I started writing software in 1978 and playing AD&D in 1980. I kept doing the first one without interruption. The second one took a thirty six year intermission.
I came back to the game in 2016, on fifth edition, having skipped everything in between. These days I run a weekly game, take more notes than strictly necessary, and build small tools for the parts of the hobby that deserve them.
At the table
I mostly sit behind the screen now. The Thursday group has been playing together since 2018, which is long enough that the jokes have layers.
| System | D&D 5e, 2024 rules by default |
| Characters | 2014 or 2024 builds, your choice |
| Meets | Thursday nights, weekly |
| Group | Together since 2018 |
| Setting | Original |
I still play, too. In someone else’s Star Trek Adventures campaign I am a Vulcan chief engineer on the operations track, which mostly means I get to be calm while other people are not.
The world
The current campaign is set in a world built for this table. Red rock country at the edge of the map. Ruins that nobody in the setting can explain. An empire off to one side that has recently started paying attention.
Most of it happens in Treefall, a town of about two hundred people. All two hundred have names. A fair number of them want something.
The calendar has thirteen months. The weekdays have their own names, and there is one festival day each year that belongs to no month at all. There is also a sacred object the local economy quietly depends on, which is the kind of detail that turns into a plot whether or not you planned it.
The day job
I started programming in 1978 and have not found a good reason to stop. About twenty four years of that has been PHP.
The longer thread is enterprise accounting software, which I have worked on since 1987, including most of a decade as a senior technical product manager owning a handful of core modules. It is less glamorous than dragons. It pays better.
Where the two meet
I am building a WordPress plugin that keeps track of campaign material: NPCs, locations, factions, religions, the political situation, session notes. It exists because I wanted it for my own game and could not find the version of it that lived in my head.
It is a workshop project, not a product. There is nothing to sign up for.
Why things here are easy to read
I am dyslexic. It is the reason my handouts look the way they do: short paragraphs, clear headings, a table wherever a table will do the job. If something on this site is easy to read, that is not an accident.
Away from the table
Three rescue dogs. Desert trails most weeks. A long running Rush habit and the ticket stubs to prove it.
Getting in touch
Email is the best way to reach me. The contact page has the address.