Michael J. Varhola
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Michael J. Varhola
Michael O. Varhola (born September 24, 1966) is an author, publisher, and lecturer. He has written numerous books, games, and articles, and founded game development company and manufacturer Skirmisher Publishing LLC. He also served as the assistant editor o''The Hilltop Reporter'' a weekly newspaper located in Texas Hill Country. In 1997, he married Diane Varhola. In 2003, he changed his middle name from James to Odysseus, but did not start using it publicly until 2011. Varhola is a 1993 graduate of University of Maryland, College Park, from which he received a B.S. in journalism. Other schools he attended include the Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado, and the American University of Paris. He graduated from high school at Carson Long Military Institute in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania. Varhola has authored or co-authored the non-fiction books ''Everyday Life During the Civil War'' (1999), ''Fire and Ice: The Korean War, 1950-1953'' (2000), ''D-Day: The Invasion o ...
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Skirmisher Publishing LLC
Skirmisher Publishing LLC is a publisher of wargames, roleplaying games and historic reprints based in Spring Branch, Texas, USA. It was founded by the author, editor and game designer Michael J. Varhola and is co-owned by Robert "Mac" McLaughlin, Oliver Cass and Geoffrey Weber. About half of Skirmisher's products have been published under the d20 System, a system of game mechanics for role-playing games published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast, that is based on the third edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and named after the 20-sided die which is central to the core mechanics of the system. Skirmisher products created for the d20 system include the books ''Experts'' (2002), ''Warriors'' (2003), ''Tests of Skill'' (2004), ''Nuisances'' (2005) and ''Experts v.3.5'' (2005). Artists whose work appears in these books include Brendan Cass, Dragan CiricSharon L. Daugherty William Hazzard II, Phil "Shade" Kightlinger and Lissanne Lake, noted for her numerous ''Dragon''magazine covers ...
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University Of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Maryland. It is also the largest university in both the state and the Washington metropolitan area, with more than 41,000 students representing all fifty states and 123 countries, and a global alumni network of over 388,000. Together, its 12 schools and colleges offer over 200 degree-granting programs, including 92 undergraduate majors, 107 master's programs, and 83 doctoral programs. UMD is a member of the Association of American Universities and competes in intercollegiate athletics as a member of the Big Ten Conference. The University of Maryland's proximity to the nation's capital has resulted in many research partnerships with the federal government; faculty receive research funding and institutional support from many agencies, such as ...
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Metropolitan State University Of Denver
Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver or Metro State) is a public university in Denver, Colorado. MSU Denver is located on the Auraria Campus, along with the University of Colorado Denver and the Community College of Denver, in downtown Denver, adjacent to Speer Boulevard and Colfax Avenue. MSU Denver had an enrollment of 20,192 students in the Fall of 2018. History and geography The institution is located in one of the oldest areas of Denver. The campus is located at the former townsite of Auraria, which was founded in November 1858. Denver was founded three weeks later on the opposing side (east side) of Cherry Creek. Denver would soon overtake Auraria after thriving for a mere two years. For a century following, an Auraria neighborhood would remain. The boundaries of the former neighborhood were Colfax Avenue on the south, the South Platte River on the northwest and Cherry Creek on the northeast. The Auraria Campus, Pepsi Center, and Elitch Gardens now inh ...
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Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is the eighth most extensive and 21st most populous U.S. state. The 2020 United States census enumerated the population of Colorado at 5,773,714, an increase of 14.80% since the 2010 United States census. The region has been inhabited by Native Americans and their ancestors for at least 13,500 years and possibly much longer. The eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains was a major migration route for early peoples who spread throughout the Americas. "''Colorado''" is the Spanish adjective meaning "ruddy", the color of the Fountain Formation outcroppings found up and down the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28, 1861, and on August 1, 1876, U.S. President Ulyss ...
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American University Of Paris
The American University of Paris (AUP) is a private, independent, and accredited liberal arts university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe, and the first to be established in France. The university campus consists of seven buildings, centrally located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the Left Bank near the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, and the Seine. The university's language of instruction is English, although students must prove a level of proficiency in French prior to graduation. The university has over 1,100 students, representing over 100 nationalities, with an average student-to-faculty ratio of thirteen to one. The university's faculty members represent 21 nationalities, with 71% holding doctoral degrees and close to 70% speaking three or more languages. History Founded by Dr. Lloyd DeLamater, a then 40-year-old US Foreign Service officer, in 1962 as the American College in P ...
