
Karl Viking (he/him)
5.0
(8)
4 years on StartPlaying
60 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Voices, Knows the Rules
About me
This friendly neighborhood Viking will bring adventure to your screen! I have been running games for almost 30 years, and I'm good at helping new players get their feet wet, as well as challenging old school players. I love to run games that lean into horror and mystery, but there's no denying the lure of high adventure or a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl. I have hosted weekly and biweekly games for campaigns lasting as long as 16 years (yes, it's still going!), as well as one shots for Bachelor Parties, Horse Funerals, Birthday Parties, "Return of Steve" Celebrations, Halloween Nights, you name it. What I am probably best known for, and have run multiple iterations of, is a game based on the "Welcome to Night Vale" podcast, which I have run in Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, and D&D5e. I am available on Weekends and Thursday evenings, and I am bookable for special events.
GM Style
I love letting players explore the worlds they inhabit. Events are always moving in the background, but I want players to feel like their choices are meaningful, and character-driven. I have a fondness for voices, and comedy, and I try to make NPC's memorable, which can help keep them sorted in player's heads. My specialty leans towards horror and mystery, but in most gmaes, I reserve that for those who delve too deep in the dark edges of the map.
Game Master Reviews (8)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Storytelling
Voices
Knows the Rules
By far one of the best GMs I've had the opportunity to play with in my 22 years of gaming. Karl understands what's required to make a game challenging, entertaining, and fresh for both new and old players. He carefully sets the scene and pulls you into his near cinematic world made rich by time well spent on the details, the accents, the music, the lightning, it's all there. Karl and his games get a solid 9.5/10 from me.
Karl has put a lot of effort and thought into the construction of his game. He's put so much work into the maps, tokens, music, dynamic lighting layers, and NPCs that I feel a little bad about just showing up to have fun. The NPCs are a salient step above. Karl generally does give each NPC a unique voice. More importantly, the NPCs tend to be realized so well that you can discern who is speaking by their cadence and word choice alone. Lastly, the guy can improvise. Not saying that I have ever attempted to derail a campaign, but there's been some really daffy plans put into motion by my parties. With Karl, he's rolled so well with the wacky that you'd think that the river boat casino heist to bankroll the gang-war in Sigil was always a part of the killing the dragon campaign. Good stuff.
I may be a bit biased, because I have been gaming with Karl for almost 20 years now, but that should tell you how good a GM he is - after all I'm still enjoying his games after this long! His NPCs are richly detailed, he works hard to incorporate any backstory you give him into the plots (even when running a pre-written Adventure Path) with clever hooks and intensely emotional moments - I have laughed, I have cried. Everyone you run into is a pretty unique individual, even if he has to invent them on the fly. As someone who came into a campaign already in progress, he worked closely with me to find the right way to develop my character hooks to tie in to the story that was ongoing. I look forward to seeing more of those hooks manifest as we go along.
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