Harry

he/him

5.0

(6)

Timezone

Europe/london

Language

English

Identity

Neurodivergent

About Harry

I jumped into game-mastering in 2019 with a group of friends, a Dragonheist book, and a lot of uncertainty. Almost immediately my players caught be by surprise by doing something unexpected, and introduced me to the fun and excitement of improvised, group storytelling. Since then I've played an average of once a week, exploring a variety of games, and almost always being a game master. In 2025 I hosted my first convention games with total strangers, which was a wonderful mix of nerves and excitement. The more TTRPGs that I play the more that I enjoy the improvisational nature of them, and I'm always excited to see where the story goes next. I started with D&D (as most people do), and since then I've explored Motherboard, Pathfinder 2e, the Silver Road, Forged in the Dark, and Daggerheart. I'm a fan of player-guided stories, with a strong leaning towards The Rule of Cool and narrative-first games.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, Storytelling

Featured Prompts

I got started GMing...

when the folk at High Rollers D&D did their Curse of Straad mini-campaign online. They showed me that I could start GMing online, with just a few basic maps and tokens, and using voice-chat and cameras to connect with people. It was so exciting!

My favorite books are

Terry Pratchett (not just the Discworld, but Strata and the Gnomes too), China Mieville, Patrick Tilly's Amtrak Wars, Michael Moorcock (I've not re-read them for many years, but The Count Brass, Hawkmoon, and Elric books resonated strongly with teenage me), Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth's Past)

My favorite system of all Time is

Daggerheart. It captures all the wacky shenanigans of traditional fantasy TTRPGs, but it's so flexible. The core book alone comes with 6 campaign frames, each very different from the others. It's built around the idea of building a framework and improvising with it, while collaborating with players

How Harry runs games

I favour games that keep me as excited and on-my-toes as the players. I bring the backstory of the world and NPCS while the players bring their characters and backstories. Together with the randomness of dice, we weave together a story that none of us could expect. As a story-focused GM I try to make situations dramatic and tense, while still being a fan of the player characters. I'm more than happy to bend the rules if something makes sense in the narrative. I aim to keep the player characters at the centre of everything, incorporating aspects of their character and backstory into the game whenever I see an opportunity. This doesn't mean that the characters have an easy time of things, because I believe that sometimes the story requires a large hurdle to overcome. When adversity arises I will try to push hard against the characters so that their accomplishments feel exciting, but being careful to not push too hard and overwhelm the player characters. However this should never come at the cost of a player feeling unhappy, after all we're all here to have a fun time together.

Featured Prompts

I prep by

understanding the backstory to the world and the major characters. No matter how detailed a GM's plan is, the players will always do something unexpected. This is the whole point of TTRPGs! If the GM is immersed in the world, then they can probably figure something out to keep the story going.

Rules are...

wonderful guidelines, but sometimes you need to bend them for a dramatic moment. The Rule of Cool is important, since we're all here to have fun.

When it comes to voices

honestly, I'm not the best. I try very hard to give the NPCs personalities and backstories, but doing voices is something that I ought to work on.

Harry's ideal table

As a group we should all be respectful of each other, after all we're all here to have fun as a group. If someone's idea of fun directly clashes with someone else's (such as wanting to dominate and control the group, or sow chaos while everyone else trying to work towards a shared narrative goal), then perhaps you'd prefer to find a group that enjoys that playstyle.

Featured Prompts

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

try to shut down or annoy other players. PvP is something to be discussed in session 0, but I don't want my players to be antagonising each other. Inter-character drama can occur at the table, as long as it's only between characters and the players are enjoying it.