About me

About Me Since the summer of 1992 I’ve been drawn to fantasy worlds: books, movies, games and more. I got introduced to Dungeons and Dragons at band camp (Yea, yea, I know. Ask for some stories, it is and isn't as geeky as it sounds) and it started a lifelong love of tabletop gaming. What’s that mean? 30+ years of playing TTRPGs 20+ years of DMing TTRPGs 10+ years of DMing online I am a big movie buff with a full theater room setup in my home. 8 foot screen, reclining riser seating and a dolby ATMOS surround sound system... It's taken me a lifetime to pull it together. I also dabble with audio and video editing when I'm not dreaming up new worlds for my players. I welcome new players dedicated to learning these great gaming systems and veteran players will feel at home. I love a blend of roleplay and tactical combat in my sessions. I lean towards crunchy combat, with room for player creativity when it makes good sense. I believe that rules are important and make the game a game, but they aren't everything. I'm not a pro voice actor, but I love doing different voices and keeping the NPCs interesting. I love running players through Adventure Paths and Modules, which I often modify a little and apply my own style, adjusting content to the group. I enjoy players that develop a character's back story, so I can toss PC customized content into every story. Custom cut-scenes, session introductions and more, centered around the PCs and their foes. I also like to dabble with homebrew. My current homebrew world is taking place in a world called Kyria; a huge world teetering on the edge of war. Tensions are high, evil is on the cusp of revealing their plans and heroes are needed to right the world. Kyria is a bit of a darker world, closer to a DC comics style of mild grittiness, rather than the bright and shiny Marvel comics world. I use primarily Foundry VTT, which means you don't need to do anything except type in a URL and know how to use Discord! House calls are also a possibility! Prior to Session 0, I have each of my players fill out a brief survey, this lets me in on some of your strengths and weaknesses as a player. It also allows you to alert me to any safety concerns that you may have in a private forum. I’ll provide the link after joining a session. Joining one of my campaigns after Session 0? No worries! There will be a survey link and we will have a 30-60 minute Discord (Teams, Zoom, etc.) discussion to get your character fit into the world. This will also be when you’ll get caught up with any necessary information. We will also add a few minutes to the next session for a round of introductions and a few sips of a frosty beverage.

GM style

Most players would rank my GM emphasis as; Combat: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Roleplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Exploration: ⭐⭐⭐ Worldbuilding: ⭐⭐⭐ Puzzles: ⭐ (If you like puzzles, and the other players don’t have a pathological hatred of them, I’ll add some in. In my humble experience, most players dislike puzzles as they test the player, not the player character.) GM Style 🎯 I enjoy tactical combat, so my games tend to lean towards being combat heavy. 🎯 I believe that rules are what make a particular game a game. Rules are important. Having said that, the rules aren’t everything! There are exceptions, and the “rule of fun” also exists. Session Procedures 🔄 Each session will include one 10-15 minute break in the middle, with a couple of flexible “5 Minute Slams!” - short 5 minute breaks for unexpected emergencies. 🔄 Most sessions will contain one or two battles with as much roleplay and character building as each group desires. Epic battles have been known to consume an entire session and some combat heavy Adventure Paths may have a multi-session Epic Showdown at the conclusion of chapters. 🔄 Each session will conclude with an optional “Decompression” session that won’t eat into our official game time. We can talk about what your characters saw, thought and did. We can talk about how that bled into you, the player. And we can use this time to make both myself a better GM, and you a better player. This is the time we can help each other tell a better story, and have more fun. 🔄 Campaigns need 3-4 players to launch a Session 0. 🔄 5 to 6 players is my virtual table maximum. 🔄 Sessions with only 1-2 players will either be canceled or reduced to a 1-shot. Characters 🥋 I encourage my players to write a flavorful backstory for their characters. One of my favorite methods is you sharing one momentous event in their past, something both positive and formative. And one tragic moment in their past, something that has for better or worse shaped the person they are today. 🥋 These backstories allow me to write custom hooks into the adventures: tailored villains, hand-crafted scenes and delicious short intro vignettes. 🥋 Not comfortable with this style of roleplay? No worries! I will take the time to sit down with you over Discord and help you brainstorm. Or, if you wish, we can just skip it. I have not had a single player tell me it wasn’t worth it in the end, however… Table Setup 💻 I primarily use FoundryVTT and Discord to weave our story. Please be respectful of others in common spaces. 💻 I use a soundboard for atmospheric sounds and battle music. I don’t generally use blow-by-blow sound effects, I find they get repetitive and break immersion. Attendance ⏱️ StartPlaying requires us to cancel 24 hours before a session to avoid being charged for a session. ⏱️ Life happens, so if some last minute situations leap out of the bushes, I give everyone one or two mulligans a year, but 2 hours before a session is a hard cutoff. ⏱️ After approximately a month, if your attendance drops below 75% we will need to privately discuss your situation. It’s possible that we can simply excuse you from the campaign until your life becomes more stable. Online Tools ✒️ Discord! I have a discord server where we will keep session recaps, discussions and planning. This also hosts our primary voice-chat and camera sharing. ✒️ FoundryVTT! We will keep all of our journals, character sheets and inventories within Foundry. ✒️ Google Docs! For those of you who like to keep notes, I will host a Google Doc for sharing in and out of game note-taking. I'm tacking this onto the end of my profile because I feel like it is important. Firstly, I discourage discourse on politics and real world stuff at the game table, nobody enjoys fruitless political arguments when we're supposed to be having fun. Second, I am very well versed in D&D 5e, but I have decided to part ways with WotC and Hasbro. I don't believe Hasbro on their OGL stance and how they treat the wonderful staff at WotC is abysmal. For better or for worse, I like to impact the world around me as a force of positive change, and putting my beliefs into practice is important to me. So I will not be GMing any D&D 5e products, even though it is currently the most popular TTRPG gaming system... ever. I do love debating with people outside of the gaming table, so come visit me on my Discord and we can debate each other until we are blue in the face! Maybe we will even learn something useful from each other.

Games played

Game platforms used

What's StartPlaying?

Tabletop Roleplaying Games Run by Game Masters