Horn Lake, MS (Just outside of Memphis, TN)

xjermx@gmail.com

My Gaming Resume

(Idea stolen from Legomancer)

 

Who am I?

Hi, I’m Jerm.  I’m in my 30’s, married, no kids, full time day job, and an avid gaming nerd.  I moved to Memphis a number of years ago, and began looking for some fellow role playing gamers and looked and looked and looked before getting invited to a D&D game that hooked me up with a group of really great folks.  Fast forward a few years… I’m still playing RPGs with a few of those people, and have made even more gamer friends, and things are pretty good.

What’s the deal?

This is my gamer resume.  I put it out there on the internet so that other gamers that do not know me can get an idea of what my thing is, where I’m coming from, what I’m interested in, and what I’m not interested in. 

I won’t make this long, since I hate terribly long, droning gamer background info stories.  I start playing sword and sorcery games many many years ago.  Played a whole lot of D&D 2nd ed, some Shadowrun, some World of Darkness, a little GURPS, a little Werewolf, a little Call of Cthulhu.  I ran a lot of games, and played in some great games.  I picked up D&D 3.0 with the group if Memphis, and played for awhile, then moved to D&D 3.5.  I played, and enjoyed it, but 3.5 wasn’t the system for me.  People moved and our group split up, and I went for a little while without gaming.  My friend Matthew started talking about Indie RPGs, and some crazy – but very cool – ideas.  I spent some time on The Forge, learning about Gamist, Narrative, and Simulationist gaming (What's GNS? read here, here, here, here, and here.), and discovering some really really great games, like The Shadow of Yesterday, Donjon, Dogs in the Vineyard, Capes, Riddle of Steel, Inspectres, and many others.  I talked some of my friends into giving some of them a shot, and slowly got back into gaming.  I ran a fun Shadow of Yesterday game for awhile, and then a little Shadowrun of Yesterday.  I can’t say enough great things about the Shadow of Yesterday game system.  I started up a (new) World of Darkness Werewolf game back in the beginning of 2007 with a totally great bunch of folks, and played it all the way through ’07 and into the beginning of ’08 before we ended the campaign.  Having formally divorced myself from D&D (there were A LOT of bad feelings between D&D 3.5 and me), I was a little surprised that I found myself excited about the pending release of D&D 4th edition.  And so it came out, and I picked it up, and have started a 4e game with a few folks.  That’s my history.

A/S/L?

This is the part where I briefly talk about the things that do and do not interest me in role playing games.

If you’re familiar with the GNS Model, this will make more sense:   I grew up in the Simulationist camp with some Gamist thrown in.  Around the time that I got dissatisfied with D&D3.5, I jumped headlong into the Narrative pool.  And I’m still there.  I cannot express how glad I am to have picked up some lessons from the Indie RPG community.  But somehow, D&D4, in all of its Gamist glory, appeals to me.

My idea of a good game is one in which fun is the top priority.  I’m interested in gaming with mature and intelligent folks who get together to enjoy each others company while getting to be immersed in an exciting and fun story.  I’m not interested in linear/railroad/boxed adventures, either playing in them, or running them.  I try to be very democratic, and if my players aren’t having a good time, I’m not running a good game.  I like games that flow smoothly, and I do not like spending the evening looking up rules and checking tables.  Systems that are light on the rules and heavy on the fun and narration elements get tops marks with me (Shadow of Yesterday).

I’m willing to give most any game a shot, but I want to be able to devote my time to games that I’m interested in and can be excited about.  I have a tendency to be somewhat scattered and quick to go from one thing to the next, and so I enjoy getting to do one-shot games, and try out new systems that I have not played with before.  I guess my ideal game, either to play or GM, is one with a small group of 3-5 other people who are mature and interested in gaming, a game in which the players are allowed to explore and move the story, and the GM is there to help get the players there, a game that is rules lite, that the GM is willing to make a judgement call and run with it, instead of stopping the game to spend 20 minutes trying to look up a rule, a game in which the players and GM are all working together to craft an exciting story with exciting characters, not trying to screw each other or see who can most effectively abuse the system. 

Please email me and I’ll be happy to answer any other questions.

 

My recent gaming stuff:

Started a D&D 4th edition game in June of 2008

Ran a (new) World of Darkness Werewolf game from early ’07 through early ‘08

Ran a few one shots of Shadowrun of Yesterday, a rocking stew of Shadowrun and Shadow of Yesterday

Ran a summer-long Shadow of Yesterday game

 

Games I’ve played:

· Dungeons & Dragons (2nd, 3rd, 3.5)

· Shadowrun, 3rd and 4th

· Old World of Darkness- Vampire

· Warhammer Fantasy Role Play

· Capes (Lite)

· GURPS (Lite)

· Talislanta (bard games)

· Call of Cthulhu

· Feng Shui

· d20 Modern

 

Games I’ve GM’d:

· Dungeons & Dragons (2nd, 3rd, 3.5 and now, 4th)

· Shadowrun, 3rd and 4th

· Old World of Darkness- Vampire

· New World of Darkness – Vampire

· New World of Darkness – Werewolf

· Feng Shui - tweaked for a Constantine/Buffy the Vampire Slayer setting

· Dogs in the Vineyard

· The Shadow of Yesterday. (here is a link detailing the first two sessions of a game I ran.)

· Shadowrun of Yesterday

· Donjon

· Paranoia XP

· Call of Cthulhu d20

 

Games I’m interested in

· even more Shadow of Yesterday!

· Dogs in the Vineyard

· Burning Wheel

· Riddle of Steel

· Midnight Campaign setting

· Donjon

· new World of Darkness - Vampire, Werewolf or Mage

· Inspectres

· Polaris

· Prime Time Adventures

· Sorcerer

· Conspiracy of Shadows

· Houses of the Blooded

(If you saw a whole lot of role playing game titles there that you’d never heard of, I encourage you to google them, or hit up The Forge and start reading!)