Sixstringer (n/a)
3 years on StartPlaying
About me
Old school DM here. I have been playing DnD since the early 1980's and specialize in homebrewing my own campaign world. I like to keep an "old school" feel to a 5th edition game. How do I do this? By not showering players with treasure or magic items and making death a real and possible outcome of poor decisions and rolls. I believe items imbued with magical properties are extremely rare and cherished by their owner. Someone spent years of trial and error and countless amounts of components to create magical items. They are simply not found in barrels inside caves or on your common store shelves. Once someone gets one into their possession, they are more likely to give up a finger than to part with it. I also try to return to that awesome, old school feel by limiting character creation to the PHB. I think, objectively, characters have gone crazy. Turtles, elephants, birds, oh my. let's stop being ridiculous. The game was born of Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Gnomes, Halflings, Half Orcs....if a good story can't be told without being a superhero at level one, your story sucks. I also have a few extra rules that I use to make death saves and resurrection more of something players would want to avoid.
GM Style
I like to let each character's story unfold within the world. Í am pretty straight with RAW but can modify on the fly for cool effect or for believability when it is called for. Welcoming atmosphere for all experience levels. I enjoy new players. Player agency is important in that your choices shape the world. Open pre- and post-game banter to help build relationships between players and myself. I try to make combat challenging and force the party to strategize. Many times, my players say they feel like they accomplished something once out of combat. I am not a voice artist by any stretch, so I don't cheapen the game and make it a joke by trying to be. I let the players RP if they want to and feed off of them, keeping the comfort level where everyone wants it to meet. Game Style: 1.) If you are a power-gamer, this may not be the campaign for you. You will be disappointed. Magic items are rare, and gold is not tossed around like grains of sand. I envision magic items to be things of wondrous power that can take a very high-level wizard years, even a lifetime, to create. They are not found in barrels, store shelves, or in the hands of cannon fodder. Magic items are highly sought after by powerful adventurers and are treated with the respect they deserve by people across the land and when one is acquired, it is a momentous occasion. A Wizard may spend years, decades, even as lifetime of trial and error when creating a magic item. They will be a most treasured item to the person that has it in their possession. 2.) The world is open to players in that they can go wherever they want at any time. That said, there are creatures in many areas, even near the beginning areas, that will riggety, riggety, wreck you. If you go to the wrong locations when you aren't ready yet, you will get crushed. I will not say anything to interfere in your path.... pain is the best teacher. That said, death is a real thing, and there are big consequences, as there should be. 3.) While I try to give players what they want, there are parameters the adventure falls within, due to my story line and world creation. Classes and races are not all encompassing. If you cannot enjoy an adventure with a character out of the PHB, again, this might not be the adventure for you. I think all of these fringe classes and races that WotC are coming up with are crazy. Robots, wings, and shells...Oh my!!! I have always said, "You should easily be able to create a character that you enjoy playing, both RP and combat, from the PHB only." I don't mind incorporating domains from book supplements, but races and classes from them make me think more about power gaming and less about the traditional "heart" of the game of Dungeons and Dragons. All the new races, traits, and any multi-classing is akin to power-gaming, in my opinion. I try to hold true to the feel of old school D&D while utilizing the new rules. 4.) Although we use D&D 5th Edition rules and PHB characters, it takes place in a world that I have created. This means you are open to use basically any deity you wish. You can even make up your own if you check with me first for conflicts. You are welcome to use Forgotten Realm deities or gods from any version or D&D book you wish, just let me know so I can look them up and identify any conflicts there may be with this setting. It also means that there isn’t the same amount of character creation freedom that you may be used to and have come to enjoy. I can try my best to accommodate player wishes but some things may just break the world’s setting and backstory while creating more character questions by other players than are realistic to answer. 5.) Character backstory is something that I really like to implement into an adventure whenever possible. I like to have a character's backstory and arc unfold along the campaign. Obviously, a coherent story communicated by the player makes that much easier and more impactful as it unfolds. Because parts of the adventure are based around the characters' backstories, I would like to hear your ideas before our session zero so I can get to work on the planning. 6.) At session zero, we will get together and discuss any questions, rules, and roll up characters. I tend to use the creation style permitting 4d6 and eliminate the lowest die. You get what you get, however, if three stats are lower than 10, the character can be re-rolled if you wish. 7.) For in-person games, I use character minis and terrain. I have a large collection of dungeon tiles, structures, kick-knacks, etc. to help enhance combat. I also tend to separate a player into another room to communicate information that the rest of the party would not have. It enhances role play because the player can decide what to do with the information that I give them as opposed to the other players knowing what occurred. Let's face it, some characters have poor intentions sometimes or find something that they want to keep a secret. I wouldn't want to interfere with the player if they experience something that they don't want the other players to know about at that time.
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Sixstringer 's Games
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