[paz]

Hi all,

I'm Matt (no, not the new one, or the nurse, or the one with the beard, or the other one). My previous 'gaming biography' on this site was a bit poor so I thought I'd go into a bit more detail.

I started playing games like HeroQuest and some Games Workshop games (Blood Bowl being my favourite) when I was about 11-12, and it was at about that age that I saw a group of kids at school playing Advanced Fighting Fantasy and picked up my own copy of the book; I then ran it for my own group of friends. Despite doing all of the above, and seeing the D&D cartoon as a kid, I remained totally unaware that there was anything else like Advanced Fighting Fantasy out there; at that time I lived in Derby which seemed to be completely devoid of games shops (other than GW, which only stocked GW stuff by then).

I moved school at 13 and soon found out there was a D&D club, which I joined. My first character was a halfling cleric called Harry. After playing for a while, I eventually started GMing, both at the club and for my old school friends. At that time there was an official D&D Schools Championships; our 'team' made it to the national finals at the Natural History Museum in London. Role-playing amongst the fossils was a bizarre experience, and in the end we came third (and won pretty much sweet FA!).

While still at school I went to two Gencons (still the only ones I've been to). The second of these was at Loughborough Uni, which was handy as one of my mates lived on the campus as his dad was a lecturer there. By the time I left school I'd played or run several other RPGs, most notably Feng Shui.

I went to Oxford University, where I joined the RPGSoc. While at university, I also met a girl called Heather.

After my first year of university I lost interest in RPGs, and it was only after I'd finished my degree and moved house twice (the second time to Chester) that I found out from some web site about some guys nearby who played RPGs and were looking for new members. Although I'd heard of Call of Cthulhu, I'd never had the chance to play it. The game was fantastic; Steff is easily the best GM I've ever played with. I was soon hooked right back into gaming again. At that time, the group also included Henry and Jamie, who come along to the club at the moment, as well as Richy, who some people know.

The group fluctuated in numbers and changed location over time. When it moved to my flat in Chester, Heather (by this time my wife) also joined in. We picked up Simon at some point, before the group eventually became homeless in mid-2006, due to us having nowhere that was big enough, close to transport or where other residents weren't annoyed by the loud gamer people. Then someone pointed out that there was a club in Chester on Monday nights, and so we thought we'd go and have a look to see if we could play there. The rest is history!

I'm now 29, married to Heather (who many of you know from the club), with a 4-month old baby daughter, Hannah. My attendance is currently sporadic, although hopefully that will improve soon.

RPGs I have played include: D&D (Basic D&D, AD&D 2nd Ed, D&D 3rd Ed, D&D 3.5 Ed), Vampire (but not a massive fan), Traveller, Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, 2300 AD, Nobilis, Feng Shui, Paranoia, Godlike and many more.

Before Hannah was born I was running a D&D campaign called the Savage Tide. It was mid-way through the third adventure, which I am keen to finish at some point; Julian is then planned to take over GMing duties. Other things I'd like to run eventually include other D&D campaigns (such as the dark setting Midnight, and the Pathfinder series), as well as the time-travel RPG C°ntinuum.

Regarding other games; I play board games such as Settlers of Catan (I started while at uni), but I detest CCGs, and I've never been bitten by the LARP bug.

Whew, that turned out a lot longer than expected! I hope it's of some interest to someone.

[paz]

The post above is updated; it originally read as follows.

[julian]

Interestin' stuff.

So you missed out on "1E"- call yourself a grognard?

[paz]