Mary Mildew

she/her

Timezone

America/los Angeles

About Mary Mildew

Hi, I'm Mary I'm trans, in my mid-20s, and have a decade of gaming under my belt. A preschool teacher by trade, I have lots of experience with wild imaginations, theater of the mind, and conflict resolution. I've run more one-shots than I can count, and a consistent 5-year campaign in a hard sci-fi setting. While I have nothing but respect for it's fans, I personally am not a 5e player. Instead, I've lots of experience with Old School Renaissance style games, specifically those in Kevin Crawford's Sine Nomine constellation. Been playing DnD and looking for something with fewer rules and more sandbox? Want to get into the hobby but can't swing a stack of books? Need a break from forever DMing? I'll birth you like a calf: it's a beautiful world and you're on your feet in minutes flat. You could be a: god of blades walking among mortals, ship's computer hurtling through meta-space elemental mage communing with strange gods metal brained sleuth trawling a world spanning city

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

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I got started GMing...

by running a 6 month, one-on-one, systemless game for a childhood friend.

My favorite shows/movies are

Babel (R. F. Kuang), The Dispossessed (Ursula K. Le Guin), and Ancillary Justice (Ann Leckie)

People are always surprised when I tell them

BOO!

How Mary Mildew runs games

First and foremost, my games are sandboxes. I created settings, hooks, and compelling characters, but we write the story together. I don't shy away from combat, but I'll encourage creative solutions to problems which which play on characters' unique traits. I don't scale encounters to match player levels, which means you choose how big of a risk you're taking. My favorite element of role-playing is the collaborative story telling. I'm not quick to pick up dice or the rulebook when questions can be resolved within the narrative, but I use rule sets as a framework to support play and keep things moving. I am experienced in mostly Theater of the Mind roleplaying, which means that players and referee decide together what combat environments looks like, rather than referencing a detailed map. I stick to the rulebook but if I'm accustomed to a system, I'll gladly cook up some home-brew abilities to match up with fun ideas.

Featured Prompts

I prep by

Sitting in complete silence, compressing emotional turmoil into content.

When it comes to voices

I don't often do accents. I do enjoy voice acting, but it wears me out quickly, and I prefer to spend my energy on interesting personalities and relationships.