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Playtest Group of the Month
(July)

More About Us

We refer to ourselves as the Colasante Collective, after our group leader Mike Colasante, age 30. Mike does freelance artwork, recently working on a couple of projects for Pinnacle. He runs a new, ongoing campaign in Greyhawk, and keeps Ravenloft and Dark Sun alive for us, scattering adventures in when we're taking breaks from our main campaigns. I, Rex Crossley, was chosen as leader for this playtesting project, as I run our continent-spanning Realms campaign; I am 31. We have characters and groups spread all over the Realms, some of which have been around since I took the campaign over from Mike somewhere back in '94. I also run a group in the Planescape setting and have taken characters to Maztica and Al-Qadim. Mike and I have been gaming together regularly since 1988 but, as with most of the group, we've been playing and running the game off and on since 1978.

From left: Phil Edwards, Mike Colasante, Rex Crossley (seated), Tod Chabucos, Chad Mowry, John Ford, and Lon Faulkner.

Our fearless and sometimes merciless players:

Tod Chabucos, age 39, is the manager of our favorite local gaming store, The Guard Tower (shameless plug). Tod is our resident rules lawyer, no matter how much he denied that he would be for 3rd edition, and is an excellent game master in his own right, if we could only get him to run more often. He runs our favorite Giant Slayer player character.

Lon Faulkner, age 31, is Tod's predecessor at the Guard Tower and sometimes DM of Greyhawk and Ravenloft mini-campaigns. He is a feared character killer, though to be fair, our characters were oft-times killed by their own curiosity, crazed determination or sheer stupidity. Lon runs the king, and high priest of Dumathoin, of our current dwarven campaign in the Realms.

Phil "Rob" Edwards, age 29, our beloved rules-twister. He is infamous for his past characters Tanis "the gravy train on biscuit wheels," a kick-arse gladiator, and Drequari, a frightening death-dealing thri-kreen in Dark Sun. Rob currently plays a dwarven crusader of Clangeddin in our dwarven campaign.

John Ford, age 29, has joined our group for the last four years, first as observer, then as an active and devoted player. Most recently, he notably and painstakingly kept inventory of his group's "magic shrinking house" that they stored all manner of items in for their long journey into the Underdark, an ambitious undertaking. He currently plays a Bladesinger in our dwarven campaign, and to his credit has kept his temper very well amid the oft-flung dwarven slurs.

Chad Mowry, age 22, is the most recent full-time member of our group joining only within the last two years. His characters are known for their (and his own) abundance of energy and strong sense of self. He currently plays a halfling cartographer in our dwarven campaign.

Find out how you can become an official playtester.