Everything you wanted to know about Spawn73 but didn't know you wanted to ask
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YEAR OF BIRTH: 1973
LOCATION: Oakton, VA, USA (near Washington, D.C.)
OCCUPATION: Shipping/receiving coordinator for a credit card manufacturing company in Chantilly, VA (just south of Dulles
airport)
MARITAL STATUS: Single
WARGAMING HISTORY--
Years in wargaming: 12+
I never really got into Dungeons and Dragons or any of the other roleplaying games. I was introduced to Warhammer at a game convention, and quickly picked it up. To give you an idea how long ago that was, I used to play Warhammer 40K back in the days of Rogue Trader, and Games Workshop opened one of its first U.S. stores in the mall across from my high school. I wasn't a great player, but I enjoied it.
Then I went off to college, and forgot everything. And I mean everything: after a year, I couldn't recall the range of a bolter, or the rules for squad cohenency, or what all those little abbreviations meant in a model's stat line meant. All that info was replaced by names, dates, facts, etc. I still painted the miniatures, all the while intending to reread rules, etc.
In my Sophmore year (1993), my mother threw out and/or gave away all my gaming stuff (miniatures, rulebooks, etc.) because we were selling the house and moving to an apartment and I wasn't around to protest it. I didn't find out about it until Christmas break; I went into my "workshop" (the same room where the heater was in the basement) only to find it stripped clean.
In my Junior year (1994), I started picking up White Dwarf again.
After graduating in 1995, I returned to Games Workshop and found all the games I used to play had been revamped and revised, with simplified rules. I was hooked again, starting the ball rolling with a small Undead army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and now have the beginnings of a Slaanesh Daemon army in the works.
I didn't get into Warhammer 40K again until Necromunda was released. I liked Necromunda because of the scale: instead of fielding armies of 50 or more miniatures, you'd be dealing with 10 or 11. And each was a unique character; they had names, not just squad designations. To this day, it's my favorite GW games, and I have two successful gangs for it, one Delaque and one Redemptionist.
My first army for 40K was Tyranids. I had just seen Starship Troopers, and thought the idea of a horde of aliens devouring everything in their path was really cool. Once the current edition of 40K was released, I started two of my own Space Marine Chapters (the Sineaters and the Scorpio Legion) because the new plastic Marines were simply awesome. I wasn't feeling all that excited about them, though, mainly because I wasn't really able to convert anything... they were just unique paint schemes and Chapter icons.
So, I started fresh with Chaos Marines. I had always liked conversions, and Chaos forces didn't have to follow the silly laws of the physical universe.... You want to have a third arm growing out of your head but the Apothecary won't let you? No problem! Want to fly using membranous wings instead of relying on a bulky jetpack? No problem! Also, the new Daemon models were just becoming available, giving me an opportunity to make new monstrosities. I chose Nurgle as the main god to worship because... well, why not? I liked the idea of Plague Marines: little more than rotting corpses in power armor, vommiting bile and popping zits while laying down bolter fire. And since they weren't following the strict laws of the Codex Astartes, I didn't need to paint the Plague Marines in any single color scheme. The colors I chose were those of disease and decay: contrasting tones of greens, pale flesh, tans, and browns, mostly.
OTHER INTERESTS (outside of wargames)--
Outside of wargaming, I'm an avid reader, particularly of H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Liggotti and Mick Farren. Lovecraft was an incredible writer, and I feel that many people imitate his style, but fail miserably... most of those who are ascribed as being part of the Cthulhu Mythos just stick an Elder God's name in their story or mention the Necronomicon. Try reading the anthology "Cthulhu 2000" and you'll see what I mean by noble attempts but horrible failures. Thomas Liggotti is one of the few people who CAN mimic Lovecraft's style well; his story in the afore mentioned anthology was the only one I could stomach. Mick Farren, on the other hand, is a great sci-fi writer. I got hooked on him when I picked up "The Armageddon Crazy." I have most of his books, picked up from second hand stores, and am missing only a few. He recently switched to the horror genre with "The Time of Feasting" and its sequel "Darklost."
I have a good-sized collection of CDs, many of which are of artists no one else has ever heard of. This is fine by me... I don't listen to music because it's "in" or "hip." I listen to music I like, and I don't feel like I have to justify it. (One of the arguements I couldn't stand when I used to go into chatrooms years ago was over which band was better than which... my opinion was that they both stunk.)
I also pick up comics from time to time. I used to read them a lot more when I was younger, but now stick to the more "mature" stuff, like DC's Vertigo line (particularly "Transmetropolitan" and the no-longer-running "Preacher" and "The Invisibles"), "Astro City," and "Top Ten." I also read manga.
Aside from these things, I don't really have many interests, unless drinking myself stupid on Friday nights counts as an interest. More often than not, I come home from work and I crash. I'm too tired to do much of anything.
THE FUTURE--
My Death Guard army is a long way from being complete, so that'll occupy me for a while. A Chaos Cult will more than likely be showing up, acting as support troops (read: gunfodder). Also, Inquisitor just came out in 2001, and I'm enjoying making models for that. When I get done with those projects, and if GW hasn't put out anything that strikes my interest (I can live without games like Warmaster, Epic and Battlefleet Gothic, and I'm really not superkeen on Lord of the Rings), I may (stress "may") start up an Emperor's Children Chaos army for 40K; I already have a number of Daemonettes painted up, and I have a really spiffy color scheme picked out for the Noise Marines. And the Chaos Lord of this army? Gene Simmons with a blastmaster.