Who is the Raven?

(Updated October 7, 2006: Just minor details, like correcting my son's age.)

I'm Carl Cravens, and I'm a lot of things.

I'm a regular guy...

I'm a late-thirty-something husband, and father to a six-year-old boy. I'm a software developer and systems admin by trade. I'm just like a whole lot of other computer and gaming geeks out there, except that I married a gal I met online, on a computer bulletin board devoted to play-by-email RPGs... the great-grandfather of the internet-based ::Phoenyx.net. We've been happily married for over fourteen years. No, you can't have her.

I've been roleplaying since the seventh grade... over two-thirds of my life. My current play style is rules-light, character-driven, and story-oriented. Or something like that... I'm very much in an exploratory mode, trying to figure out what I really want out of gaming and what does and doesn't work for me. That's a lot of what my blog and this podcast is about... exploring roleplaying. I'll talk about ::the Forge and indie games, but I'm not a Forgeite or a fan of the Narrativist approach.

...and would-be game writer...

I've only got a couple minor publishing credits with ::Grey Ghost Games, and a few articles on ::RPGNet and ::Fudge Factor magazine.

• "::The Gramarye," a magic system for the roleplaying game ::Fudge, published in ::A Magical Medley and now available online (link above).

• "::Department 13," a mini-setting based loosely on a mash-up of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and SciFi Channel's Invisible Man.

• "Just Fudge It," a much-praised article in the Fudge 10th Anniversary Edition.

...who runs too many projects...

• I'm the owner of the ::Fudge List, which is dedicated to the ::Fudge Roleplaying Game.

• I'm the organizer of the ::Wichita_Roleplayers, a face-to-face roleplaying club based around a Yahoo Group message board.

• I'm co-owner of ::The Phoenyx, which is a free discussion forum server for the play-by-messaging roleplaying community. (The Phoenyx is in transition at the moment, so it's kind of quiet.)

...and still tries to find time to game.

I'm a dedicated gamer who hasn't gotten to game much in the past few years because of getting a bachelor's degree, having a kid, getting a second bachelors degree, and having trouble putting together a group of people. But I'm gaming regularly now, which is great.