What's up with this page?

• A primer for those who think that "gaming" means computer games or common boardgames like Trivial Pursuit or Monopoly.
• A quick intro for those who are RPGers but have never been to my pages before.
• An explaination for those who know and love my pages who wonder where the hell I've been.

For new visitors / non-gamers

    When I write "gamer," I am referring to those who play one of a variety of Role-Playing Games, or RPGs. This page concerns itself primarily with a variety of RPGs. Some of the best known titles among role-playing games are Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (tm), GURPS (an acronym for "Generic Universal Role Playing System), Shadowrun, and various titles by White Wolf games.
    Despite what you may have heard, players of RPGs do not generally participate in ritualistic or occult activities such as devil-worship, spellcasting, sacrifices, or drinking of blood. A typical RPG session has nothing more sinister about it than a typical fantasy novel or movie. It is a forum by which players interactively tell stories. The course of such stories are primarily determined by the whim of one of the players typically called a gamemaster (GM) or referee. However, the whims of the other players and the outcome of random dice rolls, as interpereted by a set of rules inherent to the RPG at hand, have a tantamount effect on the outcome of the game.
    For more information on RPGs in general, consult these sites:
 
• Uncle Bear's Role-playing page (Highly Recommended)
• Cendril's RPG Page
• ROLEPAPER magazine's RPG primer.

For new visitors / gamers

    If you are a gamer but have never been to my pages before, you are probably most interested in what my pages have to offer you. Well, that sort of depends on what types of games you like:
• If you like fantasy games such as AD&D, my Land of Trinalia page describes my highly succesful detailed fantasy setting. I have run this world using both AD&D : Player's Option and Fantasy Hero. Also, if you are a player or are otherwise interested in the Planescape setting, you might check out my Planescape Fiends Page.
• If you are a fan of science fiction games, my SFRPG pages have two major related offering. My SFRPG resources page are a collection of essays and links that are useful to almost any SFRPG referee. The reason that I assembled these resources in the first place is also here: I have been working on a highly detailed and flexible game system called Starfarer that can be used for a great variety of science fiction settings.
• If you are a fan of the HERO system, you may be interested in my Trinalia page, which includes an extensive treatise on converting AD&D Player's Option characters, spells, and adversaries to the HERO system. I also have notes on my short lived (but fun) Rising Sun: Myhic Nippon campaign, a oriental fantasy adventure campaign.
• If you are a gamemaster and need new world and campaign ideas, you might stop by my Strange Worlds page. It includes notes on world and campaign ideas that I am at least partially responsible for, including my much acclaimed article on Tesseracts.

For Old Hands

    If you are a die-hard gamer and/or web-surfer, you may have seen my site before, but you may have been unable to find it. For that I can only offer my apologies. I graduated from college and had some difficulties finding a job that would lead me in the direction that I wanted to go in my career. During the time I was seeknig a job and interviewing, I had little idea where I would end up much less time to set up pointers to that as yet unkown place.
    When I did find a new place, it took me across the country. I moved from Idaho to Maryland to take an electrical engineering position with Tracor Systems Technologies at Patuxent Naval Air Station. (Speaking of which, I am seeking players in the area.) The time it took me to pack up and get moved left little time for me to worry about my page.
    Now I'm here in California, Maryland. (Yes, California is the name of a city...) It took me almost a week to find a place and get on the internet again. To make a long story short, every time I had a few spare moments to work on my page, other more important things came up. But here it is; I hope you find it useful. -Alan



This page last updated 8 May 1999.
If you have comments or suggestions, email me
at  adkohler@ieee.org