Attending his first event, Crystal Hall Games, in 2000 at 13, Steven Dewy who started the game as Matthew played until 2005. Initially his character was in Saint Vinier (a short lived vampire hunting newbie group that was run by Devin “Goju” Fitzgerald). Post their dissolution Matthew was part of the Crystal Hall, a school of magic that existed from approximately 1997 to 2005 to and was run by Dan “Xavier” Cardigan. Other members of that group at the time included Damien Lahey as Sabboth (currently plays Dell) who took over as headmaster post Dan’s departure, Matt Cox as Very (currently plays Teddy), and a slew of other young guys (many of whom seemed to be related to Damien).
Later Stephen’s main character was Thao Pestlemixer (previously known as Thaoseph). Thao was notable in that he was one of the three founding members of the Northern Alliance and was (and he believes technically still is) their High Mage. He also has the distinction of having been Phoenix’s (aka my) first squire for the Knights of Chaos, something he cites as one of his greatest achievements in game (and I didn’t even put him up to saying that). Another was winning the Mage’s Tournament at Queen of Hearts XII, and while he didn’t say it, I’ll add on his behalf that the achievement was even more significant due to the quality of the competion. The kid that many people only recognized due to his flaming red hair beat both Rel and Zula. 
When asked of his out of character contributions to the game he stated that, “Sadly, I never really had a chance to give back to the game, save helping to staff a number of events here and there. I had my sights set on becoming a more active member of the game community at large, and even had my first event basically written, but college swept me off and away from Realms in 2005 so I never really had a chance to delve deeper into helping the game.”His responses to our interview questions, reminded me of what I appreciated about him back in his youth. A desire to contribute, an excitement about everything related to the game, and an optimistic spirit. When I asked him about memories he’d like to share his list was:
• “I remember late night AIM conversations in-game with Janna Oakfellow-Pushee in which Thao tried, and repeatedly failed, to advance plot in any meaningful way. I still nonetheless thought it was the coolest thing ever.
• I remember being on my hands and knees at Potato Wars in 2001, digging tirelessly in the sand to find the silver that would make my first silver weapon.
• I remember the first Tournaments of Creathorne where the three lords of the Northern Alliance stood together for their first war tournament against a line of Folkestone shields. Thanks to the mace “Nightmare” (it swung fireball) I managed to drop at least one of them before I died. It was a good day nonetheless.
• One particularly excellent memory from my squire training was when I needed to challenge a knight. I challenged Baron (the only name I remember of his from the time) to an archery contest. I was down one arm, but managed to hold the bow with my feet and pull back with one hand to launch an arrow into his chest. In hindsight I realized he may have let me win, but I remember being incredibly proud at the time. “
He is currently living in Middletown, RI right next to Newport with his girlfriend of three years and their two “kids” a Black Labrador named Whisper and a Shiba Inu named Teemo. Professionally Stephen label’s himself as “an independent analog game designer” and shared that he “just designed and funded my first game, Ten Candles, an indie tabletop storytelling RPG which was successfully funded on Kickstarter in January. It will be released later this year.” He regretfully admits, “this doesn’t pay the bills, so for my day job I am working at MEDITECH, a medical software company in Fall River, MA.(same company but not location where a lot of Realmsies work)” Stephen also added that he is “still heavily involved with LARPing. While I have tried out and played a countless number of games over the past ten years, currently I can be found most commonly as a player at Tales of Valor in Goshen, MA. I also helped run the steampunk game Steam & Cinders for it’s six year run in Middlesex, MA as one of their Staff Leads.
Outside of LARPs, I don’t have a ton of free time between my day job and game design, but what time I do have I will generally fill with tabletop roleplaying games, all manner of board game and card game, hikes with the dogs, and watching Netflix.”
On a semi regular basis he teases me by saying he might stop by an event. Yet thus far every time he’s gotten my hopes up he hasn’t followed through. His current story is that, “Coming back for more Realms has always been something I’ve wanted to do, but something my schedule has never really allowed. For the foreseeable future I imagine I will continue to plan on coming back and continue to have conflicts come up, but maybe one of these days I’ll get a lucky free weekend and be able to show up to everyone’s surprise, including my own. I didn’t spend all that time becoming a two-path for nothing after all (at that point it would have taken 18 events to get 12 spells)”
His final comment was, “Realms was a hugely defining period in my life. If I had not gotten into LARPing during high school I don’t think I would have ever gotten into it, and LARPing has been an unstoppable influence for me. Almost all of my current friends, including my girlfriend, I’ve met through the hobby. Not to mention the fact that it has driven my inspiration to become a game designer of my own. It challenged me, taught me social skills, and got me off the couch, so a huge thanks to everyone for the good times.”