297vas Self Introduction

Armpit-Farts #1 being the muddled & mischievous musings of a maladjusted mind Jim Vassilakos ([email protected]), San Bernardino, California Greetings all… this being my first contribution to A&E, I’ll start by introducing myself and talk about how I first got acquainted w/ gaming. I guess it all started with Bruce (Hi, Bruce… Lee mentioned that you had resubscribed). Bruce was my sister’s boyfriend (later husband, later exhusband), back in the days when I was still a midget. He must have been desperate to find someone to game with, because he wasted no time in teaching me how to play AD&D and Traveller (I was probably only ten or eleven at the time, and he was around twenty). You can imagine my profound delight... here was one of the grown-ups actually taking an interest in me. Gaming with him was fun as well as educational, and pretty soon I’d gotten together the kids on the block and started teaching them all about rpgs. It being a well-known fact that kids of that age are inherently evil, it wasn’t long before I began receiving phone calls late into the night, each player describing to me in excruciating detail how they were planning to rob, backstab, and/or torture the other members of the party. Can you say DM-burnout? I eventually learned that the best way to keep the party together was to throw so much at them, that if they didn’t stay together as a cohesive group, they’d all get eaten by the monsters. High-school saw much of the same, except I began thinking less in terms of monsters and more in terms of plot & setting, keeping the players interested via the story rather than through sheer terror. Then came college (UC Riverside): new group of people, a chance to start fresh. I was still running AD&D on a weekly basis, but the whole game was transformed for me as I began working on a coherent gaming world. And, of course, one world wasn’t enough. Pretty soon they were plane-hopping (this was back before Planescape). Loads of fun. By the tail end of 1989, I’d gotten my undergraduate degree and was enrolled in the MBA program, and since I was still to be around for another two years, one of my players began persistently talking to me about this thing he’d discovered called rec.games.frp (a newsgroup carried by the campus computers). He mentioned it was part of the Internet, a word I’d never heard before and couldn’t attach any meaning to. He told me the gist, but I didn’t really see how talking to a bunch of gamers over a computer would be very interesting. Gaming, to me, was about faceto-face contact. Nonetheless, I reluctantly decided to

get a computer account just to check it out for the sheer hell of it. My first time reading rec.games.frp lasted the better part of a weekend afternoon. I was amazed at the variety & quality of what I was reading. Some people were posting stories or alternate rules for numerous rpgs... others were just sharing their gaming experiences. I felt as though I was suddenly among a bunch of gamers, sitting around a virtual campfire, everyone just shooting the shit. Needless to say, I began making regular trips to the computer lab in order to keep up with the increasing volume of posts. I was quite the Usenet addict back then, and it turns out that I wasn’t the only one. I began meeting other gamers through the computer lab and later their friends. I think it was Wayne Wallace who first had the idea of starting a gamers guild on campus. I got together the necessary signatures, scheduled a room on campus for the first meeting, and began putting up flyers. I expected maybe a handful of people at most. Surprise, surprise... there were something like forty people at the first meeting. I put together a membership list and started a guild magazine called, appropriately enough, The Guildsman (thanks to Mark Dulyani for coming up with the name). Soon we were pulling down funding from ASUCR to finance our first printing. By the middle of 1990, The Guildsman had become the first rpg magazine on the Internet. In addition to working on the Guildsman, I also finished the “Harrison Chapters” (a science-fiction novel, still unpublished except as a serial in Quanta) and began working on various rpg-related programs. Two years later it was time to graduate w/ the MBA. The sixth and tentatively final issue of The Guildsman came out, and then it was off the real world. Nobody wanted to take over the magazine, and I didn’t feel I could continue doing it myself being that I was no longer a student. This isn’t to say that I’d made it a plan to fall out of gaming. My big passion of the moment was to get a job at some game company. To that end, I sent copies of The Guildsman to various publishers: TSR & SJG among others. The one I sent to Bard Games eventually landed in the lap of Peter Adkison of WotC (Wizards of the Coast had just acquired the rights to Talislanta), and a short time later he came out on company business (not WotC business but business for his real job... he worked as some sort of engineer as I recall). Over a steaming hot pan of the traditional gamer-food… pizza… he asked me if I’d like to work at WotC’s headquarters (i.e. his garage). This was before Magic: the Gathering, mind you, and WotC was still dirt-poor. If I had any inkling that Peter would strike gold, I would have been there in a heartbeat, but at the time, I didn’t envision working for nothing out of his garage as a wise career move (can’t tell ya how many times I kicked myself over that).

log on during working hours to check email. Talk about your perks!

