Bill_Barton

Hi. I guess I'm supposed to leave an introductory post. I ran across this Web site while checking out another (which linked from another and from another, ad infinitum), so I'm not really sure how I arrived here. But since it's asking for an intro . . . Since I didn't pick a clever user name, you already know that I'm Bill Barton (aka William A. Barton), and you may remember me as the designer of Cthulhu By Gaslight if you've played CoC in the past couple decades (unless you didn't start till Gaslight was out of print). I'm also the co-designer of the first three editions of GURPS Space (now OP, with the redone 4th edition replacing it) and the first GURPS Space Atlas (still available from SJG as a pdf). I also contributed to Superworld and the Companion to Superworld (the weather article and a bunch of new powers). And my other CoC works include "The Curse of Chaugnar Faugn" in Curse of the Cthonians and "The Killer Out of Space" in Cthulhu Now. And a lot from my work now appears in the latest CoC edition. Made some other contributions to various GURPS books and a bit to FASA's Star Trek: TRPG (although most of the last ended up either nonpublished or published without a credit to me for it--sigh). I've been gaming since 1980 (albeit with a lean decade in the '90s), starting with Traveller (playing, GM-ing, then writing original scenarios that never got published) with side trips playing The Morrow Project, The Fantasy Trip, Tunnels & Trolls, Daredevils, Mercenary, Spies & Private Eyes, Villains & Vigilanties, Star Trek: TRPG and a number of others. Started writing by reviewing games for Steve Jackson's Space Gamer magazine in the early '80s, which led to writing articles there and articles and reviews for other magazines such as Different Worlds and (once) Dragon. Wrote "A Gamer's Guide to Victorian London" for Fantasy Gamer, which turned out to be kind of a prelude to Cthulhu By Gaslight (and ended up in the first two editions of GURPS Horror). Most recently I've published three CoC monographs through Chaosium, mostly things I'd written 20 years ago that are only now being published (Menace from the Moon, originally conceived for Blood Brothers; Return of the Ripper, originally meant to go in the first edition of Gaslight; and A Cthulhuian Miscellany, a compilation of outtakes from previous works and some original material as well). Got a few more in the works--some of my existing scenarios that have been in my files for 20 years along with some new things. That's if I can find the time away from my regular job as an editor for Wiley Publishing (publishers of the For Dummies books and others). And, if it's appropriate to mention (and plug), I also designed and self-published my own RPG, So Ya Wanna Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star! A Rock 'N' Role-Playing Game (still available from me for $18pp at Bill Barton Games, P.O. Box 26290, Indianapolis, IN 46226-0290). If you like rock 'n' roll and games that are on the light-hearted side (and if you're familiar with and enjoyed any of my other work), you'd probably like it. (Now if I could ever get any of the distributors to pick it up . . .) It even won an award at Gen Con its first year out (although that was a while ago). If anyone would like more info, just ask and I'll be happy to supply it. (And if plugging it here is inappropriate, I'll trust the site's moderators to remove this part of the posting--and that's fine with me.) As noted, I got here from following bunch of links. Didn't know there were sites devoted to BRP. Really interesting to see some of the creative stuff here, especially in areas where I've dabbled myself. (I did write a Superworld vehicle article that didn't make the Companion and was to have gone into the next Superworld book--had the game not been discontinued. I recently rewrote it for Call of Cthulhu and it was going to go into A Cthulhian Miscellany, but ended up too long. It's half of my next monograph--as soon as I can get it finished. The other half is my old Time Travel article, updated and revised, from Gaslight. I'm also working on a new edition of Gaslight as a monograph--again, if I can find the time to finish it. I've also dabbled in some SF stuff using CoC/BRP, including a scenario I'm running at Gen Con this year.) I'm working on a score of other things (including a long-delayed GURPS project and a number of other ideas for CoC). Now if only I could find the time (or get cloned a few dozen times), I might finish them eventually . . . Anyway, nice to see some sites devoted to the system, as it's probably my favorite of all those currently out there. (I find D20 way too complicated--maybe because I'm probably one of the few gamers left on earth who's never played any form of D&D.) I'll probably be checking back here from time to time, but my time to post on forums is limited. (I started posting on Yog-Sothoth.com a while back, but it go so time-consuming I had to break it off for a while so I could keep up with work.) Hope to see some more creative stuff from all of you. Take care!