Judge Ike

DCC Enthusiast and budding adventure writer!

Like many Gen Xers, I started playing role playing games in the early 80’s. In fact, it was 1982 when I got the Moldvay (Magenta Box). A neighbor had the Expert box and we spent hours playing with these introductory kits. He eventually got all the AD&D 1st Edition core rule books. Alas, I didn’t need the books, I just needed a friend who had the books! About a year later, my older brother moved back home and he had “everything” from his time in the Navy...original white box, all the Dragon magazines, minis, books, modules, you name it! When I say “everything”, I mean “EVERYTHING!”. This was a great time to be a teenager! 

 

I continued playing Moldvay Basic through AD&D 2nd Edition up until graduation from college in 1999. I DM’d my regular group for several years until graduating high school and I then joined the Air Force, where I have remained for over 30 years! Two years after graduating college, I was commissioned in the Air Force after nearly 9 years enlisted time. When September 11th occurred my life and career took a very different turn. As it turns out, I had put RPGs on the shelf for approximately 25 years before my spouse, Zie, re-sparked the interest in role playing games inside me. After watching Stranger Things (yep! common story!) she turned to me and said, “I’d like to play D&D sometime”. I said, “Well I still have a box of stuff upstairs!”. We cobbled together our first game with the Basic Rules, playing Keep on the Borderland with graph paper and an online dice roller! The funny thing about this story is that, after 6 moves and 6 different states together, she didn’t even know that this particular box of RPGs even existed! After several years of playing 5e, I realized I was more interested in that “old school feel” that I remembered and soon discovered Dungeon Crawl Classics. I haven’t looked back!

 

I am passionate about the Shudder Mountains Setting because it is based on Appalachian folklore. I grew up in the Pennsylvania portion of the Appalachian Mountains. I like to think I understand the people and the culture. I grew up when the coal mines were booming and then watched them go bust. While I moved away like many young people at the time and haven’t lived in Appalachia for nearly a quarter of a century it still has a strong hold on my heart and will return some day. After nearly 34 years in the Air Force and 25 years away from the hobby, I have received so much encouragement from many people close to me to finally “go for it” and write my adventure…and so that is exactly what I did.

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~Judge Ike Meese