Who is "Hawkwind?"

    First off let me say for the record that outside of the world of the internet, I do not use the nickname at all. It is just an internet handle. None of my friends or co-workers call me "Hawkwind."
    The truth is, I am a full grown professional male. In all reality I realize that the nickname is a little silly. I would like to shed this nickname nonsense save for 2 reasons:
1. It is the name that I (and my growing body of gaming work) have come to be known by on the internet. For those few out there who actually missed my page while it was down and might try to find it, the name is indespensible.
2. Handles like "adkohler@whatever.net" are attrociously boring.
    Second let me say this (in huge, gaudily colored letters) because I know this doubtlessly applies to someone out there:

This page, and my choice of internet nickname, has NOTHING to do with the band Hawkwind.

    If you came here looking for something to do with the band Hawkwind, tarry on.
    As to WHY I started using the name "Hawkwind" in the first place, it started in the early days of personal computers, before internet was a household word. A game called Ultima IV featured a character called Hawkwind. I thought it was a cool name and started using it for a handle on local bulliten boards that I was part of.
    When I later joined the world of the internet, I decided to keep using the name. While on the internet, my gaming page gained a small degree of fame, so there was no point in killing the name recognition now associated with my long-ago chosen nickname.

Okay then, who am I really?

    My name is Alan D. Kohler. I am, as you may have guessed, and avid gamer (speaking of which...) I grew up in a city called Pocatello (pop: ~50,000) which is in Idaho (which you easterners should know, if you do not [and most don't], Idaho is NOWHERE near Ohio or Iowa. It's in the northwestern US just east of Washington state and Oregon.)
    I joined the US Navy where I was a reactor operator and electronics technician. I spent the better part of 2 years of my Naval service in Orlando, Florida, where I underwent most of my training. While there, my favorite hangout was a place called Church Street Station, where I learned how to play blackjack and meet a lot of nice (not to mention beautiful) girls.
    The next 6 months of my training were at the Naval Reactors Facility at the Idaho National Engineering Laboraty... which was conveniently close to my hometown (where I live during that section of my training, of course.) I lived with 2 other squids. The rent was dirt cheap to begin with, and we were paid extra to live off base (since there were no naval barracks in Idaho). In other words: we hand quite a few extra bucks at the end of the month.
    After my training was over, I ended up near Bremerton, WA. I was stationed with the USS Florida (Gold Crew). The USS Florida is a nuclear powered balistic missile submarine. While I was on shore, I made a few good friends (and more than a few not so good friends) in Bremerton. (The picture shows me with Brandi, one of my bestest buddies that I met while stationed in Bremerton.)
    I liked being an electronics technician a lot. I liked the reactor operator part of my job much less: it was too political and stressful (almost no other division on the ship had as much scrutiny paid to them by higher-ups than reactor controls division.) I liked being a sailor even less. For those who have never experienced being a sailor on an Ohio-class submarine (or "Trident") before, a sailor on a Trident is basically a person who cleans up things typically more pointless to clean and with worse equipment and more frequency than most janitors are asked to endure in addition to one's normal work. A Trident sailor is worked like a dog for about 60% of the year, asked to be away from their friends and family about half of the year, and is treated as second class citizens by nearly all of the Chief Petty Officers and Officers.
    I was not willing to do this for any longer than I absolutely had to. While it left me with a certain fastidious work ethic and a fair package of marketable skills, the stress and drudgery of the job plus the lack of a life that comes with repeated 90-day cruises to nowhere were too much for my liking. So I decided to make something of the one skill that I felt was worth exploiting: electronics.
    I returned to my hometown of Pocatello, ID. There, I attended Idaho State University where I got a degree in electrical engineering. While there, I re-established contact with most of my old high-school friends as well as making a few new friends. We gamed almost every weekend (again, speaking of which...). Yes, it sounds like I had no life, but in Pocatello, not having a life is the norm. ;-)
    After graduating from Idaho State University, I got a job with Marconi Systems Technologies (formerly Tracor) in southern Maryland. My job is on Patuxent Naval Air Station, where I work on an electronic system called ACLS (Aircraft Carrier Landing System).  Though you never hear about it in the various programs on Aircraft Carriers on TDC/TLC/THC, this system allows planes to be landed precisely and safely on an aircraft carrier without the pilot touching the controls. Pretty neat, huh? Add that to your list of little known facts.

