Overview[]
The Grey Brotherhood's player cast is composed of several members of the West Point Wargames Committee as it existed during Alexander Macris's time as as a cadet some thirty years ago. Short bios for the players are presented below in no particular order.
Jonathan[]
Jonathan grew up playing Avalon Hill historical board games, particularly Squad Leader. He was in the Wargames Committee all four years at West Point and was the Cadet-in-Charge his final year. His favorite games included De Bellis Antiquitatas as well as the RPGs Mekton and Cyberpunk.
Jonathan graduated West Point in 1997 with a degree in military history and was commissioned in the Armor branch. He served the majority of his career at Fort Hood, TX and his last duty assignment was with 3-67 Armor Battalion. He resigned his commission at the rank of captain. Though opportunities to game have been fewer in recent years, Jonathan has continued his love of history and fantasy through the medium of writing. In 2018, he published his first novel through Autarch, titled “Tears from Iron.” If there is such a thing as simulationist fantasy storytelling, this is it.
You can find his contemplations on the storytelling process, world-building, and the fantasy genre at his blog. The blog is currently dormant as he focuses on completing an 8-Act series set five centuries after “Tears from Iron” but will become more active as that endeavor nears its completion.
James Young[]
James Young grew up in Missouri after his father retired from the Air Force. Despite living near a Top 10 Soviet SIOP target, James never got to see a SS-18 Satan from the business end despite the dire predictions of The Day After. Instead, like the rest of the Gray Brotherhood, he was sentenced, erm, attended a small Federal institution in the Hudson Highlands. While a member of the Wargames Committee, James spent most of his time trying to get people to play Seekrieg, Battletech, and various other games no one else had heard of.
After graduating, James went on to spend six years as a tanker divided between Korea, Fort Lewis, Fort Knox, and Germany. Realizing the Army wasn't for him, he bailed as a captain...and currently works for the Army again as a civilian. (Cue Michael Corleone quote here.) In his off time, James runs a 5e campaign (which also involves Grant Sinclair) where he gleefully introduces his players to the Macris Gaming Doctrine ("Actions have often painful consequences...") every Monday night. He currently writes Alternative History (Usurper's War / Phases of Mars) and science fiction (Vergassy Chronicles). You can find his oft-neglected blog at jamesyoungauthor.com, all of his books on Amazon, and James himself at Comic Cons throughout the Midwest / South.
Grant Sinclair[]
Grant grew up playing chess. When he got to West Point, he found a home with the Wargames Committee, and learned both role play and historical combat. His battles versus Jonathan in De Bellis Antiquitatas are the stuff of legends.
Grant left West Point halfway through Yearling (sophomore) year, returning to Georgia. He finished his education at Kennesaw State University with a major of Communication and a focus on Journalism. After nine years as a print journalist, he switched careers and became an English Language Arts teacher. He met his wife at the same high school he teaches at and discovered a love for travel and National Parks. They have traveled extensively since, visiting all 50 states, 2 territories, 20 foreign countries and more than 300 units of the National Park Service. In 2016, they started the travel blog, Our Wander-Filled Life, and published their first book, USA RV Adventures, with Moon Guides in 2023.
Sean[]
Sean started playing tabletop wargames in the the 80s, starting with Tactics II from Avalon Hill, A house Divided by GDW, Soldiers by West End Games and Dragons of Glory (DL11) by TSR. He also started painting and playing miniatures in 15mm for Fire and Fury. High school roleplaying games were Twilight 2000 (1st and 2nd edition), the West End Games version of Star Wars, and then one campaign of AD&D in the Dragonlance setting. Interestingly, for the AD&D campaign, the GM was an avid Hockey player and enthusiast, and many of the Dragon Highlord commanders and sub-commanders were named after early 1990's NHL players.
At West Point, he found this excellent group and played almost everything. Jonathan taught him how to play Squad Leader, he played in the storied Ravenloft campaign run by Alex, and played the most ignominious game of Warhammer Fantasy battle ever, when he managed to inflict (1) wound on the Chaos enemy player. Not one Kill, one wound. Was the game that unbalanced, or was Sean guilty of not reading the "Rules as Written"...?
After graduation, Sean branched into the Infantry and served in 2-87 Infantry Regiment in the 10th Mountain Division, as platoon leader, scout platoon leader, executive officer, and division staff officer He deployed to Bosnia, the Sinai and Afghanistan before getting out. He was called back into the Army a few years later and deployed to Afghanistan again, as an Infantryman in command of a cavalry company.
Newton[]
Newton, USMA ’97, started wargaming when growing up in greater Miami metro area in FL (best metro area in USA!) and was introduced to roleplaying games by a great high school friend, who in time joined the US Marine Corps. Newton decided to one up that old friend by joining the best service, the US Army, by way of West Point! While at the Academy, Newton met Grey Brothers Alex, Jonathan, Sean, Jaaaaamessss Youuuungggggg, Grant, and Scott (and eventually Willie) after joining the USMA Wargames Club.
In time, Newton learned enough leadership skills at the Academy to share command of a cadet mess hall table with his then roommate and fellow wargamer, Sean. Together they led that table with an iron fist, so much so that every plebe in our cadet company wanted to directly experience that exquisite spice rack pain.
Although Newton was well known among his USMA gaming brothers for being All American, All Army, and Supremely Manly, he quickly introduced them his unorthodox and highly effective British Naval Elves style of gameplay. No matter the game, whether a dungeon crawling fantasy, a dystopian cyberpunk, a Napoleonic campaign, or an ancient battlefield, Newton would show everyone exactly how a British Naval Elf would have done it to achieve victory.
After graduating, Newton did some army stuff in Korea, more army stuff in Japan, and a ton of army stuff in Afghanistan with 2-87 Infantry, the same battalion as Sean. After becoming a civilian, he did a ton of video game business development stuff for Alex’s first major venture, Themis Media, and helped write "Capital of the Borderlands" ACKS supplement, one of the very best supplements ever written in all RPG history (as judged by Newton). Newton now lives in Chapel Hill, NC and continues to tabletop game weekly with his video game industry friends, including Alex, and now bi-weekly with his other Grey Brothers virtually.