Brett Slocum, Software consultant, Wiccan Priest, Shaman

Soon after getting the GURPS Compendium I, my first project was to design myself (with a little help from GURPS Voodoo). Read the history for an explanation. OK, so I'm a bit lunatic fringe. So sue me.

From a young age, Brett has been fascinated by the natural world. One way this manifested was an intense interest in science-- any science. Astronomy, physics, math, chemistry, botany, zoology, geology, anything. In seventh grade, he wrote his first BASIC program and has been programming ever since then. His other manifestation of his fascination for the natural world was a deep-seated awe and respect for nature. This respect for nature eventually turned him into an budding environmentalist at the age of ten. He collected recyclables and brought them to scrap dealers. He also went to neighborhood parks and creeks to pick up the garbage. As a teen, Brett became a Boy Scout. This got him out in the woods a lot, which gave him a chance to study plants and animals.

In his early teens, Brett became very interested in Native American culture and religion. His parents had begun to collect Indian artifacts and art. Also as a teen, Brett had a few strange occurrences that pointed him in a new direction. A couple heavy cases of deja vu and a few precognitive dreams led him to read everything he could about parapsychology. Not finding much substantive at the time, this interest lay dormant for several years.

Soon after college, he and his then-Significant Other and later-Wife and still-later-Ex-Wife Lisa met some friends who were neopagans. They went to some rituals with Starhawk, a feminist Witch. Brett (and Lisa) found a religion he could like. It combined his interest in the paranormal with his deep respect for nature. Though he attended rituals, he didn't start formally studying paganism until much later, because most of the potential teachers he knew were either flakes or working from intuition, which is difficult to teach. At the same time, he discovered a group called the Minnesota Institute of Shamanic Studies. They sponsored weekend workshops with Michael Harner, an anthropologist who had learned Shamanism from North and South American Indians. Brett began studying and practicing Shamanism for the next seven years. Later, he found a group of neopagans that actually had a rigorous, semiformal training program and wasn't as flaky as the others. Brett and Lisa began seven years of study in paganism and Wicca (or Witchcraft). He has been Initiated as a Wiccan priest, which means he can call himself a Witch.

In high school, Brett started roleplaying. This became an mild obsession which continues to the present. He has played, GMed, and written for several systems, including Empire of the Petal Throne, Chivalry and Sorcery, The Fantasy Trip and GURPS.

When Brett went to college, he entered a field he knew nothing about: Electrical Engineering, specializing in computer electronics (surprise, surprise). He programmed in the physics department through college. Much of his time in college was spent roleplaying and experimenting with recreational drugs. He was a heavy marijuana user, but gave it up after college. After graduation, Brett got a programming job in a corporate software research center which lasted nine years. It was at this job that Brett was first exposed to the Internet. He quickly became addicted and spent many hours at work and at home surfing. For the last four years, he has worked as a software consultant in the area of object-oriented programming in C++.

Brett has two children (Orion, 7, and Karina, 3) that visit him weekly. Brett and Lisa have been divorced for about a year.

[In the character above, a Sabbat is a Wiccan ritual performed on new and full moons, as well as the eight Celtic holidays: Imbolc, Ostara, Beltaine, Litha, Lugnasad, Mabon, Samhain, and Yule. A handfasting is the pagan equivalent of a wedding. A dedication is a ritual where someone formally dedicates themselves to the Gods. The Ritual Magic rules from GURPS Voodoo come the closest to Wicca, though most everything is improvised and therefore known at default from Ritual Magic skill. Skills in Shamanism are as described in GURPS Religion, which are very accurate to the Shamanic world view. ]