First off, I'd like to thank Ashley for helping me out so promptly. For some reason the email verifier didn't generate the email to my hotmail account. (Yes, I checked the bulk mail.) Ash got me going in just a couple of hours, so thanks heaps!

My name is Derek Wade. I'm 37, a teacher, and football coach in North Carolina. I also train for and participate in extreme obstacle course events like the Rugged Maniac http://www.ruggedmaniac.com and Tough Mudder http://www.toughmudder.com.

I've never programmed or designed a game before. I prefer to play traditional RPG games that feature a rather straightforward quest/puzzle system. Some of my favorites are the Apple IIe "Ultima III: Exodus", the original "Diablo", "Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance I and II" for the Playstation/Xbox, and I recently- thanks to an iPod port- have decided that I really like "Final Fantasy I." (I never had a Nintendo growing up, so I missed out on some of the traditional classics.) My all-time favorite game series EVER, though, is the Eidos first person "Thief" series.

I am new to programming and game development, but I have some rather extensive plans for down the road. To start with, my first goal is to make a roguelike that uses the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition rules as a platform. Most roguelikes are based on Tolkein's work (which I don't care for), or on later adaptations of AD&D, like 3rd edition and the D20 system (which I also can't stand.) I love the idea of the randomly created dungeon with each new game the way Diablo generated, but I'd like to offer a game that's as close to the original AD&D as is possible, with the potential for continual expansion, "modules" to be added that give new quests to the game as I get better at programming and/or someone else comes up with a cool quest idea.

The second project I have is one I've been considering as a pen&paper RPG for some time. If you're not familiar with David Eddings, he wrote two excellent series of books. The first is the Belgariad/Malloreon, which doesn't lend itself to the idea of a campaign setting very well because the plot is too focused on a small group of people.

However, the second series is the Elenium/Tamuli. THIS world has four orders of Church Knights (think paladins), with different styles of combat and limited spellcasting ability. It also features the wizards of Styricum, who draw on the power of a thousand "younger gods" to cast spells. The bad guys are evil, twisted, and insane elder gods, most of whom were trapped and imprisoned by the younger ones before the world was made. It's almost a "Call of Cthulu" meets "King Arthur" sort of setting, and I think it would be ideal for an RPG. I've been making notes on the game system for about fifteen years now and am considering approaching Eddings's estate to ask for license to publish the game as a credited RPG.

I am going to ask a truly astonishing number of questions that should have obvious answers, but I have ZERO experience with game design and programming. I tried to learn Basic back on that Apple IIe, but it was a lot more fun to play Exodus than it was to buckle down and learn to read code. That's the same reason I can't play the guitar, by the way.

I definitely want to thank everyone in advance for your patience and assistance. I look forward to working with you all.

~D.