Sham's Sordid Details

Welcome to Three-Headed Monster Games. I’m David Bowman, better known as Sham in some parts. ‘Round here I’m a member of the trio of bloggers who banded together to form this gaming cooperative. You can learn all about this little venture by reading our Mission Statement, and our DIY Philosophy. Suffice to say that it’s really cool stuff, and way better than anything ever done on the internet that involves three bloggers, two time zones and one guy not named Mike.

That’s right; the other two much more frightening visages of Three-Headed infamy are Michael Shorten, aka Chgowiz, and Michael Curtis, aka Amityville Mike. So what was it that roused this fearsome six-eyed monstrosity from its lair in the nether reaches of gaming?

Nearly three decades after taking up this hobby, I found myself thinking I was an endangered species in a role-playing world that had passed me by. That was until 2007, when I stumbled across a website that changed everything. I was not alone! There were entire communities out there of others who had not yet given up the torch of olden ways, and I became part of a growing community of online brethren; fans of the various editions of the game as published by TSR.

Along the way I rediscovered the original 1974 edition which inspired me to begin a web log about the subject on Leap Day, 2008 called Sham’s Grog ‘n Blog. Since that time I’ve contributed to the Open Game Table Anthology, Fight On! magazine, and Knockspell magazine, all the while witnessing a renaissance of sorts take shape not from the sidelines but as an active participant. Last year I won the Summer Adventure Contest with Spawning Grounds of the Crab-men (FO! issue 3), which included Frank Mentzer and Jim Ward as judges, and this year I was the one doing the judging, helping out a six man panel pick from 112 entries in the first One Page Dungeon Contest.

During this time I had the pleasure to meet the two Mikes who eventually conspired to drag me here, kicking and screaming, to join in on their sordid activities at Three-Headed Monster Games. As Sham I’m the self-styled Grognard and unapologetic Dungeonista. As Dave I’m just your average happily married man and Father of two who happens to spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about dice, traps and hordes of spear-toting Goblins.

Looking back at my 30 year long pursuit of this grand game, I can confidently say that I find myself once again experiencing the rarified air of those first, formative days; a time without expectations and genres, governed only by imagination and creativity. No longer do I feel like an endangered species, and I have my fellow gaming brethren, including my friends Mike and Mike, to thank for that.