Meet the Faculty of The RPG Academy who work so hard to make AcadeCon an amazing tabletop Gaming Experience:
Michael aka Professor Fluff
Michael aka Professor Fluff has been playing RPGs since going in halvsies with his best friend on the the Mentzer Red box at 12 years old. Despite being involved in RPGs for almost 35 years he’s played very little as he is mostly the forever DM – but don’t worry, he loves it! As a DM Michael tends to be more story focused and has been known to fudge a die roll or two if it serves the greater story. He craves immersive role playing and dramatic character moments. Michael rarely does combat in his games, unless he does. And likely you’ll find a magic dagger at some point (and likely that’s it for magic items) and it’s best to never rule out time travel as the answer to the campaign’s central mystery. Michael is turning into an armchair game designer with his GMless Action Movie simulator game Action 12 Cinema almost complete and has a solo journalling RPG called Thief: Down and Out in beta. Besides RPGs, Michael is also growing into a Board-game geek and is already a Movie Geek. And if you didn’t already know – he wants to be a writer. Michael is married to his high school sweetheart and has two minions that he hopes to bring up loving RPG’s as much as he does.
Caleb
You’ve heard Caleb’s voice on various podcasts over the years, both as a player and as a game master. When he’s co-host on the Academy, he disagrees with Michael on principle but ends up agreeing a lot of the time. He’s on record for fully supporting min/maxing, power gaming, and big entertaining heroic moments. Games focused on collaborative story telling, escapism, and excitement are his favorite. Cyberpunk is his favorite genre. He flirts with writing and game development, but they can’t commit to a relationship. He’s currently on sabbatical from the Academy to multi-class in Middle Management and take levels in the prestige class New Dad.
Brad
Brad has been gaming in one form or another starting with NES in the 1980s. His first exposure to table top RPGs was in his cousin’s basement playing AD&D. From there he dove into Palladium Fantasy, Shadowrun 3rd edition, the 3.5 d20 universe.
Brad spends most of his rpg time behind the screen weaving stories from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. When not gaming, he spends his time playing with his lovely wife and three children. He enjoys camping, backpacking, and trying to make jerky out of new and interesting things.
Nick
It all started with video games. I was an addict by the 6th grade walking around the playground with my head buried in my Gameboy playing Pokemans. It didn’t end their though, it was everything really fantasy books, comic books, band, it all contributed. What better way to top off the geek junk addiction than by discovering a love of tabletop RPGs. Brad K was the pusher and got me in deep quick.
Fast forward a few years and in addition to the tabletop games I’ve now grown quite obsessed with the new wave of board games that never stop being released and the yearly trip to GenCon.
What a great time to be a nerd.
Ryan
Ryan has been gaming since the days of the original NES. He even worked at a well known video game store chain with one of his current home-game players. He’d say he found TableTop RPGs much too late in life, now preferring epic games with friends and dice versus a screen and controller like he grew up on.
About a year and a half after getting into TableTop RPGs, Ryan lucked upon finding The RPG Academy while searching for podcasts about learning to GM. He started off as an early listener but found out he was only about 20 minutes from its founder, Michael. Taking a chance, he volunteered after hearing that Michael needed new players.
Ryan has been an enthusiastic and proud member of the RPGA for the better part of a decade. He appears on actual plays, writes articles and reviews, attempted to learn editing (be glad it didn’t stick), and promotes the RPGA through local gaming events, conventions, and AcadeCon.
When not gaming, Ryan has a wife and two sons that he loves spending time together with. He is a coach for his sons’ school sports teams and a scout leader for his local BSA Cub Scout Pack.
Scott Classic
Scott is a cast member of #dndsvu producing Lawful & Orderly, and a regular voice in The RPG Academy trials and actual play. An avid fan of tabletop roleplaying games, he started in Palladium, and moved on to GURPS, Marvel, and some In Nomine before settling into a long stretch of Dungeons and Dragons. In more recent years Scott has embraced indie gaming, and now Wushu, Good Society, and Apocalypse World are among his favorite systems. Scott has also trained in Improv Comedy with the Baltimore Improv Group and Charm City Comedy Project, a practice he highly recommends to any tabletop roleplayer.
Matt
Matthew Parody, the Improv Prof., is a New York based improviser, actor & all around entertainer. He has had been doing improv with Friday Night Face Off and various other troupes around the state for about 12 years, with performances all over the US. He was the co-star of a local public access television show, Zam Zex, and had a principal role in Reality Kills: The Burningmoore Incident. He has been playing tabletop RPGs, mainly D&D, for almost 27 years. He usually runs as the DM but has taken a more persistent seat around the table as of late. Matthew is an avid podcaster whose voice can be heard on The RPG Academy, DMs Block, Zeroes Talking Heroes & Geek Wars, just to name a few.
Jared
No one can be told who Jared is, they must experience it for themselves.
Andrew Young
Andrew—the Cool Professor—is a man of many talents, each less marketable than the last. He is a copy editor, a story guide, a Twitch performer, a podcast editor, and a game designer. Andrew‘s day job is in editing, and he also does freelance editing in the tabletop community. He was the GM for the RPG Academy’s trial of Wushu. He plays Mikhail Pavlovitskivich on the weekly Nowsayers Twitch show Lawful & Orderly. He has appeared on a number of RPG Academy Network podcasts, and he participated in Wizards of the Coast‘s "Podcasts of Foes" and "Podcasts of Waterdeep" events. And he has designed such games as Laser Space: The Final Chapter, Build Your Own RPG, and Four Sherlock Holmes and a Vampire (Who Is Also One of the Aforementioned Sherlock Holmes). Andrew spends his free time listening to podcasts and making bad puns in increasingly dramatic voices. He has one brilliant wife, two amazing daughters, and three pretty cool dogs.
Tom Cantwell
I consider my introduction into D&D to be somewhat special because I am one of the “new consumers” that was brought into the fold through Fifth Edition. I was always aware that D&D was a thing through my years of playing board games and hanging out at my local comic book shop, but it wasn’t until I saw that glorious green dragon on that box that was the D&D 5E Starter Set that I realized it was just meant to be. Since that day I have moved at light speed to consume as much RPG related material as possible. Now I am running everything from Everyone is John to AD&D.
My real passion has always been hospitality and making people feel welcome, and tabletop RPGs have a been the perfect outlet for this. One thing led to another, and now I am an RPG community organizer in Cincinnati. I currently run the RPG nights at Cincinnati’s local Woodburn Games. My events focus on introducing new players to the hobby and providing a chance for experienced players to try out new systems. When I am not playing RPGs you can find me reading comics to my two young daughters, giving my dwarf cat pats on the head, or playing board games with my wife.