Rob Shankly

A hitherto unsuspected avatar of Nyarlathotep, RJMS started roleplaying in 1979, although it was not until someone made him play RuneQuest in 1985 that he actually got into character. Unicon 3 is (near enough) the twentieth anniversary of the first time he rpg-ed.

Rob likes games where character and plot are more important then dice or rules, but tries to maintain a level playing field for his players. His favourite game is Call of Cthulhu, with Cthulhu Now coming second (if this seems to indicate bias, you're right). He also likes Traveller, WoD, GURPS, L5R and most other games ever played^*.

Rob's first tournament scenario was called "The Big Lagoon", and was a Get Smart-inspired espionage scenario where most players gained kudos by sinking the P&O Fairstar. He next wrote a Space 1889 scenario featuring a cricket tour to Mars. Since then he has written a lot of Cthulhu, some GURPS, D+D, Pendragon and Cyberpunk. In 1996 Rob was co-conspiritor in a plot to introduce piracy to ConQuest.

Memorable(?) efforts of Rob's include-

• "The Quest for the Sage": D+D Basic, MURP Infernal Torment, 1992^**
• "Pirate Island: or, Have Parrot, Will Pillage": Pendragonesque, ConQuest'96 (with Damien Moore & Liz Drake)
• "Fire in the Night": Cthulhu 20s, Capricon 6.
• "Melbourne, the Right Place": Cthulhu Now, ConQuest'97 (co-produced with Anthony Baxter)
• "And Did Those Feet?" Cthulhu 20s, GloranthaCon Downunder 2 and Arcanacon XVII
• Wrath of the Dragon

Rob would like to publicly acknowledge his debt to Phil Keast, who has relieved him of the task of being oldest active MURP member.

^*Not the Babylon 5 game. It sucks.
^**Well, Rob thinks it was memorable...