I wrote one of these a couple of years back titled "I'm Just a Failed Rockerboy", but it never got posted to this site because real life interrupted, and we all know how that works.

Unfortunately though the premise was true, that's why I have to feebly attempt to steal the persona of a true Cyberpunk 2020 rock icon. Silverhand is to me the Jim Morrison, the John Lennon, or the Bono of the Cyberpunk world. So who am I really you might be asking yourself by now, and why have I gone to all this effort to build this web site?

I was born in England, in a small town in Buckinghamshire, but emigrated to New Zealand when I was 9. I got my first enthusiasm for games soon after when I beat a second cousin in a game that he had designed, after only a few short lessons [the fact he had a Ph.D and was a university professor made it all the more of an accomplishment]. My first experiences with RPG's came in the early 1980's while at university myself. I had become an avid science fiction fan by then, almost certainly thanks to my childhood fascination with the TV series Dr Who. I played Traveller mostly but dabbled in Dungeons and Dragons.

By the mid 80's I had begun reading a new form of speculative science fiction that was being called Cyberpunk. In 1989 I moved to Brisbane, Australia, following my sister who had moved there the year before. When I found a boxed copy of Cyberpunk 2013 by a company called R.Talsorian Games in my local gaming store, I was hooked. Although at that time I had nobody to game with, my imagination was already creating fantastic new possibilities.

The following year I acquired a copy of Cyberpunk 2020. By pure chance one afternoon while visiting a friend I noticed her flatmate's copy of the 2020 rule book lying on the floor. My Cyberpunk RPG journey was born. I met Darren a few days later, and he in turn introduced me to my other long time friend Murray. Over the years the three of us played countless games. Many people came and went, but the three of us always remained the core. We dabbled with other systems - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, etc but always came back to Cyberpunk in one form or another.

So where's the Rockerboy reference I hear you ask? Well back in the early 80's I had formed a band with an old school friend of mine, called Dresden Amen. We played Ultravox, Depeche Mode and Gary Numan covers, spent countless hours programming synthesizers and fiddling with tape loops long before we discovered what Man Machine Music was. After my move to Australia I formed another band called Engine Room. By now I had become a huge fan of the burgeoning industrial music scene [what some had begun to call the cyberpunk music scene], listening to bands like Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly and Front 242. Engine Room, like most bands split after a couple of years hammering out bizarre electronic noises, but to this day my musical ambition has never quite been satiated.

By the late 90's my writing had opened up doors at local conventions, but cyberpunk had begun to wane on the RPG front. I was sad when the support for the game eventually faded away, but had accumulated an impressive collection of material by then to keep me going literally for years.

Then I discovered people playing the game by email - PBeM's. It was a great way to get my Cyberpunk fix, as well as develop my writing skills and remaining in touch with my friends who had now moved on to further their careers in other cities. Although almost all of these games ended prematurely (it's not really the best way to role-play), I still learnt a great deal about the game and the people who play it.

In 2003 while planning my move to the US, I stumbled across an embryonic organisation that were in the process of creating a CCG based on the cyberpunk RPG. I had played Magic, done reasonably well at it on a local level, and spent a small fortune on Netrunner cards, only to be disappointed that I only ever found 2 people to play against. It piqued my curiosity, so much so that in December of 2003 I changed my travel schedule to stop off at GenCon SoCal, meet the developers, and learn to play, with the added bonus of meeting Mike Pondsmith, the man who made Cyberpunk 2020 a reality all those years ago.

That decision has in a way led me to where I and this web site are now. My on-going involvement with the cyberpunk CCG from fan and player, to designer introduced me to a myriad of new people, people in the gaming industry, who like me had a passion for cyberpunk. In talking to many of them I have gained the opportunity to work on new RPG material as a writer, something I had always dreamed of doing. This new found confidence has also led me to finally begin the journey of writing what I have always seen as my life's work. In the early 90's I became fascinated with the Gunpowder Plot. In that time I have to some degree become a world authority on the life of the conspirator Guy Fawkes, but my true passion is the conspiracy and mystery surrounding those who made up the inner circle of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby, from gunpowder conspirators like Francis Tresham, to playwrights like Marlowe and Shakespeare. Stanley died under mysterious circumstances yet nobody has taken the time to peel back the layers of intrigue. That time has come.