In HS, I once ran a session on a backpacking trip around a campfire for a party of about 20 and used the stop watch on my digital watch to generate semi random numbers. I hadn't planned to run games during the trip so hadn't brought any stuff with me, gave in to popular demand to host.
I continued DM'ing - playing, thru HS and thru my time in grad school. My freshman year I had about 50 players running on different times in my campaign. I usually ran a game in the lobby of the dorm starting from around 6PM on Sat nite that usually finished around 7 AM the following morning. Sometimes, we continued after a break for breakfast untill noon. Thus, I made a lot of friends, but my grades plummeted so I had to cut back - a little
When I came to Japan, I found a group to game with for awhile, but the expat community is rather transitory so after a year or so it whithered away and died.
I took up CRPG and played thru some of the old SSI gold box series. I looked at some non D&D crpg's but generally disliked having to learn new mechanics so rarely went very far with them. I played a little in the original NW game on AOL, but it was rather expensive to do that from Japan, so I only tried it a couple of times. I never played some of the later D&D themed CRPG's as I heard they were realtime - which I generally despise.
I was intrigued when I first read about NWN and followed its development with some interest, though I was still rather leery about the realtime aspect. However, after hearing some good reviews from some former college gaming partners, I dove in and started playing thru SP mods.
I started with the OC, but got sidetracked when I discovered NWNVault and the wealth of 3rd party mod's. I played thru a lot of the more popular one's SP over about a six month period of time and then persuaded my old gaming buddies to go thru a bunch of stuff together MP. By the time we'd played thru enough mod's to work ourselves up to the 40 level cap, they were burned out on the game and wanted a break. So, I decided to check out NWC - which I'd read about from time to time.
Over the past 4 year, I've played in quite a few NWC campaigns and explored a large number of PWs. I've got a 3 year old campaign I've been DM'ing on Lands of Etarnon server, which I've assumed responsibilities for with Etarnon's retirement from NWN.
I've put together a few cc offerings over the years on the vault under the user name markrendl. The most popular one's have been the coastal ships combo hak and floor coverings hak.
I'm currently working as the organizer of NWCon 4 and glad to welcome ALFA to participation and support of the upcoming con.
My favorite characters are rogues, but I play a wide range - filling in what's needed when joining a new campaign. ATM, I think I'm actually playing more fighters.
As for real life... I'm 47 years old and teach ESL PT in Japan and manage an import-export company; been here 20 years now. I taught history and computer science at a HS in Silicon Valley, prior to coming here. I like all kinds of games, reading all kinds of stuff, playing the guitar and watching hours and hours of American football courtesy of Yahoo Game Pass.
My Japanese "significant other" works as a tour guide for Japan Travel Bureau, so globe-trotting around the world most of the month, the upside being I don't spend much money going out and have few time conflicts for my online gaming
...and my cat Shamisen says "meow" to all fellow cat lovers
Karvon
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