Kennedy, Emil Ludwig, and George Dangerfield.

[Raelifin]

Hello, I'm Max a.k.a. Raelifin

I've been into D&D ever since the release of 3.0 and have generally liked the d20 system. I've explored a little into white wolf, but nothing serious. I'm a highschool senior who is homeschooled and I am aiming for a career in electronic game programming and design.

Games in general fascinate me. From MUDs to Pewter Wargaming I find each one intriguing. I'm a highly creative person and I enjoy the process of building games as much as playing them (if not more).

When I think of D&D I think of a medium. The ability to create entire worlds with nothing but a thought is so empowering that I have yet to find a more involving hobby. I'm actually more of a world-builder than PnP gamer. I've only been playing for around 6-7 years, but I've been building worlds my entire life.

-Personal likes and dislikes

I like history, science, gaming of all shapes and colors. I enjoy debate and philosophy. I LOVE fruit. My favorite food is the pomegranate.

I dislike campaign settings that draw too heavily from other works, and I will most likely hunt you down and start ranting if you use elves in your setting. I dislike spectator sports, American Football in particular, and am fairly disinterested in sports as a whole. I dislike close-mindedness and ignorance.

-Strengths and weaknesses in game design

I think my strength comes mainly from my creative desire to produce a unique work and my ability to produce interesting stats for races, classes etc.

I am very weak when it comes to DMing, especially in person. I hate being put on the spot creatively and I'm not as good a roleplayer as I wish I was. I tend to get a bit overboard some times and will often bite off more than I can chew. I can be very critical, whether you see this as a good or bad thing. I'm also a light perfectionist, which is why you don't see my setting on these boards.

-What published settings have you used/do you like?

Surprisingly, I like greyhawk the most of the WotC settings. Ebberon is good but it made a few major mistakes that I have a hard time dealing with. I really dislike FR. I haven't tried many settings, mainly because I make so many myself (Phaedoras is my fourth world.)

-Major influences on your world-building

Everything. History and mythology mainly.

[Túrin]

Hi everyone,

I go by the name of Túrin on this forum, and TúrintheMormegil over on the WotC-boards. Back there, I am most "renowned" for my Democracy?!-project, my campaign setting Orden's Mysteries and my aid in Kalos Mer (aka Herecgunina) 's Tasothilos campaign setting.

My screen name is taken from what I consider the best player character I ever created for myself, Túrin Xan the Thayan wizard, who was in turn named after my favourite Tolkien character, Túrin Turambar (aka the Mormegil).

Real Life

During my offline time, I double as a student at Tilburg University (located in the Netherlands), engaged in the study of econometrics (not to be confused with economics). My problem in college seems to be that my interest are very broad but also very shallow. When doing math, my mind branches out to history or philosophy, two of my other favourites, and vice versa. The intricacies of econometrics and the student life in general regularly distract me from my core business: making abnormally large-sized posts about my own creations on this forum and WotC's Campaign Workshop. In addition, I play tabletennis and basketball, each once a week, and DnD. I currently don't DM, but I play in two campaigns, each with a target frequency of twice per month (that is, unfortunately, regularly not met).

My creed

"Don't worry, be happy"

Not that I don't want to be engaged or have no desire to make the world a better place, it's just that I'm not going to let it spoil my own happiness, which, luckily, I have in abundance.

Gaming systems I use

I started playing DnD two years ago, and have never found myself wanting for anything other than 3.5. I have some limited experience with AD&D 2nd edition through the Baldur's Gate video games series, which remains my favourite series of video games of all time. I also once created a simple gaming system myself with the aid of a friend but it wasn't a success.

General gaming history

Like I said, I started playig DnD two years ago with a group of five friends who hadn't played before either. I volunteered to be the DM and have run that group with some success for a little over a year. Two attempts to restart a campaign with (parts of) that group have died out before their second and fourth session, respectively. I have not DMed since. In the meantime, one of the people in the initial group started out DMing himself with a new group that I was invited to join (as the only one besides the DM who had experience with the game). That campaign also lasted for a year and was then restarted (with a slightly altered group) successfully. It is one of the two campaigns I currently play in. We're currently playing half a year real time, and our characters have reached level 6. I recently started playing in a second group with people I didn't know beforehand, which turns out to have been a good move.

Personal likes and dislikes

Likes would be DnD, sports, reading and writing, and occasionally doing puzzles.

