D&D General Tell us about yourself

[GuyBoy]

Born in London in 1963. Bit of a tough childhood but made it through. Enthusiastic rugby player, both for my school and university.
Became a teacher of History and International Relations and ended up as a school principal, serving a challenged community, but where the kids were amazing.
Travelled a lot in China, Russia, Australia and all 50 US states as well as Europe.
Married with one daughter and two grandkids. In what seems like great succession planning but was actually just chance, as I retired from school leadership, my daughter was appointed the youngest high school principal in UK.
Still active politically and in rugby coaching.

Started playing D&D with the white box in 1976. Love the game (and its various relatives).

 

[Maxperson]

Shoot! I forgot to mention my two cats! Lord Baelish and

 

[HalfOrc HalfBiscuit]

Born in the UK on Grand National day 1959, meaning I'll be 63 in about three weeks time! Brought up in Berkshire and since reaching adulthood have lived in London (for a few years), Oxfordshire (for 30-odd years) and now Rugby in Warwickshire.

Played wargames a bit as a kid (mostly because my older brother was and still is a very keen ancients wargamer), but then discovered D&D in 1976/77, was given the white box (plus Supplement I) and never looked back.

Studied law and have worked in legal publishing for the last 40+ years.

Two kids, now in there 30s who I introduced to D&D with 3.x and who now form two-thirds on the group I DM for (the third being a friend of my daughter's).

 

[el-remmen]

I consider my claim to fame getting an adventure published in Dungeon magazine called the "Winter Tapestry"

Which issue number?

 

[Stormonu]

Which issue number?

Dungeon #78. It even got a Nodwick cartoon

 

[el-remmen]

Dungeon #78. It even got a Nodwick cartoon

Of course, despite my expansive collection of Dungeon, I am missing that issue!

 

[Stormonu]

Of course, despite my expansive collection of Dungeon, I am missing that issue!

If you can find a copy, it's a fun juant - though I may be biased

Spoiler

<edit> spoilered for size.

 

[Musing Mage]

Canadian born and bred. Turning 49 in a few weeks,

Got into D&D as a kid with the Mentzer Red Box in the mid 80s, and a lifelong favourite pasttime was born. Quickly moved on to Palladium games, TMNT, Heroes Unlimited, Robotech etc, and then jumped into AD&D 2nd end when it came out. Skipped over 1e back in the day, despite having the books, finally revisiting it about 9 years ago and deciding to give it a proper go, only then realizing what I'd missed all those years...

Went to Journalism school in my early 20s, abandoned that career path for one in the entertainment industry in my mid 20s. Have worked as an actor, casting director, script consultant, among other things (like tutor, PR liaison etc etc.) to pay the bills. Pretty mercenary... a Jack of all trades in some cases... ugh, I guess that makes me a Bard.

Currently my favourite edition is 1st Ed Advanced, though I also run an Experimental 5e game online. (Experimental in that I am testing a bunch of house rules to ground the system a little more, rather than the baseline easy-mode superhero edition that 5e normally is.)

Lately I have become somewhat obsessed with the sheer simplicity of Basic D&D and the retroclone Old School Essentials (went a little gonzo on their kickstarter ) ... so am to planning to run a game using that rule-set. I was invited into a B/X game, which turned out to be the most fun that I've had as a player in a long time. (The games I DM are, of course, always immensely fun. If they're not it's the fault of the players! ) There's something to be said for paring things down to simple, core elements. I am beginning to think all D&Ders should play basic once in a while for a bit of a realignment.

Anyhoo... that's the Cole's notes/Cliff notes/Sparknotes (pick one) version of me.

 

[Mannahnin]

Mid 40s, US Army brat; grew up in a few different states around the country, settled back in NH as an adult. Pagan, anarcho-libertarian family. Ordained neopagan/reconstructionist priest. Terminally online, ever since my family got Prodigy in the late 80s. Home schooled until college, got the Menzter Basic set for my 10th birthday and played a bit with my brother and miscellaneous neighbor kids without knowing what the heck we were doing for a while. My dad had gotten us hooked on Tolkien as bedtime stories, so between that and stuff like Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books, we were absolutely primed for D&D. Collected a mix of D&D and AD&D books, plus issues of Dragon, Gamesmaster International, and some other RPGs. Some of my parents' friends were gamers, and I started attending local conventions around the age of 13 or 14 and through that got exposed to miniatures and more exotic games, picking up copies of games like Talisman, DungeonQuest, Blood Bowl, Dark Future, and Advanced HeroQuest from GW, which my brother and I played endlessly.

