Welcome to The Den, the EP Forum Introductions and General Socializing Thread!
Introduce yourselves, talk about whatever, make friends, and generally socialize to your hearts' content.
I'll go first, to set the trend.
I'm bibliophile20 (IRL a.k.a. Joseph), which is a screenname I've been using around the web for close to a decade now, on many other gaming forums, writing forums and other websites. I'm a latecomer to the RPG hobby, having only gotten into it since my early 20s, but I've been making up for lost time over the last couple of years; I've been GMing pretty much weekly for the last half-decade-plus continuously, and playing in other RPGs as well. The list has gotten fairly extensive, but there's always something else that's really awesome that I want to try!
Also, if my screenname wasn't enough of a giveaway, I'm the kind of person that, given a choice between a novel and watching TV, will pick the novel. :) My libraries, both digital and physical, are extensive, and the only reason that they aren't larger is because I was raised in Cleveland, Ohio, which, for all of its extensive faults as a city, had, hands down, the best public library system in the United States during the time of my childhood. My sisters and I knew the librarians by name at all of the local branches which we could reach on foot or by bike. I also am taking the References list from the back of the EP core book as a challenge/checklist. I'm currently about 2/3 of the way done with the Fiction section.
I'm currently 0.28 centuries old and reside in upstate NY; I walk a few miles north, and I hit Great Lake. I'm trained as a general science teacher, and I currently work as a tutor (for various and complex reasons, not the least being that I refuse to work in the public school system while No Child Left Behind--aka No School Left Standing--is still on the law books), helping everyone from middle school on up to college with math, science (psych, bio, chem, geo, astro, eco) and even English and history. I consider my training to be a walking challenge to biblical literalism, which is a mantle that I accept with great glee.
I consider myself to be ethnically, culturally and socially Jewish, but I identify with Humanist Judaism, as an atheist that considers my cultural and historical background to be of immense importance to my identity. However, I am an atheist, and I say the following without hesitation: There are no gods, and even if there was such an entity, I would not worship the insecure, violent and generally abusive deity as described in the Torah. That being said, if someone has decided that they wish to worship the deity of their choice, I will fight to the bitter end in support of their free choice to do so, even as I myself disapprove of that choice.
In regards to EP, I more strongly identify with anarcho-socialism than any of the other social structures presented, but I'm the kind of person who sees other people and immediately starts plotting on how to feed them and help with problems. :) So, I find as more attractive the ideal of a society where it is your worth as a person, not the worth of your bank account, by which your value is judged to society.
That being said, I would probably end up drifting into one of the slightly more structured an-soc societies, or perhaps the Titanian Commonwealth. I also find space exploration and settlement to be fascinating and full of possibilities, and I want, in my lifetime, to see humanity become more than a single planet species. I want to see us build large and dare greatly and to expand as far as we can. I wouldn't be the first to upload as an infomorph, but if I was dying and had the choice between experimental upload or death, it wouldn't even be a choice. And, once the process was perfected, well, yeah. Sign me up. :)
Also, and most lately, I've been made the latest moderator for this forum. I'm friendly and people keep telling me that I'm level-headed, so I'll believe them. Most of the time, I'm just another poster, but if there are problems, [color=orange]'ware the orange text![/color] ^_^
The games list:
D&D 3.5
Shadowrun 4th ed
oWoD (Vampire)
nWoD (Geist, Mage, Changeling, Vampire, & Werewolf)
Pathfinder
Dresden Files RPG
Diaspora FATE
Call Of Cthulhu
Paranoia
Eclipse Phase
(the only reason there isn't more on this list is because I tend towards year-long games with a stable gaming group, so there's less turnover!)
The RPG Bucket List:
Star Wars (just once, for flavor)
Mutants And Masterminds
nWoD: Genius: The Transgression
CthulhuTech
d20 Modern
Babylon 5
Discworld
Earthdawn
Exalted
Scion
Iron Kingdoms
Don't Rest Your Head
GURPS (once, for flavor)
Savage Worlds
Spirit Of The Century
Pathfinder (other settings that I've been developing)
Various custom settings, campaigns and systems that I've been developing
And, finally, a very different "About me" that I wrote up years ago and still consider quite relevant:
So, who'll be next to introduce themselves? Step up, don't be shy. Tell us about yourselves, and we'll all just talk. This is a no-judgement thread. Personal attacks will not be tolerated here, so come on in.
Spoiler: Highlight to view
My reason? "Tell me a story."
"Tell me stories of great deeds and simple pleasures,
of love and hate,
of epic quests and personal searches,
of free will and manipulation,
of small men and big hearts,
of evil kings and noble villains,
of conquest and creation,
of great battles and individual missions,
of pride and perseverance,
of those that hold worlds in their hands and the lone soldier on whom the battle turns,
of broken hearts and healed souls,
of lasting happiness and bitter tears,
of old mentors and the birth of the next generation,
of unrequited love and soul mates growing old together,
of great armies and small squads, of honor and cowardice,
of intricate plots and excessively large explosions,
of personal growth and immaturity,
of prophecies and clutching onto the past,
of corruption and redemption,
of hard choices and single-minded determination,
of dreams of power and love,
of toasts to the dead and celebrations of life,
of sailing among the stars and exploring the deep sea,
of vendettas and adventures,
of clever solutions and being completely unsubtle,
of betrayals and hard-won honor,
of circles of hell and personal heavens,
of long buried evil and newborn innocence,
of veterans gathering together for one last battle and everyone standing together against the foe,
of lines against the darkness and surrender to personal demons,
of damaged warriors and flawed heroes,
of atonement and forgiveness,
of innate talent and hard-fought skill,
of deals with the devil and second chances,
of..."
"Tell me a story."
—
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." -Benjamin Franklin
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