You know, I can't really think of any dislikes. Moderation is my way. I do hate smoking though (though not necessarily people who smoke).

Strengths and weaknesses in game design

When I put my (virtual) pen to paper, something always comes out. This is both a strength and a weakness, as my writing usually ends up way too long, and I easily ditract myself and start long sidenotes about barely related topics.

There's probably a good bit more strengths and weaknesses, but I challenge you all to find them for me.

Published settings I use/like

I like the tone of Eberron, though the gimmicks spoil it for me. I'm not into steampunk tech (or whatever you want to call it) much.

I like FR for old times' sake: the Baldur's Gate video game was my first RPG.  Its history is nice, but otherwise I'm fairly indifferent towards it.

Major influences on your world-building

I never keep track of those, but I assume everything I read or watch would influence me in some way. Following this logic, major influences would be:
- J.R.R. Tolkien
- Robert Jordan
- The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
- The Tasothilos Campaign Setting

That's it I think. Now you guys know almost everything there is to know about me.

;) Túrin

[limetom]

In real life, I'm a linguist who works with speakers of endangered languages and on the history of languages, mainly in East Asia. It seems I've become the general go-to guy for questions about languages and anthropology around here.

I started with D&D back in middle school. I've ran a game or two of that, played in about the same number. Also played in a few BESM games. Longest running stint so far has been in Vreeg's Steel Isle IRC game.

[Polycarp]

I'm Mithridates... well, not any of the historical ones, but that's the screen name I use here and on the WotC boards.

In real life, I'm a college student at Whitman College in Washington.  I study Politics, but I've always loved ancient history as well, and I read all I can on that subject.  Those who know me say I'm incredibly, and often uneccessarily verbose, so when you see the dreaded several-pages-long Mith post, know that it's just fine if you skim it.  I'm also a student of Japanese and German, though not quite fluent with either, and despite that, no, I am not an Axis sympathizer.  I would have to take Italian to complete the trifecta.  ;)

The quote in my sig happens to be there because, well, I love the "Meditations" and I think it's one of those rare quotes that is equally applicable to DMing and life in general, two occupations that are otherwise quite seperate.

I started playing RPGs back in elementary school, only then I didn't know about D&D, and I kinda made up my own stuff to play out with other kids at daycare.  Thinking back on it, that was a lot of DM power - no dice, just me deciding what happened.  After that first experience with the unlimited egotism one can enjoy as a DM, I was more than happy to jump in as a player and DM in middle school, where I first encountered D&D (2nd ed).  By about freshman year of high school, though, there wasn't anyone I knew who played it, so I've probably played 2 or 3 games in the last 6 years.

Let's see... I've never played a premade campaign setting, nor DMed one, but from my experiences on NWN I hate Faerun with a terrible passion, if only because I think their system of gods is rubbish.  Besides that, though, I have respect for a world so fully fleshed out.

I also think 3.5 was a cheap money-grabbing maneuver, which is why I've always stayed with 3.0, but that's probably just the cynical Politics major in me, right?

I'm good at imagining things and I like to think I'm good at naming them, too.  I'm sometimes hard pressed to see a project through into fruition; my current campaign world, The World of Ralum, has been changed so many times that when I look back on notes from its start 3 years ago I can hardly recognize it.  I think I've finally hit what I want to focus on, though, so hopefully I'll make some real progress.  My inspiration for that world is mostly the Hellenistic era, specifically the successor kingdoms, but also the bronze age and its empires (Ralum is a bronze age world).  My favorite things to design are political systems, ethnic relations, and lost histories - the "fallen empires" theme is pretty ubiquitous in Ralum, as you'll see if I ever get around to posting parts here.

[Soup Nazi]

Hello fellow world builders! My name is nathaniel baker, and I have recently joined your prestigious order. I heard about you onl the WotC boards, and was convinced by Turin to come by and take a look.

I've been playing D&D since 1988 when i was but a wee lad, and have enjoyed various role-playing games over the years including many white wolf, and gurps genres, the old 1E Marvel (what a pile LOL!), Paranoia, Gamma World, various incarnations of Chaosiums old stuff (particularly Pendragon), and perhaps other that have currently slipped my mind.

I got my start when my childhhod friend Dominic and I discovered his older brother's basic D&D stash, which was shamefully and haphazardly left behind when he left for college. I of course began with Keep on the Boarderlands and was hooked.

