Alasdair Goudie

he/they

5.0

(5)

Timezone

Etc/gmt

Language

English

French

Identity

LGBTQ+

Neurodivergent

Published Writer

Game Designer

About Alasdair Goudie

Hello there! My name's Alasdair S. Goudie, and I've been alternately playing and GMing in various different systems throughout the past 8 years. From a solid and long-running foundation in running 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, I've moved on to running Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition, Cyberpunk 2020/RED, various games in the World of Darkness line, numerous Fria Ligan games (with a particular fondness for ALIEN!) and a whole host of others. Recently, I've even started designing and playtesting my own TTRPG system, Hand-and-a-Half - a game all about the trials, tribulations, and wonderful extremes associated with being a mercenary in a Renaissance-styled world. When it comes to running games, I've always sought to prioritise two things - my story, and the player's stories. As a writer, Scottish Literature graduate, and dedicated overthinker, I've always put my heart, soul, and no small amount of man-hours into designing maps, statting up characters, and setting up scenarios that can help draw out the fundamental themes, concepts and narrative beats sewn into each character as part of their creation. To quote D&D philosopher Jim Davis, 'both crunch and fluff are part of a balanced gaming breakfast', and I'm a strong believer in unifying and rewarding mechanics-forward and narrative-forward gameplay. If you want to play a mechanically strong character, you deserve to have an immersive, ever-adapting, engaging and interactive world that rewards your character choices: and, if you want to create a fully unique, intriguing and thematically strong character to interact with that world's many stories, you deserve mechanical support for that idea. (I'm not only fully comfortable with homebrewing, but I love doing it, so I'm more than happy to whip up some new mechanics or content to suit your taste if the game we're playing doesn't have them.) My background in improv, live comedy and theatrical productions also means that I'm more than capable of depicting the various characters you're likely to meet: and, likewise, my background as a dedicated nerd and lore monkey means that I'm more than happy to take part in deep-dives into a system's lore with you. I'm absolutely going to reward choices you make that not only fit character, but also fit the tone, ethos, and ethics of the system & setting. As a summary of other relevant information, I'm 26, GMT-based, and I love cycling, hiking, long walks, smoky tea, and mid-20th century science fiction & fantasy. I'm also neurodivergent, bisexual, and entirely without patience for racism and discrimination of any variety. Making characters, in-game choices, or comments intended to make other players (or me) uncomfortable, or making a conscious effort to insult, stereotype or mock cultural or sexual identities in-game, will immediately result in you being kicked from the game. If you have any other questions whatsoever about the games I'm running, games I've run in the past, my policies or rates, or the works of Scottish artist/author Alasdair Gray, you can feel free to shoot me a message.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, World Builder

Featured Prompts

I got started GMing...

In roughly 2017/18, after I shifted away from a very unfulfilling degree and suddenly had a lot of time to kill in my remote living situation! Ever since, I've dedicated a consistent amount of effort to the craft, and I'd say it's become my most central hobby and likely one of my foremost skills.

How Alasdair Goudie runs games

My style contains a lot of different elements, compiled and built up from all the various games I've had the unique privilege of running and playing in over the years. However, at the end of the day, what it always comes back down to is character. I really enjoy designing, working around, and running character-driven games, be that in raw mechanical ways (offering homebrew options and guidance throughout character creation/session 0) or in important structural ways. Developing and portraying a truly immersive, responsive, and reactive world that takes a character's choices and nature into account; enabling everyone in the group (including myself) to grow into an honest, sincere fan of each other's characters; and cultivating not only narrative arcs, but incidental stories and events that tie into character choices, backstories, or fundamental philosophies, all helps to lend so much more pathos and personal meaning to games. I've been running my games as character-led for a good few years now, and it's helped me not only plan better, but it's led to all my players getting a lot more enjoyment out of the games as well. In addition to that, I also tend to prioritise high-roleplay games, and will always reward thorough investigation, (reasonable) planning, collaborative teamwork between players, and creative (even 'out there') solutions to problems. If I had to use the old 'three pillars' approach to gameplay (combat, exploration and social), I would describe myself as social-first, with exploration and combat sitting roughly equally. Please don't be afraid to ask me questions about emergent issues, either in or out of game, and link them to either your character's abilities or background - any link you can think of for why your character might have knowledge or aptitude you don't (essentially, anything that shows you're Thinking Like Or About Your Character) will really endear you to me. While I do enjoy running good, crunchy, tactical combats, I also tend to prefer having singular, intense, difficult fights. They'll always be against odds that are always genuinely challenging for the players involved, and will usually have alternative options present to either give you a way to avoid combat via strategy and RP choices, or give you some advantage in the fight itself. Apart from these main pillars, themes and ideas you're also likely to find present in my games include identity (finding it and maintaining it); war, both as a social presence and a psychological factor, and also why people fight; capitalism (all good GM's do it); nationalism; community, both as a value and as an presence; alienation, particularly in rural communities; trauma; the search for meaning; loyalty and love, both how it's owed and how it's built; hidden truths; concealed societies (often magical); long journeys; the potency of stories and myth-making; and, increasingly, funny little guys and their strange voices.