1. What do you do outside of the game? What would you like to be doing? (Work, school, projects, etc.)
I work in Proprietary Electronics. Slot Machines mostly right now, but in the past I have worked on everything from digital posters to Prison Phone systems. Pretty boring stuff, but it keeps my schedule flexible to do what I love with my free time!
2. What hobbies do you enjoy other than LARP?
I play music, I Run/Play 4 DnD games, I play Magic and occasionally paint a Warhammer mini or 2. I also play a pretty decent amount of assorted video games (mostly Roguelikes and WoW, though I like the rest of the world had a huge Baldur's Gate phase coming into this year)
3. Favorite meal, dessert, and drink?
For a meal, Ill take a medium rare Azorian Steak with Portuguese round fries topped with an egg. For dessert, I'm a fiend for brownies and apple crisp. As for a drink, you know I'm on that Chocolate/Coffee Milk train until I'm an ash dusting over Campbell Mountain.
4. If you could go on vacation anywhere, where would it be? Would you bring anyone?
I would really love to see The Swiss Alps. I'd bring my beautiful wife Danielle for the company and my brothers in arms Seamus and Jamie for the fishing trip of a life time in the clearest water known to mankind.
5. Are you working on any life goals that you’re willing to share?
My wife Dani is cooking up a beautiful baby girl and I am so excited to be a Dad come the Fall. We just wrapped on our big basement refinishing process so we can turn my old office into a nursery- I cannot put in words how psyched I am.
Other than that admittedly huge thing, my only goal is to make the upcoming Blackwood Events awesome, which I am also so stoked for <3
6. Favorite outfit other than garb?
Comfy Reebok Sweat Pants and my Striped Longsleeve shirt. I'm a Big man who desires comfort at all times. If I had to get fancy and my body was compliant in making me look fly- I like a red button up (french cuffs) with my celtic knot links, silver tie, black leather tap shoes and a black vests/blazer with my Kilt Pin as a bootiner. (Pilpus may be a nature guy, but Ben looks better in fancy looking metals)
7. Do you have any professional or personal skills you’d be willing to talk about?
I play a wide variety of instruments all at what I consider to be a (relatively) performance ready level. I started on Vocals and Drums as a 6 year old, Picked up bass by 8, Guitar in Middle School when I realized girls were not dating the rhythm section, and Piano sometime in Highschool when I was attempting to learn how to read music. I do my best to upkeep what skills I can across the board but it's a heavy workload with all the eventing we do. I love to combine my loves of the game and art wherever I can. That fusion regularly creates some of my favorite moments as Pilpus! I'm so excited for Ascension where I've been so privileged to assemble such a wide array of talented acts to perform alongside and coordinate for. If you love music in the Realms, you do not want to miss this #ad
8. What drew you to the realms, and what keeps you there?
I was enticed to the Realms by the promise of a fun weekend with my best friend Mike Z (Swoop) and at first for me the dorky get up and silly medieval shenanigans were just a convenient back drop for good company. As for what keeps me here? I grew up a not-well-off kid in a drug riddled city with a lot of at home issues. My prospects were pretty bleak when my finances couldn't hack College and Rent at the same time. The people in this game gave my young family a place to be safe when my life was shit. Talon, Boom and Booties took a chance on me when no one else in the working world would and they gave me a doorway to a better life by teaching me IRL skills (a trade really) and every career/life opportunity I've ever had since then can be traced back to the graciousness of a person in a tabard. I am in this game to pay that mentality forward. I want to be a hand someone can grab when they need a leg up in life. I want to give people the family this game gave me because frankly I don't really have other family. Even when the going gets rough, I owe it to this community to weather the storm and make good on all the benevolence I owe. Getting to test my mettle in an amazing boff-combat system is just an awesome added bonus that I love to participate in and build for.
9. Favorite movies/shows/books?
Movies: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Shows: Dimension 20
Books: As a child it was between Cirque Du Freak and The Demonata Chronicles both by Darren Shan, though for classics I'm a huge Mark Twain lover. As an adult I'm not a huge reader beyond short excerpts and cliff notes. My life is far to busy to sit down and read a whole book. For me who grew up without TV, as an adult I've been enthralled by all the digital media I missed out on growing up. When we bought our house, if you'd told me the purchase I'd be most glad I went with was the big TV over the fireplace I'd call you crazy, but it is the thing I regularly get the most use and enjoyment out of now. For me movies and shows just have something that I can never guarantee I find in books, and I don't know what that something is, but I'm about it.
10. If you happened upon 3 wishes, what would they be? (Wishing for more wishes doesn’t seem to work...)
1) My Own Eventsite 2) An Unbreakable Riding Lawnmower 3) An active Realms populace who wants to use my land to make amazing events/art/stories. So tired of getting site gouged or doing last minute booking scrambles that eat my whole bank account in one fell swoop. I would limbs IRL to never have to worry about shit like that ever again. Also, I'm not a big drinker, but something about getting to knock back a Woodchuck with your people around a warm fire at blue-o'clock after a night quest is just a feeling you can't bottle. Though I'm grateful for the spaces we have, the inability to do that at most sites that don't destroy your fiscal year for booking them is a frequently recurring bummer that I'd use my wish to eliminate forever and never regret doing so.
11. Who would you like to see interviewed next?
Ryan Welch is a cool dude. Not sure if you've already done My Lord Grandpappy Syruss O'Leary (Cal Marsden) but if not, I always love reading his articles!! Vesper's also a cool dude and people who don't get to know Matt Hewitt are missing out!
12. Anything else you’d like to add?
Excited to be eventing with you all soon. Who knows when I'm PCing next, but whatever side I'm on, I'm just psyched to see you <3 Obligatory Ascension plug: Saegan rules and so does Forrester Royal House. Every contemporary in my nation who I respect is working hard to make this event a kick ass event for our friends throughout the Realms. We're all so excited to share it with you and I hope to see you there!
