A child of the 1980's I just happened to be born at a time when the fantasy genre was exploding into mainstream media. Drawn to this mystic world of sword and sorcery I remember sitting in front of the TV and shouting "By the power of Grayskull I HAVE THE POWER!" every time I had a chance to watch He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Excited by what the realm of fantasy had to offer I remember being encouraged to daydream and use my imagination after seeing The NeverEnding Story in one of my first experiences at a movie theater. My growing interest in this area was also enhanced through literature. I can still picture coming home from kindergarten and lying on my mom's bed while she read fairy tales from A Treasury Of Hans Christian Andersen. Delighted by these stories, I looked for others that she could read to me like Dragolin by Stephen Cosgrove. 

As I grew older my love of fantasy started to include a variety of different games. Video games in particular provided an interactive experience that I just couldn't get enough of. Looking back I would have to say that Joust for the Atari 2600 Jr. was probably the first in a long line of fantasy games that ruthlessly consumed the hours of my youth. That's not to say I didn't branch out every now and then. I also made it a summer vacation ritual to sit and binge read/play Joe Dever's choose your own adventure series Lone Wolf. These books served has a foundation for how I would later conduct my roleplaying game. However, such a process usually takes place in baby steps. In my case the first step came about when I got an adventure board game called HeroQuest for Christmas. This was my first experience running an RPG, and it actually required me to have players to go through its many dungeons. Thankfully my sister Joy stepped up with a friend of hers and together we were all able to have a good time.

Eventually my passion for fantasy trickled into a keen interest of history, which really isn't all that surprising given the medieval period where it usually takes place. Sharing in this interest was my best friend Todd who I initially got acquainted with while talking about Hermann the German shortly after a high school history class. Todd is a major gamer who introduced me to both anime and Rolemaster. One particular anime called Record of Lodoss War offered an invigorating look at how the Japanese could put their stamp on the fantasy genre. Has for Rolemaster I can honestly say it was the ultimate compilation of everything I ever enjoyed about fantasy and gaming. I used to relish playing in one of Todd's campaigns with his friends. We would spend hours afterward discussing what just happened, and how a fantasy world worked. Has it turns out it was during one of these conversations that Todd revealed to me that he was stuck on how to proceed with an upcoming campaign and asked if I'd like to take a shot at being the gamemaster during that scenario. Seizing on the opportunity, I created a ten-hour swamp adventure that absolutely rocked!

From that point on I knew I had to run my own game. Enlisting both Todd and Joy has players (for which I am eternally grateful) I started what I consider a truly epic campaign that ran from 1998-2004. Now originally the sessions were short and frequent, but after Joy moved to another city they became a longer monthly affair. Flexing my creative muscles, I remember struggling with player freedom vs. creating an in-depth story. There were also a number of times where a rather intense campaign would blur the line between player and character. Has a result my players would react very strongly when something happened to their character. This occasionally resulted in me trying to convince them to keep playing after their character had endured a particularly difficult moment. These instances also gave my game a sense of realism that I absolutely loved.

During this period of glorious gaming, I attended college at St. Cloud State University where I quickly got involved in the campus Games Club. Exposed to a vast variety of RPGs I marveled at the creativity of other GMs but found myself a little disappointed when at the end of a game all the prep work went straight into the trash and no one bothered to chronicle the adventures we went on. This seemed like a terrible waste imaginative energy that could have been turned into fantastic short stories if only someone had bothered to write them down. Keeping this in mind I made sure to never toss my campaign notes. At the time, I thought that when I was done gaming, I could hire a ghost writer to use them in making some sort of book. However, I wanted to be sure that the writer accurately represented what I was doing with my campaign, so I delved into world development and character backgrounds. Needless to say I went a little overboard and by the time I had finished I'd created over three hundred pages worth of material!

As college came to an end, so did my roleplaying game. The characters had almost reached a level where I could no longer challenge them, and I was afraid that once Todd and Joy realized this, they would stop playing their roles realistically. I also found that scheduling difficulties and creative fatigue were taking their toll on me. So, I brought the campaign to a conclusion and moved on to more family-oriented activities. However, ending the game is where my book begins.

Using what little spare time I had to make sure that a ghost writer would have all the material necessary to write an awesome book, I received a rude awakening at just how expensive it was to hire one when I also had three children to care for. Disappointed that my original plan had been thwarted I felt that I had no other choice but to actually try writing this epic story myself. Slowly pecking away at my work, I eventually fulfilled my dream of finishing a book that offered up my own unique perspective on the fantasy genre. This product of my labor is something that I hope everyone can enjoy and I look forward to sharing more stories with interested readers as the years go on.