Message From The Front - An Introduction To Only War

A great DM- He's DMed both Call of Cthulhu and Deathwatch for me, and both were very engaging and fleshed out worlds. In CoC he put a lot of time and research in a unique setting which was great fun to explore. I also played Pathfinder with him, and his unique characters are always a highlight.

Alex is an excellent GM who has run games for our friendship group for years. With a preference for his own brand of historical settings only made more wierd and supernatural, his games are both entertaining and engaging, with twists and turns and "the real story" of famous historical events being a delight to see unfold. That is not to say Alex sricks to his scripts rigidly however, and he values player expression paramount, creating new story improv seemlessly when players go off script or make an idea that sounds cooler. Alex is great with both experienced and newer players and I'd recommend him to anyone.

Alex is a dedicated and skilled GM and it is a genuine pleasure to play with him. I have played multiple campaigns run by him, in a variety of settings and systems, and each one has been fantastic fun. He’s a brilliant storyteller, able to get me invested in both the main story of the campaign and the various side-quests and b-plots of the world, with both feeling as important and worthwhile as each other. His campaigns are very character driven, with a heavy focus on roleplay; both within the party and with the NPC’s. Whilst his combats are good and entertaining, the real drive is the character interactions. One highlight was an entire session where we the party, magical FBI agents, were forced to go to ground in a fast food restaurant, spent the three hour session locked in a heated debate about the situation we were trapped in and how we planned to get out of it with both our lives and morality intact. Alex’s ability to roll with the sort of random chaos players can bring to a session is one of the best I’ve seen. He’s able to readily improvise around our madness, and balances that wildness against the main plot exceedingly well. That same campaign included a rather disastrous attempt at arresting a casino manager, for reasons best left to mystery, whilst another player actually focused on the main mission. And still, things worked out well with both plots. Perhaps one of the best elements of Alex’s skillset as a GM has been his ability to balance a party. In all the campaigns I’ve played with him (six at this moment), nobody has felt the central character, or been overshadowed by another player. Each campaign, we’ve had our own sessions to shine, and special character beats and arcs, and all in all, they’ve felt equal and we shared the spotlight equally. He’s been able, which is probably the most admirable, has been to balance a team of characters who hate each other. Whilst we the players are all friends, he’s been able to keep our heads in the game, and has managed to balance the toxic attitude we have to each other in-character, and has managed a very safe space. In so far as recommendations, Alex runs very roleplay heavy games with tremendous ability, and whilst I personally prefer his more heavy and drama focused games, his adventure games are great fun. I would recommend Alex to anyone who wants a character driven game, whether it’s a space opera or sci-fi, horror, or fantasy. He runs a clean, safe game, where even in the heaviest and grimmest moments, we can still feel happy to play.

For over a decade now, I have played an assortment of RPGs with Alex as my DM. Starting with Fate, moving on to Unknown Armies, Pathfinder and other more niche systems, Alex has been an exemplary games master both online and in person. He has told stories in many formats and environments - from archetypical fantasy to modern day investigative dramas - and in each one he has been inclusive in both the environment created around the table and the ideas that can be incorporated into his narratives. If you want to expand from the typical table top plotlines, and into areas that will let you explore characters and worlds through play in a way only the medium of RPGs allow, Alex is the DM that you should pick.

Alex is very much the storyteller as a GM - I've played in a couple of games he's run and both were original plots in historical settings, complete with era-appropriate music and NPC cameos of real figures, though his original NPCs tend to be more fun to interact with. You can tell he has a number of threads up his sleeve, but not necessarily where those threads will lead. When we've used a system I'm less familiar or comfortable with he's always very patient with explaining mechanics as often as needed. Similarly, he's unfailingly kind when I totally blank on what my character should do, which is frequent in the more narrative-heavy games Alex specialises in.