Where ya from & what ya do, Exposing the diversity of Dumpshock Options

[Stahlseele]

He's overcompensating. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Am not O.o
What would i compensate?
There is nothing WORTH compensating <.<#

[Wombat]

I'm a 23 year old American male. I spent the last 5 years in the US Marine Corps as an Arabic Linguist, so I'm fluent in English and decent enough at Arabic. I just got out at the end of June and am getting ready to go back to school at the end of September for a BA in Environmental Studies.

[McAllister]

I'm a 20 year old American male. Given the number of hours I've spent talking/theorizing about pen-and-paper RPGs, it's positively embarrassing how few I've spent ever playing them. So if you're ever in southern Maryland...

But I digress. I attend a small public college, where I am studying Psychology, Women Gender and Sexuality, Film and Media, French and Other Shit, in that order. A good man once took me on a trip with some of my peers to go shoot skeet at a sportsman's club, and I've decided I'm going to buy a firearm as soon as I have somewhere to put it. Interestingly, if I wanted to buy a handgun I'd need a license, but I could go buy a shotgun or rifle right now. My reasons for owning a firearm will be 1. zombies, 2. in case I need to overthrow the government, and 3. just in case. Again, those are in order.

I have a short list of things I've decided to do before I die. This list is in order, but it's the order in which I decided there are Things To Do, not the order in which they'll be accomplished. 1. I will hug a penguin. Doesn't it look like they'd just be so much fun to hug? Might have to break into a zoo at some point. That'd be the world's strangest shadowrun. 2. Own the collected works of Robert Heinlein. I don't live like he writes, but I wish I did, and nobody else turns a premise like "what if we made the moon into a giant prison planet?" into an amazing novel like he does. 3. I will hold friend auditions. I plan to make a number of posters, and put them around wherever I am living when I decide to do this; candidates will assemble at the specified place and time, we will all hang out together, and if any qualify for the position, I'll call them after. The trick will be to attract people who see the ad and think "Huh, that's a weird idea, but why not?" instead of people who are incredibly lonely and more emotionally needy than I'm ready to deal with.

[Snow_Fox]

. Extensive collection of comics and books, particularly Lovecraft, his immediate influences, and his contemporaries;

ooo I didn't know you like Lovecraft. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

I guess if I make an entry I should go on them. Married white female, living north of Philadelphia. I've player SR on and off since 1st ed came out and my D&D group was looking for a break. We use to play weekly driving up to New York for games but that put a lot of miles on the car and it got harder when the main GM moved to New Mexico. The last time I played was Saturday.
I grew up in New York, my parents were French. I love books, cloths and cooking and have a fondness for Italian handguns. I have outstanding night vision and a severe garlic allergy-so I have a particular fondness for vampire lore.
12 years of Catholic school didn't take, thanks so much Holy Child, I'm a practicing Wiccan. To pay for said books/cloths/food/bullets I use to be a bill collector in the Bronx and Manhattan. In a much safer world I'm now a licenced financial advisor. Yes that means I spend a lot of time talking to people about investments and am told I have a positive talent for making understandable to the elderly semi-complex financial terms.

While talking to particularly dense individuals I often indulge in the fantasy of imagining strangeling them with their own pearls!

[Neraph]

I'm in the D/FW megaplex of Texas, and I work at a FedEx airport as contract security. I've gotten my GED (would have gotten the diploma, but my father moved out and caused us to lose 2 houses, so I couldn't finish Homeschooling, as the books kept getting lost in the move), and I have 15 credits to my name towards a Buisness/Administration bachellors degree. My family is largely military (mother, brother, 2 uncles, 3 grandfathers, my father washed out, I'm planning on it, my little brother is planning on it... that's all I can think of right now), so we've moved a lot.

