Biography, using “Twenty Questions”, Shadowrun, 2nd edition.

Donovan Kess is a male human who stands 6’4” tall (1.93 m) and has a medium build. He weighs about 200 pounds (91 kg). He has pinkish red skin, white hair,and a pair of cybereyes that are all black with light brown irises. His white hair is worn trimmed short and combed back. Donovan typically stands erect. He doesn’t look especially intimidating. Donovan has a nice figure and complexion, which makes him look somewhat attractive. Clothes look at least as good on him as they do on mannequins in the store, and he typically wears either fine clothing or tres chic. Someone meeting him for the first time might think he is someone important.

Donovan was born in Tallahassee, Florida on September 4, 1996. He grew up in the sunny climate there, and had plenty of opportunities to go to the beach and tour the attractions in the region. Donovan grew up in an upper middle class family. His magical ability was discovered early on in a corporate-sponsored test screening at his high school. That same year, he was enrolled in a weekend training program sponsored by Ares Macrotechnology to foster young magical talent and groom it to work for the corporation.

Being as old as he is, Donovan saw it all as the Sixth World arrived on the nightly news. The only thing that really got to him was the downing of Flight 329 on its way from London to Atlanta because it was fairly close to where he had grown up. His family and friends back home had much the same reaction. Being part of a private mage training program one day a week helped him cope with the world’s Awakening, and having a job in the field made it even easier.

Donovan’s father was a marketing expert for a local subcorporation in Florida that was based out of Kissimee/Orlando. Their main business area was tourism. Donovan’s mother was a flight attendant for Delta, and later, she quit and went to work as a concierge for one of the Walt Disney Resort Hotels. The family’s income came from his mother and father’s work combined. His father earned more than his mother, but not enough to support the family on his own.

Donovan’s family life was pretty peaceful. His mother and father got along well, and aside from his mother being gone a lot, things were fine. He had two younger sisters. The youngest one has a professional career in marketing. The older one is a travel agent that helps book tourist packages for Disney from their main office. His parents are now both retired. Donovan keeps in touch with his family regularly, and he goes to visit on the holidays.

Donovan has never started his own family because his career got in the way, and he has never been able to find the right woman. Up until recently, Donovan thought he might have been too old to worry about starting a family, but since he has quickened a spell to increase his Body attribute, he has had more energy and felt more like doing things.

Donovan was educated publicly up through high school. His high grades earned him a scholarship from Ares to the Magical Sciences study program of his choice. Donovan chose to go to Texas A&M&M, where he finished his master’s degree. He learned a lot at the university, and then even more as a wage mage for Ares. He started teaching part-time at Texas A&M&M about 8 years ago, and he has just recently both retired from Ares and finished up his doctorate in Magical Sciences. The latter 4 years of his education he paid for out of his own pocket. He has also recently started learning the arts of swordsmithing and sword fighting. After retiring from Ares, he also helped start a magical group called the Society for Academic Magical Research (SAMR), based at Texas A&M&M.

While he enjoyed working as a mage for Ares, he would probably not go back. After doing the same thing for some 40 years, he decided that with his retirement date coming up, it was time for a change of pace. He continues teaching part-time at Texas A&M&M, and he is waiting for a full professorship to open up, so he can take it. The only way that Donovan would go back to being a wage mage for a few more years is if teaching didn’t work out, and he needed the money.

Donovan doesn’t concern himself with religious matters much anymore. He believes in God, but exactly what God is is open to debate in his mind, given all of the strange and unexplained paranormal things he has seen and learned about over the course of his life. He is agnostic. Donovan was raised a Catholic. His family still practices.

According to Donovan’s moral code, killing in cold-blood, or murder, is wrong. Under some circumstances, killing is justified, but he will usually try to consider his options before killing a person or critter. Self-defense killing is justified if it’s the only way to get an attacker to stop. He favors capital punishment for convicted murderers, is pro-choice, and is neutral on euthanasia. Donovan’s sexual ethics code is loosely interpreted. He doesn’t have any qualms about pre-marital sex. Certain deviant sexual behaviors are completely out of the question. As a professor, he has had to turn down his share of seductive young coeds, but there were two occasions with two different particularly attractive young female students that he never mentions when he didn’t turn down their affections. So far, no one has found out about them. Both girls got ‘A’s because he felt a little bad later.

Donovan’s goal is to enjoy the time he has left in life and to try and make a lasting contribution to the world. By shadowrunning and teaching, he hopes to be able to either make some profound discovery or do some good in the world before his time is up. He also enjoys the thrill of the risk involved in shadowrunning.

As a person, Donovan tends to be a bit of a moderate. He has some radical political ideas, but he doesn’t act on them. He tends to be easy-going and extroverted, though not to any extreme. As a person with intellect, he is able to easily think rationally and ask intelligent questions. One of his talents is thinking analytically.

One of Donovan’s talents is getting along with people. He is sort of easy to like, and he usually just lets people be themselves, which makes others comfortable around him. There aren’t many things he has trouble doing. He hates bullies and people who think they’re better than everyone else. He loves life and experiencing new things. The beach is close to his heart, since he spent a lot of time there as he was growing up. Nice views, quiet times, loud music of all kinds, art, and a sense of accomplishment are all things he loves.

When running the shadows, Donovan uses his real name, Donovan Kess, which is the same one he was born with. He sees no reason to hide his identity, so he doesn’t. Sometimes, he introduces himself as Dr. Kess; sometimes Donovan; sometimes Donovan Kess; sometimes Dr. Donovan Kess. It depends on whom he is talking to at the time.