Proofreaders!

As you know, I've done all of this writing and released it, and everyone loves it, and so on and so forth. There is, however, an awful lot that goes on behind the scenes. One example is the proofreader group for the Adventurers. Though its membership has changed over the years, this crew has pretty much been there for most of the Adventurers' lifetime, behind the scenes, making grammar, spelling, and logic corrections and suggestions. It's long past time for these people to get some real credit - thus, this page.

I'm aware that there are a lot of you out there who'd like to proofread the stories. However, I can't have too many people doing it, and I've settled on the number I'm currently using. These people have been reading pretty much since the beginning, and that's the main criterion I use (in addition to various others.) If spaces happen to open up, I'll dig through my old email archives from 1991-2 and see who sent me useful feedback on the early episodes; it's the fairest way. Don't take offense, please - understand that I simply have to be fair.

last updated 13 February 2001

Leonard Bottleman

age: 37
home: Portland, Oregon (USA)
occupation: software engineer
employer: Informix Software, Inc.
likes: ferrets, backpacking, white water rafting, astronomy, creating realms on LP muds
dislikes: religion, fanaticism, corporate fascism
role-playing/gaming preferences: Call of Cthulhu, AD&D
URL: http://www.teleport.com/~leonard/

Eric Boyd

age: 29
home: Andover, Massachusetts (USA)
occupation: computer engineer
employer: Hewlett-Packard (plus freelancer for TSR)
what I do: write performance evaluation software, write Forgotten Realms products and articles
likes: computers, volleyball, sailing, writing
dislikes: people who fail to follow the Golden Rule
role-playing/gaming preferences: AD&D2, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk

Lance Dooly

age: 25
home: Macon, Georgia (USA)
occupation: analytical chemist
employer: Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.
likes: cats, soccer, basketball, Italian food, computers, thunderstorms, movies, convertibles
dislikes: traffic, insects, hot weather, answering machines, overgrown rat-dogs
role-playing/gaming preferences: only participating in AD&D PBEMs currently
URL: http://www.mindspring.com/~peldor/me.htm

Vince Gray

age: 42 (and climbing)
home: London, ON (Canada)
occupation: librarian (data)
employer: University of Western Ontario, Social Science Computing Laboratory
what I do: I've been employed by UWO since January 1986. I run the Data Resources Library, which provides access to machine readable data files, such as public use census files, elections results, etc. I'm a member of the Lab's WWW team, and have worked on designing a web-based data retrieval system.
likes: winter, reading, writing, baseball, folk music, fishing, camping, computer programming
dislikes: heat and humidity, bureaucracy, progressive jazz, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition
role-playing/gaming preferences: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Strat-o-matic baseball, chess, Asheron's Call
other: In my spare time, I maintain an index to the Dragon and Polyhedron magazines published by TSR. I also maintain an index to the Sage Advice column in the Dragon magazine.
URL: http://publish.uwo.ca/~vince/

Matt Hurd

age: 33
home: Taberg, New York (USA)
occupation: Software Engineer
employer: Progressive Software Solutions, Inc.
what I do: Enhance and maintain a legacy configuration management tool. I also put in my two cents on the new prototype that will someday replace the legacy tool.
likes: RPG's, Jeeps, Movies
dislikes: Self centered people, Careless smokers, people who ignore what they have
role-playing/gaming preferences: D&D, AD&D, AIF, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Boot Hill, Magic: The Gathering
URL: none at this time.

Rob Lester

age: 32
home: Fayetteville, GA (USA)
occupation: System Architect
employer: BellSouth.net, Network Architecture
what I do: I work researching future Internet-based applications and the system architecture needed to support them.
likes: baseball, role-playing, water sports, reading
dislikes: pro football, corporate management trends, knuckleheads, spam
role-playing/gaming preferences: online/PBEM AD&D

Richard Mosher

age: 30
home: Ladner, B.C. (Canada)
occupation: Wireless Communications Software
employer: Motorola
what I do: I design/build/use the future in communication technologies.
likes: Bungy Jumping, Making Sandcastles, Soccer, Football, White Water Rafting, Intelligent Debate, Having Adventures
dislikes: Pseudo-Science, Stupid People, Closed Minds
role-playing/gaming preferences: Civ II, Doom-likes, Old-style AD&D, EEFL derivatives
miscellaneous: Living in Greater Vancouver, there is lots to do locally. The top rated ski hill in North America (Whistler) is two hours away, the ocean is ten minutes away, and the climate is mild. I've enjoyed _The Adventurers_ since inception and am happy to be able to give something back to it.