I've studied martial arts for something around 15 years now: Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, Aikido, Judo, Jujuitsu, Tai Chi, Karate, Ninjutsu... I'm forgetting like 6 more. I'll track down that list I made. My martial arts also includes weapons forms: katana, wakizashi, broadsword, longsword, rapier (I don't like it), saber, hand-and-a-half, shortsword, dagger (many lengths), throwing weapons (knives [I suck at them], shuriken, spikes, ect.), morning star, mace, flail, whip (I'm not too good at that one), chain, kama, nunchaku, sai, staff, spear, polearm, projectile weapons (I can hit my own arrow in the bullseye at 60 feet), and probably some more weapons I cant remember/don't want to take the effort to remember. I know a lot about causing pain.

I also know first aid; I was a Boy Scout for 3 years, and first aid is required for security officers.

If you couldn't tell from some of my earlier posts or my sig, I'm a Christian. As in, really a Christian (most people who claim to be actually aren't). I've chosen Christianity over many of the alternatives after a (less than some) colored youth of studying many religions, including (but not limited to) Wicca, Zoroastrianism, many flavors of so-called Christianity (the actual beliefs of, say, the Mormons are dramatically different than the Jehova's Witnesses, for instance, and most of the branches do not follow the original text at all and tend to teach what the Bible would call "abomination"), and Druidism.

I've been gaming for more than a decade; started with D&D 3rd edition and moved to Shadowrun when I could know right from wrong.

I speak English as my primary language, and know a good amount of German, and can feel my way blindly through a number of other languages like Japanese and Latin. The anime watching helped my Japanese a lot.

[ShadowPavement]

30 Year old married male and father of a crazy two year old who lives in central Maine. I'm French Canadian by "birth" (I'm adopted) and I'm a physicist by training and physics teacher by trade. I train heavily in Okinowan Goju-Ryu and have been in Bujinkan Ninjutsu and Okinowan Uechi-Ryu for close to 23 years now.

I hunt dear and bear every year as my father is a master guide in both Maine and New Brunswick, and I have a thorough understanding of civilian firearms, but don't own many myself.

Started gaming my freshman year of highschool in D&D and picked up 2nd edition Shadowrun when I ended up transfering to a magnet school for my junior year.

My wife and I are active medieval re-enactors which takes up most of our weekend time and I just started running SR4 this past march after putting SR aside for about 5 years to play Eberron and Star Wars Saga Edition.

[Freejack]

From: Currently Longmont Colorado, a bit north of Denver. This is my 46th move and I'm 52. Been gaming since I was a kid. Played D&D in 1976. Paranoia, Car Wars, Talisman, and then stumbled upon Shadowrun.

Do: I'm a Senior Unix Admin. The company I work at provides emergency 911 services to about 92% of the US and now Canadian market. So there's a good chance that if you call 911, the PSAP is communicating with a server I manage.

Been mucking with computers since 1979 so I do like what I do (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Hobbies: Computers (well yea), motorcycles (just finished a 5,000 road trip that included GenCon; http://www.schelin.org/20090808 ), gaming (all types).

One little note. I'm somewhat picky when I read. I read a lot so when I get to a typo in a book I'm reading, it's like a scab. I keep going back to it and picking at it. I was surprised to receive an e-mail back in January while we were preparing to move asking if I'd like to help with the Shadowrun books. So I've been helping proofread when I get free time. It's cool to help and to see my name in the Proofreading credits in two books so far (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Carl

[deek]

33 year old white male (german/italian descent) born in Fort Lauderdale, FL but have lived in Indiana about 30 years of my life (about 24 of those years in Fort Wayne). I've been married for 5 years, father of two.

I've been gaming since I was about 8 (Intellivision, Atari, Commodore). I got my first taste of role-playing games in the late 80s and have been playing ever since (mostly DnD, but SR1 & SR4 come in a close second). I fell in love with computers in the early 90s and started college with focus in computer science and mathematics. After 12 years, I finally graduated with a business degree in information systems. I've been building and repairing computers since the mid-90s, with a short stint as a freelance programmer. Recently, besides gaming and the occasional favor, computers are just a hobby. I've been working as a software analyst for a life insurance and retirement company the past 8 years.