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Carson Long Military Institute
Carson Long Military Academy in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania was the oldest continually operating college preparatory boarding school and military academy in the United States with mandatory military training for boys in grades 6-12. Maximum enrollment was approximately 235 student cadets. School history Carson Long Military Academy was founded as Bloomfield Academy in 1836 by Robert Finley in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania as a Latin Grammar school with only six students. In 1840 the school was moved two blocks up the hill to its present location; the first building was constructed the same year and is still in use as a reception hall and museum. In 1842 the trustees decided to make the Academy a coeducational boarding school and for a short period of time in the early 1850s, the school was purchased and operated by the Perry County Commissioners. During the second half of the 19th century, the Latin Grammar Academy added a Normal School, which was a training school for teachers. ...
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New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania
New Bloomfield is a borough in, and the county seat of, Perry County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical area. The population was 1,244 at the 2020 census. History New Bloomfield was laid out in 1823, and named for the blooming clovers near the original town site. A post office called New Bloomfield has been in operation since 1825. File:New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania (1913).jpg, New Bloomfield, 1913 Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , all land. The borough is also surrounded on all sides by Centre Township. Demographics As of the census of 2000, there were 1,077 people, 396 households, and 255 families living in the borough. The population density was 1,983.1 people per square mile (770.1/km2). There were 425 housing units at an average density of 782.6 per square mile (303.9/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 98.89% White, 0.56% African American, 0.28% Native A ...
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio to its west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest, New York to its north, and the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east. Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous state in the nation with over 13 million residents as of 2020. It is the 33rd-largest state by area and ranks ninth among all states in population density. The southeastern Delaware Valley metropolitan area comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the state's largest and nation's sixth most populous city. Another 2.37 million reside in Greater Pittsburgh in the southwest, centered around Pittsburgh, the state's second-largest and Western Pennsylvania's largest city. The state's su ...
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Little Wars
''Little Wars'' is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written by English novelist H. G. Wells in 1913. The book, which had a full title of ''Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books'', provided simple rules for miniature wargaming. Although first printed in 1913, an updated version was released in 2004. It is mentioned in one of Wells' other books, ''Joan and Peter'', where, during the Great War, a sensitive young man named Bunny Cuspard tries his best to compare his life in the army as a larger version of the manual. Contents ''Little Wars'' included fairly simple rules for infantry, cavalry, and artillery in the form of a toy 4.7 inch gun that launched projectiles, usually small wooden dowels to knock down enemy soldiers. In addition to its being a war game, the book hints at several philosophical aspects of war. The book is written in a whimsica ...
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Floor Games
''Floor Games'' is a book published in 1911 by H. G. Wells. This light-hearted volume argues in a humorously dictatorial tone that "The jolliest indoor games for boys and girls demand a floor." Illustrated with photographs and drawings, it briefly describes a number of games that can be played on "well lit and airy" floors with "four main groups" of toys: soldiers about two inches high (Wells regrets the "curse of militarism" that makes civilians hard to find), largish wooden bricks, boards and planks, and electric railway rolling stock and rails. Various remarks show that the book is based on Wells's experience of playing such games with his two sons, George Philip "Gip" Wells (19011985) and Frank Richard Wells (19031982), identified here only by their initials at their family home, 17 Church Row, in the north west London district of Hampstead. Although ''Floor Games'' is often characterized as a "companion book" to Wells's ''Little Wars'' (1913), the earlier book was conceive ...
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Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'', '' Kidnapped'' and ''A Child's Garden of Verses''. Born and educated in Edinburgh, Stevenson suffered from serious bronchial trouble for much of his life, but continued to write prolifically and travel widely in defiance of his poor health. As a young man, he mixed in London literary circles, receiving encouragement from Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse, Leslie Stephen and W. E. Henley, the last of whom may have provided the model for Long John Silver in ''Treasure Island''. In 1890, he settled in Samoa where, alarmed at increasing European and American influence in the South Sea islands, his writing turned away from romance and adventure fiction toward a darker realism. He died of a stroke in his island home in 1894 at ...
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Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention. In 1971, he helped develop ''Chainmail'', a miniatures wargame based on medieval warfare. He co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR, Inc.) with childhood friend Don Kaye in 1973. The following year, he and Arneson created ''D&D'', which expanded on Gygax's ''Chainmail'' and included elements of the fantasy stories he loved as a child. In the same year, he founded '' The Dragon'', a magazine based around the new game. In 1977, Gygax began work on a more comprehensive version of the game, called ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''. Gygax designed numerous manuals for the game system, as well as several pre-packaged adventures called "modules" that gave a pers ...
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