Name: William James Brierton Jr.
Place of Birth: Pittsburgh, PA Birthdate: September 15
Marital Status: Married
Nicknames: Bill

Ok that's about all the physical info I'd like to put down, otherwise I'd be embarrassed about height, weight, ac. My humble beginnings are like that of any child. I got picked on by an occasional bully but a swift kick to the shin usually resolved that problem. Of course being undersized did have advantages and disadvantages. I'm slightly accident prone and Claire can attest to that statement. My mother is very found of recalling all the accidents I had as a child, with extraordinary detail. Most of which I think is to embarrass me. I've never broken a bone, but have had more than my fair number of stitches.

As for my teen age years well that's something I'd like to forget. Yes I was a nice young man but never had a date until my senior year in high school. (You can stop laughing now.) That inadent ended in disaster for me which I later found out was something of a blessing. I spent five years in the Pennsylvania National Guard. I rose to the rank of Specialist Forth Class and was the only Spec. 4 to be put in charge of a howitzer crew during a live fire exercise. I think it was because I was one of the few that didn't goof off curing our normal drills. I got out off my last year due to transferring out of state and to the job I have now with the Federal Government.

My first introduction into role-playing was during my last year at high school. My school had a "Winterlude" program that year. Basically it was designed to coincide with Christmas week. One of the programs was called Dungeons and Dragons. It sparked some curiosity and I needed something to do. It took a while for the game to get going after all we were teenagers who were more interested in talking and hanging out than roleplaying. The game was the basic module "Keep on the Borderlands". I rolled up my character which became a cleric. I spelled my real name backwards to give my character a name. After about a week of running into just about every monster in the module, one of the other pc's attacked mine and thus it was the end of Llib. Although a little discouraged by the attack by a party member and my character's subsequent death, that little introduction convinced me to buy my own set of Dungeons and Dragons. I did find a basic set about two months after the introduction.

As I read it, I found out that the DM wasn't playing the game correctly. The DM at Winterlude intro was knocking off points from the armor class not the hit points as the game rules mentioned. I had found a technically and brought Llib back to life. It's one of those things that you can do when your first learning to be a DM.

My next problem was locating another group. I wasn't about to go back to the hign school group especially since they were just a bit too chaotic for me. My best fiiend introduced me to a friend that he met at his high school. Marybethe, was her name and we became good friends. I eventually found out that Marybethe and her next door neighbor played D&D, and one night she invited David, my best friend, and I to join in their game.

I still didn't understand role-playing that much until the DM described a scene that is still with me.today. "The room is totally unlit. " "It's going to take a round for one of the pc's to light a torch." There was some fumbling going on for which party member was to light a torch when the DM described the following "As you group fumbles for a torch you hear Maydell scream, as the torch comes to life you see Maydell slap the face of Sprite." Sprite was my character and the DM "took control" of the nearly non existent light in the dungeon and my pc. So that was what was meant by role-playing I thought. What Sprite did I'll leave to your imagination, but I know that's not what I wanted Sprite to do.

I eventually went on to college where I met Claire. I didn't know her to well at first but later found out that she was a play by mail gamer. She joined the group that I belonged to witb Marybethe and David. Unfortunately, this group just as it was getting off to a good start it fell apart. I thought that this was beginning of a real bad trend.

Around 1984 or so, I along with several other folks formed the play by mail gaming club called Dragonslayers Unlimited. For a while there it struggled but eventually got off the ground and at one time had close to 70 members. I was at one time or another the club president, treasurer and back to being the club president. That duty became the responsibility of another member at the beg nning of November of this year. I think the club is on a decline due to the invention of the home personal computer and the Intemet.

In 1996 I started "White Knight". At that time it was really small. I barely had enough writers and artists to get the magazine out let alone subscnbers. I think what has urged me on was something that was repeated by two guest of honor at this year's Origins. "Do what you like to do. " And with some pushing and pulling from Claire, I'm trying to make Unicorn Pegasus a real company. I have a long way to go and so to keep a roof over our heads I still have the federal job. It's not what I want to do with the rest of my life but until that day comes when I can leave that place ant work fully on Unicorn Pegasus, it will have to be when I can.

Since my first introduction to role-playing, I have played AD&D, Warhammer, GTJRPS Fantasy, Bug Hunters, Ghost Busters, Gang Busters, and Dawn Patrol. Some games I still get to play ever now and then and others I probably will never get back to due to one thing or another. But I love gaming, and hope to make Unicorn Pegasus, White Knight and any future products from our company something that folks might remember.

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