Wesley Zimmerman

Writer. Performer. Senior Creative Staff.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain

A world-class tactician and literal adventurer, Wesley Zimmerman has worn more hats than one might ever imagine.  A true “Jack of all trades”, his extensive background includes serving as a submariner and trained military specialist in the US Navy, as an electrician, a heavy equipment operator, a firefighter, a paramedic, a rescue diver, and even providing childcare services. He has stopped just short of butcher, baker and candlestick maker. No wait, he’s been a baker, too. Wesley has also honed his leadership skills as a professional at financial institutions, spanning Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan and New York Life. He has likewise served in the public sector as a first responder, inculcating in him the skills needed to make quick, decisive judgments, working well in a team environment, employing creative problem solving, and professional efficiency without loss of quality. These skills have unquestionably been tested, as a husband and father to three children of varying ages, but unerring and consistent capacities for mayhem.  

From an early age, Wesley differentiated himself from his contemporaries. Whether through little things like ignoring most TV shows (other than cartoons, commercials, documentaries, and musicals) in favor of recreational reading, he rarely fit in with “normal” people. With a family that moved from house to house at least once annually, he learned to make friends quickly and assess situations even faster.  This served him well as he traversed the Delaware and New Jersey regions, and beyond. His distinguished “nerd origin” began in 1977 with exposure to Dungeons & Dragons in study hall during the last three weeks of school.  Being literally the only Black student in his area with a love for the game, he had to fight to avoid being excluded and marginalized both due to his race (amongst fellow gamers) and as a nerd (amongst his own community). As the years passed by, he consumed other RPGs, board games, video games and animation to feed his unending hunger for content. Within the cosmos of gaming, he refined nascent skills in improvisational problem-solving, often crafting on-the-fly solutions or “jury-rigging”, be it the realms of fiction, or in real-world applications. This talent for identifying and resolving subtextual issues served him well during both military and private sector careers. He’s worked with local LARP producers Damocles Thread Development, and even been an assistant to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. 

Today, this semi-retired adventurer is an on-again-off-again member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a cast member and panelist with Steam-Funk Studios at numerous conventions, a contributing writer for a number of prestigious organizations, and – of course – in one of his favorite jobs to date, a father. It’s fitting that someone else would find his storytelling ability a marketable asset and start honing him into the sharp pointed stick in the eye of the naysayer universe. With both skill, confidence, and a sharp wit, he charges relentlessly into the fray against deadlines, bad grammar and the occasional Nazi. From writer and “idea man” to detail-oriented nitpicker, Wes demonstrates versatility in scope and a knack to find whatever ‘gremlin’, mythical or proverbial, is at work. This acumen has served him well, both in his own series A Hint of Color, as well as researching and editing for several others’, inclusive of Ed Jones’ Zen and the Art of Screaming, Phil Powell’s Hearts Aflutter: The Fanning Dandy and Clayton Burke’s Table-Flips and Power-Trips. He has also graced us with his assistance. as a regular on the Generation Geek and Dear Dungeon Maestro roundtables. 

Talented, charming, surprising, and inventive, Wesley is a word cannon with a love for getting it “write!”