Shaking hands after the battle

[Tobias]

[Anomaly]

I'm Michael Christie from Sydney, Australia.

Been gaming for around 24 years, starting around the same time as Evan (the PlotDevice), which is also about as long as we've been friends. Much of my time as a gamer has been as a player, but I have designed a few games in my time. The first was actually a project for Australian History back in high school, where me and another gamer friend designed a game called Coastal Explorers, where the players had to circumnavigate Australia, and fight various wandering monsters. The other gamer was good with art, so he created a box for the game which was a funny imitation of 2nd edition Basic D&D. We got very good marks, but I don't think the teacher understood any of it.

I have an average of playing around 2.5 RPG sessions a week, which is probably why I have not much normal life to speak of. I work for IBM Australia as a Technical Analyst, but no one has ever been able to figure out how that title applies to my job.

I am quite into music (I also think The Magnetic Fields are quite good, btw) and have written a few pieces of music via a computer/synthesiser combo, for which I have an Amiga computer (but a mind-bogglingly fast one!).

Michael.

[matthijs]

I'm Matthijs Holter, from Norway. My mom's dutch, and so's my first name. I'm world famous in Norwegian RPG circles, which is a bit like being the best Scottish-Venezuelan belly-button contortionist in the world, only you score less chicks at parties.

I try to earn money designing games. The major factors involved are luck, work, reputation, being in the right place at the right time, design skills, and more luck. So far, I'm making money off my hobby, but definitely not making a living. Contrary to a lot of people whose games I love, I'm not going into self-publishing probably ever.

[adgboss]

I'm Sean Hillman and I live in the great city of Salisbury, MD. Where? Yeah I know its about the least famous Salisbury in the world but oh well.

I make a living doing ISP & Web Support as well as coding web pages. I started role playing when I was 8 and at 9 designed Pommels & Pardoxes. It never went anywhere. I am trying to be both a writer AND a game designer as well as a half way decent husband to my wife.

My own website () is always under redesign.

I also have to say Jackals & Hounds is definitely a product of many failed RPG ideas over the years for better or for worse, failure is the best teacher.

Sean

[nyarly]

[Harlequin]

Hey, all. I'm Eric Finley, another Canuck from the frozen north (Edmonton, same as blankshield). I live here with a fabulous gamer wife and 2+ kids... 2+ as we're also foster parents and in-loco-parentises.

After languishing for a while, my gaming life has picked up again, sitting at a lovely 2 & 2/2 games per week. Plus a Polaris playtest which is due to finally kick off this evening - yay!

On the design front, I've recently taken heart from Ben's and set aside my own GWG to pursue more manageable projects. The Last Supper is my first success in this regard, and could be called my first truly completed game; I'm also happy enough with it that I'm pretty sure I'll be putting it out in print, in at least a limited run. Another project which is coming fairly well is called A Swiftly Tilting City, and I hope to have a draft of that out soon.

My day job rocks; I'm a physicist doing custom R&D design & prototyping for M(O)EMS devices, that's Micro(Opto)ElectroMechanical Systems, mechanical toys the size of an integrated circuit component. Higher education all the way, baby.

I tip my hat to all of you; we have a wicked crop of games this year, and I'm very curious to see where they stand in a year's time. Anyone want to place bets on how many will be enroute to print, at that point?

- Eric

[Matt Cowens]

[hamsterprophet]

[Kenneth Bailey]

Well, I guess I'll join the thread.

My name is Kenneth Bailey. I cooked up "Invincible!", the game about 13th century Mongol Khans.

I am a priest at a small Anglican church in Montgomery, Alabama. I am married, have four children and a dog.

I haven't spent a whole lot of time gaming in years, but I do frequent several boards -- especially the Forge -- and submitted a game to last year's competition.

I enjoyed the competition again this year. I think I served up a pretty meaty dish; although I know where I could asd some things and clean some things up.

But, I'm not gonna spoil it before the judges get a chance to rip it apart.

I have enjoyed seeing the other entries and reading through them.

Good job to all of you who competed -- especially those of you who struggled to complete your entries.

[MikeSands]

My name you can see. I live in Wellington, New Zealand with my wife and 18 month old daughter. I program computers for telephone companies for a living, and I am also qualified philosopher.

Gaming is my main hobby, has been since about 1982 or so. Recently I ran a moderate length HeroQuest game and have been playing a lot of indie games for one-off or short campaigns.

I'm an aspiring (and now actual) game designer and decided to do the game chef thing just to see if I could. I have another one on the boiler that I hope to publish later in the year, but I might do a fancy version of The Gentlemen's Entomology Club first.

And I know Matt Cowens, as is obvious from his post. We've known each other for about... is it eight or nine years now? Done gaming on and off, and we're both pretty involved in the local gaming community.

Self-pimp: I have a blog that hits gaming stuff every so often at .