Scott

he/him

5.0

(4)

Timezone

America/new York

Language

English

About Scott

I was first introduced to D&D 3rd Edition as a child and never stopped playing games. As someone who also enjoys board games and video games, I've found that different TTRPGs scratch different itches. My favorite games right now are Pathfinder 2e and basically anything Powered by the Apocalypse - games that support radically different play styles.

At a glance

1 year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Teacher, Storytelling, Inclusive

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I got started GMing...

in high school, because I wanted to introduce my friends to D&D.

My favorite books are

My all time favorite books tend to be classics like Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, The Idiot, and The Count of Monte Cristo. I like that no matter how much time has passed humans are still fundamentally the same, just with different material conditions.

My favorite system of all Time is

Urban Shadows 1st Edition! It's the game that makes the fantasy of "combining all the World of Darkness splats" into a reality. The 2nd edition is still good, but it shifts the focus away from the individual PCs to their communities and affiliates.

How Scott runs games

I have 2 distinct modes of play that depend on the game being run: For Pathfinder 2e I run things by the book. I particularly enjoy running dungeon crawls where time spent doing exploration activities and searching rooms matters. Tactical Combats are run with zero dice fudging, and monster tactics that fit their nature (Mindless creatures will not to flank you, Animals will run when injured, Humanoids will attempt to coordinate out loud in a language you may or may not understand). Roleplay is never discouraged, but due to the nature of Adventure Modules character backstories are de-emphasized and some care is taken to ground the Player Characters in the world of Golarion. For games like Dungeon World and Blades in the Dark there is a much stronger focus on collaborative worldbuilding and exploring character backstories and motivations. Combat in these games is much simpler than Pathfinder or D&D and is not the primary focus, placing a greater focus on creative problem solving and character expression.

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I deal with rules issues by...

table consensus. Pathfinder 2e is complex game and sometimes I'm just wrong about a rule (Hero Point goes to the first person to correct a rules mistake, 2 if it's in the GM's favor). If the wording is ambiguous or unclear, we pause the game and decide how we want to handle it going forward.

Rules are...

what make a game what it is. I also enjoy board games, and in that hobby it is common to find a game that suits your needs better if you don't like the rules instead of rewriting them. There are so many fun games out there it feels bad to stick to just one!

When it comes to voices

I'll admit this is a weak spot of mine. I try to distinguish NPCs by changes in pitch or speaking pattern, but sometimes they kind of blend together. Character voices for PCs can be helpful in keeping track of what's being said "in game" vs "out of game" but aren't strictly necessary.

Scott's ideal table

I actually have 2 ideal tables. The Ideal Pathfinder Table and the Ideal Powered by the Apocalypse Table. The Ideal Pathfinder Table is filled with people who enjoy playing Rules as Written, who enjoy combat heavy dungeon crawls, and are quick with rules corrections. The Ideal Powered by the Apocalypse Table is filled with people who enjoy exploring character motivations and backstory, roleplay heavy, and who are willing to share character secrets with the whole table so everybody else can play into them.

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

cheesy CW/MTV Urban Fantasy you're going to love my Powered by the Apocalypse games. Firaxis XCOM you're going to love my Pathfinder Games.

I think metagaming...

can be fine. Ways it can improve the game: walking into an obvious trap, having in-character conversations laced with dramatic irony, reminding people of things that are obvious to their characters because what happened 2 months ago for us can be 2 hours ago for them. It can be bad, but not always.

I think min/maxing...

totally acceptable, if you don't complain about the disadvantages that come with the MIN. If you dump Cha your character is going to be bad at convincing people, and I won't let you try to Intimidate with Str. If you dump Int your character will know less things and have trouble targeting weaknesses