Matt
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About Matt
Hey all! I'm Matt, and I've been playing tabletop games since I was sixteen. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but it really has been twenty years since I first rolled the dice as Tymaxt the Elven Druid in that D&D 3.5 edition campaign so long ago! TTRPGs have come a long way since then, and I'm so happy to have been there to watch my favorite hobby grow into the behemoth it has become today. I've played in several different RPG systems, but have the most experience with D&D 5e. That's the system I've played in and GM'd for most of the last decade. Recently, I've been delving more and more into Daggerheart, which I've really come to love in my short time with it. I've also run a few campaigns in the Fantasy Flight Star Wars RPG system as well. I'd describe this hobby as my true love, really. While other interests capture my attention here and there, it's always the table, the dice, and the GM screen that call my name consistently. I love playing with new folks, and I've made lifelong friends through these games, and we still reference moments in our campaign stories that have happened years ago. I really believe there's nothing else like it.
At a glance
5 years on StartPlaying
Featured Prompts
I became a GM because
No one else in my friend group was willing! I ended up falling in love with it, though. Few things bring me more joy than crafting a world and narrative with my players that entices and surprises them. Being a player is fun, but I think I'll always prefer being a GM!
My favorite books are
One Piece by Eiichiro Oda Babel and The Poppy War Trilogy by RF Kuang The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Full Metal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
The three words my players would use to describe me are...
Collaborative, flexible, and fun.
How Matt runs games
I often describe my style of GMing as collaborative and flexible. The campaign begins in a world I've designed, but I love to build worlds that have been tailored to my players' characters, and their hopes, fears, and goals. We create this world, and the story we're telling within it, together. The player characters are the heroes of the campaign, and I see it as my job to put them in situations where they can prove their worth and become the legends they are destined to be. Role play always comes first (that's the genre of the games, after all). I see combat and exploration as an extension of that, especially in the fantasy genre. I craft each session and the campaign overall with my players and their characters in mind. What would surprise them? What do they want to accomplish? How can I tug at their heartstrings and create those deep character moments that make for good role play? What motivates them? What is the best (or the worst) thing that could happen to them? I think the answer to questions like those lie at the heart of what makes a campaign great. If that sounds good to you, feel free to pull up a chair and roll some dice at my table!
Featured Prompts
I prep by
Asking myself during each plan session "what would be the most interesting thing that could happen to my players' characters in this story arc". I comb through backstories and motivations to find that answer, and once I have it, I go from there!
My games focus on...
My players, first and foremost! Everything in the game is there to support, surprise, and delight them. A lot of that is through the narrative, but I love to be just as creative with combat scenarios and the environments they explore!
When it comes to voices
I've been mimicking fun voices and trying on accents since I was in middle school theater clubs. The first musical we ever did was Oliver Twist, so I had to learn to speak with a british accent and while it was likely terrible at the age of twelve, my love for doing voices never waned.
Matt's ideal table
Players that enjoy telling stories together. The world we play in may be from my imagination, but what happens in them is determined by my players and their characters. I like to surprise, but I love *being surprised* by my players just as much. I'm a very relaxed, easy-going person by nature, so my tables tend to have that general vibe, too. The things happening in the game may be tense, but I'm always going with the flow and giving my players permission to be creative and have fun. I've made a lot of long-term friends through these games, too, so I guess I'd say it's a welcome and friendly atmosphere at my table, too.
Featured Prompts
I love it when a player
Surprises me! There are times when they and their characters do things totally unexpected that makes me think on my feet, and the game takes a direction I could never have planned for. Those are the moments that really stick out to me as a GM.
I think metagaming...
Has a place, but I prefer it when players make choices that are in-character for their PCs. It always feels off in the narrative when a character acts solely out of concern for things that they would have no way of knowing within the context of the story itself.
My table is not the place for...
Discrimination of any kind. I run a table that is open to everyone *except* for bigots and people that hate those that are different from them. They aren't welcome in my games, and they shouldn't be welcome anywhere.
Matt's Preferences
Game Mechanics