James is an amazing storyteller with more experience gaming than anyone else I have ever met. You might think that this would make him arrogant or his games hard to approach, but it’s really quite the opposite. He is excellent with getting new players to feel comfortable playing alongside someone like myself who has twenty years experience. James has designed games as well as played them and I think this gives him a deeper understanding of how to make the game come alive for the players. I am a better player and better GM for having played with him. He’s one of the best!

James is an awesome GM! He has always had a good feel for running very engaging and flexible sessions. His own works are super intuitive and we have had a great time playing games with him for the past two years! They’ve done a good job of putting together a table of people who bounce off of each other real well, so there has always been a great group dynamic as well. Even in the case of unexpected circumstances he always has something fun to do as well, I have never seen such a collection of tabletop materials! Greats games/gameplay/players aside, James himself is a very cool dude and I am thankful that I was able to meet someone like them!

James was my very first Game master; i had only watched roleplaying sessions before on youtube. Thanks to my brother i was able to join James’s group and as a first time player has been extremely great. I had thought i knew quite a bit about Roleplaying games but my knowledge was smashed to pieces and i love soaking up every piece of information James decides to share with us. I’m now on my 4th Campaign with him and it’s been an unforgettable time. He gladly answers any questions we have and will even look with us to find the proper answers for rules. His many years of GM’ing really prove useful and insightful. As a person, not just as a GM, he’s also a great guy makes everything fun and exciting and has some great jokes. the games he has published himself are great and i enjoy them very much and even now we are playing a game he has not done before and he puts himself really into it to make it the best experience for his players.

Been playing with James for about 18 months on a weekly basis and it’s been great! We’ve just started our 5th actual campaign. He has nice plot hooks and stories, but will also play along with some player shenanigans. When too many players are absent, we would play some other one shots or board and card games. He has his own TTRPGs he’s created that we’ve played and they have been a blast as well.

Been playing RPGs since 1980, had some great games and ran some myself, but it's been rare than I've known a GameMaster close to James Shade's level. Not sure if it's just his experience having worked in game design and writing novels for so long or if it's the fact that he prepares so well for each session, but every time I was at the table it was the kind of experience you get at a five-star restaurant. He had a way of creating a world that made all of us players LOVE to roleplay-- even those of us who were in it for the hack-n-slash. Looking back on those times now, it sometimes surprises me how many great memories I have from it all, and I think that's a lot of what he rolls out onto the table-- fantastic experiences and memories that are fun to share!

I have played with James for a little over a year up until I had my baby. I have got to say he’s an incredible GM and an extraordinarily kind person. He’s flexible, understanding, creative and super entertaining. He even has games that he’s created that are so fun and lead to a lot of hilarious and memorable moments. I highly recommend hiring James the Game Guru!