I’ve played In Cherrys tyranny of dragons, icespire peak and Fallout campaign for about 2-3 years and no one handles improv and storytelling better than Cherry, the current fallout campaign he’s running is one I’ve played before and it’s definitely worth the cost!

If you ever feel interested in playing curse of Strahd, this guy's got it down to a science. He might be a sadist or something, with the amount of times he cracked open my characters skull with wicked monsters. It's not a vanilla Curse of Strahd experience, definitely his own sort of vibe. Just know, Barovia is a wicked place, terrible, evil things will happen to you, and he'll make sure of it. 9/10 would reccomend.

TLDR version; J is a great DM, he enjoys the games with the players, builds a story and revels in the chaotic outcomes that a player group will always bring to a table. This enjoyment is not formed playing against the party but with them. Extended version; I have roughly 6 years of weekly D&D experience and a tendency to pick up random games just to see what other DMs bring to the table, its how I got to J's table, now I won't leave. I find J refreshing as a DM, there is a list of things that he does better than so many DMs I have played with in recent times and the game is the closest in feeling to ones I used to play with friends. There are aspects of J's style that I will 100% be bringing to the next session I run. System; J uses the Fantasy Grounds VTT, not one I was familiar with J gave me a crash course pre session, helped me with setting up shortcuts and character sheets, he took his time and I felt welcomed not rushed or patronised in the experience. J is well versed in the software he is using and has found just enough addons to improve his style of game without overburdening it with bells and whistles. Pricing; The session pricing is like going to your mate’s place, pitch in for some food and drinks and have a good game. J’s pricing is at least half price on the standard of most available, in some cases a quarter or even a tenth the cost. As a player who is in a country with a weaker economy than the US its great not having to be concerned about covering hobby costs. Prep; J clearly spends time in his prep, he gets gorgeous maps and populates them as needed pre session, J will check with the group at each session wrap up planning next moves are and will then use that information to prep the next. The games always feel focused around the party and J often sets up events or encounters to insert in the session bringing atmosphere to the games adding a feeling of sandbox without rails. Story telling / game setting; J is a good storyteller, he gives unique voices to NPC’s adding character to the entities encountered in his games. J will work with players to tell the story of their character if the player wants that kind of development, incorporating them into his world. Additionally, J, who is currently running the CoS module for us has sought out additional content, he has made sure to be full bottle on how the additional content and the original intertwine making it his own and bringing a wonderful breath of new life to an already story rich campaign. Even those familiar with this setting will find themselves in new encounters and unexpected hooks. Lastly (but not leastly) J does not need a map to make it work, he is more than comfortable running a minds eye encounter. Looking back I am sometimes pressed to remember which encounters were maps and which were minds eye. Improving further on this, J will use the extremely rare skill challenge event. Maybe I've played at the wrong tables but I've never seen them done so well. These add a great game sequence that challenges each player to utilise their character paying close attention to what other players are doing and building the story in a very memorable event, (stealing these). Session times; Most sessions I have played with J have run between 3-4 hours, but the game is never a sharp cut thing based on numbers on the clock. J tries to round out the session at story points, it’s rare to end a session in the middle of something instead we stop at points where the party is in a sort of downtime. I’m pretty sure one game went for 5+ hours, no extra price, no mention of overtime breaking the immersion just now doesn’t feel quite right to stop, is everyone ok to continue? Yep, cool, lets keep at it. This relaxed time border has the game sessions feel the most like a game amongst friends as anything I have come across. Playing in J’s games I am never watching the clock and trying to push the game along to get somewhere. I am very happy to let J tell a story with solid trust that he won’t go “whelp, that’s all the time we have today, tune in next week for the end of that sentence” (overplayed example but you get the idea). Session content / pacing; Recently I've started to take in-depth notes. Each time I have been floored by the progress made by the party. It seems each session the group gets time to RP, pick up / close off quest lines, form memorable character moments and dig into some combat, sometimes we can do all of this in the first half of a session. Very impressive pacing that somehow moves a complex story without rushing it. Rules / systems; J is a DM that is comfortable with the rules, he is well versed and has his own selection of homebrew and variant rules, although at first, I was a little concerned about some of them I have since found they just add to the fun, each a great addition to the game. J explains the rules he uses at the start and maintains consistency in their application. That said I would not recommend this game to a rule lawyer, J’s games are amazing because the players trust the DM to implement the rules as they were set, if you like to discuss or argue an outcome, I don’t have the experience to say how it would affect the game but I suspect poorly. Overall if you want a DM that plays the game with you, tells a great story and takes the time to bring out the best of a game you would be hard pressed to find more than a handful of DMs at a similar level with player slots open at their table.

Great host/dm who manages to make the Strahd campaign feel deadly without making players afraid of trying things. Many DMs either go so overboard that players start avoiding any potential risk or they go so easy that the players feel invincible and the horror elements fall flat, but J strikes the perfect balance so we try things and get to either succeed in a blaze of glory or face the consequences of what we did. So far my character has lost an eye that has since been replaced by a brass genie vessel, and a hand, and it has made the character so much more fun to play. He knows the rules really well so he makes use of a lot of rules that other dms either overlook or ignore to both help the players and give us some tough choices to make but it's all very smooth. Runs a great campaign, would recommend.

We went to a temple because a player worshiped the diety there. Was 20 minutes of role play, unrelated to progessing the story, which ended with the party making a small donation and then the priest providing a prayer for us. A couple sessions later, 3 of our members are smacked with the rotting curse while we are also dealing with the death curse. The DM remembered our little random role-playing moment and used that prayer as a blessing from the diety to protect us in that moment from the curse setting in. He made the combat challenging and quite literally, deadly. Then used a moment from our previous session to reward us for our good role-playing and teamwork to take down a deadly group of monsters that felt genuinely reasonable and memorable.

J is a really great DM. He always has maps ready, NPCs and allows for all sorts of cool player ideas! He is really great and I highly recommend!