Clarissa banner

Clarissa

she/her

5.0

(27)

Timezone

America/los Angeles

Language

English

Identity

LGBTQ+
Disabled
Women/Femme Identifying

About Clarissa

Hi, I'm Clarissa! I've been playing TTRPGs ever since I was a kid, and I've been running games professionally for three years now. I love RPGs for their intersection of game mechanics and collaborative storytelling. My goal is to give each player a space to express their character and contribute to an interlocking narrative. I view myself as a host, contributor, and facilitator of games. My goal is to draw out your good ideas, stir them up in a pot with everyone else's, and play to find out what we get. The play itself is transformative, and creates something wholly unique, that none of us could have imagined or anticipated

At a glance

3 years on StartPlaying

235 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, Sets the Mood

Average response time: 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

Featured Prompts

My favorite books are

A Wizard of Earthsea will forever remain my favorite fantasy novel. I also love Ursula K. Le Guin's other work, particularly The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. A Song of Ice and Fire holds a special place in my heart. Lately I've been reading The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

When I'm not running games I'm...

Probably talking about them online! Or I'm playing Street Fighter, Chess, painting miniatures, or hanging out with my cat.

How Clarissa runs games

Player choice matters. That is my motto for everything - I'm here to run a living, breathing world that emphasizes showing the impacts of player choices. I encourage players to take co-authorship of their story and the setting their character inhabits.

Featured Prompts

My games focus on...

how much the players are willing to sacrifice to get what they want. I think the core of drama is the hard decisions players make, and how those ripple in the world and create new situations for them to respond to. If player choices don't matter, what's the point of playing?

Rules are...

the structures that support our story! If our game is a rollercoaster racing down the track, hitting highs and lows of narrative tension, our rules are the supports holding the track up at each key point.

Clarissa's ideal table

My table is a place of curious inquiry, where we explore the character's lives, their drives, their problems, together. We're fans of the characters, which means we want to see them struggle and triumph, if they've earned it. It's a table where no-one, not even me, knows what might happen next.

Featured Prompts

If you're into ___, you're going to love my table

dramatic storytelling, where you're always on the edge of your seat to see what happens next!

I love it when a player

shows up with ideas for their character, and pursues their characters drives and goals!

My table is not the place for...

Transphobia, Racism, Ableism, Sexism, Homophobia. It's also not the place for players who won't support each other, or for players who can't take the table seriously.

Clarissa's Preferences

Platforms

Game style

Roleplay Heavy

Theater of the Mind

Rule of Cool (RoC)

Rules as Written (RaW)

Clarissa's games