The Regulars

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.

To continue on the academic trend, I'm a lecturer in Political Science in Alberta, although my PhD is in Philosophy. My interest is in the philosophy of the social sciences, especially rational-choice theory and game theory.

My gaming interests came in phases. In the 80s I played a lot of wargames (Squad Leader and VG titles), AH games and AD&D. In college in the 90s I got into Magic, and Chess later on. I quit both of these hobbies because I couldn't stand the Geeks that made up the vast majority of players. In early 00s a friend of mine introduced me to Eurogames (with Puerto Rico if I recall), and I got hooked. Nowadays I don't play much face to face, because I don't have a game group here and I refuse to join a random group, I know too well that 4 out of 5 Geeks are total assholes.

In Euros I stick to older titles (Power Grid, Amun Re, Notre Dame, St-Pete, ...). I have very little interest in the newer stuff, it's all just more of the same. I'd like to get more into AT, but for some reason I never get the chance to bring these to the table. When I was living in Montreal we had an annual Advanced Civ game among good friends, that was the best gaming ever.

Funny fact: during the only year I totally lost interest in gaming, I vas living on the same block as the Valet D'Coeur, one of the most famous FLGS in Canada. I went there a few times, for some reason nothing interested me!

This year I'll try to get some of my university colleagues into gaming. I buy much less stuff than I used to, even though I'm making a lot more money than in my big gaming years! I'm mainly into ASL stuff, and I get my other games through Mathtrades and thrift stores. I found amazing titles at the thrift store next to my job: Fortress America, Polarity, Acquire, Risk LOTR, Subbuteo.

What I like most about F:AT is most people here are great writers that don't take themselves too seriously (well, except in the identity-crisis threads, but I don't have to read those). AT talk makes me nostalgic about my old AH days, I had so much fun back then...

I never noticed this thread but after a thousand plus posts I guess I should be in here too.

I'm a music teacher/hydrometalurgical researcher in Vancouver who loves games and has his whole life. I started with Risk, D&D, GURPS, Cross Bows and Catapults, Corkinole... that kind of thing and when I got back into hobby gaming in a big way it was with Avalon Hill (who I already knew about) and then FFG who's games looked similar. Doom was the first of their games I discovered. I love F:AT's posting sensibility and honesty and of course.. the style of games. These days I play pretty much anything that's put in front of me at least once and tend to like games from divergent styles to keep me interested. But multi-player conflict games are really my favorite (or dexterity).

I get called a pot smoking hippie around here a lot so feel free to throw names at me, I'm definitely not a hippie though and I only occasionally smoke the pots so it's totally unwaranted!!

PM me here at F:AT if your in Vancouver looking for a game and if you like experimental folk music check out my website at www.tishomingostringband.com we have a bit of an AT sensibility to our playing.

Keep on rockin in a free world, see ya round the fort.

Well, I thought for sure I posted here, but I guess I was wrong...

I currently work for my church's international headquarters in Lenexa, KS. I've been there almost five years, working in the Children's Ministry department.

I got into gaming in 2004, when a college buddy introduced me to The Settlers of Catan. I played it to death, then was introduced to other hobby games a few years later, after moving to the Kansas City area. My early favorites were games like Carcassonne, Puerto Rico, and Pillars of the Earth.

I had something of a sea change a couple years ago, when all the games I played felt kind of similar to each other. Around that time I purchased Cosmic Encounter, and I've never looked back. I've been a predominately Ameritrash gamer since then.

My favorite games usually have a straightforward ruleset that invites lots of interaction, conflict, and theme without bogging the game down. I also love games that tend to play with group dynamics a lot, and therefore, a good six-player game is just about my favorite type. As far as themes go, I like a little of everything, but Sci-fi tends to be my first choice. My favorite games of all are Cosmic Encounter, Battlestar Galactica, The Settlers of Catan, Mare Nostrum, and several others.

I usually game at Tabletop Game and Hobby in Overland Park. I'm there most Thursday nights. These days, I've really been into playing Yomi and the new Cosmic Encounter expansion. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by on Thursday night. I'm probably the big guy in the Ohio State hoodie.

Well I guess I'd better chime in.

I run the procurement efforts and marketing/business aspects of a huge tin/lead smelter now, but I worked in the electronics assembly industry as an engineer, then later as a salesperson, for the last 15 years or so. Terribly exciting.

I first learned Monopoly when I was 5 years old and at that point I realized that I loved boardgames. I played D&D, Palladium, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun and all sorts of other RPGS for some time, but I tired of playing out someone else's life so I gave up RPGs forever. Now I play all kinds of stuff, Ameritrash, Euros, Hybrids, Abstracts...I just love and am passionate about games.

While I love Ameritrash the most, and will hardly ever turn down any AT game if I get a shot, I do enjoy Euro games as well if they're not complete cube-pushing yawnfests like Fresco.

I review games from time to time (meaning mostly weekly) on my site, www.superflycircus.blogspot.com , and do quarterly game giveaways on any games I get as review copies or stuff that I bought and I just didn't like. Subscribe as a follower and my articles get put in your RSS inbox, and you qualify for the giveaways.

Good luck, and may you roll all skulls.

/really hopes Skelly will add an editors note at the end of this bio with additional information about me (from his perspective)

A brief description of myself and how I would characterize myself? Well, a picture is worth a 1,000 words so let me add one that sums up the general picture.



As you can see, I'm a new dad and ruggishly handsome. A fairly bohemian character in that I have this look yet work in high finance since 1997. Just got a new car too, like it?

Been gaming forever, started off with boardgames (playing Risk and Game of Life with my family before buying board games for myself (Dungeon, Buck Rogers (origin of my handle)) which I would play all 5-6 players by myself since no one in my family wanted to play with me.

Eventually moved to PC gaming (Pirates!) and prominent BBSing (pre-Internet internet) where I'd get my rocks off playing stuff like Trade Wars. Dabbled in D&D for a bit but prefered DMing and eventually liked be the 'rules' guy for board games which is almost like DM. So I'd frequently get invited to board game weekends, given the instructions for a brand new game (Brittania or whatever) and sequestered in another room while I read and memorized the rules so I could teach everyone to play. These were some of my fondest memories.

Then with the N64, multiplayer gaming became amazing and party-like with Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and such.

Then as an adult, spending time with family became more and more laborious and difficult so I started trying to find non-AT games that sister, mother and step-father would like to play on vacation (so that I could bear the time easier). Puerto Rico came along and that was the perfect game for this. Through that, I found other Euros like the 'Gric and such that fit the bill.

Then I get into CCGs and dabble a bit in Magic (I hated it cuz of the players), SW:CCG (I hated it cuz I was so bad at it, but very much liked tournament play) and then became hard-core with LOTR:TCG. Winning North American continental championship and placing 2nd in World Cup in Germany. Became sponsored and travelling to Netherlands, Vegas x3 and all over the States playing in tournaments and writing for magazines and such. Met my wife during the last tournament or two and hung up the CCG hat since it's not conducive to a healthy relationship (from my experience).

Wife likes board games and that's how I found and fell in love with Twilight Struggle (probably my favourite game ever although Puerto Rico is a close 2nd).

With arrival of Baby in 2011, no more time for board games so video games on the 360 has taken over to scratch the gaming itch.

I like hanging out here to talk with cool people. In real life (non-internet), I've been characterized as creative, hard-working, fun, dedicated, conscientious and very easy to get along with.

That's me in a nutshell.