Friesen

About Me

My name is Ben Friesen. I'm only an occasional member - I come down to visit about once every three months, maybe a little more in the summer, though lately I've also been playing over Skype. We used to play at my dad's house, and later in the attic of my mom's house (see the oldest pictures in the gallery). I moved to Duluth about ten years ago. I went to college at St. Scholastica, where I double majored in Computer Science and English. Now I work in computer programming (mostly on call center software). I sometimes go by Alexander Wales, because the Mennonite naming tradition (first son is named after the paternal grandparent or great-grandparent) means that there are an awful lot of people named "Ben Friesen".

Interests

I play D&D up in Duluth, currently the 5th edition Starter Set module. I also play Heroclix at one of our local gaming shops, Dungeon's End. I enjoy writing and reading, mostly scifi and fantasy. My wife and I do ballroom dancing - waltz, tango, and foxtrot.

Books

  • Accelerando by Charles Stross (sci-fi)
  • The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson (historical fiction)
  • The Time Traveler's Wife
  • Rainbows End
  • The Lies of Locke Lamora
  • The Name of the Wind
  • Formerly anything by Chuck Palahniuk and Kurt Vonnegut, less so now
  • Any of the Discworld books

Videogames

I play huge amounts of games, mostly on Steam (my steam ID is alexanderwales, as is my Xbox Live gamertag, and username for most services). I tend towards shooters, RPGs, and strategy games (especially turn-based). I also play a lot of indie games, mostly because they satisfy my need to play the crap out of something for a few dozen hours and then move on.

Magus Europa

Magus Europa is a campaign setting I built with the help of some other members of the Band, which we'll played over the summer of 2009. The name doesn't mean anything - I just thought it sounded cool, and it's unique enough that we're already the top hit on Google. The setting is 1713 Europe, but with magic and dragons and all that fun stuff.

Links

My blog.
Fanfic I've written.
My campaign setting.
My website.

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