About the Site Admin/Owner and Staff

[Whill]

Hello Rancor Pit,

My name is Will. I was born in the early 1970s and raised in a small central Ohio town. As a child my dad took my brother and I to see the original Star Wars trilogy films in the theater once each. (For more details see My first SW movie experience - How I got into Star Wars.)

When my childhood D&D group and I had seen Return of the Jedi, we created a homebrewed Star Wars RPG based on the Basic D&D system that we played several times before going back to D&D (and moving on to other published games) in junior high.

In the Fall of 1987, I bought the original WEG SW RPG 1e core and sourcebook the week they came to the store of my high school job. In 1988 I began running my first of several campaigns with multiple player groups. By my senior year I had become the king of the nerds in my high school. (For more details, see How I got into the WEG Star Wars RPG.)

In 1994, I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics with minors in English, and Philosophy and Religion.

In 2002, I published my first website called Mindspin 311, a "webform" site with some additional basic HTML coding. According to Google it was the 7th most popular 311 fansite in the world for a few years. (During this time I was also a moderator of a bulletin board called 311 Heaven.) I also published a larger but equally simplistic website called The 13th Millennium, which had a Star Wars section to it.

In 2002 I also joined the online Star Wars fan community on the StarWars.com Message Boards. I then joined the official West End Games forums and transitioned to its official unofficial successor WEG Fan Forum, where I became a moderator. (The site is now D6 Online).

In 2008, I registered for this website. In 2012, the previous site owner Loc Taal made me a Moderator. In 2017, Loc Taal transferred ownership The Rancor Pit to me.

I live in Columbus, Ohio, USA. I work at home for a giant corporation in prescription benefits management, mostly adjusting Medicare claims. I have a full family life with my wife, human son in elementary school, and canine daughter. We are very active with our Unitarian Universalist church (except the dog who worships me). I don't drink alcohol anymore - I have been sober since October of 2015.

Besides Star Wars and roleplaying, other interests of mine include Star Trek, Indiana Jones, James Bond, Middle Earth movies, superhero movies and Harry Potter. I have a large personal library of books and love to read, mostly about science, archaeology, history, world religions, mythology, and Star Wars. I try not to watch much TV but outside of the Star Trek franchise, I would probably have to say that Fringe is my favorite TV series. I also love music and have a large collection consisting of a variety of genres but mostly rock. I am a classic rock aficionado, and my favorite current artists are Izzy Stradlin and the band Clutch. I'm not huge into sports but Go Bucks!

Star Wars D6 has been my favorite RPG for 30 years now. I'm happy to do my part to facilitate and propagate this community of Star Wars fans and roleplayers. Please see below for information about the Rancor Pit staff. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank you.

Whill
Site Admin/Owner

forums -at- rancorpit.com


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[cheshire]

Hi. My name is Mike, and like many here, I've been a Star Wars fan since early childhood. Now that I have kids of my own, it has been my pleasure to see the Star Wars universe be as much a part of their childhood as it was my own.

My first exposure to roleplaying wasn't until much later in life. Though I grew up in the 80's, the world of RPGs was never part of my experience. It wasn't until I was doing my grad work in seminary that I fell in with friend who had a love of tabletop games. And though there was a new d20 Star Wars game, it was his suggestion that we run a D6 Star Wars roleplaying game. From there the love table top RPGs was formed, and especially D6.

I joined up with the Rancor Pit not long after its forums began. I participated in several of the fan works that launched here (though most of my contributions were to the D6 Conversion Guides). Like Whill and jmanski, our then site admin, Loc Taal appointed me a moderator to help the day to day upkeep in the forums.

My other interested include board gaming (among my current favorites are Betrayal on House on the Hill, Dixit, Forbidden Island, and Tsurro). I have a love of historical swordsmanship. I am a collector of English translations of Medieval and Renaissance fencing manuals, and focus primarily on rapier in my practice. I'm a casual consumer of sci-fi and occasional fantasy novels. Many of these interests coalesce in the Geek at Arms Podcast, where my two cohosts and I hash out our geeky interests.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[jmanski]

My name is jmanski, and I have been a Star Wars fan from the time I saw "Star Wars" in early 1978. I was 5 years old and it made an impact on me. Good versus evil, mythical undertones, spaceships: it had it all.

My background is in manufacturing: I am in the engineering department of a company that provides parts and small assemblies for aircraft. I started in our process line; I have worked with deadly acids and other materials, suited up for chemical adds to our tanks, and have been trained to do all of the above.

I consider myself a special forces buff: anything about military special forces interests me. I have read numerous books about the military, (American Sniper and Inside Delta Force are my favorites).

I am also an avid video-gamer (PS4).
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?