Gene Foxwell

he/him

5.0

(8)

Timezone

America/new York

Language

English

About Gene Foxwell

Hi there, I'm Gene! I've been GMing for 30 years across dozens of systems—from Basic D&D to Starfinder, Rogue Trader to Fabula Ultima. I prefer to run games that focus on puzzles, character interaction, and problem solving rather than ones that focus on power fantasy. That's not to say there won't be some rousing opportunities for combat - they'll be plenty of that - combat is the frosting on the cake after all. If you’re looking for character-driven adventures full of personality, mystery, and creative chaos—you’ve come to the right GM.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

8 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Knows the Rules, World Builder

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

I was 14, the world was young, color hadn't been invented yet, people still thought Doom was the pinnacle of computer graphics - what else was a young boy to do? Go outside? Heck no, it's cold out there!

My favorite books are

Neal Stephnson novels up to Seveneves Hitchhikers Guide the Galaxy Foundation / Robot Novels Discworld Novels (especially the ones featuring Sam Vimes or the Witches) Lord of the Rings

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

Working, messing about on boats, fencing, generally staying out of trouble... or not as the case may be. Trouble tends to be fun.

How Gene Foxwell runs games

I design campaigns where: 🎯 Moral dilemmas have no clean answers - You'll face choices where every option has a cost 🎯 Puzzles reward creativity 🎯 Conflicts are about ideas, not just violence I draw a lot of my influences from: 🎭 Old Infocom Adventure Games (Like Zork) 🎭Neal Stephenson's Earlier Novels 🎭Star Trek 🎭Discworld 🎭Watership Down 🎭 Sherlock Holmes ... and many more like the above. Basically, my style mixes: Atmospheric investigation, surrealist horror-comedy, philosophical sci-fi, and political intrigue.

Featured Prompts

I once ran a session...

where the players traversed an entire mini-dungeon fighting off the bad guys emotional support dog. Having the players fight a creature whose powers made them feel "negative" emotions in one way or another was a interesting experience. They seemed to get a kick out of it.

My favorite trope is...

sentient items. Not always weapons. Sometimes it fun to hand the players a sentient curmudgeonly lantern and send them someplace "dark" to see what happens.

Rules are...

great guidelines. We need them to have a game and provide a shared understanding how things work. That said, we have a Game Master for a reason, and that's so we can bend the rules whenever it would facilitate fun, but fair, gameplay moments.

Gene Foxwell's ideal table

You'll love my games if you: 🎲 Want to solve problems, not just roll dice 🎲 Enjoy moral complexity and grey-area decisions 🎲 Like atmospheric world-building and environmental storytelling 🎲 Appreciate when combat has narrative stakes (not just XP) You might not enjoy my games if you: ❗️ Want power fantasy or heroic combat focus ❗️ Prefer clear good-vs-evil with simple solutions ❗️ Dislike investigation, puzzles, or political intrigue ❗️ Want open-world sandbox with no narrative direction

Featured Prompts

If you're into ___, you're going to love my table

mashups of science fiction and fantasy tropes

I love it when a player

find unexpected ways out of a situation.

My table is not the place for...

extreme violence, overtly sexual content, or general harassment of other people. There's a whole world of evil villains inside the game world who I assure you, probably deserve it. Be mean them instead of each other.