Speaking of which...

    As mentioned, I am now in southern Maryland, where I don't know anyone outside of work and church. Neither one of those places are thick with gamers. I do have a small group together that I am currently running through an AD&D campaign in my Trinalia setting. But I still have room for more!
    As this site shows, I am a longtime GM and player of a variety of RPGs. If you are a role-player in southern Maryland (being Charles, Calvert, or St. Mary's county or possibly one of the Washington DC suburbs on the south end of the beltway) and you have a group that could use a new player or GM, please contact me.
    Looking around this site will give you some idea of my gaming background and philosophy, but some of my better liked systems and settings are as follows:
• Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - 2nd edition (strong preference) with player's option (preferred, but not a requirement) I am NOT a "hack-n-slasher" or a "monty haul DM." If I run, I use a lot of house rules to tailor it to the "epic yet hazardous" feel I like to espouse in games. Some setting I like to play:
• Planescape: To tell the truth, I haven't played all that much Planescape, as my own setting has taken center stage in my games. However, I have most of the material and would love the chance to DM or play this fascinating setting.
• Trinalia: My homebrew game world. My pages here can give you extensive insight into my world. It hasa dynamic, growing history and I would be happy to add to it if you are interested.
• Swashbuckling: An interesting subset of my Trinalia setting, I have prepared a swashbuckling setting for use with AD&D in the grand tradition of Dumas' Three Musketeers, Stephen Brust's The Phoenix Guards and Five Hundred Years Later, and other swashbuckling tales such as The Princess Bride and various retellings of the exploits of the Musketeers or Zorro.
• Whatever: Other settings, especially homemade, would be acceptable and interesting to me.
• HERO System - Has become possibly my favorite system of late; I just list it second because more people know AD&D. I am primarily a Fantasy Hero player, but Champions or other settings would be interesting as well.
• Trinalia: I also have run my homebrew game world with Fantasy Hero and the Ultimate Martial Artist. I have an extensive document detailing martial arts, magic systems, and other details of my world using HERO system rules.
• Oriental: I have run some fun Oriental Fantasy type games using Fantasy Hero, the Ultimate Martial Artist and Ninja Hero. I could run this setting further or join a similar campaign.
• Science Fiction: I have started working on a SF supplument for the game. I may even someday try to sell it to Hero as a new edition of Star Hero.
• Again, whatever: The more original, the better.
• Alternity - Again, I haven't actually played this game yet, but I picked it up and save for a few minor gripes, I like it. It seems flexible and holds some interesting possibilities.
• FUDGE - [Freeform Universal Do It Yourself Gaming Engine] - An excellent quality RPG toolkit that gives you a very flexible set of base mechanics to build a game to your taste and setting requirements. If you haven't checked out this system yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. Check it out and download it for free at: http://www.io.com/~sos/fudge.html.
• Starfarer - If you are the adventurous type, you can try out my homebrew SFRPG, Starfarer. It is a realistic system that is made to emulate a great variety of SF settings. I had been tinkering with the system for years and decided to flesh out the system when I saw what a failure the new edition of Traveller was. Traveller is dead (whether you realize it or not), and I needed a new system. There was no system that pleased me on the market, so I took matters into my own hands.
• Whatever - I'm fairly flexible. Popular games that I can already tell you I don't like are GURPS, White Wolf / WOD (or, indeed, any system that heavily relies on the "dice pool" concept), silly games (TOON, TFOS), or minimalist games (like Over The Edge or Window, though as noted above, I do like FUDGE). That may seem like quite a list for someone who claims to be flexible, but look at it this way: the list of game that I have played and/or would play is long enough that I felt a "would not" play list would be more prudent and to the point.

    If you are in the area, and could use a player or GM, please contact me.