Besides computers and games, which is somewhat of a common thread with most of my friends, I enjoy reading (classic literature), writing (reviews, short stories and other fiction), photography (film and digital) and most recently, manual typewriters.

I've dabbled in philosophy (both eastern and western), zen buddhism, the Japanese language, woodworking and psychology. All are still secondary interests that I don't spend as much time in as I once did.

[Ego Mcmahon]

im a 23 year old male living in plymouth, england

ive been playing shadowrun for about 19 months and already have more ways to abuse the rules then 99% of the rest of my team. before that i played dungeons and dragons, world of darkness, marvell.

I've been in and out of work since i left college doing various different things, ive recently started working as a labourer on construction sites. I'm engaged to my partner who i've been with for 18 months and who introduced me to the game. some of you may have seen her round, she goes by cross the medic or something similar.

[underaneonhalo]

I'm a 28 year old white male and have been in a serious relationship for about 6 years now. I live a bit north of Atlanta, GA in a town called Kennesaw. Yes, the town with the law that all property owners must own a gun. I am a carpenter as well as a painter, drywall installer/finisher, and all around handy kind of guy. Recently I've mostly been doing asphalt sealcoating with my buddy of 20 years because I just really enjoy it. In short I am a general subcontractor. I'm taking a medical transcription course at the moment so that I can work part time from home as well.

I am the product of poor Scottish and Irish immigrants mingling with Native Americans (I am 1/8 Cherokee to be exact) on the outskirts of Savannah. In other words I am a genuine Georgia Cracker.

I started playing Shadowrun in 2nd edition and I love what they've done with 4th. In my free time I play the bass guitar well enough to make people that don't play think I'm pretty hot shit, I also fiddle with the guitar and sometimes drums. Music is the only thing that keeps me sane. I paint miniatures as a hobby these days. I haven't really had the urge to play any of my 40K armies since GW raped my army lists. I'm a certified gunsmith and I love taking machines apart.

With languages I am fluent in Idiot, and fairly competent at English. I speak enough Spanish that I didn't starve to death while staying in Spain for a couple months, and I have an on and off relationship with German. The majority of my actual language experience comes from long term association with friends and family speaking Louisiana Creole and Anglo-Romani.

I'm thinking that in the next few years I'll be moving to southern Tennessee, probably the Red Bank/Signal Mountain area.

Crust Pizza in Red Bank rocks by the way.

[Aristotle]

I'm a 33 year old caucasian male (250# - 6'3") and citizen of the United States. I grew up in Hanover, PA; but I currently live in Northern VA (Ashburn area). I've played Shadowrun (all editions) since I was about 19. Although I have not played for a few years, mostly for lack of a group.

I previously managed a production team for a company that built high end workstations and servers for extreme environments (i.e. all branches of the armed forces, FEMA, Red Cross, and even formula 1 race teams). I currently work technical support for the Department of Homeland Security.

I'm constantly tinkering with tabletop game mechanics, coming up with plots for campaigns, or designing home-brew game worlds. I spend absurd amounts of time playing World of Warcraft (Horde side on the Earthen Ring server, Guild Name: Assiduous Wake). I'm running the daily heroic as I write this. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I've used the handle 'Aristotle' for years. It was my very first Shadowrun character. A 16 year old decker with a chip on his shoulder, freckles, a mop of curly red hair, and a collection of vintage game consoles). He ran an arcade of sorts on the edge of the barrens. It was more or less neutral territory for local gangs, mostly because Ari's friends (shadowrunners) were kind of imposing and were frequently present. I more commonly go by 'Hildy' elsewhere now. It's a childhood nickname based on my rather long last name.

[Rad]

Pismo Beach, California, U.S.A.

(Yes, the town mentioned in the Bugs Bunny cartoons--used to be a big Hollywood vacation spot back in the 30's-50's.)

I'm currently co-owner of a small fine art gallery and government teat-sucker on account of the SSI I get due to being disabled. (I have some lingering memory/organizational problems due to psych meds pushed on me in my youth, but I prefer to think of it as protection money from society.)

