Charles

they/them

4.9

(11)

Timezone

Asia/manila

Language

English

Filipino

Mandarin

Identity

Asian

Neurodivergent

Multi-lingual

About Charles

Hi, I’m Charles! I’m a Filipino-Chinese nerd hopelessly addicted to the art of Tabletop Roleplaying Games. Like any good monomyth, the tale of my nerdom started in some obscure corner of 2010s nerd youtube space and ever since then, this hobby has only consumed more and more of my life. I started playing around 6 years ago, hosting my own school hobby club. This first club is where I would unfortunately but necessarily make all the mistakes I had to be a good game master. (Sometimes I jolt awake at night remembering my player’s soulless faces as I spent the 3rd straight session in a row explaining each and every rule in the D&D 5th edition’s player’s handbook.) Since then, I’ve steadily increased my skill as a GM. When I transferred to a new school, I was excited to hear that there already was a TTRPG group. During my time with this new group, I was able to expand my horizons and play different TTRPGs aside from 5e namely, Monster of the Week and City of Mist. My world was even further expanded and I felt the same electrical excitement I did when I first learned of what a TTRPG is. After graduating, I’ve only continued to delve into other TTRPGs. I joined online communities and participated in the discourse around the hobby. I’ve continued to host games of different kinds, getting better at improvisation and taking lessons from my mistakes with every game that I play.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

2 games hosted

Highly rated for: Inclusive, Storytelling, Teacher

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

I love this hobby. When the magic circle is filled to the brim with wonder and the our imagination transcends the very table we were just sitting at, that experience is something that I will be chasing for the rest of my life. Being able to then facilitate the magic circle? What a dream come true.

How Charles runs games

One of the best parts of this hobby for me as a GM is to tug at the heartstrings of my players and make them the center of my world. In terms of theory, my GM style would definitely fit into the Neo-Trad style of play as proposed by the Retired Adventurer. As such, my favorite game experiences have been ones essentially tailored to the player characters. This has been my preference both as a player and the GM. For example, if a player wants to play a thief character that’s from the slums, I would immediately take that and start building on top of that concept. A thief? How do you view the morality of thievery? Do you abide by some sort of code? Do you like the work you do? Grew up in the slums? How did that affect the way you see wealthy people? What’s the relationship between hard work and payoff in this character’s mind? Is the world just? These questions pop in my mind and I would design scenarios and characters that embody these questions and excitedly see how that player interacts with them. Additionally, I take these character choices as signals to implement things in the world. Of course that thief would want to steal valuables and do a heist or two. I would then add rich characters into the game and perhaps a few places that hold valuables like a vault or a noble’s mansion and add those elements to the world. I love exploring the depth of my player’s characters and it’s undoubtedly one of the best part of being a GM.