Where did it all begin? 
The first "gamers game" I remember playing was Dungeons & Dragons when I was in 3rd and 4th grade with my brother Jim and some neighborhood kids. This started a natural progression of gaming that continues to this day. Growing up I would play the usual games like Risk, Monopoly, Stratego, Scrabble and the like. Of course these are all games that are still found in most households to this day and remain popular with the masses. My gaming life was pretty normal as I reached my adulthood years, playing these types of games as well as Dungeons & Dragons regularly.
Then... IT happened.  It was a game that changed many people's lives, including my own. It was the first game I can think of that actually would cause me and some of my friends to lose sleep. The game I speak of is of course, Magic: the Gathering. There was never anything like it. It set the standard for all CCG's (Collectible Card Games) to come. This brings us to 1993 and 1994 when I became a Magic junkie. I had to have them all. I loved the idea of being able to customize your own deck and put it to the test when you duel your opponent. I wanted to play nothing but Magic all the time. Thankfully I had friends who would help me get my Magic fix since they were addicts as well. I played in several team tounaments as Team Schmidlap with my good friend Tony Sorrentino. This game really allowed all of us get very creative with our deck building skills. Even if a particular deck did not perform well against the competition, it was usually fun experimenting and building them anyway. My passion for this game led me to open up a small hobby shop in Townsend, Massachusetts called the Wizard's Workshop back in December 1994. The store sold nothing but Magic cards and accessories. I would hold regular tournaments in the store and I also ran a league on Sundays. It was also in late 1995 when I sold my entire collection of cards. The game simply got too big, too fast for its own good. I still felt the urge to play for quite some time, but it wouldn't be long before the next obsession came along...

The Settlers of what?...
In 1998, my good friend Dan Granquist introduced me to a great game called the Settlers of Catan. This was my introduction to German board games, and opened up a whole new world of gaming for me. Settlers (as it is commonly known) is many peoples' "gateway" game to German board games. And for me, this was the next must-play-all-the-time game. We really played the butt off this game for about two years. I was also starting to drift from playing the RPG's (Role Playing Games) like D&D and GURPS. I just wanted to play board games constantly. It was around this time that I also began attending gaming conventions like Total Confusion...

"You mean there are actually games better than Settlers?"

Nowadays
These days I no longer play RPG's. The only CCG I occasionally play is Magic: the Gathering with my son Ian. Yes, the German board games and card games are what dominate my gaming sessions now. I play in a few different gaming groups and attend gaming conventions whenever possible with my wife, Lisa. I run the Salem Gaming Group (SGG) out of my home here and we are always looking for new players! We generally get together 2 or 3 Fridays each month. Please contact me if you are interested in joining us sometime. I also visit the BoardGameGeek website regularly (the link can be found on my links page). My BoardGameGeek profile can be seen under the username SwedeLad.

The Designer...
Over the last few years I have been keeping busy designing games of my own creation. I am now working on my fifth design and I am currently making the prototype and playtesting. On Saturday, August 19, 2006, I entered a design of mine into a prototype contest at Unity Games - XI. The contest was sponsored by Cambridge Games Factory and consisted of 8 game designers with unpublished games. I ended up winning first place in the contest with my game called Great Wall (now officially called Huang Di) and I am now proud to say that it will be published by JKLM Games in early 2008. This is my first game to be published and I hope there are many more to come! Huang Di can be pre-ordered right now by going to www.FunAgain.com!

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bryan@salemgamer.com

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