The Man They Call Sean
I’ve never had a nickname that stuck. Well, that’s not completely true — I can think of at least one occasion when people have called me “Flinteye” and expected me to respond, but they were just reading off my baseball cap. All in all, this is probably a good thing, since nicknames that stick tend to be less cool stuff like “Grinder” or “Shadowman” and more like “Chunk” or “Barfbag”.
So, as much as I’d like to introduce myself as Sean “Dark Smoke Puncher” Stiennon, just Sean will do nicely. You might already have noticed my name attached to a review of Jasper Kent’s Twelve.
By day, I inhabit an apartment in sunny Madison, Wisconsin (as well as an office nearby) and produce the valuable carbon dioxide that keeps our planet green. By night, I sleep. I also read ridiculous books, play manly video games, practice ryuukyu kenpo karate, and otherwise live the high life. I write fantasy and SF regularly, and if any cool people or gorgeous space princesses out there want to see some, send me a carrier pigeon!
My nerd profile is that of a dilettante. I enjoy many things, from manga to games, but haven’t really ever plunged into one particular thing. There are few authors I’ve read exhaustively, few franchises I’ve mined deep enough to go toe-to-toe with their true devotees. That means my thoughts on any geeky subject tend to be a loose mix of ignorance, knowledge, and apathy. I love Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, but have never seen Akira or Dragonball Z. I got sick of Drizzt after three volumes, and only read four.
Anyway, I like to think my broad-but-shallow nerd experiences give me a habit of making interesting connections. So, when I watch the first few episodes of classic head-bursting anime Fist of the North Star, it brings Superman to mind.
Imagine Conan in Shadizar, meeting with a beautiful woman calling herself Fortuna who pays him to find Thuris, the man who kidnapped her younger sister. Conan accepts the woman’s coin but finds himself in the middle of double and triple crosses as Fortuna — known as Brigid the Bold in the underworld — seeks for the Falcon of Maltus along with her betrayed confederates, Jubliex Cairo, Wilmer the Younger, and Gutmar. 
As usual, the kind of stories I was reading and writing bled into the kind of games I was playing, and this took me down a path I did not expect. I ended cobbling together a system that was purpose built to play “sword noir.” In order to do that, I had to define the term.
As one of the new recruits here at Black Gate, I’ll be bringing you a series of what I hope you’ll find to be interesting posts soon enough. But first I wanted to say howdy and tell you a little bit about myself.