I have played in every D&D world ever to see print, and I doubt there's a single first or second edition module I haven't either run or played in. Around 1990 I began to build my first setting built around the independant city-state of Selenica, with mt friend Adam. We shared duties crafting the world and DMing at various points. It became apparent early on that our setting was a personal favorite among our gaming fellows, and it grew from little more than a single city to an entire nation, and then further into a continent, and even beyond. It was a wonderful world, but as TSR began to crumble (after the poorly received skills and powers lin of releases), I began to become disillusioned with D&D. After numerous ventures into a multitude of gaming systems, I discovered the storyteller system and fell in love.

For more than five years I ran Vampire: The Masquerade, and though I never got the opportunity to play, I was enamored with the game. But all good things do inevitably come to an end, and as our coterie grew in power, we jumped from city to city exploring the world of darkness to its fullest. We initially embraced the developing meta-plot, and ran with it, but little did I know the end was nigh. White Wolf destroyed their setting with the escalating power levels, and slowly revealed secrets that had once kept things mysterious and interesting. I stopped running just short of Gehenna to my players dismay, because I didn't have the heart to summariliy destroy their beloved characters. It was an anticlimatic conclusion, that left me bitter and tired. V:TM is a taxing game to run, rife with intrigue, mystery, and conspiricies, that grow ever more ellaborate as your players unlock them. I stopped playing RPGs all together for some time, although I'm not sure precisely how long, until I learned of D&D 3.5 edition.

I purchased the basics and found a new group of role-players to join. At first I mainly watched and observed, chuckling to myself over both my own incompetent knowledge of the rules (when once I was the min/maxing king of 1st and 2nd edition) and at the inexperience of this younger breed of gamers who had little understanding of the concept of role-playing. I had missed out on so many years as a player I had almost forgotten how attached one can become to a beloved character. I got embrace my role as a player for the first time in eons and I loved it.

Now several months later I've found myself substituting for our frequently absent DM, and beginning to really enjoy the role. I'm in a precarious situation however. They players absolutely love my adventures which focus less on miniatures or dungeon crawls, and more on story and character development. However our regular DM doesn't seem to understand what all the hullabaloo is about (since I'm only running when he's out of town), and I get the feeling I've begun to threaten him. I have of course assured him that I have no intention of stealing his carefully fostered gaming cohorts, but I have begun building my new campaign world none-the-less. My hope is that I can get him to try things out from the players POV, and give me a go in the DMing chair. I'm crossing my fingers, and really want to build something special.

Well that's about all there is to my gaming background. I'd chat about my personal life but that's a story for another day.  :D

[Xathan]

Iâ,¬,,¢m Xathan, Last of the Fallen (same name on OOTS board, TheLastOfTheFallen on the wiz boards.) Just call me Xathan, or Last. Donâ,¬,,¢t call me Fallen, please. Bad memories there. Iâ,¬,,¢m a pretty easy going guy, 19, in college in the Midwestern USA. Iâ,¬,,¢ll be posting sem-frequently, but I also have random periods where I will vanish for a week or month or two. Donâ,¬,,¢t worry, I always come back, just like a bad penny or rabid dog. :P I have a somewhat quirky sense of humor, and my perverted jokes are legendary among those who know me â,¬' I can turn almost anything into a sexual innuendo. I like getting reactions from people, and tend to provoke reactions just to get them.

-Gaming systems you use
Dungeons and Dragons, 3.5. That is all. I really donâ,¬,,¢t want to learn any new systems, so Iâ,¬,,¢m sticking with the one I know best.

-General gaming history

I started gaming in Terisia city, over on the Wizard boards, in 2000, in an attempt to bring life to my MTG addiction. After burning finishing my time there, I bounced around various freeform, play by post games, until I arrived on a board known as South of Heaven Ministries. There, I Rped in hell for awhile, and people kept talking about Tanarâ,¬,,¢ri and Baatezu. Confused, I did some research, and wound up buying the Fiend Folio. It would be three years, and literally thousands of dollars in gaming books later, until I wound up playing my first game ever â,¬' which I DMed for some friends. Since then, I have played only infrequently, but spends a great deal of time working on materials for games that I will never play. My only regular game is one played with a group of people who are all 7+ years older than me, in which I play a changeling rogue in a homebrew world. (Iâ,¬,,¢m probably going to multiclass to TrueSpeaker or Shadowcaster when ToM comes out.)