I ended up job-hopping for a little while. The economy, particularly in Southern California, was piss-poor in ‘92, and what work I did find was not particularly satisfying. After putzing around for a little while, I started working w/ the family business (property management). That was a real life-saver, as it meant two things. First, I wouldn’t have to wear a tie. Secondly, and much more importantly, I could

During the next several years, I eased in and out of face-toface gaming, continuing to write a variety of rpg-related software in between running various campaigns. Here’s a list of the programs I’ve written which are currently available for download:

Characters & Combat: Monster Attack (v1.0) w/ Monster Encounter Generator (v3.03) for AD&D NPC Band Generator (v1.0) for AD&D NPC Party Generator (v1.0) for AD&D Character Generation Aide (v1.0) for Top Secret/SI

Text Archives: Camp (v0.3) AD&D Campaign Archive (Homebrew Rules & Stuff) Debate (v0.8) TSR/Copyright Debate & Traveller Copyright Archive Trek (v80) Star Trek PBeM Archive (Up to Turn #80) Electric Guildsman #1 (preliminary version) Roleplaying Magazine

Mapping: Worldmap (v1.0d) Fantasy World Mapping Program (Squares) Mapper (v0.7) Fantasy World Mapping Program (Hexes) Galactic (v2.4) Sector Mapping Program for Traveller Starmap (v1.0) 3D Starmapping Program for Science Fiction RPGs

Extras: CAL (v1.3) RPG Calendar / Campaign Log EG (v2.11) Menu Program for Electronic Text Publishing Lang (v1.0) Greek Word Learner (also useful for creating fictional languages for rpgs) This period was all very productive & fun, however, slowly and almost methodically, my gaming-buddies began disappearing. Martin went to Palm Springs to become a college instructor. Eric went to Washington and was soon working at amazon.com. Ross went to Tennessee and joined the army. No gamers means no games. I began fishing around on AOL for gamers and soon came across two locals who were interested in putting together a campaign. Somehow, somebody mentioned that wouldn’t it be great if only this area had a gamers guild... That set off a lightbulb in my thick skull! After all, I’d had success building the Guild at UCR almost a decade earlier. Why couldn’t the same things that worked at UCR work for the Inland Empire in general? So we got together, and I hit them over the head with a plan…

Step 1: Create a questionnaire & start a membership list. Step 2: Start up some regular meetings. Step 3: Get the magazine going. The Guildsman was going to live again!

Well, the first step was easy. I created a questionnaire, patterning it after the one we used so successfully at UCR, and then I stuck it in every gaming shop I could find. After the first few were filled out, I began creating the membership list from the responses. As I write this, we’re up over 130 members. Not bad at all. The second step wasn’t so easy. We tried having meetings at the San Bernardino library. Despite the fact that I mailed out lots of flyers and began an internet mailing list for the guild, very few people ever showed at the meetings. The only time we got a decent showing was after we called everyone a day or two beforehand. This alone was such a ponderous task that we had to split up the work, and there was no way we could do this for each and every meeting. I began wondering if perhaps the UCR guild, being made up entirely of students, had an inherent advantage over the Inland Empire Gamers Guild (IEGG), which was composed mostly of working people. Working people tend to have significant others, children, a mortgage... they are often too busy to show up for meetings, and this seemed definitely to be the case with our members. I was ready to throw in the towel, however, Allen (one of the other members) refused to give up. He desperately wanted to get regular meetings going, so he scheduled a room at the Colton library, and we tried again. Three or four of us showed up to the first of these meetings. Same ol’-same ol’... I began making phone calls for the next one. I didn’t want to call everyone, but I figured that if I could just get a few GameMasters to show up, then perhaps they’d bring along their usual entourage of players, much like what happened back at UCR when I used to set up mini-gaming conventions. This tactic worked, and now that we’ve got the ball rolling, I think things will be much easier for us.

