Molfein / 'G'

[Molfein]

A good idea from the Spellsword who started this Forum very interesting reading through the other entries – just taken me a long time to get around to writing mine, but a great opportunity to indulge a passion for reminiscing …

Joined DDO during it’s first year after stumbling across the game in a computer shop. Done some Age of Empires type games through the MSN as the only online gaming experience. With DDO the experience was much, much better. Initially on Onatar with a dwarf fighter, then I created a character on Boldrei as there was an event in the marketplace (to do with a giant attack?!) as the timing on that server was better for me to join. Of course I didn’t manage to get Selkie (now Sarylfiel) though the Waterworks to access it! Shortly after I spent some time researching into guilds and joined the Spellswords – never looked back !! I started creating more characters partly to help use the loot constructively (only low level so the vault never seemed to want) and also to fulfil certain ideas – so my desire to be a bit more self-sufficient for healing and meant I created a Cleric Gleipnir. He rapidly leveled (in the old cleric much-in-demand days) and just got to the minimum level 4 in time to join the Spellswords looting event. Great fun and a good intro to the guild – as the lowest level there, I was put under the safe wing of Thing and his Wizardly owner, the cleric Fern, a paladin (who had to get out of his armour in order to have any sneak!) and someone else who name also escapes me. All mighty L10s with maxxed xp. Following on such a positive experience, Gleipnir then joined the regular Mon group for some regularity in gaming, though Selkie always stayed ahead in levels due to questing several times a week. The regular group is great enabling a full exploration of Eberron (though we’re L 17 now so still plenty yet to see …)
I often create characters to explore some idea or concept, but am reluctant to then delete or change. This means I have lots of characters (often flawed J) which I spend various amount of time playing, as they drift in and out of favour.
Hence they cover a wide range of classes, levels, races. Also names, which I try to match to the character (though being secretly envious of those who name thematically and make it much simpler to recognize the player!)

First got into D&D at school when a group of 4 of us decided to get together to write a Fighting Fantasy book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_Fantasy – after finding that the authors Iain Livingstone and Steve Jackson were alumni of the school.
One of us got some 2nd hand AD&D books (for research) but after a short time we abandoned the idea of writing the book and instead started role-playing! We took turns in DMing, with our own characters being NPCs which worked well for the small group of us. Typically I DMed the most and I used to love reading through DM’s guide and creating the campaigns. That continued throughout school years and we covered all sorts of RPG systems, like Paranoia, MERP, TMNT, Traveler, Maelstrom, Warhammer, even some systems we design and wrote ourselves, but always came back to our AD&D campaign.
The 4 friends parted ways to go to different universities, but I naturally joined the (Warwick) Sci Fi & Fantasy society, again playing various systems but also lots of board games and the infamous video weekends where various fantasy and sci fi films, tv series’ would be played for 24 hours (noon – midnight on Sat & Sun). Most of the large section of RPGers were heavily into Ars Magica and frequently groups would be talking in character in the various bars on campus. There was LARPS active, but I never got around to joining, much preferring the PnP approach.

I then did some postgraduate study at Cranfield University and again joined the RPG Society which was a small group of enthusiastic RPGers. The following years were great – playing regularly and sometimes spending vast swathes of the weekend battling through campaigns. Some new systems Tales of the Vagabond, SLA Industries, but also I started DMing AD&D again. Some of us are still in contact and manage to gather a few times a year for gaming, though RPG takes it place besides board games and computer games too.

The campaign I am currently running is loosely based in the world of Tales of the Bard (Michael Scott), but with LoTR influences.

Even now I really like Lord of the Rings novels and at least once a year either:
Read the books http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_rings (rarely)
Listen to the BBC radio dramatization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(1981_radio_series) (good as I can do whilst driving) or
Watch the 3 films (a nice way to spend ½ day!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Rings_film_trilogy

Musically I have a penchant for film soundtracks and find them particularly evocative. Other albums I like are from Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield and more recently heavy metal my wife’s influence is rock bands with strong voiced frontmen, such as AC/DC, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath. Being near a big city has advantages when they tour and we’ve been to various concerts when such bands are in town.

Other pertinent information is that I’m 40, live Manchester, married to a wife who does game, though she draws the line at ‘complex’ DDO she likes inputting into my character’s appearance. We’ve been here for 9 years, close to where we both grew up, though previously I’ve lived in Japan, Canada, Norway as well as other areas of the UK. Currently I work for a large US corporate science instrumentation and service provider. As science is a global concern, it does allow me to travel still, although I’m mainly backroom technical rather than globe-trotting nowadays.

Oh my name? It’s Chris, but in the forums I always used Gleipnir as my main character being first to join the Spellswords and signed off as ‘G’.
Main character is Molfein, a friendly idiot in an otherwise perfect universe!

See you in the rich tapestry that is life in Xen’drik!

[Author]

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