Alex Kennedy

he/him

5.0

(12)

Timezone

America/detroit

Language

English

Identity

Neurodivergent

About Alex Kennedy

I'm a veteran GM with roughly 13 years of experience, and there's nothing I love more than creating a world for people to play in and explore. Although I've been dreaming up worlds and telling stories my whole life, my first proper TTRPG experience was in high school when I stumbled my way into becoming the head of my school's gaming club on the back of a janky system I designed myself based on The Strain Trilogy. It was a beautiful trainwreck that descended into chaos in the best way possible, but we all had a great time with it and I've been hooked ever since. I've learned a lot since those days, and my love of worldbuilding and storytelling has only continued to grow. Most of my experience is with D&D 3.5 and 5e, but I'll pretty much never turn down the chance to try a new system, either. Ultimately I'm mostly just a giant nerd who never outgrew wanting to play make believe all day.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

13 games hosted

Highly rated for: Inclusive, Creativity, Knows the Rules

Average response time: 3 hours

Response rate: 75%

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

There's nothing I love more than creating a world and watching people have fun playing in it as we bring it to life together.

I got started GMing...

Back in high school when I dove in way over my head. To this day I don't know what possessed me to make and run my own TTRPG when I'd never even played one before, but in the end it was all worth it.

My favorite books are

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (for my money easily the greatest fantasy writer of his era), The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, and The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

How Alex Kennedy runs games

In general my guiding principle and personal guarantee is that I'll do my best to make sure everyone has fun, because at the end of the day, that's really the whole point. As such, I'm very flexible about accommodating any requests (within reason, of course) and giving people the type of experience they're looking for. I have the most fun when my players enjoy themselves, and I love seeing people bring their visions for a character to life, so I'm happy to facilitate that however I can. I tend to cover a broad spectrum in tone, fluctuating between silly and serious as the situation demands. I draw from a wide range of influences but probably music most of all, and am always happy to share those influences or provide a playlist of relevant music upon request. My campaigns tend to lean more sandbox-y, though I'm happy to lay out more of a railroad upon request. In most of my games I like to keep things fairly organic and to improvise a lot, which means I'm always down for any curveball anyone wants to throw at me. Oh, I also love making bespoke magic items, so my players can generally expect to get some pretty crazy loot.

Featured Prompts

My games focus on...

Fun and flexibility more than anything else. As long as my players are all having a good time, I consider that a success, and I'm happy to work with any requests players have.

Rules are...

Ultimately just there to make sure people have a good time. I'm always happy to bend the rules a little if it's more fun or makes for a better story. The only rules that I consider ironclad are people's boundaries of what content they're comfortable with.

When it comes to voices

I am sadly not blessed with the talent to deliver much on that front, but I do my best to make up for it in other ways.

Alex Kennedy's ideal table

I tend to run things relatively laid back and casual in a way that I think is accessible for new players as well as veterans like myself. I never take myself too seriously and use a lot of self-deprecating humor, and joking around is pretty much always welcome. That's not to say I can't take things in a more dark and serious direction when the situation calls for it, of course. Overall I would say that anyone who's looking to have fun and tell a story together will be a good fit for my table, especially if they don't mind things getting a bit chaotic now and then.

Featured Prompts

I am for a vibe that's...

Friendly, easygoing, and maybe just a little zany.

I love it when a player

Gives me a clear sense of what they want from a game and for their character. You get out what you put in, and I want to be able to give my players moments that really satisfy them and deliver on their hopes for their character.

I think min/maxing...

Is honestly fine, within reason. If players want to make a character that's specifically really good at one thing to the detriment of everything else, I have no reason to deny them that. People should play the character they want to play, and if that means having a heavily min/maxed character, fine.