-Personal likes and dislikes
Likes: Gaming, writing, my Girlfriend, reading, creating (anyting), movies, good food, good company.
Dislikes: TV, drinking, apathy, homework.


-Strengths and weaknesses in game design
Strengths: My strength is mainly the fact that I am really good at making up ideas. A lot of my stuff is inspired by other things, but I always do it in the most unique way I can. I hate clichés, and do everything I can to shake them up, often for the better.
Weaknesses: Cities and Nations, especially populations. I also have trouble with actually doing work â,¬' I tend to jot stuff down in notebooks, where they sit for eons. Also, I try to cram too much onto a single thing â,¬' I love adding ideas in, but have trouble cutting stuff out. Oh, and I tend to avoid clichés, even when a cliché works best. Also, if I donâ,¬,,¢t get feedback, I loose interest and stop working on it â,¬' Iâ,¬,,¢m a bit of an attention whore.


-What published settings have you used/do you like?
 Eberron is fun for its feel and unique takes on things, especially the core races. Iâ,¬,,¢m not a big FR fan, since I really donâ,¬,,¢t like clichés, and FR established many of the clichés. Dragonmech, by S&S, is something I really like, and provided a lot of inspiration for my world. Dark Sun holds a special place for sheer coolness, and the same goes for Spelljammers and Planescape.


-Major influences on your world-building
Anything and everything, but mainly my weird imagination and other, existing settings. Also, books and movies give me ideas, though I stopped reading two months ago so I can focus on my own writings.

[Wix of Bel-Air]

My screenname is Wixman (which I'm starting to use for everything) and my real name is Josh. I use the 3 to 3.5 system for the general D&D setting and I incorporate a lot of things into it. I play d20 Modern (mutants!) with some friends and I am currently playing Exalted (WW) while working on my campaign. I've been DMing for about 5 years (I'm 17, go figure) and I've been playing for about 5 minutes. I like to think I'm good at all things in game design, but I'm finding my weaknesses slowly. General idea coming-up-withing is a big one. I like V:TM, D&D 3e and 3.5e, d20 Modern, and Exalted. My major influences of my world building are some integrating between different settings by using some of the core (very general) ideas. This makes for an interesting plot and setting as well as adds a sense of realism.

BTW, my setting is Golia, a world of ancient spirits and new world powers.

[Epic Meepo]

Greetings, Fellow World-Builders.

The name that I shall go by here is Epic_Meepo, primarily because that happens to be the hastily chosen name I picked over on yonder WotC message boards from whence I was recruited.

 General Gaming History
I am a second generation gamer, having learned to play Dungeons & Dragons from my father some time in the late 1980's.  (I still have the little red boxed set that he gave me.)  I have been an avid gamer ever since - finding fellow gamers wherever I may go - and have even gone on to publish a sourcebook book and a smattering of magazine articles.  With luck, more will follow; I take pride in the fact that I have earned more money from my hobby than I have spent on it.

 Gaming Systems Used
Primarily D&D in all its many and varied incarnations.

 Published Settings Used
I prefer homemade settings, but I am not above using twisted, mirror-universe reflections of the Forgotten Realms.  The Realms is such a panoramic setting that you can easily find room for most any storyline with enough setting to spare that you can ignore whatever you don't like about the place.  The only world that I tend to avoid like the plague is Eberron, partly because it puts off a video-gamish vibe that doesn't work well for me, and partly because it beat out my own submission in WotC's setting search.

 Personal Like and Dislikes
In general, I tend to dislike laundry lists, except when used for comedic effect; ergo the brevity of this section of this post.

 Strengths/Weakness in Game Design
I have a tendency to create sweeping and dramatic worlds, then fail to actually put them down on paper.  In part, it is because I have far too much going on in my head; it can sometimes be difficult to pick just one concept to develop.  My habits are also due, in part, to perfectionistic tendencies that keep me from starting something until it is very well developed.  In general, I hope to cure myself of these tendencies, as I suspect that I will be much more productive if I can just get myself to bring more of my random ideas to fruition.

 Major World Building Influences
I find that the single greatest inspiration when building a fantasy world is real world history and mythology.  I usually find more inspiration in Beowulf than in Tolkien, though I certainly have nothing against the latter.  On the other hand, I do have a bit of a taste for Lovecraftian themes, and those don't have much at all to do with the real world (one would hope).

So there you have it: a little slice of Epic_Meepo for the CBG rogue's gallery.

Good day and best wishes.