My name is Dorian Thomas Hawkins.

I was born in 1976, the Chinese Year of the Dragon. That also makes me a Taurus.

My dad got me into sci-fi at a young age (I believe my first word was "Doglick", which is child for "Dalek") and I suppose I never had a chance of escaping nerdom.

I'm a huge fan of science fiction and superheroes. My two personal heroes being Spider-man and the Doctor from Doctor Who. I respect them both for being nerds who have an unerring need to do what's right, even in the face of personal loss. They have a sense of responsibility, something I feel society is losing. But I guess that's as much a part of my growing more grumpy as my years advance ;)

I've lived in the United Kingdom all my life and specifically have been in Chesterfield, Derbyshire for most of that. I love this town. Yes, it is small and a bit rubbish but it is situated right in the middle of the countryside: there aren't many places where you can travel just 20 minutes to a stately home?

I work in law and have done for too long now. It is interesting but I'm not passionate about it.

My true passion is gaming.

I've been gaming since I was age 11 when I was first introduced to the Middle-Earth Roleplaying Game.

I didn't really get it at the time but my two friends and I stuck with roleplaying and moved on to Rolemaster and Tunnels & Trolls. I eventually bought my own Rolemaster books and picked up Top Secret/SI on the recommendation of our FLGS (which closed down years ago).

We played a LOT of Rolemaster and Top Secret for many years but as my circle of nerdy friends grew larger, so did my exposure to other games. This would lead to long running games of Rifts (run by my friend Darren), Dungeons & Dragons (run by my friend Robert) and Shadowrun (run by my friend Jamie).

Over the years, I've played GURPS, Cyberpunk, Spacemaster, Call of Cthulhu, Boothill, Golden Heroes, Heroes Unlimited, Beyond The Supernatural, Palladium, Justifiers, Godlike, Star Trek, Prime Directive, Timelord, Buffy/Angel and loads more I can't even be bothered to remember...

My game collection grew until I surgically removed most of them through a mass sale (I had a nearly complete Mage: The Ascension collection which I sold for a fraction of the cost and still got £100 in 2008).

I cut back everything to make room for my better half, Rebecca, who moved into my house in 2008.

Now I maintain a small collection of my favourites, which includes Mage: the Ascension (revised edition), Vampire: The Masquerade (revised edition), Mage: The Awakening (from the second World of Darkness), Trinity and Abberrant, Dune (the limited edition Wizards of the Coast version), D & D 3.5 edition and Reign.

I am currently trying to break into the gaming industry and have been working very hard on various fan materials for board games (notably Battlestar Galactica and Talisman).

I've been working on my own superhero board game for nearly a year now and the end of the tunnel is in sight.

Outside of gaming, I'm a big fan of the movies and try to get to the cinema as often as possible. Some of my favourite films are Alien and Aliens, Fight Club and Lost In Translation.

I love music of all sorts of different genre. Some of my favourite bands are the Sneaker Pimps, KoRn, The Prodigy, Fiona Apple, Rob Zombie, The Pixies, Muse, R.E.M., Static-X, Beastie Boys, Consolidated, Nirvana, Enya, DJ Tiesto, Faithless and loads of others.

My favourite book is Dune by Frank Herbert but I've read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. My favourite contemporary author is Peter F. Hamilton.

Reading David Eddings is one of my guilty pleasures. I love the Belgariad/Mallorean when I was growing up and still go back and read them every few years. Those and Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom For Sale/Sold were hugely influential on my teenage years. I guess its those books which made me the diehard romantic I am today.