Spiralbound

Spiralbound began imagining worlds at a very early age. Once he discovered roleplaying, his fate was sealed. Now he had a pseudo-legitimate justification for all his worldbuilding and compulsive research into every topic imaginable! When not toiling away at his real world profession, he can usually be found toiling away at his obsession of imagined worlds! During particularly wild and indulgent delusions of grandeur, Spiralbound hopes to one day be published with RPG and novel credits to his name.

• Spiralbound is a Crew Member
• Joined Stuffer Shack on 12/20/10
• See his article portfolio
• Join him on Google+
• Current Location: St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
• Origin:  St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

Playing style:

• I’m often the GM, I enjoy being the player on the rare occasions it occurs. I usually prefer to play personality-oriented characters rather than stats-machines. I don’t need my RPGs to be “interactive theatre”, but I do prefer things to be more than just “roll the dice, grab the loot” though. When I GM I tend to use funny accents and really get into my NPC characters, but I don’t require that of my fellow players!

 Favorite system:

• I guess it must be the various D20 systems, since that is what I play most often, but I’ve never viewed it as a “favourite” per se as I do enjoy most systems I’ve played. I think that I personally enjoy rules lite systems like Risus or PDQ and others that are easy to use while still providing tonnes creative expression for both players and GMs – I also like to tinker with systems, which I find easier to do in a less complex system.

Favorite genre:

• Science fiction, although again, most times I am playing fantasy games. When you’re the GM you have to offer a game that people want to play. My personal library has thousands of books and at least 70% of them are science fiction though.

 Favorite movies:

• Too many to list. If it has well created characters, an interesting story, and cool visuals, then I probably like it… probably.

The coolest thing:

• The unexpected.

What makes me smile:

• The absurd.

What my three favorite things to do are:

1. Spend time with my family.
2. Spend time with my friends.
3. Create things that are fun to think about or to use.

The activities that make me lose track of time:

• Surfing random stupid stuff online
• Involved conversations about interesting topics
• Writing

What makes me feel great about myself:

• When I create something that I consider creative, innovative and compelling. When I help someone and they acknowledge and appreciate it.

Who inspires me most:

• I have no laundry list of famous people for this. Most famous people these days are too busy making sure they are famous to do anything inspiring… Anyone can end up inspiring me, it doesn’t have to be a heroic act or an impressive speech either – it could be an offhand comment they say by chance, a random act of near insignificance that they aren’t even aware of and will likely forget about, yet it will give me a great idea or inspire me to achieve something important to me. Perhaps the next one to inspire me will be you!

If I could have one superpower:

• It’s a toss up between the ability to assume any shape and substance, animate or inanimate and the ability to force people to acknowledge when they’re being dumb and make amends. Personally, I’d be happy if everyone had that second ability – we could all benefit from being on the receiving end of it from time to time.

What I’m naturally good at:

Like most people, I have several things I’m good at:

• Writing.
• Helping others
• Brainstorming new and/or creative ideas.
• Listening to people.
• Impromptu or improvised performance, be it expanding upon an npc that wasn’t expected to be important or inventing an off the cuff whimsical parody song about some trivial inanity.

 What do people typically ask me for help in?

• I’m often in a position of providing advice to people. I’m not completely sure why this keeps happening as I don’t seek to council others, but I must give off the “bartender vibe” or something cause I’m always helping people work their way through difficult times in their lives.

If I had to teach something, what would I teach?

• How to give me money.

What I probably shouldn’t share:

• I have a family history full of “weird shit” going back generations. I grew up listening to all kinds of supernatural stories that were rather matter of factually told. As I got older, I became aware that such things are considered fantastical and non-existent. Eventually, as I learned more about both science and psychology I was able to discount almost every story and personal event within my life and my family’s history. Sometimes however I catch myself wondering just how much of the fey does or doesn’t exist in my lineage…