(Damian May)

This issue we talk with Damian May. This is a name that has a long and storied history. I well remember his work under one or two of his nom-de-plumes back in the early days of Dragon Warriors online activity. Anyways, enough from me. Over to…

Decidedly average in all ways gubba bloke from rural South Australia.

Bulya is a Noongar word for Sorcery and the name of an old Red Talon Werewolf the Apocalypse character of mine. Pontianak is both a town near where my wife is from and a spirit similar to a Kuntilanak, a vampiric spirit of the Malaysian-Indonesian archipelago.

Picked it up in a newsagent that no longer exists in Port Lincoln while doing my weekly trawl for novels… or at least that is my recollection of memories from when I was 10. Ran it for my brothers.

RPG-wise I went to Shadowrun next and then into World of Darkness where Werewolf the Apocalypse became my mainstay for many decades, but Dragon Warriors was not forgotten and was my go to for fantasy RPGs until today.

Caith Cernach was a PC in my long… long… running Glissom: Dark Heritage Campaign. She went from scarred and desperate member of an exiled Clan to a married, accomplished Hedge Witch who saved Glissom and likely all Albion and beyond from the rise of Balor.

Hmmm… hard one. I've been very impressed by all of Kieran Turley's scenarios¹⁾, but my favourite would probably be one of Shaun Hately's, which I can't recall the name of currently²⁾, mainly because I got to play it in person, which is a very rare phenomenon for myself.

That's a good question, which I don't know the answer to. I had been running a few Dragon Warriors PbPs over the years and I guess I ran across the Yahoo mailing list and made connections with other folks there. I know I was a very loud and annoying voice in Dragon Warriors favour on quite a few RPG forums over the years so I think I made a few more contacts there as well – finding folks like Shaun, Ian, Kieran, Jon³⁾), etc.

Amazing. Kinda unbelievable really and I still have a hard time believing it. It was a great opportunity. I think the Player's Guide contains the material I'm most proud of, but Fury of the Deep was lots of fun to write with Jon Reed and Friends or Foes was kinda my foot in the door.

The Cobwebbed Forest is the main resource these days, though Library of Hiabuor has good stuff as well.

I'm unsure. I'm very happy to still be contributing to fan works like Casket of Fays and the dozen or so projects that are yet to see the light of day. I don't really follow much of the official news anymore except that which comes through Ian and don't have much interest in the Blood Sword project or Jewelspider. But as long as we're allowed to make fan works I'll be there.

In terms of projects, I'm at various stages from barely begun to almost complete on a few Dragon Warriors fan books including The Thousand Islands, Ferromaine, Chapelstone (An Outremer City), Thuland, A Kurlish Nightmare, and a couple of very rough sketches of adventure scenarios based in some of the more distant Lands of Legend.

The Thousand Islands project is, at least partially, tied to my personal project to translate the Dragon Warriors Corebook into Bahasa Indonesia and to further explore the land and culture that my better half grew up in.

Most of my current, 14, PbPs are 5e simply due to the ease of finding players but I do hope to start up some Werewolf the Apocalyspse and Dragon Warriors PbPs again come Winter.

Shaun Hately (left) and Damian May (right) playing what might be The Fall of Erincastra.

This article first appeared in Casket of Fays Issue 10.