[X] My Assistant

[Ayeohx]

Sweet thread!!! Really makes me feel a bit more connected.

I'm 34, 6'2", and 400 lbs of awesome.

I work in a freezing server room for the State of Utah.

I've been playing SR since 1989 when my friend stole his first roleplaying game.

I was shut in as a child and I developed all sorts of social related issues. Worked through most of it but crowds still freak me out.

Christianity screwed me up as a kid so I'm agnostic now. If you want to be agnostic too Google "The Brick Testament" and "The Skeptics Bible". See you in hell!

I got a girlfriend (over 6 years now). Guess we're common-law now but I'm not going to 'fess up to it.

I was once one of the best computer repair techs in Utah till my store closed down. Now my skills go to waste. So sad. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

My arm/hand nerves are fried, RSI and a bunch of other related issues. Hurts to type but I still do it. I had my nerve surgically moved, helped a bit but still jacked. Can't play the guitar or bass anymore. Can't play computer games anymore (I was a hell of a sniper) but I can still play the 360.

[Joe Chummer]

I'm 30, male (and although I'm straight, a lot of my friends say I'm a "lesbian." Make of that what you will), and an IT technician from Ohio (birthplace of aviation, yo).

Been playing SR off and on (more off than on, I'm afraid -- hard to find a group nowadays) since about 1994. And as you'll probably gather from the reasons listed down further, I've GMed pretty much every SR game I've played except for one. It was nice to sit on the other side of the GM screen for a change. The GM was new to SR, and although he had GMed many other RPGs before, he just couldn't get into SR and dropped the campaign altogether after only one session.

Like Ayeohx, I'm also agnostic (as atheists say, "An agnostic is just an atheist without balls") and for the same reasons, and my cohabiting SO and I are going on 8 years (at my brother's wedding and my grandmother's funeral, my mother still insisted on introducing the SO to our relatives as my "friend" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif) ).

I do a lot of (novel) writing in my spare time. I've finished 8 novel manuscripts (none of them published yet) and am working on my 9th; one of them is very SR-influenced. Once, I even started writing a Shadowrun novel proposal and submitted it to FASA (they were actively accepting proposals at the time). I still have the postcard they sent, acknowledging receipt of my proposal, which said they would get back to me within X months, even if my proposal was rejected. I sent a courteous letter about 3-4 months after the expiration of the very latest of when they said they would get back to me, and I never even got a reply. I've always considered this silence to be my first actual "rejection letter" as a writer. At any rate, a lot of the characters and scenarios from the novel I managed to work into my campaigns as NPCs. I also had a good story for the RPG RIFTS. Their current rulebook said to expect "RIFTS novels" coming soon, and 2 years later, there still weren't any, so I sent them a letter as well. They replied (with a hand-typed, hand-signed letter, even), saying they weren't interested in publishing novels at the time due to downsizing in the RPG industry (they blamed CCGs for the damage *chortle*) and had to decline as a business reason, not because they didn't like my story. But imagine my surprise when I found a RIFTS novel a year or two later on the shelf of my local comic/game store. Doubletalk, or just bad timing?

I may sound bitter, but I'm not, not really. It's just amazing what you forget when you get older, and writing this intro brought back a lot of fond (and not so fond) memories.

[Ayeohx]

Like Ayeohx, I'm also agnostic (as atheists say, "An agnostic is just an atheist without balls").

I know what you meant but I still gotta cover my ass (or balls it seems). I feel that if an atheist chooses to believe that a god doesn't exist he is still choosing to believe in something that cannot be proven and in that sense he is actually worse off than those that choose to believe. But we'll save this discussion for personal email if you'd like.

Carry on folks, I'm enjoying this thread a lot.

[Joe Chummer]

I know what you meant but I still gotta cover my ass (or balls it seems). I feel that if an atheist chooses to believe that a god doesn't exist he is still choosing to believe in something that cannot be proven and in that sense he is actually worse off than those that choose to believe. But we'll save this discussion for personal email if you'd like.

Carry on folks, I'm enjoying this thread a lot.

What's funny is most of the atheists I know used to be Catholics, and most of the agnostics I know came from Protestant stock.

BTW, the Brick Testament is fantastic. One of my personal favorites is the story of Onan. Two round, white Legos on the ground. LOL.

[Harboe]

I'm a Dane (as in, from Denmark).
I'm 19 years old and only heard of Shadowrun a few years ago. Started reading SR fiction about a year ago and now I'm starting in my very-first campaign.

