Neil Spicer's page

About Neil Spicer

I'm a very busy 42-year old freelancer, gamer, and family guy (with three kids and counting). During my day job at the office, I'm an IT negotiator and vendor manager, mainly of telecom contracts on behalf of a local distribution company providing natural gas to customers in NC, SC, and TN. I've done a lot of work for Paizo Publishing since winning RPG Superstar in 2009 and hope to contribute to as many of their projects as I can. Before that, I also did some work for The Game Mechanics and various other PDF publishers in the early D20 OGL days. Last year, I helped judge Paizo's RPG Superstar 2011 contest and generally look to give back to that annual event as often as I can since it opened so many doors for me.

I started gaming at age 11 with an old D&D Basic set (the one with the fighter and wizard discovering a dragon sitting upon its treasure hoard). And I have a lovely wife and three beautiful girls, ages 7, 6, and 2. All of them are super-supportive of what I do. My personal gaming philosophy is that roleplaying is another form of storytelling. It's just more immersive and it gives multiple people (i.e., the players and GM) an opportunity to act out various parts in the story and shape where it goes with their own choices. When I game, I tend to look for good stories and solid characters to portray...whether I'm a player or the GM. And I like all the interactions that give opportunities to take the story (and hence, the game) in new compelling directions. I'm also a complete sucker for heroic roles. A hero might have a dark road to travel. But in the end, good should always prevail.

I recently introduced my daughters to the hobby, picking up the Beginner's Box and showing it off to them. So far, I've run three separate sessions using just the pregen characters. They've already got such an interest in the characters that they've each decided to play two at the same time. My oldest runs the fighter and wizard. And my middle child plays as the rogue and cleric. They're both having a blast and want to play as often as we can. To me, that's exactly what this hobby is about. I've come full circle after enjoying roleplaying games for a number of years. Now, I get to teach it to my girls. Life can't get any better than that.

For those interested in my work in the gaming industry, here's a list of things I've written or contributed to so far: