The Book of Visitations of Glory
Issue One | Spring 2001
Contributor’s Biographies
Floyd Brigdon
Like a lot of people on the Tékumel mailing list, I discovered The Empire of the Petal Throne very early, in 1976, but unlike a lot of people it took me a couple of years to build up the confidence to run a campaign. Well, that first series of games was run in 1978 and I have been a Tékumel- junkie ever since. I now teach English literature and Composition at Trinity Valley Community College in Terrell, Texas but whenever I am not grading research papers or lecturing to a group of people, I spend my time dreaming of the Five Empires and the College at the End of Time.
Krista Donnelly
Born and raised in Ohio, I majored in Russian history at The Ohio State University, dropping out of the program at the ABD (All But Dissertation) level. Now living in Washington D.C., I’m working for the National Archives at the Record Center in Suitland, Maryland. I started role-playing D&D when I was 11 years old, back in 1980. Not having any access to gaming materials outside of mainstream bookstores, I was unaware of the rich diversity out there. Then the demands of college pushed role-playing into the background for a number of years. I discovered Tékumel in 1997 when I got back into the hobby and stumbled across a review of the Different Worlds edition in an old Dragon magazine that I’d been reading to see what I’d missed. I haven’t looked back since.
Robert Dushay
I am a 39 year old male, a tenth-circle scholar-priest of Thumis, specializing in studying human minds and behavior. I have one father and one mother, two brothers, one sister. I have one daughter.
More seriously. Born and raised near Syracuse, New York. I discovered role playing in high school (1975 or so) and gamed my way through college, and somewhat less through grad school and my career. Although I first discovered Empire of the Petal Throne in 1978 or so, I didn’t really start playing it until the late 1980s and early 1990s.
I have ricocheted between teaching and research positions for my entire career so far, mainly staying around the New York City area. At the moment, I am an assistant professor of psychology at SUNY Morrisville College of Agriculture and Technology in rural central New York state, not far from Syracuse.
Other RPGs I’m interested in (at the moment) include Jorune, Unknown Armies, and Everway. I'd like to try Blue Planet someday, and I like Call of Cthulhu. I keep a webpage called "The Museum of Role Playing Games" that reviews some of the older gems I have in my collection. (See http://rdushay.home.mindspring.com/Museum/Index.html).
Beside gaming (role playing, board games, wargames, especially with tanks), my hobbies include cooking (and eating the results), reading just about anything I can get my hands on, with a preference for science fiction/fantasy and history, dinosaurs, cartoons (both printed and animated), and fooling around with computers.
My very understanding wife doesn't game, but doesn't find it too strange.
Malcolm Heath
I was born in Minneapolis, MN, and started role-playing at age 9, when a friend introduced me to D&D. I met and became friends with Victor Raymond, a long-time member of Professor Barker’s Thursday Night group in 1986. He got me involved in his game, and I’ve preferred Tékumel to any other game since.
I now live in Portland, Oregon, and work as a UNIX systems administrator for a privately held company. Other interests include religions (I received a BA in Religious Studies from Lewis and Clark College in 1995), travel to distant lands (Scandanavia in 1984, Britain in 1987, Scotland in 1991 and 1993, Indonesia in 1994, and Brazil in 2001), and cooking.
I can be reached at malcolm@indeterminate.net
Brad Johnson
I was born in the hinterlands of Minnesota during the Eisenhower administration. My parents decided when I was very young, that we did not live far enough north so they decided to move us to Alaska soon after the Great Earthquake. My childhood was filled with summer days that lasted 22 hours and winter days when I only saw the sun during lunch breaks. I am part of that last American generation that can say that I had to walk to school in the freezing cold, blowing winds, in total darkness.
I belonged to probably the most heavily armed Boy Scout troop in the world, out of necessity to fight back the critters trying to use us as trail food. I worked in the vast oilfields, and fished in raging glacier fed rivers. None of this prepared me to become what I am today, an aerospace engineer that travels around the world designing repairs for aging aircraft and creating new depot level maintenance plans.
I was introduced to Tékumel in the late seventies while I was going to college where I actually got to participate in a game with Professor Barker at The Council of Five Nations. From then on I was hooked. I still have my original books and I have added to the collection ever since.
Dave Sutherland III
No bio was submitted for this issue.
Steven Woodcock
Like most Tékumel fans I’m thirty-something and overeducated. I’m a chemist living in Oakland, CA, and have been reading about Tékumel for many, many years. Tékumel has always reflected (or maybe sparked?) my interests in Asian cultures and arts, classical studies, linguistics, and pulp-era sci-fi. I’m also a part-time art student, and am hoping to do more Tékumel-based material.