I'm a student (English, German and Psychology) hoping to become a sign language translator. I work at a coffe shop for now and come August, I'll be serving in 8 months in my nations military

[vollmond]

25, male, white, fat, grew up in the American midwest, though my wife and I moved to the Baltimore area this spring.

BS in Computer Information Science, BA in German, working as a software engineer for a large soulless corp.

Ron Paul libertarian, Catholic

No kids, but there is a cat and a dog. I play violin well, and guitar so-so.

My reading habits are all over the place. What I'm reading right now:
Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks
The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Been playing SR4 for about 2 years now (still play with my group from back home via Maptool and Skype), with a short detour into Microlite20-flavored D&D. GMing Ghost Cartels starting tonight (a bit nervous about that. wish me luck!)

[pbangarth]

GMing Ghost Cartels starting tonight (a bit nervous about that. wish me luck!)

Good luck! The GM can have lots of fun with it!

[KageZero]

Born in '73. Started 'running in '90. Average height, average weight, brown hair, green eyes. Dude.

Grew up in PA, moved to VA, moved back to PA, moved to MN, looking to move back to PA.

BA in Mathematics, Webmaster by trade, jack-of-all-trades by design.

[Laodicea]

Mistook Glyph for a bloke called Eric b/c they both have the same icon. Ignore this stupid post.

[tifunkalicious]

Omaha, Nebraska. 19, Student.

Ive played RPGs since I was 12, my dad got his roleplaying start in the military and brought home the books to teach all us boys how to play. That classic DnD structure is still very close to me, but in my quest to get my friends to play SOMETHING on a tabletop, I found they just can't get over the flavor of SR so here I am. I live in the dorms at University of nebraska omaha and am studying management information systems (I'm in your office yelling for you to upgrade your software). I don't have a standard job but am paid to judge high school speech tournaments on my free weekends.

I'm VERY two-sided when it comes to my games. I'm either in the extremely competitive such as street fighter or starcraft that I like to go to tournaments with (no pro player, just like to compete). Or it's freeform and/or cooperative like tabletop rpgs.

When I do something, I need to do it fast right then and there or I'll lose interest and it won't ever get done. I have stacks of half finished books, half watched TV shows, half played games all over the place, don't even remember what lead up to that point most of the time. So my favorite things are often movies, 1-season animes, individual books, etc.

[Paul Kauphart]

Stevenage, UK (for another couple of weeks) then Toulouse, France.

23, student in aeronautic and space engineering.

Been playing RPG for the last 5 years, DD 3.5 essentially. I fell in love with SR when I discovered the game 5 years ago, but never find a GM worth my hopes for the game, so unfortunately never played it much.

[Mäx]

24 for years old male IT-student in Lahti University of Applied Sciences trying my hardes to graduate during next year.
Fluent in Finnish and English, can speak only a little of Swedish, which is a big trouple for my graduation as its a mandatory class.

[codemonkey_uk]

Woah impressive thread necromancy!

I am: M, 35, UK, Married, 3 kids, Programmer / Game Developer.

[Johnny B. Good]

I'm 19 and a junior at University of Maryland. I study international business with a minor in Japanese. I went to a science and tech high school, and spent one of those years in a country town in Japan. I work on campus doing scheduling, room set-up, short tours, and reservations for Chinese University and Administrative Officials, for the low low price of minimum wage. I'm 6'4 and skinny.

My hobbies include Brazilian Jujitsu, wrestling, drinking heavily, DJing, obsessively collecting music, Dwarf Fortress, and tabletops. I got my first taste of Werewolf: The Whateveritis at 8, then D&D at 12, returned to D&D for a short period of time at 17, and started running about a year ago. I enjoy mind-altering substances on occasion. I speak English and Japanese. Next Thursday I'm going to be moving to Tokyo, and attending Aoyama Gakuin U for a year.

I've grown fond of legwork-y types who throw around bribes like candy.

[TommyTwoToes]

hey all, I am 40. I live in the USA (North East PA).
I do workforce management for an insurance company.

Been playing RPG's since Star Frontiers and Marvel Heros. Went through the obligatory Car Wars and Ogre phase in the mid 80's. My current group is moving away from RPG's (unfortunately) and into Boardgames (which is ok).

Been playing Champions Online and SC 2 recently.

