Aaron

Tell us a bit about yourself and what got you into larping

Have been playing (primarily GMing) TTRPG's about 40 years, and several MMORPG's for about 20 years. I attended one session in TC in 2019 as an NPC to see how it works, then my wife and I both created characters and played in the last session of TC's 2019 season. We have both attended the Michigan Ren-fest for more than a decade and will often wear garb when we go. She really enjoys dressing up for it, which got me thinking about the fact that she might enjoy LARPing better than TTRPG's (which she does play on occasion), thus us participating at the end of the 2019 season. I had also attended two sessions of a VtM LARP sessions in East Lansing around 2003-2005 time frame (don't recall exactly when) that my younger brother and his roommate ran at the Michigan State campus (typically about 40-60 participants each session), but it didn't really hold my attention.

My interest in RPG's has always been about the stories created, as I've always enjoyed the interactive story-telling portion of RPing, thus one of the reasons I prefer to GM more than play in TTRPG's. So looking forward to being able to grow my character concept into a part of the Convergence stories that will be created in the coming years with the Traverse City group and possibly to a lesser degree the Southern Michigan group.

What are your other interests?

Fantasy and Sci-Fi books/movies, RPG's, board games, MMORPG's, history, science, woodworking (former licensed builder).

For RPG's, Rolemaster, Spacemaster and MERP (Middle Earth RolePlaying, essentially a simplified version of Rolemaster set within the world of J.R.R. Tolkien (since ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises) had the first and original Middle Earth license for game products for nearly 20 years) has been my game of choice since the early 1980's. As such I have done extensive play-testing of many products and some freelance writing for Iron Crown Enterprises in the past and am currently working on three projects for the new Rolemaster Unified system that will be released within the next year ("Creature Law I", "Creature Law II" and "No Quarter Under the [Iron] Crown" {a mid-high level campaign module}). Have also played, GMed and play-tested HARP (High Adventure Role Playing, also produced by ICE). With decades of experience with Rolemaster and its greater depth and flexibility compared to all other RPG's out there, I am looking forward to the adoption of the Convergence rules over the Alliance rules (which seemed to be more limiting).

But I also have experience with the usual d20 games (D&D, AD&D, 2nd Ed. D&D, D&D 3.0 & 3.5 (which were written/headed up by a former Iron Crown Enterprises employee, who pulled a lot of Rolemaster concepts into D&D 3.0/3.5), D&D 4, D&D 5, Pathfinder, Spycraft (was one of the play-testers before release); 13th Age, Palladium, The Dark Eye, etc.

Have also played/GMed Traveller, Traveller 2300, The Everlasting, Shadows of Esteren, FUDGE, HERO, Eclipse Phase, Serenity, The One Ring and several others.

MMORPG's I've played for more than a few months include Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Dark & Light (the original version), Eve-Online (played for more than 13 years, starting with the open-beta prior to release). Have tried many for short periods of time, but didn't stick with them due to lack of depth in my opinion, such as WoW, Middle Earth Online, and more than a dozen others. Currently trying New World.

As far as work, I have a rather odd education with college degrees in Business Management and Chemical Engineering. Currently work for the State of Michigan Fire Marshal as a Hazardous Materials Storage Inspector (this includes inspections of gas stations, LPG/Propane facilities, CNG facilities, Hydrogen fuel facilities as well as chemical plants and oil refineries). I currently cover most of Macomb and all of St. Clair Counties, but hope to transfer up to the north-eastern L.P. area (after the inspector in that area retires in the next year or two), which means I would then cover the Cadillac, Charlevoix, Manistee, Petoskey and Traverse City areas (10 counties). Previously worked for one of the worlds largest chemical companies for about 20 years (in both production (~ 6 years) and R&D (~14 years), as well as 3M for about 2 years. Was also a Licensed Residential Builder in the Traverse City area for a while. Despite my chemistry background am environmentally concious.

Tell us a bit about your character(s)!

My first character, Tua Milleadh (Barkskin Dryad Fighter) only saw one T.C. game session (had a few extra XP from NPC'ing in an earlier session at TC to start him above 1st level).

But in looking over the convergence rules and talking on the Discord channel with a couple of people, I'm thinking of making a change to the concept. Instead I'm thinking I'm going to use the same general concept, but instead create a Treeherd (from Tolkien's books, or Treant as they are more commonly known from D&D). Which I'm planning from a Forged-Nature Bound race and archetype named Mossbeard. Am currently working on his bark-armor.

My concept is that he will primarily be a Defender using a Shield and Shillelagh (long club/mace) as his primary weapons and a sling (compact crossbow phys-rep) as his secondary/ranged weapon. With some very limited Ranger and Smith skills.

Will be RPing him being slow to open up and communicate (which fits with my own quiet and introverted personality), slow to anger (unless nature and its denizens are being threatened) and fairly disciplined in most situations.

What is your favorite larping memory?

Don't have any yet to include here, but will add as time and storylines moves forward.

When someone meets you at larp, how can they best get to know you/engage with you?

Tend to be a little slow to open up in social situations (introvert), but if my wife is with me (which she probably will be for some of the LARP sessions) she is very social. Like to learn the history of the setting and storylines.