Hi, first off, I just want to say thanks for dropping by, and for the interest!
So I am going to keep this as simple, and short as possible. First the important stuff:
My name is Julian, and I am a gaming addict. I am a 50 year old, retired, man living in Brisbane, Australia with my wife of 20 years and our 13 year old son, two cats, and soon hopefully to be a dog. I stream games online on Twitch (click the link below), and game online and off in all forms of gaming. I also put a bit of (and more to come soon) general stuff for gaming on my gaming website (also linked below, below).
Gaming History
I started gaming in the start of the 1980s. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons in 1983 with the “Red Box” edition, and have never regretted it. I started GMing in ’91, and have gone from regret to joy more times than I care to remember, and had some amazing times.
During the 90s from ’93 onward, I was a very active local player, spending much of my free time at local gaming stores (I still miss you Hit Point). I also spent a lot of time going to gaming conventions, and winning awards. I even joined a ‘professional’ team as well, when there were not only said professional teams (one even had Coke as a Sponsor(!)), and went to a convention and won two awards from one session. I have over the years won multiple awards for role playing, characterization and DMing at gaming conventions.
More recently as 5e was starting to arrive on the scene I joined the Adventurer’s League as a Local Coordinator. My role was to help the local stores in the city I was in (Canberra at the time) to run AL sessions. I filled one store so it overflowed into the other 2. I also play tested modules for AL and WotC at the time too.
Now I am writing a Campaign World called Tir Avalon, and I stream my D&D games IN Tir Avalon on Monday morning my time (Sunday evening USA times) on Twitch. Tir Avalon is a very different world (and I know many say that), but mine has official approval to use the Flying Spaghetti Monster in the world including publishing rights(!).
And I do this…
Professional History
(that applies to this)
Professionally I started work in my career (rather than anything to get a buck in the wallet) in IT 22 years ago. I started low, then got a lucky break being hired by someone, who quit the day I started got me a pretty quick promotion. I ended up doing a lot before becoming someone who got hired by companies and government to trouble shoot their organisation, and identify areas to correct in how they operate in specific areas. Then I would get hired (most times) to oversee and implement the required changes to correct the problem. All with a focus on customer experience and customer service. One of these areas, and the largest is the processes, and I use this experience to break things down to manageable levels so my classes are easy to follow navigate but have the maximum gain possible.
I also spent time working for a professional training firm, again process work, but also working with their trainers. I have also done federal training programs on instruction giving. During this time, I also joined an organisation of professional speakers called Toastmasters. This is a club that gets people together (usually professional people, people interested in gaining speaking skills, or folks who want a laugh) and they help each other do public speaking, working on common goals as a group supporting each other. And mostly we try to make each other laugh all the time.
Why do this, and for Free?
I do this because it’s fun, and growing the hobby can ONLY be a good thing.
I do it for free because it’s a hobby, and if I try and make money (not that I could) it would take the fun away from my hobby.
I do it for the games and gaming.