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My name is Carolyn VanEseltine, and I'm a student at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin.  I have a major well on the way in creative writing with a biology/society minor and a bunch of art and anthropology classes scattered over the top-- a fairly well-rounded liberal arts education.  This will be my senior year in the fall of 2001, and then-- poof!-- off I go into the real world.  I'm looking to continue my studies into graduate schooling and become a professor of English, but-- hey!-- the world is wide.  You never know.

I initially ran into Simutronics Games in high school, but I was forced to take an extremely lengthy break from both GemStone and DragonRealms upon entering college (permanent, I thought at the time) in the interests of putting schoolwork first.  Although this page is devoted to GemStone, I love both games dearly, and wish I had more time for both (if things like school, work, and a pesky thing like a social life outside the game didn't get in the way!)

A wonderful human being named Conan Magruder is my best friend, partner, fellow poet, tabletop GameMaster, favorite player, co-conspirator, and probably something I'll never let go of until death pries us apart.  If you ever ran into the now-extinct MUD "Off The Deep End", you may be familiar with him as the Immortal (and senior builder) (and rather odd deity) Wyld.  Being wise enough to show my best friend around my favorite pasttimes, I introduced Conan to the games of Simutronics; he was immediately hooked.  If you play DragonRealms, you may be familiar with him as the Gor'Tog Vajk Villamos, typically found lingering outside the Crossing's bank.  One of my DragonRealms characters is quite fond of him, which is all very well except for her tendency to bark at him, chase her tail until she knocks him over, or try to lick his nose when he's trying to conduct business in a friendly fashion.  And then deny she's done any such thing when Katamba's no longer full.

I write, I draw, I read, I hang out, I sleep,  I game, I try to stay busy.  As well as my experience with online gaming, I've played and GameMastered most of White Wolf's World of Darkness games in both tabletop and live-action roleplaying forms (Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Mage: the Ascension, Changeling: the Dreaming, Hunter: the Reckoning, and Noun: the Gerund-- well, perhaps not that last.)  A year of running Vampire LARP gave me more stress than any of my classes did; I followed it up with two years of tabletop Werewolf set in a World of Darkness system (the entire game took place in a Paradox Realm, for those of you familiar.)  I've also played Shadowrun, In Nomine, Planescape, and probably a couple things I'm not remembering offhand.

Part of the thrill of GemStone and DragonRealms for me is exploring strange new territory.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, I'm a sucker for single-player fantasy computer RPGs focused on plot and puzzles, such as Planescape: Torment and Zork: Nemesis-- keep meaning to get my hands on Zork: Grand Inquisitor, but it hasn't happened yet.  I've also played more NetHack than any sane person would.  Nethack, for those of you unfamiliar, has nothing at all to do with breaking into computer systems or anything in that vein-- it's a very old freeware open-source two-dimensional ASCII dungeon crawl that's nearly impossible to beat and strangely addicting.  If you don't mind the turn-based movement and the utter lack of graphics, it's what Diablo and Diablo II wish they were (and both games note that they're partially based off Nethack-style randomization of creatures and treasure.)  In three years of playing, I've ascended twice, and switched the focus of my attention to Slash'EM , a rather odd offshoot of Nethack.  (Unfortunately, they keep releasing more and more semi-graphical versions of Slash'EM, and I prefer my ASCII text.)  ZAngband is another favorite in similar vein (stands for Zelazny's Angband).  One last worthy of mention is a shareware game in similar vein called Realmz .  If I only had a Macintosh, I'd own the scenario builder Divinity and be designing my own worlds there... and I must be impressed if it makes me say, "if I only had a Macintosh"!

I've participated for about a year and a half now in Thomas F. Abrahamsson's online website Elfwood -- the primary part of Elfwood is the online art gallery Lothlorien, and you can access my gallery in Lothlorien here .  I've also kept a few poems in the Wyvern's library, here , though I'm afraid I'm ghastly at updating it.  Other people in the 'Woods of particular note would be Grace Palmer (who introduced me to Lothlorien), Ursula Vernon (who is unfortunately no longer updating, but whose work is still incredible-- she's also done some commissioned work for Simutronics, though I believe she focuses on DragonRealms art), Maria Jade Williams (who was invited to do work for Simutronics while I was still on the Elfwood mailing list, though I have no idea if she accepted the offer), Stephanie Pui-Mun Law , Suz Bateson , Marie E. Bird , Linda Bergkvist , Sara 'Silvestris' Strand , Janet J. E. Chui , and honestly too many more for me to mention...!  Head in, take a look around, enjoy yourself-- but do keep in mind that your life will be easier if you're on a fast Internet connection.  While the maximum size is 100kB per picture, and everything's shown in thumbnail first, it's still an art gallery, and still takes time to see.

Last summer, I fell into the habit of getting my "morning coffee" off the Internet-- a series of comic strips updated regularly that give me something to read and half-think about while my brain is slowly coagulating into awareness.  If you're in need of similar distraction from the fact that you've semi-voluntarily gotten out of bed in the morning, consider looking at Sluggy Freelance , User Friendly , General Protection Fault , Kevin and Kell , Freefall , or, last but not least (the best of them in my opinion) Ozy and Millie .  All of these will make more sense if you start at the beginning of the strip and work your way towards the present, and that applies times three thousand for Sluggy in particular.  Many of them are acquired tastes.  Another interesting morning coffee website is Slashdot -- also known as "News for nerds, stuff that matters!"  If you're more interested in the latest on Linux than the latest on Madonna, Slashdot will suit you just fine.

I'm running out of ideas for things that I should mention, so I'll simply ask you to feel free to contact me if there's anything on your mind regarding this page or any other on this website.  Please have a good day.

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