JustinMason

Hi! I’m Justin Mason from Hopkinsville, Kentucky. I originally joined Obsidian Portal back in October of 2007 with the account Dungeoncrawlers , but due to some technical changes, I created this second (now my primary) account in March of 2011.

I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for almost 25 years beginning with the 1980’s “red-box” Basic D&D set, and then moving on to various editions of Advanced, and eventually came to the 3.x platform, where I’ve made a gaming home.

The majority of the time, I take on the role as Game Master / Dungeon Master in my various gaming groups, though more recently I’ve taken up the player mantel in some really great short-term campaigns.

In September of 2013, after several failed campaigns, I decided to hang up by DM/GM hat for good and go into gaming retirement. I found myself being more frustrated with bailing players and schedule conflicts than I was enjoying gaming. However, I’m still up for playing in any campaigns if there are any in the area.

Over the years here at Obsidian Portal I’ve made some really great friends, and watched a fantastic service evolve into one of the industries most useful tools. I’ve been honored to receive two community awards here including the first ever campaign of the month award (then called the Featured Campaign) in 2008, and again with the June 2011 Campaign of the Month Award for another campaign I was running.

I’ve also had to opportunity to get involved at various levels here at Obsidian Portal from creating some of the design elements of the application interface, to beta testing new features, to acting as an emissary for our community. At GenCon Indy 2011 I had the amazingly fun opportunity to hang out with the minds behind Obsidian Portal; Micah , Ryan and Jerry (see the profile header pic above).

I’ve also authored and published a few game books over the years, primarily through my former independent game design company, Mythic Design (2006-2009). Running the company was a fantastic experience, and a lot of fun, but continuing to write games as a full-time job just wasn’t feasible. After three fun-filled years, I retired the company back in 2009. In recent years my work schedule as a software developer and graphic artist has made it next to impossible to seriously focus on game development (outside of my personal campaigns) — though I have recently playfully pondered diving into the industry again, but to date haven’t taken any serious steps to do so.

I’ve been the technical director at AvatarArt.com for the past six years. It is a service that employees talented, dedicated artists to provide custom artwork for your characters and campaign. You may have run across it when you click on the link beneath any character or item record created here at Obsidian Portal that doesn’t have an image associated with it.

In January of 2009 I became involved with the fantastic Adventure-A-Week service as a beta tester and have helped hone some of the services flagship features, and spin-off services such as Map-A-Week . In 2012 I started contributing design to some of the services up-coming publications via a group design effort.

Feel free to message me anytime. I always enjoy discussing gaming related topics. Also, if you use Facebook, feel free to add me as a friend (just mention that you are part of the Obsidian Portal community).

May all your rolls be 20’s!