Vague Countries is my blog about old-school D&D rules and the games I run. The name comes from the setting of a Black Hack campaign that marked my return to tabletop roleplaying after a long break. I’m currently running Planet Karus, a sword & planet campaign using Hackbut, my house-ruled version of Original D&D.
I started playing tabletop RPGs in the early nineties. While I played some AD&D 2nd edition, games like Call of Cthulhu and Vampire: The Masquerade left a stronger impression. Much of my fantasy roleplaying happened in LARP settings. Later, I explored Forge-era indie games, particularly Dogs in the Vineyard. I’ve been the referee for most games and still play with some of my original gaming group – a rare privilege I don’t take for granted.
By day, I’m a postdoctoral researcher in human-computer interaction design, following a 15+ year career as an interaction designer and entrepreneur. While I’ve maintained a professional web presence since the late nineties and blogged about design since the mid-2000s, I created a separate identity for engaging with the old-school D&D community online.