Justin
he/him
4.7
(6)
Timezone
Language
About Justin
I'm generally a big nerd and I'm super passionate about storytelling and world-building. I'm also a midwesterner, a veteran, politically lean mostly left, and I love history. I love Greek and Norse mythology. My music taste reflects my midwestern emo angst, and I've been listening to bands like Say Anything and Taking Back Sunday for the last 15+ years. My favorite works are The Lord of the Rings, the Witcher books, the Dark Souls series (really most stuff made by Hidetaka Miyazaki), Baldur's Gate 3, as well as Fallout 1 and 2, and Fallout: New Vegas. I'm a big fan of more gritty, down-to-earth settings, and "not too distant future" sci-fi. My favorite shows are either quirky comedies like Community, Superstore, or Brooklyn 99, or more gritty shows like Castlevania, or Shotgun. I love making people laugh and making them feel heard and important, and I like to think I'm pretty empathetic and self-aware. Knowing how you're presenting yourself and how other people are reacting to you is really important, especially in such a close social activity like a TTRPG. I really hate making people uncomfortable (even if they might deserve it). My favorite parts about TTRPGs is the interactivity of it all, and seeing results in real time for emergent gameplay. With video games I find I'm often a little frazzled with my inability to work outside the box. I also like the feeling of finishing a quest or interacting with a character knowing there will be a ripple effect of each decision.
At a glance
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Knows the Rules, Sets the Mood, Storytelling
Featured Prompts
My favorite system of all Time is
I think my favorite system of all time was the early 5th Edition 2014-2019 run. It was a classic, simple game that had enough meat for players if they wanted more complicated characters like a Fighter: Battle Master but was also low barrier to entry with more simple options like a Fighter: Champion.
How Justin runs games
So first and foremost, I run things very close to RAW, with as little homebrew or house rules as possible. I am not really a "rule of cool" Game Master. I like my players to have a very consistent experience where they don't need to guess how a class feature or spell is going to work that day. That being said there is still a lot of room for creativity within the confines of the rulebooks. Kicking sand in an enemy's face to try to blind them, or trying to hit a loose brick on the ceiling to try to bury enemies under rubble. There aren't distinct rules for those things but they're all perfectly valid improvised actions. However, doing a backflip for advantage, or one-shotting an adult red dragon "because you rolled a 20" isn't really what happens in my games. The GMBinder link posted below lays out my house rules, as well as a list of allowed sources. Additionally at the end I've got frequently asked questions for things a little more ambiguously laid out in the official rules and ones I've noticed a lot of newer players struggle with. https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-OZs8HKRvIndrIkJNFIt
Featured Prompts
Rules are...
I think rules are the basis for how we can all connect and play the same game. Imagination is great, but consistency is also just as important. There's so much room for creativity, expression, and improvisation, within the books as-is. The rules help keep everyone grounded and on the same page.
Justin's ideal table
I love helping create positive experiences for everyone at the table. I value good chemistry, common courtesy, and social awareness. I put a lot of work into my games and I would hope my players reciprocate that effort by learning their characters, respecting everyone else's time, taking notes, and building their fellow players up (the GM included). While I don't think players need to be in-character the whole session, they should be thinking in-character and playing accordingly to what their characters would do in those situations. I like players who are engaged, and genuinely feel like they want to save the captured gnomes because they're people too. But likewise players that can tell jokes, and understand this is still a game, and the point is to tell a fun, collaborative story while killing monsters in caves and graverobbing for magical treasure. As for tone, on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being Emperor's New Groove and 10 being Game of Thrones, I am going for about a 6.5. A "mostly serious" experience where there are heavy themes and tones with frequent light-hearted moments in between. You might hear some bad words, there could be adventures featuring things like slavery and body horror, occasional gore, and potentially adult themes, although any explicit sexual scenes won't be depicted or described in detail. Sexual violence could be referenced or alluded to, but will never be explicitly depicted. You can trust I'm not here trying to intentionally make anyone uncomfortable but there are some darker adventures like Curse of Strahd where a villainous character does villainous acts. If you've ever read something like the Witcher or played Dark Souls and were okay with what you saw, you'll be fine here. I aim for less intense Baldur's Gate 3 but also more serious than Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. And lastly, my tables have a strict no AI policy. I've gone through the trouble of recording one of my games and posted a link to it below so you can get a taste of what my games are like and if you think you'd enjoy being part of them.
Featured Prompts
My table is not the place for...
My table is not the place for people who don't want to be part of a team. Everyone should be comfortable, working together, and excited when someone succeeds. Nobody should be making anyone else feel uneasy or unwelcome. We all "win" when we're all having a good time.
Justin's Preferences
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