Dan

he/him

4.9

(8)

Timezone

America/new York

Language

English

Identity

Neurodivergent

No Gen AI

About Dan

I began playing TTRPGs when I was about 12 and barely understood what they were. We were in the Scouts, just spouting off what-if scenarios to each other that slowly became more elaborate, until we accidentally reverse engineered a Frankenstein's monster of D&D! Once we learned rules existed for what we were doing we quickly swapped from our nonsense system of course, but I still have that old rulebook hanging around somewhere. At around 14 years of age, I GM'd for the first time, and could never go back. I quickly became my group's Forever GM, a title I, to this day at nearly 30, wear with pride. I have been running the same sandbox campaign for the entire time, along with many other smaller games on the side. This will be only my second foray into professional GMing. I wanted to be a part of StartPlaying both because I love GMing for people, and because I want to help facilitate this hobby to people who maybe wouldn't have played otherwise. Not every group has a willing Forever GM, after all.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

1 games hosted

Highly rated for: Storytelling, World Builder, Beginner Friendly

$20 per session

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

Featured Prompts

I ran my first game...

...when I was 14, in Scouts. We were sitting at our campsite and I offered up a story I'd been writing. They accepted and, even though it was a shoddy campaign looking back on it, their excitement and joy set the foundation of what I love about GMing today

I started running games because...

I wanted my friends to have fun. Simple as that. My first campaign was a sandbox world, and I let them run absolutely rampant. Their antics set the foundation for what that setting eventually evolved into 14 years later.

My 3 systems I'd bring to a desert island would be

Draw Steel, a current favorite of mine, picking up a lot of the issues I have with D&D and improving on them. Cairn, a fantastic OSR system. Teachable in minutes, a favorite for introducing new people to the hobby. And Starfinder, as my longest running campaign is set in it.

How Dan runs games

I am more interested in telling a story than in combat, and in creativity more than I am in rigid rule following. Finding alternate ways out of fights, finding new uses for spells beyond what the books say they do, and finding creative solutions to problems is what I find rewarding to encourage my players to do. I love being surprised by how they act. I enjoy making combat encounters, but rarely go at them with intent for a player to lose their character. And if it happens I am always willing to negotiate, offering alternate punishments so a PC can carry on while still feeling the weight of their mistake.

Featured Prompts

I prep by

I prefer to prep scenes rather than story arcs. I want the world to feel like it is moving, whether players are there or not. So, based on my predictions of where the party's going, I make scenes for them to encounter. I also prep some vaguer scenes in case of anything unpredictable.

Rules are...

Baselines, to be edited to work for the individual group. If the party isn't happy about a particular rule, it should be scrapped. Likewise if the party or I feel certain rules are missing, they can be added in to fit the need.

Dan's ideal table

I like a table that feels like a group of friends. we're there to all have a good time together, and everyone's playstyle should reflect that, playing to each other's strengths and weaknesses. Roleplay is most important to me so I love when players get fully into their characters, but understand that not everyone can do it, especially from session 1. I also enjoy combat, but encourage creative solutions to problems. After all, head on encounters is rarely the only solution to problems in real life.

Featured Prompts

I love it when a player

Finds creative ways to use their abilities. Maybe it's not in the rules as written, but I love stretching the definitions of abilities to work outside of combat, especially for spells.

I think metagaming...

Certainly has its place, but should generally be kept to a minimum. In combat I'm much more forgiving of meta gaming, as strategizing with your party is part of the fun. But in roleplay I expect you to play your character, not the "correct" answer.