Cost Per Player
$22.00
A.J. Riser (any/all)
5.0
(6)
2 years on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, Knows the Rules
About me
My name is AJ, I've been GM-ing various homebrew games for multiple groups both in-person and online. My first childhood dream was to be a fantasy author, and then as I got older I started pursuing a career in cinematography. TTRPGs feel like a perfect marriage between my two biggest creative passions in life. My mother was the world's biggest Stephen King and Lord of the Rings fan and thus gave me an incredible early fascination with all things horror and fantasy. As I got older, this fascination only got further nurtured through an aggressive interest in Greek and Arthurian legends. The community I grew up inspired a love of Westerns, I remember the way John Wayne always played on my grandmother's TV. I discovered Sci-Fi and instantly became obsessed with the way it broadened the horizons of the stories I could tell. All to say that I have an aggressive love for genre-heavy worlds, whether playing into/subverting tropes or mashing multiple genres together. About 4 years ago, a friend of mine who had recently gotten into Critical Role decided he wanted to play D&D, but was struggling to pick up the rules to GM. So I took matters into my own hands. I read through the entire book, started watching Critical Role & Dimension 20, and immediately set to work teaching our other friends how to play. I fell in love with the game incredibly quickly. After I got a few sessions under my belt from a small multishot, I immediately set to work building out multiple homebrew settings. One of which I'm still playing in a home game three years later. Homebrewing settings led to homebrewing my own monsters to homebrewing classes and subclasses. Eventually, it led to be building my own TTRPG system, which I'm playtesting, and a few other supplements for D&D. I primarily play D&D 5e, however I own and am familiar with several other systems such as Blades In The Dark, Lancer, Wanderhome, Star Wars 5e, Vampire The Masquerade, and many more! Always willing to learn, and experiment with new systems if that's what the story calls for. Always welcoming to Queer and BIPOC players! Any experience level is welcome! I've mainly played with people who have never played before. Always want to encourage people to experience these games and make it as accessible as possible. ________________________________________________________________________ While all of my campaigns are written by me and homebrewed, there are three specific styles of campaigns that I will be running on this page: speedrun, stand-alone, and anthology. Speedruns are short, fast, and intense. They may take place in small original settings, or pre-existing worlds from my other campaigns. These are meant to be no more than 20 sessions at most. These are glorified multi-shots, meant to be easy to run and play. These are more for fun with little plot complexity, and pretty A-to-B in terms of story. Great for people who want to dip their toe into TTRPGs, people who don't want too serious of a commitment, or looking for a more affordable option. These also give me a space as a GM to experiment and test out settings that may later be turned into larger campaigns. Stand-alone campaigns are larger and more linear in nature. They will be smaller when it comes to lore complexity and the plot will be more straightforward. They are essentially pre-written adventures, made by me to last between 35-50 sessions ideally. These games will revolve primarily around a central plot pushing the story forward. This is meant to simplify the game for me to run, not take away player agency or anything like that. This way the hope is that I can run more tables and price lower by using creating an easily repeatable narrative. This is also great for newer players who may be overwhelmed by the size of sandbox narratives or players who enjoy a more structured style of play. Anthology campaigns are huge. The main difference is largely in the worldbuilding more than the plot. These are worlds, I've put a lot of effort into building. They are incredibly large and lore-dense. The campaigns would ideally still live in that 35-50 session range, but the story will be a lot more sandbox in style. The players will have a lot more input on the narrative their table gets to experience. They may start with a pre-planned plot, but exploration and deviation are more than welcome. There will be an over-arcing plot, but it is up to the players to engage with it. I may also run multiple different campaigns in these settings, but I will never repeat a plot which hopefully adds replayability for players. This is, obviously, a lot more difficult for me to run as a GM, there will likely be fewer tables and will be priced a little higher.
GM Style
š„ Cinematic Storytelling Roleplay is king at my table. I think there are few things more important than putting the players in a position where they feel like they can see their characters experience a complete and satisfying character arc. Whether you want your character to be a mythic hero, a tragic scoundrel, or an average joe. Decisions should matter, and consequences should leave an impression on the story. š£ Explosive Combat I would describe my style as 70% roleplay and 30% combat(this of course can be easily adjusted depending on the group). However, despite this, I love extremely tactical and difficult combat. My general philosophy is because combat takes such a long time typically that it should be extremely challenging and narratively relevant when it does happen. Smaller combats will usually be there of the mind otherwise. I enjoy homebrewing unique challenges for my players and creating my own maps using Dungeondraft and Talespire. šŖ¤ Puzzles & Traps To me, there is nothing more fun than creating an ever-present sense of mystery and danger. Traps add unique terrain difficulties and can create a layered experience for parties. Puzzles are a favorite of mine, graphic design is a hobby of mine, and I like to create unique handouts and clues to send to the players so they can put it together in real time as a party. š§ Explore Worlds Unknown! I prefer to homebrew my own settings. Exploration is always encouraged, and I like to add as many layers of lore to my world as possible. I will always reward players who seek to learn more about the world they're playing within. š¹ Change The Game To Your Groups Playstyle When you join a game, I will always reach out to you with a small survey to learn more about your play style and what you are most interested in. On top of that, I pride myself on being adept at improvising scenes and characters. The world will change because of your choices, and how you play. I'm unafraid of doing super serious grimdark campaigns or a Looneytoons romp through the woods. š Rule Of Cool With Respect For The RAW I'm unafraid to say that I'm quite familiar with the rules, and while I do have respect for them. I like to award creativity, guts, and character-motivated actions that the books don't have explicit rulings for. Players are encouraged to test the bounds of the known universe., and have fun with their storytelling. ā Homebrew & UA Welcome As long as it's approved by me beforehand, any Homebrew and UA is welcome at my table. I will most likely be incorporating some Homebrew rules myself(Potions are a Bonus Action). Given enough time I would even be willing to help you build something unique to your character. š¼ Audio Sets The Tone Music, character voices, and silly sound effects are the lifeblood of immersion in my opinion. While I might not be the most accomplished voice actor, I will certainly try my hardest to make each character unique. š³ļøāš Welcoming To All Any sort of prejudice is completely unwelcome at my table. Before campaigns, it will be made clear that unless specified by the player as something they want explored with their character. I will not be building any sort of racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. into the lore of my games. I enjoy telling stories where diversity and queerness are completely normalized.
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