Never graduated high-school because my transcripts were "lost" by the school district when I changed schools in 11th grade, and I didn't feel like going through all that BS again. (I tested at college level when I was 7, so I was beyond bored at that point.) Did a few months of college before dropping out due to illness, didn't go back due to boredom.

I live on about $1,000 a month, sink about $300 of that into a "job" that only requires me to work one day a month on average and makes absolutely no money, and generally try to keep myself entertained while I wait for the world to burn down.

[Da9iel]

Hmm. Nothing's changed since the previous thread.

[paste] I'm a failed aero engineer, former airline mechanic, current water treatment plant operator. Oddly enough, while still studying to be an engineer I played a character who was kicked out of college and became a mechanic. Water treatment gets me thinking about shadowrun all the time.[/paste]

Only thing that's changed is now I'm across the river from Fargo, ND, I'm older (35), and have a daughter. I was in Minneapolis, MN for all the previous history.

[Summerstorm]

Well... i am a 27-year-old german guy living near Wolfenbüttel at the moment. I am trained as an... hm do i have to translate this? Ah lets just say i do computer stuff; low level. But i am on the job hunt now, after i quit college without a degree and did some odd jobs for a year.

I played roleplaying games for... hm about ten years now. Started with Shadowrun (2nd edition) and the Dark Eye. But i LOVE gaming in general (all kinds: tabletop, computer, boardgames, cards... all) so i tried MANY games and designed a few myself. At the moment i am pretty lazy and inactive. But my other hobbies (if someone kicks my ass so i move) are: Martial Arts (I trained mainly Shaolin Kempo Karate, but read/look into more), gaming in all forms (i... WAS... a good chessplayer and play some video games) and i am a media-junkie: I love movies, series, animes, internetproductions and so on.

My main language is german, but all the movies i watch in original (often with english subtitles) improved my english a bit over normal learned-in-school abilities. I now even sometimes curse in english... because it sounds cooler *g*.

Hm. that pretty much all about me.... aside from the dozens of quirks and weird aspects i won't go in detail on *g*.

See ya

[Demonseed Elite]

Let's see...

I'm 31 years old, born in Queens, NY but currently living in New Hampshire. Got my B.A. in Film at Cornell University after I decided the pre-med program I was in (focused on genetic engineering) was not what I wanted to do with my life. I considered Computer Science, but the Film program was flexible enough that I was able to take half my courses as electives anyway and I focused on web design, programming, and the technology side of film (video production, audio engineering, etc.). Now I am a Multimedia Engineer working for a government-affiliated non-profit doing everything from building websites to designing video-on-demand web portals to shooting video for events. On the side, I've been a freelance writer for Shadowrun, my first gig being pitching Brainscan. I'm recently retired from that after some business-side disagreements with CGL, though I still love the game just as much.

I'm single and have a massive Maine Coon cat named Mocha. I am thoroughly addicted to coffee, love to write, and spend way too much time playing World of Warcraft (Horde side, Scarlet Crusade server). At various points of my life I've learned German, Russian, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese, but lack of use has made me very rusty in all of them. I secretly wish I could draw or paint and I'd love to go back to school but I have no idea what field I'd pursue at this point.

[Snow_Fox]

co eds? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Demonseed Elite]

co eds? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

That's not a field, that's an extra-curricular activity! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Snow_Fox]

Not according to a b/f I had when I was in college.

[Krypter]

my first gig being pitching Brainscan.

Brainscan was good.

I'm a 30-something systems integrator from Oakville, Canada doing work in geospatial data analysis, data mining, crime statistics and social network analysis. Married to a hot asian ninja, err, I mean woman and starting to settle down. I've travelled all around Europe, China, India, Australia and North America. Enjoy reading the great literary Classics, canoeing in the great outdoors, biking, rockclimbing and exploring nooks and crannies. Especially crannies. Trained in scuba diving, basic shooting, wilderness survival, five-animal style kung fu, armizare (renaissance swordsmanship) and international politics. That last one was the worst. Fluent in English, Polish and a smattering of French. Addicted to internet news and various RPGs, such as CthulhuTech, Planescape, Rifts and Talislanta. Fond of dogs with short legs, like corgies.

