Vague Countries is the blog I set up to share things related to my tinkering with old-school D&D rules and the games I run using them. It is named after the setting of the Black Hack campaign that marked my return to tabletop roleplaying after a considerable hiatus. Currently I am running Castle Xyntillan using a classic D&D rules kit-bash I’ve dubbed Hackbut.
I started playing tabletop roleplaying games in the early nineties. What little D&D I played I believe was 2nd edition AD&D. I don’t recall it making a big impression. Instead, we played Call of Cthulhu, Vampire: The Masquerade, and a range of other things. What fantasy roleplaying I did engage in was mostly of the LARP variety. Later, I dabbled in The Forge-era indie games, Dogs in the Vineyard being the one that stuck with me the most. I’ve been a referee in almost every game we’ve played, and I still play with some of the folks I started playing with, all those years ago. I consider myself very lucky in that regard.
By day, I am pursuing a PhD in human-computer interaction design research, after working for 15+ years as an interaction design practitioner and (ugh) “entrepreneur”. I’ve had a presence on the web since the late nineties, and have been blogging about things related to my profession since the mid-2000s. However, I’ve chosen to create a new identity for myself to engage with the old-school D&D scene online.