[Smokeskin]

32 male, CEO and part owner of a 1.5 billion $ real estate investment company, never finished university but did a smattering of business, math and computer science classes, before that army recon nearly-sergeant (discharged with permanent knee injury a few weeks before graduation). Hobbies are mostly strength training and hunting (deer and bird), previous hobbies are parachuting, hardball, climbing, krav maga, muai thai. I have a 19 month old son, 2 whippets and 2 cats.

[Sharkman]

Ok my turn I guess.

I am 39 years old. I am one of 'those' people. I believe in God, Country, and family. I was born in New York, raised all over the United States, by a patriotic and Christian family. I am not racist, I am not a bigot, I am no more of a hypocrite than the rest of the world. I am also not a legalist, tight minded, dork and I don't beat people up for not believing what I do. At the same time I do not let people beat me up for believing what I believe. Meek in no way is weak. Also I am ok with your beliefs - we'll all find out who is right about 1.5 seconds after we die. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I lived all over the United States, 4 years in Germany, 2.5 years in South Korea, and have had the privilege of travelling the world over. My father was a patriot the kind that serves his country in really cool ways that most of us can only dream of or try to simulate in Shadowrun. He taught me to love God, serve my country, and respect all people regardless of creed, race, color...probably the biggest weakness I have there is getting angry with people and their politics in my country.

I studied Soong Moo Kwan HapKido in Seoul Korea for 2.5 years. Achieved my 1st Dan when I was 14 years old. I later moved back to the United States and took Tae Kwon Do and achieved a red belt. I was the Texas State Heavy Weight Champion Full Contact karate in 1989...I had my own martial arts school when I was fifteen years old.

Years later I studied Aikido at the Sunset Cliffs Aikido school in San Diego which was interrupted as I transfered from Submarine Warfare training to my active duty status on the USS Grayling SSN646. I served six years on Submarines - did my duty...survived a world famous collision with a Soviet Submarine in the Berents Sea in March of 1993...you can find a little about it on the web - that was Red October for real and my 15 minutes of fame...got married had two boys. Then divorced - because as everyone else in the world I am not perfect, flawed, and made mistakes.

I worked high crime housing as a sort of advanced renta-cop...we called ourselves 2.5 instead of Five-O. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) But we did building sweeps, urban tactical deployment, domestic violence and everything a real cop and SWAT team does with the exception of traffic stops...as we were confined to large housing and government facilities which did not have public streets usually. That paid little to nothing and I got shot at twice. Exciting...but not worth it.

I have owned four businesses of various types; Overwatch Security (Private Investigation and Security Company), Future Computer Concepts, and General Retail Business, three of which have failed...one of which is going strong.

Tower of Games LLC in Chesapeake is the coolest game store. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I have two business partners one of which is a long time friend who talked me into the idea of a game store. My other partner is my awesome brother who runs the business for us and is getting married in two weeks to my wife's sister...yeah I know it sounds old fashioned...and wierd to me too. Tower of Games does everything games, its clean, sharp, and we do airsoft, military simulation right along side of video games, RPG's and everything else gaming. I would like to point out that I had to work for every dime of my businesses started from scratch with my own money, no loans, and no hand outs. I learned from each failure and moved on to try again...

I have since remarried now have five children, a wonderful wife who is a lot like me, live in Chesapeake Virginia, have an AAS in computer science, and my day job consists of Commercial Medical Programming and Analyst which I've been doing for about 8 years. Its much more lucrative then all of the other more interesting jobs and careers I have tried before. Someday I want a chain of super mega game stores from the Tower and can spend my retirement playing all of the games I do not have time for now.

I run a Shadowrun RPG on Sundays each week with eight awesome players, I am an avid fan of Airsoft and Military Simulation Gaming - we have a new club in the Chesapeake area that is pushing 22 members now and twice a month meeting to shoot the crap out of each other in a military simulated environment...at a tremendous local field known as Ballahack Airsoft.

I still love God, what my country stood for (not the current nightmares going on), I love gamers and gaming and hanging out, my oldest son is 16 and headed to the Marine Corp to do his duty, like his fathers and grand fathers before him. I have a 12 year old son about to hit puberty (thank God), 12 year old daughter who is a beautiful ballet dancer for many years, a 9 year old son who is still learning to tell the difference between his head and a hole in the ground, and a 3 year old daughter who breaks my heart every day with, "Daddy don't leave me..." before I go to work.

I consider it a privilege to contribute to dumpshock, share ideas with others who love this game and have followed SR since 2nd edition, collecting every book I can get my hands on.

