Callum (he/him)
5.0
(8)
3 years on StartPlaying
1 game hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Knows the Rules, Voices
About me
I've been playing TTRPG's for seven years and I've been DM-ing D&D 5e for six. I'm a nerdy Engineering Student and Part-Time Tutor by day so I'm used to working video calls, I can use any kind of software to run the game and I know my way around a discord bot. In my spare time (as well as DM-ing) I write short stories and articles for online magazines and do Stand Up Comedy so I have had plenty of practice prepping and working round a deadline and keeping strangers entertained ! I've DM'd for people from age 6-35 and I'd be happy to break either record. I've had a couple of long running groups but I've had LOADS of experience introducing new players, so if you're looking to start somewhere - Start with me ! At heart I'm a writer and I love Homebrew settings and for my personal games I tend to do Theatre of the Mind - But for paying customers I'm happy to roll out the Digital tabletops, discord bots, and proper official WOTC licenced content and settings ! I feel Story/RP/Combat Pace comes first and rules second. If possible there should always be a balance but realistically D&D is meant to be light hearted fun so I'd rather make a roll and keep the game going than stop to find the exact wording in a book. Despite this I've been playing for long enough now I'm mostly RAW with a few pretty standard homebrew rules sprinkled through which I always go over in session 0. My Moto as a DM is 'A player can do what they like provided they are willing to take the consequences' - You can leap forty feet in the air but prepare to take fall damage, you can have the OP magic item at low levels but be prepared to face the wrath of whoever you stole it from. I try not to go full on DM vs Player but the Dice rolls are final, and D20 is but a cruel mistress so be prepared for an uphill battle. I like High Magic, High fantasy games, I don't shy away from the odd pop culture reference, I love running Dungeon Crawls and NPC filled cities equally, I like my combat quick and intense and RP Over the top, I'm incredibly dramatic and I will always, ALWAYS, do the voices ! See you at the table
GM Style
As I said above My Moto as a DM is 'A player can do what they like provided they are willing to take the consequences' - You can leap forty feet in the air but prepare to take fall damage, you can have the OP magic item at low levels but be prepared to face the wrath of whoever you stole it from. I try not to go full on DM vs Player but the Dice rolls are final, and D20 is but a cruel mistress so be prepared for an uphill battle. At my tables we play RP/Story focussed games, we keep our combat quick, our monsters distinct and our descriptions flavourful. I always do the voices ! I'd rather roll a dice and keep the game going than stop to check the exact wording of a rule but for the most part we keep things RAW. Most I've my life I've played Theatre of the mind so I give clear focussed and hopefully interesting descriptions of combat, characters and settings ! I love getting players input on things and will happily go down whatever tangent you prefer !
Games played
Game platforms used
Game Master Reviews (8)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Storytelling
Knows the Rules
Voices
First time ever playing D&D, I make the classic rookie mistake, I give Callum a huge backstory about my character, massive details, magic items. Callum lets me have it, all of it, he reads it and he begins to incorporate it into the campaign right away. Just in subtle ways weaving my characters backstory into the game, along witht he other characters. Very quickly we all became super emotionally invested in the game it was awesome !
Callum Runs spectacular games, we only played theatre of the mind but his description of the town was so clear, we knew every place by heart ! We had a great fight where we had to battle living shadows through a prison, and it was genuinely the first time I began to think really tactically in D&D game because I from his description I could just see the place so well, so much fun!
My favourite thing about Callum is he can walk a line between telling a great story and letting us away with absolute mayhem. My favourite ever game he ran was a totally homebrewed system he came up with one weekend. t was a sort of old western themed campaign set on Mars. On the one hand it was the sort of delicate tale of the last vestiges of humanity trying to survive, on the other hand we fought off a town guard with a tablespoon and adopted a small child with an axe ! It was awesome !
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