Deborah L. Davitt

she/her

5.0

(5)

Timezone

America/chicago

Language

English

Identity

Published Writer

Game Designer

About Deborah L. Davitt

Hi all! I'm an award-winning author of science fiction and fantasy (check out my books, short stories, and poems at www.deborahldavitt.com). I've written a game setting and designed a system with my husband under the auspices of the Illuminated Worlds, called Mists & Memory. I've played TTRPGs for 25 years, mostly as the GM! I got my start in D&D 3.0 (I had all the books for AD&D in the 90s, but the guys at my school who played, didn't want to invite a girl!). I got so tired in 2000 of games that petered out after a session or two of play-by-post, that I said "fine, then I'LL GM." My first play-by-post 3.0 game lasted two years in a world I created for the players. I prized intelligent solutions to problems and good roleplay, and still do. I actually met my husband though playing games, and we've been in our relationship for twenty years. <3 More recently, I've played and run D&D 5.0, Blades in the Dark, and our Mists & Memory system; I have played City of Mist, and am currently GMing a play-by-post of Cohors Cthulhu (2d20), and a bi-weekly game of Witcher (Talsorian). I've run Dialect (wherein every story ends in tragedy) and various TEETH games, particularly False Kingdom (in which every story ends in sabotage and black-humored farce). I look forward to meeting and playing with new people!

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, Inclusive

Featured Prompts

I got started GMing...

because it was the only way to play a game that lasted more than two sessions! If no one else was going to be consistent and available to run a world, then dangit, *I'd do it myself.*

My favorite books are

by Terry Pratchett, Clive Barker, and Jonathan L. Howard. Which tells you that I like layered worlds, complex characters, a sense of humor, and a sense of the macabre.

When I'm not running games I'm...

Writing, honestly. I have close to a hundred published short stories to my name, over two hundred published poems, and a lot more left to go! If I'm not doing that, I might be playing a computer game--CRPGs, grand strategy like Civ or Stellaris, or games like Heaven's Vault.

How Deborah L. Davitt runs games

I prize in-depth roleplay, high stakes combat, intelligent solutions to problems, characters who work to create bonds with their communities and engage in diplomacy and use their investigative skills.

Featured Prompts

My games focus on...

mysteries, much of the time. Sometimes they're easy to unveil. Sometimes they're complex conspiracies that take several sessions to unfold. Whether you're looking into the disappearances of young people and uncover a horrific cult in Blades or D&D, bad things happen, and you're there to fix it.

Rules are...

a great starting point for awesome fun. Rules that enable everyone to know what they and can't do are great; limits are what allow people to be creative. Rules that get in the way of play? Can and should be altered, at the GM's discretion. Rules are a conversation!

When it comes to voices

I have a pretty decent vocal range, and I use it. I try to be expressive, but not over the top. I'm not great at accents, but I have employed them from time to time, but I'd rather do a lot of my character work by inference and tone.

Deborah L. Davitt's ideal table

I like good-natured people who are kind to one another. You can play adversaries and challenge each other, so long as that *never* means disrespect for the other player. I expect people to be involved and to talk, ask questions, and interact. If someone's been quiet, expect to be called on and the spotlight focused on you--I used to be a college professor, so I call on people very often! Being unable to say what you're doing or why or how you're feeling at the moment? That's going to be almost as bad as showing disrespect for others at my table. BE INVOLVED. BE KIND.

Featured Prompts

I am for a vibe that's...

about working together communally to adapt, overcome, and achieve goals.

I love it when a player

comes up with something outside the parameters of a module. I *LOVE* it when someone comes up with something bonkers but that FITS with the scenario, makes sense from their character's POV, and takes me into improv-land.

I think it's a red flag when players...

start useless, petty drama for the sake of it, and defend it as "what my character would do." For example, "I'm in a crew of assassins in Blades, and yet, I suddenly have moral reservations about killing, and thus, will interfere with anyone trying to carry out the crew's current hit." Don't do that