OgreCave is committed to the promotion of games, primarily non-computer,
non-console games. Don't get us wrong: Halo, Counterstrike, Tomb Raider,
and the rest are loads of fun, and
we've done our share of mashing buttons and fragging our friends. But
computers have yet to fully capture the social aspect of getting friends
together for a game of Magic, and haven't even come close to what a tabletop
role-playing game feels like. Traditional board games and RPGs were our
first love. As long as the pen and paper games have something the PCs and
PlayStations don't, we'll keep promoting them and playing them.
And quite frankly, tabletop games need the extra press far more than PC or
PS2 games.
Our most important goal at OgreCave is to write everything we post with
intelligence and humor. We promise to keep our readers informed of what the industry is up
to, for better or worse. We won't limit ourselves to just board games, just
card games, or just role-playing games: a game is a game, so if we can have
fun playing it, we'll cover it. If we mention some cool console or
cell phone games along the way, great, but we'll go out of our way to
uncover the latest in tabletop gaming.
Meet the Cave Dwellers:
Allan "Sven the Ogre" Sugarbaker - OgreCave's founder Allan
Sugarbaker has been gaming for over twenty years. He was the first
Unplugged Games Editor for Gamers.com, having supervised and
built the framework of its Unplugged section from the ground up. While
at Gamers, Allan ran extensive playtests, researched a variety of
out-of-print games, and reported on the industry daily until the site
ceased its editorial operations at the end of January 2001 (the dot-com bust
claimed another victim). Allan
started OgreCave to bring the most important and entertaining game news
and views into sharper focus for the average gamer. To help him with
the task, Allan gathered a team of several other former Gamers.com
employees and other freelancers (listed below). Since mid-2001, Allan
has also been responsible for most of the daily operations of RPGnet.
Allan's nickname of Sven the Ogre comes from his rather large stature (5'19"), and
his tendency to use uprooted trees to swat those who anger him. He likes odd
games, role-players who find low stats a challenge, and attending game
conventions. Allan can be emailed at sven (at) ogrecave (dot) com.
Mike "MiSuBa" Sugarbaker is the site's chief maintainer and editorial
loose cannon. If something on the site is broken, it's probably his fault. When
he's not busy playing in rock bands,
breaking hearts, doing random web work, or eating red meat, he works on his game
designs and tries to stop sucking at Icehouse. Email him at mike
(at) ogrecave (dot) com.
Owen Fletchyr - Owen is a solitary man who serves in the army of the West.
When Owen slips out of his SCA persona, he
sometimes goes by the name of Colin Adams, and does all the artwork you see here
on OgreCave. His illustration portfolio is online at www.colinadams.com. You're damn right he's
for hire.
Demian Katz, a vegetarian, is the author of the Kobolds Ate My Baby!
solitaire adventures. He is an obsessive collector of interactive fiction
and the maintainer of the infamous Comprehensive Gamebook Checklist. As
if this weren't enough, he's also a devoted Doctor Who fan, bad-movie
viewer, computer programmer, librarian in training, and Dungeon Master. When not involved in any
of these activities, he eats and sleeps, which is something of a drag.
Matthew Pook, OgreCave's Associate Editor, is a 34-year old Englishman living in Birmingham (no, not the one in
Alabama) as the un-lifestyled partner of his Goth fiancée. Currently working as a
Projectionist (no, he doesn't get to watch movies at work), he has been gaming
for over twenty years. He has worked for Hogshead Publishing (the UK's leading
publisher of RPGs) and written/reviewed for White Dwarf, Voodoo Penguin, RPGnet,
Pyramid On-line, Valkyrie Magazine, and RPGshop, among others. He collects old
RPGs, his favourites including Call of Cthulhu, SkyRealms of Jorune, GURPS, Star
Trek, Empire of the Petal Throne, SLA Industries, Star Wars and WFRP. Currently,
he thinks he has about three hundred single RPGs and some fifteen hundred
supplements, and he keeps buying more. He does not own enough books, and the
Klingon in him likes prunes. Friends call him Pookie, but bears have nothing to
do with it.
Joe Kushner - At 6'6" 300 lbs, many suspect that Staff Reviewer Joe Kushner is the
prototype Ogre for the Cave. Introduced to AD&D 1st edition through a
friend who saw him playing the first edition Marvel Super Heroes, he has
since moved onto Rolemaster, Hero, GURPS, Call of Cthulhu and other
goodies but always comes back to D&D because of its wealth of support
and his love of fantasy. Joe's currently enjoying the wealth of new superhero material
with Silver Age Sentinels and the return of Champions. Aside from going to DeVry
Chicago (which he often mocks), Joe works as a slave wage at Federal
Mogul in Skokie. In his spare time (a concept he has difficulty
understanding), he enjoys painting and collecting miniatures with his
favorites currently being the new Celtos (I-Core)and Warlord (Reaper)
lines. Joe has also written reviews for ENWorld, RPGnet, d20Weekly, and Gaming Frontiers, among others.
Steve Kani - At 135 pounds soaking wet, Steve is probably the
least ogre-like of the bunch (he's more like a kuo toa or something).
One of OgreCave's staff reporters, Steve has been playing
roleplaying games since the the very beginning. The very beginning of
roleplaying gaming, that is. He quickly moved from D&D to Traveller and
RuneQuest and has played, and run, role playing games continuously for the
last 25 years or so. Oh, there was that two year break when he was hooked
on wargames like Fire in the East and Advanced Squad Leader. Good times.
Recently, he has come back to D&D albeit that newfangled D20 version.
Currently, Steve is honing his Maya skills, doing a little consulting, and
looking for that next big break. He'll play almost anything, these days,
just as long as you're running.
Brian Darnell - Another gamer of ogre-sized proportions, Brian
worked at Gamers.com as the Card Games Editor, covering all things drawn
or tapped. Brian assists OgreCave's news coverage of card games and
tournaments, and tries not to look too imposing.
Other contributors:
Craig C. Robertson - Craig has been roleplaying since the tender age
of eight, when his first-level fighter died fighting a hydra atop Orc
Hill. After D&D was forbidden by his parents, he switched to
Traveller, which was permitted because, in his own words: "It's
science fiction, Mom. It doesn't have magic or anything." Later,
Craig took up wargaming, beginning with Steve Jackson's Ogre and
culminating with a financially crippling investment in Avalon Hill's
Advanced Squad Leader. Craig has been spending the last decade
honing a talent for purchasing CCGs that are just about to fail,
including Star Wars, Babylon 5, and INWO. His current projects
include cruising eBay for more Epic 40K miniatures than he could ever
possibly paint, and attempting to prove a unified field theory for
the Palladium megaverse. His only fear is that someday his wife will
find out how much he really spends on gaming-related purchases.
Orion Holcomb - aka Antony the Freeman, Orion lives in the wild,
rugged, forested wilderness of the north, giving rise to the bigfoot myth.
He does enjoy a good game, any game, and has for a long time. Like Owyn
Fletchyr, Orion is involved in the SCA, as a warrior of the Barony of
Allyshia. He has mediocre skills at many things, including gaming, writing,
carpentry, geology, farming, astronomy, music, anthropology, and living in
a car.
OgreCave is a Funagain Games Associate. Links on this site to
Funagain-hosted pages may result in some money being passed back to
OgreCave if anyone buys something after following one. OgreCave and
Funagain have no other relationship, and a link to a game's
catalog page does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the game or
a buy recommendation. We at OgreCave do urge you to support your local
retailer, but if you have to buy online, go ahead and do it through one of
our links. Thank you.
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