[Lugburz]

Nice to meet you all. Fascinating read.

28, male, red-headed, descended from Celts and Gauls. Born and raised on a dairy farm in the Uplands region of Wisconsin. (Owing to this background, I carry a pocketknife at all times.) Grew up as a loner and continue to be one- I've never been in love and am not the least bit sad about it. I have a B.S. in Art. (???!) Currently apprenticing as a restorer of violin-family instruments. Don't play music, but I'd love to. If given the choice, I would play violin/mandolin on an Irish folk group, guitar in a grunge-type rock band, or viol in a baroque ensemble. Seriously. I could go either way. To understand my character, I would invite you to imagine an amalgamation of these characters from books you might have read: Toad of Wind in the Willows, Arthur Dent of Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Samwise Gamgee/Bilbo Baggins.

Having finally become a tradesman, I have fulfilled one of my life goals. The others are to have some kind of adventure equal to that of my great-grandfather, (who worked a bunch of jobs out west in the late 19th century) to learn to play some kind of musical instrument, to return to the countryside and settle down once my wanderlust has been appeased, and to marry a witch. Like a real one. If any actual witches are reading this, you are hereby authorised to turn me into a crow to prove it. Thanks. Another lasting goal is to continue making everyone's day a little more interesting/bizzare- as if any of you couldn't tell from reading this [truthful] nonsense.

My entry into the world of role-playing games came quite late in my life- 2005 or 2006 or something, and started with the "Serenity" game. Shadowrun 4th is the only Shadowrun I've ever known, which is kind of regrettable in a way- I imagine that I would have an even more special relationship with it if I'd known it longer. *shrug* I play some other games, too, and am gearing up for what will hopefully be a NOT completely failed GMing career.

EDIT: Dagnabbit, forgot that other crap everyone else is mentioning. Studied French, German, Spanish, and forgot it all. Still remember some useless Japanese- don't want to live there, but it would be nice to visit again and look at some more architecture/ceramics. I studied Judo and Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu, liked Judo the best. The Judo club I studied with is now disbanded, but I would drop everything to return if they started again. I've also killed thousands of thistles with a machette. I'm a self-taught adherent to the Luke Skywalker School of Unbridled Flailing.

[McAllister]

First thought while reading Krypter's post: "Negative Quality: Media Junkie."

Second thought: "You can't write "corgies" without writing "orgies."

[Krypter]

First thought while reading Krypter's post: "Negative Quality: Media Junkie."

That's a negative?!?

Second thought: "You can't write "corgies" without writing "orgies."

Well, they are loveable.

[McAllister]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)

[Method]

Ewwww...

[ShimmerGeek]

Hi guys (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Though I may aswell introduce myself with my first post!


I started Roleplaying *counts* Uhh, 3 years ago now - when I played in a Cyberpunk one-off, then followed that up a week later by joining an Ex Machina campaign. This led me to select Dark Future as my category at the Roleplaying Nationals that year, and I discovered Shadowrun! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) Unfortunately, those two one-offs over that weekend have been the only time I've been able to play Shadowrun; however I ran a short campaign that summer (set in Hong Kong) and I'm about to GM a longer campaign starting in a few weeks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/twirl.gif)


Ahem, anyways - that's how I came to be here introducing myself to you lovely people -


I'm a 22 year-old female Computer Games Programming student from Scotland; I Roleplay two or three times a week (currently playing Orpheus and running Nobilis; hopefully I'll soon be playing Unknown Armies, Orpheus and running Shadowrun) - I'm generally geeky in all sorts of ways (Videogames, Boardgames, Cardgames, Roleplaying Games, Gadgets, Reading, Sci-Fi/Supers/Fantasy in all forms... etc. etc.) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/twirl.gif)