Got more seriously into RPGs in the 90s with 2nd ed AD&D, Synnibarr, as well as Vampire, Werewolf, and other White Wolf games. Collected a hundred or so other games I didn't play or only rarely. In the 90s got into first Vampire LARP through the Camarilla and then boffer LARP with NERO and a couple of others for about 5 years. Then into Warhammer and 40k, getting passionately into that hobby for about 15 years, traveling to local tournaments around New England and weekend long grand tournaments around the country. Including winning an invite to GW's Throne of Skulls tournament in Las Vegas in 2011, where I won Best Chaos Space Marine player. I still casually play wargames occasionally, having substantial painted armies for Wood Elves, Chaos Warriors, Chaos Space Marines, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and Eldar. Plus Starks and some Lannisters for the Song of Ice and Fire wargame, and Cryx for Warmachine. Moderated on Dakkadakka.com for several years.

Got into M:tG casually in the 90s but didn't have that big a collection before mostly quitting in '97, then came back in 2013 and played that competitively for several years.

Got into 3rd ed with some wargaming buddies about 20 years ago and have played steadily since, playing and enjoying every edition, though about 12 years ago, by chance I met Frank Mentzer at a local convention, played a couple of games of 1E AD&D at that con and Frank referred me to Dragonsfoot. Which got me into the whole OSR scene and blogosphere. Most of which I only got to play at conventions once or twice a year, until the pandemic.

Was married for ten years to a Bulgarian and did some traveling in Europe. Worked in international travel assistance and repatriation for five of those years, so between those two things got outside my parochial American bubble a good deal. Have worked in call center management, in contract administration in the electronic payment sector, in homeless assistance and social services I&R, and now back in contract admin but for a hospital, doing purchasing. Religiously I attend and help officiate holy days with my local Grove and at a UU near me alongside their Earth Centered Spirituality Group, and I attend services with a couple of nice, inclusive heathen groups in the area. Outside gaming my hobbies include movies, concerts, dancing and drinking at goth clubs, karaoke (those last few mostly on pandemic hiatus the last couple of years), hiking in the NH mountains, and some travel. Since the pandemic I've added both making fancy cocktails at home and finally going to the gym and lifting weights, after decades of procrastinating on that. Yes, I'm aware that those last two are what the MtG folks call a nonbo.

 

[Gradine]

Mid-30's, non-binary transfemme educator living on the north coast of California. Introduced to D&D at a fairly early age, grew up with AD&D 2nd edition, primarily through PC games/programs (Eye of the Beholder, AD&D Core Rules CD-ROM, Baldur's Gate) and pickup games in AOL chat rooms.

Went to college literally right after 3.5 dropped, played a lot of 3.5, Star Wars D20, ran a little bit of the old school Hackmaster game as well... basically all the early 00's games considered nearly unplayable today. Tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to get the crew to switch 4e when it was brand new. D&D group split after undergrad and I never really found a new group. Got my BA in History & Theatre, followed immediately by an MA in Theatre Production. Finishing my thesis for my second MA (Sociology) this month. Writing about mental health crisis intervention.

Spent some time running a casino-hotel before getting a job at my old university, where I've worked in academic affairs since.

Married the college sweetheart, had a daughter (who's 7 now), and started transitioning around 2019.

Managed to get a couple of groups running in recent years, mostly by finally convincing board game friends to give D&D a try, and even successfully completing threeish campaigns (one short summer 3.5 campaign, one year-long run in 3.5, and another shorter one in 5e that was supposed to keep going but ended after the first main arc). Last group fizzled out running Candlekeep Mysteries right around the time we were about to start Shemshime. Hoping to start up running at least some one-shots once summer hits, maybe get a D&D game running through work.

Two-time and current EN World Iron DM champion. If you're looking for a mystery-genre romp solo one-shot featuring a shapeshifting protagonist, that's apparently my wheelhouse.