Hi

After being directed to the site some months ago by Andrew and then promising Malcolm I would post here after he kindly took the time to talk to me at GenCon, I thought it would only be polite to introduce myself?

My name is Neil, which seems obviously from the login but I thought I would try something new. I'm almost always online as 'Vodkashok' to try to seperate work and hobby stuff a little. The source of the name is a long story and it involved a t-shirt...

I'm 36, I live in Newcastle, married with two daughters. I work as the Marketing Manager for Newcastle University Students Union. Its a whole smorgasbord of fun including graphic design, printing, binding and loads of other handy stuff. But mostly I point the students at the beer and let nature take it's course.

I've been gaming, in one form or another, since I was 11. Currently I have two groups with partially overlapping memberships. In the first larger group we are deep into the Great Pendragon Campaign as well as a sporadic Spirit of the Century game to break it up. In the second group, which is smaller, we are playing Primetime Adventures (exploring world mythology through the lens of a werewolf, a medium and a fae princess...) and have a multitude of games lined up (Cold City, Burning Wheel, Full Light Full Steam and playtests...). Oh, I forgot my other group. I game with the girls too. We've just played out a five game arc of A Faery's Tale and we are planning to do some 'Giants' which I grabbed at GC.

Which naturally leads me to my games! I have two on the go at the moment, which are quite different. I really need to focus on one of the other for some period of time.

The first is Duty and Honour. This is essentially 'Sharpe: The Roleplaying Game'. I'm a big fan of Sharpe, Hornblower etc. and their distant cousin Honor Harrington and this was really my backlash against being told time and time again that a military style game cannot be done because of the hierarchy within the groups and the consequences of bucking that hierarchy. What a load of rubbish. The game uses a 'missions' system to empower the players to narrate their own challenges as they build towards their final objectives, interweave multiple storylines together and naturally, kill the French.

The second is MI:666. Christian Hell Exists:FACT. The only people that know this for certain are the very darkest depths of the British Government. The thirteen members of MI:666 are charged with stopping Infernal incursions into Earth and maintaining the Great Secret - because the reprecussions of the secret getting out would be global religious war and probable armageddon! Its a game that can be played all human and gritty or almost like a supers game, depending on how the players want it and it revolves around secrets and corruption.

Duty and Honour is the game that is nearer 'ready' - and by that I mean it's just a long way from done rather than a really massively long way from done. Thats probably the one I will be working on the most. I'll post about it soon.

Anyway, as I said - hello.

Neil