Hey all! This is Gavindale, and obviously this is also my first post on this website. I am 31 years old, from Rockville, Maryland (about a half hour outside Washington DC) and have lived in Maryland all my life. I work for the MNCPPC (Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission) and am a micrographic technician for the Records Management Dept.

For the better half of twenty years, I have been playing RPGs recurrently. I started with AD&D 2nd Edition, though I was more of a player than a DM. It didn’t mean much at the time, but as time progressed I got more and more in tune with it. Role Playing Games were fascinating and I soon branched into games such as Dungeon Siege, Might and Magic, Final Fantasy. But I soon wanted to make up my own games – my own stories. So, back in middle school I started a gaming group, and that lead me into creative writing. I even went as far as sharing my stories with friends and taking two classes (of many) in college – Beginners and Advanced Creative Writing – Fiction. And I intend on getting a Bachelors Degree in creative writing.

Anyway, I found that with my writing that without a map for where my “characters” to travel along, I would lose my place. So I went searching for some sort of medium to keep things straight, easy to read, and enjoyable.

I still write and map, but I admit I’m a little frustrated with my work. I feel it’s not good enough, even when people commend me on it. Time and time again I will make a city or a continent but just not pleased with it. I found Campaign Cartographer, Fractal Mapper (sp?) and other sites and programs to help me further with what I am working on. And I read a lot as my old professor said that every great writer reads.

I am glad I found this forum; it is just what I needed. I hope to meet up online with other writers and gamers, have a chat sometime or share our work. And just for distributions sake I found a few interesting websites that I recommend: NBOS, RPGNow, Profantasy, and Dundjinni.