[Doc Chase]

Idle question: Why do folk defend their faith to those who don't even ask about it?

Just seems like a...strange thing, I guess.

On topic, 29, journalist and accountant by education, fantastic lover by experience and gentleman adventurer by happenstance. Currently whittling my days away by arguing Shadowrun rules, playing various video games and exporting more beer in a day overseas than any of you will drink in thirty years.

I enjoy swimming, cooking, various arts both aesthetic and martial and collect hats. Next on the list is a straw boater so my costumer friends can finish out a few Roaring Twenties-era costumes that I could use it with. Need to finish out the Victorian coattailed suit as well.

[Sharkman]

Answer...to above:

Because it is such an integral part of who we are and what we stand for that we feel its neccessary to let people understand what we believe. No different then describing your sexual orientation or your list of careers of what makes you who you are right now as you talk about yourself.

[Laodicea]

Idle question: Why do folk defend their faith to those who don't even ask about it?

Just seems like a...strange thing, I guess.

I'm more bothered by all the guys bragging on their incredible martial arts training and abilities. I think it's a funny/weird thing to talk about on Internet forums.

[hobgoblin]

I'm more bothered by all the guys bragging on their incredible martial arts training and abilities. I think it's a funny/weird thing to talk about on Internet forums.

online anyone is 5 style black belt with several kinds of assault rifles in the closet.

[Doc Chase]

I'm more bothered by all the guys bragging on their incredible martial arts training and abilities. I think it's a funny/weird thing to talk about on Internet forums.

It reminds me of a class reunion.

@Sharkman: I get that it's integral to who you are, but you come across as defensive when you spend as much time talking about your love for God and being one of 'those people' and go on to explain what you aren't when it comes to a sterotype I'm not entirely sure very many people on DS ascribe to.

As I said, idle thought, slight confusion.

[Laodicea]

online anyone is 5 style black belt with several kinds of assault rifles in the closet.

Exactly. The people who talk about it are the ones I imagine are lying. All the badasses I've known in real life have been humble. You would ask them how good a fighter they are and they would simply shrug. They would certainly never make an internet forum post about it.

edit: perhaps lying is not the best way to put it. They may fully believe in their training and abilities. But, Many dojos are in the business of selling belt ranks & false confidence, so I'm not one to put a lot of stock in someones belt rank or self-assessment.

[Sharkman]

Fair enough.
You chose to respond to it the way you did as I chose to write it the way I wrote it. The OP did say "Exposing the diversity of dumpshock..."

The same as everyone else who responds to things...like martial arts experience...or what have you. I happen to know that not everyone on the internet is a liar or has any reason whatsoever to misrepresent themselves.
Also for those of us who actually enjoyed martial arts as a student or a teacher ...it isn't some mystically cool thing that fits into the hollywood humble warrior concept. Its a competitive sport that was a whole lot of fun! Why would I not talk about it? Its common ground for a lot of people. Tons of people have done it. I never said I was a super ninja but I did show up, I did teach and I did compete. I also played football all the way through high school...soccer in middle school....yada yada, but I doubt anyone would have attacked that statement...I'm curious as to why?

I want to ask you - what's up with the hat collection? Why did you mention that? I find that very interesting...I have friends who despise hats and make fun of people who wear them and it irritates me because I like hats...I don't own too many but I like fedoras and such...

[Mooncrow]

Eh, what the heck.

31, male, Detroit. I've been table-topping for about 20 years now, and I've worked my way through a significant percentage of the games out there. Up until about 6 months ago, I GM'd for 3 groups of players: D&D 3.5, Rifts, and Shadowrun. Sadly, RL seems to be conspiring and they've become really sporadic =/ Thankfully, I've started as a player in a SR 4A campaign, and that seems like it will be a nice change of pace, since I haven't been able to be a player in ~10 years. I also play a fair amount of WoW when I'm in the mood.

On a non-gaming note, I have a master's in Political Science with some post-grad work and spent a year in law school before circumstances beyond my control forced me to drop out. Basically, I'm a giant dilettante, between my addiction to reading and my habit of switching jobs and industries every 6 months or so, I have a wide range of knowledge and skills. In the last few years though, I've settled down, and now I work as a freelance writer, which is pretty much the only job I can get (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) But hey, it pays the bills, and I've found I enjoy it way more than anything else I've ever done.

Hmm, let's see, I'm married (if you want to call it that), I'm a huge nerd, have no life, and love arguing on the internet.

I think that sums it up.