Mark Doherty

Mark is one of my oldest university friends. I met him through a mutual interest in playing AD&D (hey, it was all we had at the time, we got better) and medieval wargaming. Mark is one of the best GMs I've ever had the pleasure to game with, but there's only so much you can do with a crap system like AD&D. Since those dark and far-off days, he's developed more discrimination as far as roleplaying systems go, and now runs a Hero System campaign based in medieval Japan which is described in some detail on his home page. (For those who are interested in roleplaying in the Hero System, Mark has come up with a couple of excellent modifications to the combat system which really improve things -- check it out.)

He's went to Americaland for a bunch of years, doing something jolly high-powered and brain-intensive in Washington DC and California. Since he is a microbiologist, it inevitably has something to do with disgusting bugs; I expect that one of these days he'll be responsible for accidentally releasing a mutant plague virus which will sweep through the world, killing everyone in its path, and we'll all have to be saved by Dustin Hoffman. He says that living in America is just like living in New Zealand, except that everyone has an American accent, and you can't be sure that the person you're talking to isn't heavily armed. Oh yeah, and the shops are always open.

Now, he's moved to the lands of the ice and snow, to Denmark I believe. I haven't heard anything from him since he moved, so I hope that he hasn't been slain by marauding Vikings or fallen off the back of his sleigh and been devoured by wolves or polar bears or been trampled into Antipodean Mush by a freak reindeer stampede.

Update: I have heard from Mark once or twice since I wrote this, so he must be alive. Though probably a soulless shell being inhabited by a horde of microscopic alien bugs which are using his body as a host in order to complete their fiendish plans of World Domination. Those are the risks you run when you're a microbiologist.

Mark has a Mysterious Partner named Kath, who I've never met and of whom I have no pictures whatsoever, so you'll just have to use your imagination to visualise her. Try to imagine discreetly. Discreetly I said; you should be ashamed of yourself!

Another Update: I'm told that I have met Kath, and even roleplayed with her. I wonder if she killed me?

Yet another update: Mark and Kath came for a brief visit around New Year 2000, and sure enough, Kath is both real and also very pleasant indeed. Mark shows no obvious sign of being controlled by swarms of microscopic parasites bent on world domination, but you can never be too sure — they're cunning little buggers, those world-dominating microorganisms. The visit was made especially memorable because we were burgled while we were off soaking in hot pools, and Mark and I both had our laptops (and a bunch of other stuff) nicked. However, the guy who did the job was caught that very evening, still wearing my watch. Obviously not one of your criminal masterminds.