Hobby

Other Stuff I Like

Role Playing Games

My passion for role playing games came at a very early age, say 1983 or so, although at very first it was just the idea to completely enter the role in a parallel life to excite me. At first I only knew game books with numbered chapers, where you could choose between 2 or 3 different courses of action. It all begun with a popular serie of these books, published in Italy by EL, and the fantasy Oberon and Lone Wolf series by Joe Dever and Gary Chalk. EL published several other game books each with its specific characteristic and setting, some very bad, some really exceptional. But it was when I first realized that there were games where you actually had not to choose between two ways, but you could choose among an infinity of possibilities, that my soul was swallowed by fascination for RPG. Even though in the beginning I tried them all (at least a dozen among which MERP, Torg, Kata Kumbas and Signori del Caos (two Italian settings), Rolemaester and a score of smaller ones, it was inevitable that the choice fell on the best (and most hated) setting of them all: Dungeons and Dragons. I won’t spend time here to explain my theories why I think this game is the best, or why I despise so much pretentious games like those of the White Wolf line, I will probably write a small article about it in the near future anyway. In any case the universe of options that stood before me made me love these games at the very first meeting, although I always knew the limit of role-playing games that inevitably clashed with reality when things like flight, superhuman powers or high power scales came into play, I really thought it was inevitable that such situations put in motion events so flexible that no RPG system could manage. That was until I met Hero System, a big, highly consistent set of mechanics that could allow you to handle just about everything you can think of, from cosmic powerful superheroes of the comics, to a cartoonish adventure where rats and cats fight for life in a countryside factory. Fascinated by the idea of a single system that would allow you to play any setting, any time, any power level, I tried also a score of similar system like Palladium or GURPS. Nonetheless NONE of these even standed on par with Hero in terms of semplicity, consistency and game mechanics. Paradoxically the system is co logical and complete you can really play for entire sessions without opening the rule book. Italy does not have a big Hero fanatics community AFAIK, yet I’d like to participate in creating one, that’s why I am working on the Official Hero Games Italy website. More on that in the future anyway.

There Is another thing: I am a natural born collector, and I managed to pile up a real frightening amount of rulebooks and magazines and boxed sets in my adolescence, but while I still read some of them once or twice a week, I really have no time to set up a campaign nowadays, nor I have been playing RPG at all in the last few years, except for a sopradic row of 4/5 sessions which all ended in nothing. In short, I want to get rid of some of my RPG items. If you’re interested in trading/buying some of them, check my minimarket page.

Links

» Monastero Ramas
Best (and only?) Italian fan page of this fantastic setting which took away hours from my early youth. I was just 7 when I first heeded into the fantastic world of the Kai knights….

» Fit’z Roleplaying Stuff
To me a real bible, Fritz catches the point and makes us gift of material for the best systems today: D20 and Hero

Powerlifting

Barbecue

Computer Science and Coding

The passion for IT sprang just as I finished the high-school, where I took a specialization in Industrial Computer Sicence. I am still studying Computer Science at the University and work as a consultant for a factory that produces machines for the testing of materials. I also like to develop web applications and sometimes work on graphic projects. In 1994 I was involved in the big project of printing a 500 page catalog, and I had to deepen my knowledge of typography and print.

Comics

A short dissertion about famous comic book artists could be found here (in Italian).

Body Building

I have practiced it a bit and I become intersted in contests, workouts and diets. After a rather serious accident in 1994, I gave up and never recovered fully. Being now 250 lbs means it will take a bit for me to go back in shape (eh). Anyway Mike Mentzer rules!

Design

It came unexpected. I just made some design for fun, but as time went on I discovered that there were far worse amatours than me :). Oh well I am not an oustanding artist but i like to play with Adobe Suite and Corel Painter (w/my trusted A5 Wacom tablet!)

Cinema

Like all good grinders, me likes Horror movies. Zombies, cannibals, splatter and gore stuff abounds in my videotape and DVD collection. But i also like Italian trash cinema and good independent movies. I try to give classics a chance once in a while, as well as some surrealistic and “high level” cinema like Duchamp etc. Contrarily to many horror fans, I don0t give a damn about Hong Kong cinema and police chase shots with Maurizio Merli.

Tattoos

That’s a difficult relationship between me and them. I like a lot tattoos, but i do not like all of them, and I detest the tattoo/piercing/body modification culture. As soon as they embellish the body, I really find them fantastic, especially if they have coherence with the person who wears it. I don’t really like chinese letters and classic tattoos. But then, they’re a work of art, and they represent the person who wears them. I have made my own in Denmark, Sweden, Italy.

History

That’s a new hobby which has grown big in the last 2/3 years. I am reading an encyclopedia of human history and some other stuff at the same time. Italian history of post WWII, expecially from 1960 and 1980 are so full of conflicts you can0t believ it.