I do music for kids full-time by the name Eric Herman. I'm probably best known for my YouTube videos, which have now passed 10 million views. I like to think of my kids' music as embodying some elements of AT style: heavily themed with lots of fun characters and subjects, and a high amount of interaction and narrative... I intend my albums to be a great experience for kids and families, and a memorable experience is what I most treasure in my favorite games like Arkham Horror and Battlestar Galactica and Last Night on Earth. I travel around the country pretty regularly for gigs, so hopefully I'll get a chance to bump into some of you F:ATties and play some games sometime.

As far as background... I used to play a lot of Axis & Allies and Samurai Swords and Illuminati: NWO back in the mid-90's and really loved those kind of games, but I moved away from that group of friends and went mostly into playing PC RTS games. But after hearing about some game called "Settlers" for many years (I thought it sounded really dull) and finally playing it in 2007, I realized that board games were really my favorite thing in gaming. I soon found my way to TOS and then to the F:AT blog. I'm not really that active here as far as posting (it took quite a while to get to 100 posts!), but I like the writing and characters of Barnes and Steve Weeks and many others here, so I enjoy following what y'all are up to as far as games and other stuff, and adding a comment here and there.

I'm Frank Branham, an overweight middle-aged asthma/aspergers sufferer with no fashion sense, who mostly enjoys telling Barnes what he can stuff and where.

I also have more games than you.

I noticed a few years back that the originally interesting and creative Euro game scene was pretty much in recycle mode. But I mostly like games, and pretty much every type of games, including the more interesting modern Euros.

I also like console videogames a lot--preferring ones with a lot of stuff blowing up.

I also live in a house with a lot of cats, a proto-goth named Sandi, and a lot of skulls and coffins. We were married in a cemetery on Dia de Los Muertos.

Jason Lutes

I'm a 41-year-old cartoonist living in rural Vermont with my girlfriend and our 3-year-old daughter. During the academic year I teach at the Center for Cartoon Studies, the world's greatest comic book school. I'm also currently the editor a line of YA comic books about famous Americans in history for Disney/Hyperion.

I got into games in the 5th grade (1979) when I bought a little white box that contained three dun-colored D&D booklets, so I was primed for the Golden Age of American boardgames that was soon to follow. The games I found in hobby stores during the 1980s sparked my imagination and a deep love for the medium, and I've been an avid player and armchair game designer ever since. These days I play boardgames with my students about once every two weeks, and PC games whenever I manage to get an hour or two to myself.

My pulp hero adventure boardgame, Thrilling Tales of Adventure, is currently in its 7th draft and being playtested whenever I can find the time.

I'm currently 32yo and after too many years living in the city of Madrid, I moved to a small town near the mountains. I live there with my girlfriend and my two sons (5 and 2yo) and currently most of my time is occupied raising the youngest one, although I still work in gigs as a sound technician occasionally.

One of my biggest interests is Music, and I've been playing in different bands since I was a teenager. I've played many kinds of music from punk/hc, ska ( myspace.com/asakomadrid ) to experimental instrumental ( www.archive.org/details/Cuadrado ) and currently I'm shaping a new project up mixing folk, garage and psicodelia ( myspace.com/makageorge ). I don't have a band, just me and a friend that lives nearby, but I hope to play live soon anyway...

Gaming for me started as a child, mostly with mass market games but also with some gems such as Escape from Colditz and other good games from that time. I've always been interested in heavily thematic games starting with wargames and then discovering many classic american designs and AT. My favorite games are Magic Realm, Merchant of Venus and more recently Marvel Heroes and Arkham Horror. I also do like some abstract games (more than euros in general) and love game systems. I just enjoy playing with the pieces and making new designs and have published a number of them for the piecepack, Icehouse and more recently for the Decktet game systems. Those designs are posted on BGG ( www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/7299 )

More truths about Steve Avery

Steve"veritas mox"Avery

Tom

I am 25yo chemist from Czech Republic. I was raised on D&D, Battletech and Gondor and after my gaming friend moved out I had to establish a new group, teaching people my games and buying new ones. The plan was successful and as gaming scene was spreading in CR, I managed to become one of the recognized reviewers.

Favourite games: Dune, Pax Romana, Cosmic Encounter, Warrior Knights, Titan

Hobbies: games, music, sports (bike, fitness, running, swimming, squash), photography, travelling.

The top ten facts and untruths about KingPut

#10. About 5 years ago my daughter was studying about Egypt so as a joke I lied to her and told her that we were Egyptian and that my real name was KingPut. That was the same day I signed onto the BGG and as a joke I type in my user name as KingPut.