Hence, we’re fast approaching step three, the magazine. I’ve wanted to reboot The Guildsman for quite a few years now, however, I’ve always let my side-projects (the aforementioned rpg-related programs) get in the way. The latest of these, which I’ve been working on for over two years now, is an rpg magazine index program. Basically, I’ve been scrambling to lay my hands on every rpg magazine and fanzine ever produced (buying, begging, borrowing... doing whatever it takes). I’ve currently got over 2000 rpg magazines indexed in this program’s growing database and hope to release it as freeware later this year. In the meantime, however, I’d really like to kick-start The Guildsman and get it rolling again. About a year ago, I put out a call for volunteers to help w/ The Guildsman. Got a few responses, but nothing like what I was hoping. Now I’m wondering if perhaps the best tactic would be to just start doing it, and once people see some momentum, perhaps they’ll jump on the bandwagon and start helping out. In any case, this is what I’ll do... no deadlines just yet, but expect some announcements in the near future. In the meantime, if you’d like to be on the list of people to receive a free promotional issue, please email your postal address to [email protected] or write: Jim Vassilakos PO Box 30036 San Bernardino, CA 92413-0036 USA

*********************************************************************************************** As for the rpg magazine index program, here is the current want-list (i.e. here’s what I’m looking for): AAB Proceedings: got 'em all Abyss: 1-8, 13, 35, 51+ Adjutant: any Adventure Gaming: 14+ Adventurer: 10+ Adventurers Club: got 'em all Adventures Unlimited: 7+ Alarums & Excursions: 2-17, 19-34, 36-51, 53-79, 85,9096, 99-102, 117-118, 145, 149-152, 154-156, 181-185,

188-190, 195-196, 198-199, 204-205 Alien Star: 1-6, 8+ All of the Above: 0, 2+ Ann Arbor Wargamer: 1-7, 12+ Apprentice: 2+ Arcane: 12, 16, 21+ Arduin Grimoire: got 'em all Ares: 3, 7, 11, 18+ Armadillo Droppings: 1-25, 27+ Australian Realms: 1-19, 23+ Autoduel Quarterly: v1n2-v2n4, v4n2, v5n2, v7n1, v8n2, v9n3, v10n3+ Awakening: 1-2, 4+ BattleTechnology: 0201-7, 9, 1213,

18, 20+ Beaumains: 1-4, 7+ Between Worlds: any Breakout: 1-22, 28, 30-32, 35+ Captain's Log: 2, 4-7, 17+ Challenge: got 'em all Codex: v1n1, v1n4+ Concepts: 1, 4+ Cthulhupalooza: 1, 3+ d8 magazine: 2, 4+ Dark Star (80s fanzine): any Different Worlds: got 'em all Dragon: got 'em all Dungeon: 3 Dungeoneer Journal: got 'em all Dungeoneer: 7 Dungeonier Digest: 1, 4+

Earthdawn Journal: 3-6 EdgeWork: 3, 5+ Elsewhere: 1, 5+ Encounters: 2+ Encyclopedia Harnica: 9, 11, 14 Familiar: v1n1 Fantasy Chronicles: 3+ Fantasy Gamer: got 'em all Far & Away: 1, 3+ Far Traveller: got 'em all First Encounter: 1-2, 4+ Fractal Spectrum: 1-10, 15, 20+ Future Roleplayer: 3+ Future Wars: 1-32, 34+ Game News: 9, 13+ Game Oracle: 1-2, 11+ Gameplay: 2-3, 5-6, 9, 14+ Gamer: got 'em all Gamesman: 1-6, 8+ GamesMaster International: 1, 6-10, 14, 16+ Gateways: 1, 15+ GM Magazine: v1n03, v1n05 -v1n08, v1n11, v2n08+ Green Mountain Gamer: 1-4, 6+ Grey Worlds: 4+ Griffen: any Gryphon: got 'em all Guildsman: got 'em all Harnlore: any Heroes: got 'em all High Passage: got 'em all Idolum Quarterly: 4+ Imagine: 11, 16-17, 20-21, 24, 26, 31+ Imperial Lines: got 'em all Imperial News Service: any Imperium Staple: got 'em all Infiniverse: v1n01-v1n02,

