Phenomenon 2003

A roleplaying convention

Writer petting zoo

Here you can find out about the fine writers of Pheno 2003’s games and activities, pat them on the head and feed them carrots.

Triptych writers

Ingrid Bean

Though Ingrid has always had plenty of ideas for great character driven stories, she’s never been able to come up with decent dialogue. She finally realised the somewhat obvious solution to her problem when she decided to try writing games. She ran her first game Keeping the Faith at Phenomenon 2001, and was very pleased with the positive response she received for it (she even won the best new writer award in conjunction with Mark Bruckard). This encouragement led her to write two freeforms for Arcancon 2003; Who wants to live forever with Nadina Geary and Together we stand. She has now caught the writing bug, and has many more games planned for the future.

David James

David has been role-playing since 1982, writing his first convention game with Andrew Smith for CanCon 1987. His latest offering was the freeform Seek written with Xole Karman for Pheno 2002. When it comes to writing games, either table-top or freeform, David prefers to indulge in characters and situations that allow players to explore their own paths, morals and emotions; in worlds where no one is black or white, but all, including the PCs themselves, are varying shades of grey.

Mike Walker

Mike started writing games in 1985, when he was thirteen years old. He has been writing for Phenomenon continuously since 1997. He is best known for his Amber Diceless Role-Playing Games (most notably Silver Spires), and the very successful Red Dwarf freeform Split Infinity.

Everybody else

Andrew Smith

For a guy who was kept in a discarded box under the cellar stairs throughout his formative years, Andrew displays a profound grasp of human nature and the essential tragedy of human existence. His life-long goal is achieving verisimilitude. He likes Guinness.

Sandra d'Argeavel

Born from a love of all things 80s, Battle of the Bands is Sandra's first game. Despite having roleplayed and costumed for the past five years and with much encouragement (or nagging, depending on how you look at it), Sandra has so far resisted writing games. She says that it was based on an overwhelming fear of her players understanding any game setting or genre better than she does. As an avid non-fan of most sci-fi or fantasy, Sandra finally chose to write about one of her favourite things, classic 80s teen movies, and confesses to having 'borrowed' many of the plots from greats such as John Hughes and other 'brat pack' directors. But then again, is anything truly original in this world??

Xole

Xole is primarily a freeform writer, earning her reputation through the Shadowplay series of Amber freeforms. She also co-wrote the Carbonek series of freeforms with Andrew Smith, and is a writer for the Camarilla Changeling freeforms co-ordinated by Marissa Harris. Argo 2020 is her third freeform for Pheno; she wrote Iliad 2020 for Pheno 2001, and for Pheno 2002 co-wrote Seek with David James. Frequently obsessed with Greek mythology, she is hoping that this year's game will get it out of her system

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