David P. Murphy

as of 14 DEC 2001
age: 40
home: Alexandria, Virginia (USA)
family: wife, two daughters (one in high school, one in third grade) and a two-year-old son
occupation: systems programmer
employer: EMC
what I do: write storage configuration & detection software [and maintain PELDOR.COM]
likes: Mark Twain, Walt Simonson, Victor Hugo
dislikes: drivers who do not understand the laws of physics, co-workers who do not see the point of clean design
role-playing/gaming preferences: it's not the game, it's the people with whom you play
URL: www.myths.com/~dpm/

Greg Peters

as of 11 DEC 2000
age: 33
occupation: Software Engineer
employer: University of Michigan and self-employed
home: Ann Arbor, MI
likes: Martial arts (black belt in Tae Kwon Do), cats, gardening, Thai food, vegetarian cooking, hard science fiction
dislikes: Eggplant, meat, smoking

Khaldoun Shobaki

age: 24
occupation: research programmer
employer: Oregon Graduate Institute
home: Portland, OR
What I do: I'm supposed to work full time on our speech toolkit, a free set of speech recognition tools. I end up spending a good amount of my time doing general computer support stuff too.
likes: food, sleep, soccer, snowboarding, paragliding, sunshine, caffeine, beer
dislikes: answering questions, microsoft products, rain, licorice
role playing/gaming preferences: ad&d, battletech. have not played in years.
URL: http://www.shobaki.org

Quentin Stephens

Age: 32 (nearly 33 :{)
Home: Aylesbury, UK.
Occupation: computer contractor
What I do: Network administration, PC support, training, installation, etc
Likes: fine wines, computers, roleplaying, bridge, classical music (especially Baroque)
RP favourites: Hero system, DnD, The Adventurers.
Dislikes: Poor drivers, bullshitters, stupidity.

Tom Vallow

age: 27
occupation: Aerospace Engineer
employer: McDonnell Douglas Aerospace
what I do: I work in Flight Simulation doing Avionics Integration. To describe my work depends on your point of view. One end of the spectrum says I spend my days researching and developing high fidelity real-time avionics models. The other side says I spend my time playing very expensive video games all day long...
likes: Fast cars, fast trains, faster planes, rockets, space, backpacking, theater, Shakespeare, Rush, applied engineering in general, baseball, creative writing, computers
dislikes: hot humid weather, automatic transmissions, idiot drivers

Patrick Weeks

as of 11 DEC 2000
age: 31
home: Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA)
occupation: Network Administrator
employer: Grede Foundries, Inc.
likes: volleyball, golf, softball, basketball, computer games, role-playing, strategy games, kids
dislikes: smoking, hot weather, insects
role-playing/gaming preferences: AD&D 2nd! Edition :), but will play anything
URL: http://www.spsp.com/reverie

Heather Wiencko

age: 18-25
home: Washington, DC
occupation: student, stockroom gopher, research assistant, security guard
what I do: My primary occupation is being a student, which involves a lot of reading, studying, and pulling of BS out of body orifices. That doesn't pay well, so I work in the chemistry stockroom at Georgetown. I'm also doing research with a professor who works with catalysts and other interesting organometallic things. I moonlight as a security guard, protecting the freshman dorms against the forces of evil. (External evil, anyway.)
likes: chemistry, history, web design, eavesdropping, intelligent conversation, old music, winter, baseball, people who know what they're talking about.
dislikes: long lines, people who smoke around me, red tape, inefficient systems, drivers who are oblivious to pedestrian traffic.
role playing/gaming preferences: AD&D, but any game with the right people works fine.
URL: http://www.georgetown.edu/users/wienckoh/