Bonjour, tout le monde!
Je m'appelle Assen... Oh, wait, that was the English forum! Mea culpa, mea culpa maxima!
Ah bien, je recommence!
I'm 31, have a child, and live in Bulgaria. My degrees are in International Relations/Security, and Law. My name is Asen (written Assen on this forum for the convenience of French-speakers, because reading it A-s-a-n has
unfortunate implications around here. Hence the double "s", meaning you get to read it right without twisting your brains).
Enough with the stuff that's probably only interesting to me. It's a roleplaying forum, let's talk about roleplaying
!
I've been playing RPGs/JdRs since, 1999, IIRC. My favourite systems are too many to count, but one thing is for sure, D&D isn't one of them. Other than that, my taste in games is pretty universal.
(I mean, I like heavy simulationist systems, like TRoS, GURPS and BRP, and then I also play quite a few indie games with narrativist approaches, like FATE, Apocalypse World and Houses of the Blooded. And I like lightweight systems like Zenobia/43 A.D./Warband, or Lady Blackbird, or Celestial Warriors (which I'm helping the creator to fine-tune).
On other distinctions, I like diceless RPGs like Stalker, which also has a heavy GM role, and I like games with lots of rolling and random result, like Savage Worlds, and I like GMless RPGs like Cosmic Patrol and Vampire City.
If you think by now that putting me in any given camp of players is hard, you're right. That's because I don't hold to any single style of gaming, but try to give any game a chance to do what it's best at, from an old-school game like Dragon Warriors, to the modern ones like Enemy Heroes, Wushu and Eclipse Phase.
To be honest, I find it more fun that way
).
Now, that was about systems. There are some things I dislike about games and try to avoud during discussions about games. The Rule Zero Fallacy is probably the main one, followed by the Argumentum ad Fireballum fallacy. Railroading, illusionism and fudging dice rolls are GMing tricks that are of no use to me whatsoever, since I'd much rather have a total party kill then use any of those when I'm the Game Leader/Referee/Wulin Sage/Seneschal/GM/MdJ. Also, I consider them reason enough to walk out of a game as a player, which makes me quite unpopular with some GMs around here. To me, it's a good thing. It frees my time for playing with people that at least don't have an incompatible playstyle.
After all those years, I still can't get why some people first ask where are the dungeons when introduced to a new setting. No doubt, that is due to a slight flaw in my own character!
I read about Esteren on RPG.net, where I'm more known as Asen_G. After asking some questions in one of the threads, I decided it's interesting enough, and backed up the Kickstarter. Since it ended, I've been reading the setting and system.
Due to some real life events, I'm not gobbling it as I usually do with books, but that's not because I'm not enjoying either!
) has been raving about SHADOWS OF ESTEREN. I've been getting updates after he has finished reading each chapter of the book as he gets ready to start the new game. I'm all ready and pumped up to explore the world of Esteren! 