v1n06-v1n14, v1n16+ Interactive Fantasy: 1, 5+ Interface: v2n3+ Interplay: 2+ Interregnum: 1-33, 35-36 Jour. Travellers Aid Society: 2 Journeys: got 'em all Judges Guild Journal: got 'em Jumpspace/Voyages: 1-2, 12, 14, 16+ Kfan Uzargou: any Last Province: 6+ Little Wars: any Maelstrom: 1-2, 4+ Mars: 1, 3, 5+ Masters of Role Playing: 1-5, 7+ Mega-Mag: 0, 9+ MegaTraveller Journal: got 'em Morningstar Rising: 7+ Multiverse: 1, 3+ Mythic Masters: got 'em all Mythic Perspectives: 9+ Nexus: got 'em all NorthCoast RolePlaying: 1, 5, 10+ Nuts & Bolts: 1-11, 14+ Olympus: 2+ Other Hands: got 'em all Pegasus: 13 Polyhedron: 128, 133 Pyramid: got 'em all Quasits & Quasars: 1-8, 10+ Role Player Independent: v1n03v1n08, v1n10, v1n12,v2n05+ Rolepaper: got 'em all Roleplayer: 1-4, 6, 8-10 Scroll: 2, 4-5, 13+ Seal of the Imperium: v1n2+ Security Leak: 1-3, 6+ Serendipity's Circle: got 'em all Shadis: 1-8, 54+ Shadowland: 1-2, 4, 6

Signal-GK: 14+ Silver, Swords & Slaughter: 6+ Sorcerer's Apprentice: 2, 6, 18+ Space Gamer: 1 Space/Fantasy Gamer: 9-76, 86+ Star Trek Magazine: got 'em all Star Wars Journal: v1n16+ Starburst: any Stardate: v3n3 StarDrive: v1n2+ Strategic Review: any Tales of the Reaching Moon: 1-9, 15, 19+ Terra Traveller Times: 28-30, 32+ The Wild Hunt: any Third Imperium: any Tiffany Star: 9-11, 14-21, 27, 29+ Tradetalk: 1-2, 6+ Traveller Chronicle: 1-3 Traveller Digest: 1-4 Troll: 0, 3+ Unspeakable Oath: 1-4, 6, 16+ Valkyrie: got 'em all Variant: any VIP of Gaming: 6+ Virtual Lore: 4+ Vision: 1, 3+ Visions: got 'em all Vortext: 7 Warlock: 4, 6-8, 10, 13+ Warpstone: 1-2, 4-6, 8 White Dwarf: 3-7, 9-10, 101, 185187, 190-201, 203, 205, 207, 210, 223-225, 230 236, 239+ White Knight: 1-9, 11-13, 15+ White Wolf/Inphobia: 1-4, 6-7 Working Passage: got 'em all World Builder: 1-8, 13+ Wyrm's Footnotes: any Ye Booke of Tentacles: 3+

************************************************************************************************** My plan is to release this program as freeware later this year. Hence, if you’ve got any of these critters at the bottom of your closet and are unlikely to ever read them again, please consider either donating or selling them to me (or even letting me borrow them if you happen to live in the Southern California area). This is all going toward the “good of gaming” as it were, so consider it a worthy cause when naming your price. Same deal if you’ve got titles which I haven’t even listed (a good chance considering this audience). In short, I’m trying to cover as much as possible. I don’t really expect to ever locate every fanzine out there, but as far as this program is concerned… the more the merrier.

Which brings me to my final topic… more may be merrier, but it can also drive you completely insane. In tearing through some of the old A&Es, I’m somewhat awed by the task before me. Granted, perhaps APAs were never intended to be indexed, but A&E seems to be in a class by itself. In any case, I’ll give it a go. No guarantees that it’ll be up to professional standards (actually, I guarantee that it won’t be), but it’ll be a lot better than nothing. That’s about all, folks. Anybody who’s interested in contacting me, please feel free to write… -Jim