The rhino is rumored to occasionally go by the name Benjamin Ellinger.
BENJAMIN ELLINGER
Class: Gamer
Level: Master
Alignment: Good
Age: 51
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 230 lbs.
STATISTICS
Strength: Can bench press 275 lbs.
Intelligence: Smarter than your average bear.
Wisdom: Wise enough to know better.
Dexterity: Not fast enough.
Constitution: Excellent when not short on chocolate.
Charisma: I have a great personality.
SKILLS
Game Design: Excellent
Game Strategy: Excellent
Computer Programming: Excellent
Teaching: Excellent
Languages: C, C++, C#, Pascal, Fortran, Basic, Java, Javascript, HTML, SQL, XML
Kinesiology: Good
Mathematics: Good
Physics: Average
Writing: Average
Tae Kwon Do: Poor
Fencing: Poor
Archery: Poor
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Mighty!!!
Resistant to Cold
Luck (only with dice)
HISTORY
Benjamin was born in 1969 in Austin, Texas. Growing up in the dark days of the 70s was difficult, but with the help of his three brothers (and a Commodore Pet computer) he made it through. The 80s were a happier time, with Ataris, Apples, and PCs running wondrous games like Ultima, Wizardy, and Castle Wolfenstein (in stunning 2D!). After graduating from Austin High, Benjamin went to work for Steve Jackson Games. Although Car Wars and GURPS were fun to work on, Benjamin soon felt the need for more education and enrolled at the University of Texas. After stints as a Physics major, Astronomy major, and Mathematics major, school became boring and even the lure of Barbuda games at the Rec Center could not keep Benjamin there.
After some time spent as a programmer at Scientific Measurement Systems, Benjamin finally decided on his life's goal: to be the strongest game designer in the world. While he was doing fairly well on the game designer part, Benjamin wasn't very strong, so he re-enrolled at UT as a Kinesiology major. After overcoming their initial shock at having a Mathematics major transfer to Kinesiology, weight training experts Jan and Terry Todd taught Benjamin a small fraction of what they knew. Benjamin then graduated with a BS in Kinesiology and had become much stronger by applying Jan and Terry's secret training techniques. Since that time, Benjamin created This Means War! for Microprose, then joined Illusion Machines, Inc. and created Dawn Of War (for Virgin Interactive Entertainment, now Westwood Studios and EA), which was then sold to SouthPeak Interactive.
After working on a variety of massively-multiplayer games (Ultima Online, Dransik, The Matrix Online), Benjamin moved to the Great Wet North of Seattle to become a professor at the DigiPen Institute of Technology (the world's premier game development college). Soon, the evil empire made him an offer he couldn't refuse, and Benjamin joined Microsoft, while continuing to work as a part-time professor at DigiPen. He has now returned full-time to DigiPen as the game design program director.