Connor Campbell

he/him

Timezone

Europe/london

Language

English

Identity

Neurodivergent

Artist

Game Designer

About Connor Campbell

Hey, I'm Connor or Tam and I've been GM'ing for just over two years now. What started off as a casual hobby has quickly become my favourite thing in the world. I find it to be a wonderful creative outlet for myself as someone who was always coming up with stories, characters and monsters in my free time. I also enjoy game design and spend a lot of time designing monster stat blocks, hexmaps for overland travel, intricate dungeon maps and tactical battlemaps. I have a Degree in Computer Art, with a specialisation in Concept Art. This means I will likely draw your character at some point as a little added bonus!

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

I wanted to make friends and socialise outside of work. As an adult it can be hard to make time to spend with people and I thought if I ran a game that would be a good excuse for me to spend some time with some cool people I wanted to become better friends with.

My favorite books are

My favourite books are unsurprisingly fantasy novels. In particular I'm a big fan of the Stormlight Archive, Red Rising, A Song of Ice and Fire, Wheel of Time and First Law series. I am slowly working my way through the Book of the New Sun series as well and it's very intriguing.

The three words my players would use to describe me are...

I asked my players and they said: Evocative, Patient and Adaptable and I have the screenshots to prove it!!

How Connor Campbell runs games

My GM style is a healthy mix of Roleplay, Combat and Exploration tied up in a game where the player's choices affect an emerging narrative. I love getting into characters and representing a wide array of people that make the world feel alive and every NPC interaction feel unique. I enjoy performing as different characters and utilising a variety of voices and accents to heighten immersion in the game. I also love a good tactical map with clear and varied objectives. Whenever combat comes up in my games I want it to feel like it has a narrative purpose, either expanding the world building or asking a dramatic question. For example, will the heroes save the captured villagers before the fire reaches their cages? I like to run overworld travel in a Hex Map format. Where players discover the world and chart a map for themselves revealing points of interest. This means there are optional dungeons and quests, strange NPC's and fantastical encounters waiting to be discovered on your adventures. Speaking of dungeons, I love running an old school dungeon crawl. I feel like Dungeons and Dragons really sings when the players resource management is tested and that final spell slot feels impactful. Do you go for the kill, or do you heal up your party member who just went down? I love the intense decision making and triumph that comes out of these moments.

Featured Prompts

My games focus on...

Vibes. When I write my campaigns I usually have a specific kind of theme, tone and genre that I would like to evoke whilst we play.

Rules are...

made to be broken? Well, more like made to bend towards whatever sounds like the most fun. I typically like to run the game with the rules as written but if a player has a really cool idea I'm not afraid to bend the rules a little and make their cool idea a reality.

When it comes to voices

I am not afraid to look stupid. Some are better than others mind you but I try my best to characterise every NPC appropriately!

Connor Campbell's ideal table

I like to facilitate a relaxed but invested vibe. At the end of the day we are here to play a game, relax and have some fun pretending to be other people. I don't mind the occasional out of character joke and getting a little silly at times, but at the end of the day I want the story that we create together to be one that you'll remember fondly for the rest of your life. All I ask of my players is that they show up excited to play a character that they love.

Featured Prompts

I love it when a player

Writes a juicy backstory that I can mine for inspiration! Or draws their or other party members characters, I want to see all the art!

I think metagaming...

Is inevitable. We are playing a game and I don't mind people discussing how they might like to progress out of character. Communication is important! However, metagaming becomes a problem when people try and tell others what they should be doing, breaking the immersion of a tense scene.

I think min/maxing...

Is a perfectly fine way to play if that's how you have fun. Whenever I make a character I think about a fun build I'd like to try out and I would encourage my players to do the same. Min/Maxing only becomes a problem when you try to shame other players for their potentially "sub-optimal" builds, etc