The Wizarding World: A New Generation

I am a 40+ year-old gay man who has been playing and running tabletop RPGs for most of my life. I started with Red Box D&D in the 1980s, played through the heyday of AD&D in the 1990s, and have played every edition of Dungeons & Dragons released since. My shelves have accumulated an alarming number of books from every era along the way. TTRPGs have been part of my life for decades, and while the games and systems have changed, my love for gathering people around a table and telling stories together has only grown. Outside of gaming, I am a Licensed Veterinary Technician working in poison control. I also went to school for animation and visual effects, with a particular focus on VFX. I cannot promise to draw your character, but I can absolutely make them look cool in a campaign trailer. That background has become a big part of how I approach running games. I love using artwork, visual references, music, maps, videos, handouts, and other multimedia elements to make a campaign feel like a world rather than simply a collection of encounters. Although Dungeons & Dragons was where I started, it is far from the limit of my system experience. I own and have played or run a huge variety of games, and over the years my preferences have increasingly moved toward narrative-focused systems that give players freedom to shape the story alongside the GM. Powered by the Apocalypse and Fate games are particular favorites, but my collection and interests stretch considerably further. I love the Essence20 games, including Power Rangers, Transformers, and G.I. Joe. I am a longtime fan of the Storyteller and Storytelling families of games, including Chronicles of Darkness, Vampire: The Requiem, and Werewolf: The Forsaken. I also enjoy games such as The Dresden Files, Mouse Guard, Ironclaw and Jadeclaw, Wanderhome, My Little Pony, the classic TSR Marvel Super Heroes RPG and its wonderfully colorful FASERIP system, along with many others that would make this section far too long if I attempted to name them all. More importantly, I am not afraid of learning something new. If there is a system I have never played and it looks like something my players and I would enjoy, I am usually more than happy to add another book to the collection, learn it, and see what kind of world we can build with it. As a GM, I am kind, outgoing, enthusiastic, and deeply invested in collaborative storytelling. My tables will always be LGBTQ+ friendly, and I want players to feel comfortable bringing characters and ideas to the game that they are genuinely excited about. I enjoy groups where everyone contributes to the story, celebrates one another's moments in the spotlight, and understands that some of the best scenes happen when nobody at the table, including me, knows exactly where things are going. My games are also highly visual. Expect custom artwork and references, maps, music, videos, trailers, handouts, and plenty of other material designed specifically for the campaign. I frequently use text-based roleplay between sessions for downtime, character development, NPC conversations, investigations, and personal storylines when schedules permit. These are not meant to replace our sessions, but to make the world feel like it continues to exist between them. Most of my campaigns meet for one scheduled four-hour session each week and are designed for long-term multiplayer play. Many are part of larger shared universes, sometimes spanning multiple tables whose stories and actions can influence the same evolving setting. After more than four decades around tabletop RPGs, what keeps me here is still remarkably simple. I love these games, I love creating worlds, and I love seeing what happens when players are given a place where their characters can become part of something bigger than the adventure I originally planned.