Name: Adrian Benson
Profession: System Designer
Favorite Game: Squad Leader and it's offspring ASL. Most of you have never heard of 'em I bet.
Favorite Books: Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Game of Thrones series, Wheel of Time series, Steven Erikson's "Malazan" books, Dark Tower series, H.P. Lovecraft's short stories, Katherine Kurtz's "Deryni" books...many more favorites.
Favorite Movies: Star Wars IV, V, and VI, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Sting, True Grit, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Das Boot, A Bridge to Far, The Longest Day, Big Trouble in Little China
Real-life Hero: George Patton
Fictional Hero: mmm James Bond probably. But most of John Wayne's characters would run a close second.
Quote: "I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted and I won't be laid a hand on. I do not do these things to other people and I require the same from them."
-J. B. Books (John Wayne) "The Shootist"

"Roll for WHAT!?"
-Me

Backstory: Adrian started gaming at the age of 13. His first wargame was an Avalon Hill (for you kiddies, this was the REAL Avalon Hill...before Hasbro...) game called "Third Reich" a grand strategic level treatment of WWII E.TO. combat. A very poor choice for a first game, especially with no one to show him the ropes. Re-evaluating and taking a step back, Adrian chose another Avalon Hill offering, "Submarine" as his second ever wargame. He already had an interest in submarine warfare from a historical perspective and so this game was a perfect fit. It may have been indirectly responsible for his enlistment into the Navy at age 18 and for his spending about 6 years of his life underwater in nuclear attack subs. He ended up doing 22 years in the Navy, 10 active 12 reserve and recently retired. After getting off of active duty he worked for the MBTA police, but had to quit after less than a year. Currently he works as a Systems Designer for Partners Healthcare. He works partime as a patrol officer for the Randolph Aux. Police department and as a Reserve officer for the Swansea police.

Adrian's taste in games has always run towards historical simulation games and he laments the dearth of such games now. (He was excited by the opporunity to use the word "dearth" in a sentence however.) Though he pines for the loss of cardboard counters and hexagon maps he's immersed himself in these newfangled (to him) miniatures games for Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons and hopes to soon be sinking money into Warhammer Fantasy.

Adrian has always enjoyed roleplaying games. Back in the day, most of his life was spent in the Traveller and Runequest games (both recently released in their glory by Mongoose). Though his skills as a DM are...lacking...he's considering running campaigns for both games. He loves D&D, but the last regular campaign he was involved in ended in 1987 and was being played with 2e, a.k.a "Advanced D&D" rules.

Best way to get Adrian to be your friend: say, "hey, are you up for a game of Squad Leader? Don't worry about the pizza and beer, I've got it."