Toll the Hegemony

I can't speak to what Aeary will be like for others, but the word that best describes him for me is "accommodating". Whether it's doing a session at midnight his time because that's what works, or making sure I have exactly the item I need for my character's fantasy, or incorporating a part of my backstory into his narrative, or ensuring the content we are covering is something I'm comfortable with. Beyond that, he's also just an incredible GM generally, giving us a really good story without any filler, knowing when to let the players talk amongst themselves and when to provide guardrails for us to proceed with. His combats all feel different from one another. Despite the fact we're normally fighting people, he does a good job of making them distinct both in their features and story. He also builds his own maps on Foundry, even for stuff that isn't combat, which makes everything way easier to visualize and remember. Also one time he came in cosplay as the villain we were fighting which was maybe the nerdiest thing I have ever seen but also I loved it so I figured I should mention it somewhere.

As someone whose played in all of Aeary's campaigns up to this point, I can tell you that he has a lot of different strengths. He is very meticulous in his preparation, and very hard on himself when something goes slightly wrong (which 99% of the time we don't even notice anyway). Despite this, he doesn't lean on his pre-planned content, and his improvisation is very strong and quick, while also being often funny and surprisingly eloquent. In his element playing pompous nobles above all else, which is the real reason he'll trick you into spending time around them. He's patient when people forget things, whether about the world or combat mechanics, and he's always excited to show off some new system or combat gimmick. He doesn't require you to remember his (extensive) worldbuilding, yet he beams every time someone does, so it often feels rewarding to do so. He also always hangs around after sessions and listens to what people enjoyed, and will take feedback on where to take things next. As a person, Aeary is a very sweet and caring friend. As a DM, he will kill your characters and force you to live with the harrowing mistakes they make. But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

At our first session I told Aeary I wanted to play a support character but didn't feel like the subclass I wanted fit that very well - so he came up with a whole new spin on the subclass which kept its identity while shifting it to support and making it a design that was still exciting to pilot years later. At one point I mentioned I wanted to try to become an alchemist - so the next shop we went to had an Alchemy guide I could buy, one that had a whole tech tree with dozens of potions and materials Aeary had fleshed out. At another point, our characters decided to involve ourselves in the military - and the next combat we did involved us building a custom army and commanding it in combat with a system he developed. To say nothing of the time we did a naval battle involving 30 ships, attacked a living clocktower, or fought atop a falling meteorite. Every single downtime in between big battles and story beats, when we could prowl shops for new items and improve upon our current skills, felt like a chance to redesign our builds and character concepts for the better. What I am trying to get at here, is that if you're into the mechanics and builds of TTRPGs and how they can bring a character concept to life, Aeary works amazingly hard to give you every tool to do so. The others have talked about his story telling so I won't harp on about that point, but I've never had a DM who was so interested in letting us express ourselves through our character sheet.

Aeary's campaigns don't have dungeon crawling or the kind of attrition combat or stealth that's normal for 5e, so if you're looking for that, probably look elsewhere. What he does have is a wide range of NPCs to roleplay off of, fantastic combats which are constantly evolving in scope, and really good improv for when things go off script. He tends to provide a really big sandbox and a goal with some guideposts to get there but more often than not we end up finding our own path. I think something that really surprised me is how reactive his world and story was to what we were doing. We fucked up badly at some important decisions and also did way too well at some other points, disrupting his plans in a million ways that had him pulling his hair out, only for him to triumphantly show up to the next session with a new plan brewing. And despite PC deaths and betrayals, the story always ended up somewhere really interesting. His campaigns are really different to any other I've done, so if you want something new, I really recommend him. (PS. my bonus advice for playing in an Aeary campaign is make sure you have Insight and Perception proficiency, you'll thank me later :P)

I've been a player of Aeary's for over five years now, we just ended our second campaign and will be hopefully starting our third soon. He's a wonderful DM and a great friend. Here's some of what I appreciate about his DMing. - He treats his campaign's story as something we're all individual parts of, not just one party lumped together. We all have agency, and we all develop in different ways. He does what he calls "Mid-Ways" in between sessions, where he will take one or two players and explore either something they do on their own or some part of their past. I've never had a DM do this: it's obvious how much time he puts into crafting these individual stories for an audience of one. - The wider narrative of his stories are always deeply human. The events we find ourselves a part of always have conflicted people at their core, until we inevitably find ourselves thrust into those roles. The NPCs we meet have lives of their own, and often they aren't always immediately willing to befriend or favor us. And when we do become close to them, I always find myself pulled into their stories, wanting the best for them, and getting upset when that doesn't always come to pass. I also like how we never need to kill anyone, or are expected to solve problems with violence alone. There's a compassion there that isn't often present in TTRPGs. - Each of his story beats works towards a set piece battle, each of which always feel like they're the culmination of some big arc in terms of scale, yet the next one somehow keeps up the pace. The stakes are ever rising, yet it never feels suffocating because of the downtime we get in between them. - It's honestly incredible how fleshed out that downtime can be sometimes. We get to a new city only to find a dozen locations we can visit, each fleshed out with unique merchants, mechanics and tons of items. I know it's a sign of a good thing when I'm genuinely sad that we're not given enough time blocks to visit all of them. - There's a high level of attention put towards setting things up in Foundry. Aeary makes a lot of his own maps, has a soundtrack numbering over a thousand songs he uses, and sets up character sheets to run smoothly in combat. - Aeary knows 5e inside and out, basically seems to have every esoteric 5e ruling memorized. Although he sticks to it pretty extensively in combat, I've seen him make a lot of concessions over the years to support cool PC moments and ideas. - Last thing I'll mention only because of how unique it always strikes me is how patient he is. Sometimes a character's fate, plot point or PC backstory will be hinted at but not come up again for years, setting up for some grand reveal. Conversely, some mysteries I've been able to piece together ahead of time by really thinking about the clues left in plain sight, and every time that happened it was truly magical. There are probably a million other things I could say to compliment his DMing that I'm forgetting, but hopefully I've gotten across some of what I love. Aeary is the best DM I've ever had, and it's not close. You'll see what I mean if you give him a try.

Tricking Aeary into becoming a GM was one of my best decisions :) Over these last couple of years hes grown into such an incredible GM, Im so happy to get to play at his table. He always makes sure your character is personally involved and invested in everything going on. And his combats are the best.