#9. When I grow up I want to be a cranky old Grognard

#8. BSG, AH, Ti3 (everything else is one or two steps above crap)

#7. The famous person I most close resemble is Dustin Hoffman

#6. Sopranos, Sienfeld, The Wire, Rescue Me, Simpsons

#5. Me and Steve Avery have cooler jobs than anyone on this site. Steve is art teach and gets summers off. I'm professional taste tester so I eat food for a living.

#4. With being a taste tester for a living and having my two lazy ass hobbies (board gaming and Netflix), I'll probably need a triple by pass in a couple of weeks.

#3. I'm probably one of the oldest member of F:AT. I probably own underwear older than some people on this site.

#2. My sister runs some wacky computer board game site because she's been banned for using foul language on all the sites about women's shoes.

#1. I'm still the number #1 Ranked Caylus Player in World

My boardgame history: Unlike many others here, I originally played just the standards like Monopoly, Clue and the like. I then stopped playing boardgames for a long while and then was introduced back to them in 2004 after needing something new for friends coming over one evening to visit. All we had was Balderdash and Monopoly. So after looking online, I came across a game called "A Dog's Life" and ordered it. It was a hit with everyone and I have slowly been expanding my collection ever since. My favorite games are considered "gateway games". In other words, my favorite games are considered as the simpler, more *mass-market* fare such as Mystery of the Abbey, Scotland Yard, Monopoly, Survive, I'm the Boss, Lifeboats, Clue, Pirate's Cove, Cargo Noir, Ticket to Ride etc.

I'm a huge believer in the concept that if a boardgame that is thematic and is appealing in theme to everyone, it can be a "hit" as a means of wider social entertainment. It has to work for both the guys and gals for it to work for me. And the more the merrier. Therefore I tend to take the "mass-market" approach to looking at and reviewing the merits of boardgames.

For whatever reason, this seems to have unique viewpoint in the larger hobby community. But no matter... I keep trying. : )

Ryan B.

I am a precariously employed sessional instructor in the liberal arts at a university in Toronto. I became interested in boardgames only recently, towards the end of the year in 2007. This has been quite a turn of events for someone in his mid thirties who has had little prior exposure to gamer or geek subculture. (It's also why I tend to suck at games.) What initially attracted me to boardgames was the real surprise I felt at the idea that there are people out there who have the patience and interest to absorb and abide by complex rules in the name of spontaneous play. I've been bummed for years about how good and fun people find it difficult to concentrate on one thing at a time, follow a thread of conversation, and think things through with other people. I’m also bummed when folks who muster that kind of focus cramp their brain and become resentful of anything spontaneous and creative. Boardgaming for me was a surprising discovery. In it I see a glimpse of the mix of creativity, fair play, spontaneity and logic that make people and life interesting.

But not all boardgaming does that. Boardgaming can be anti-social and stifling sometimes. The reason I hang out at Fortress AT is that most people around here share a healthy aversion to fun-murdering and spirit-killing boardgaming. It is also here where I can read about what it is that makes boardgaming so compelling for me.

May the AT fire burn bright, and may everyone become better at playing games.

I'm a history professor in the middle of the corn in the Middle of the Mid-West.

I tend to curse more in real life than on the internet---for some reason, it comes across more premeditated when typed. But I did grow up around Italian Catholics on the East Coast.

Grew up playing typical board games (MB, Parker Brothers) and chess. Played chess when i was young til I was beaten by a kid 4 years old and I was 10. I realized that competitive gaming wasn't for me. I had the desire to play D&D (got a set once but couldn't find anyone geeky enough to play it with that didn't scare me) and got Starship Troopers (I'm a huge Heinlein fan--especially the juveniles)--but couldn't figure it out at 10.

Played a ton of Zork and other Infocom games on my Atari 800 computer in the early 80s with my best friend...we had a blast (the Atari 800 had the modem where you put the phone in there--like the one Matthew Broderick used in War Games for those who have no idea what I'm talking about).

I have a rotary phone in my home--a huge big red one with a long cord. Our kids friends have no idea how to dial on it at first...they've never seen one!

Played Axis and Allies in school...but mostly cards in college. In particular Euchre and then Pepper--a bid euchre game with bluffing that I've only heard about in some areas. It is a GREAT game...bluffing, screwing others, etc. Fun times.

I like randomness and fun--where I have a chance to win with whacky strategies...that's why I like F:AT. I don't post near as much as I read---perhaps b/c I don't post much on the internet in general. I play with some friends and my wife and kids mostly. Never at a convention--though that could change someday. Strike that--I've been to Inaugural Trashfest South 2010 and ConnCon2011!! It was fun.