John

he/him

5.0

(6)

Timezone

America/chicago

Language

English

German

About John

I am a forever GM by choice with 15 years of GMing experience and a storyteller at heart. For nearly half my life now I've been running games, creating worlds, and building incredible stories with friends that we still fondly recall to this day, and continue to do so in my home games. I'm a writer (I've been writing for as long as I've been GMing for fun) working on getting my first fantasy novel published, and a historian with BA's in both History and International Studies. I've loved video games and all things gaming since I was old enough to hold an N64 controller, am a huge board game geek, and a practitioner of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), so if you ever wanted a GM who actually knows how to employ a smattering of medieval weapons you've come to the right place! I'm also a certified flight instructor/commercial pilot and musician, and love smuggling my other interests into my games to add just that little extra layer of verisimilitude and uniqueness to our stories.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Teacher, Storytelling, Creativity

Featured Prompts

My 3 systems I'd bring to a desert island would be

The One Ring, Twilight 2000, and Star Wars FFG RPG.

My favorite books are

The Lord of the Rings (and its many associated books) The Wheel of Time series (I'm on book 6, no spoilers!) The Mote in God's Eye The Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin Anything Tom Clancy The Galaxy's Edge series by Jason Anspach and Nick Cole

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

Writing, PC gaming, board gaming or wargaming (Battletech, Warhammer), reading scifi, fantasy, history, theology, and philosophy books, badly playing guitar and shaking the rust off my trumpet, learning new hobbies, and, every once in a blue moon, flying airplanes.

How John runs games

I love a good hexploration game and tend to lean a little more OSR in certain respects (I prefer the character sheet to be a tool through which your character's will is realized in the world, not the be all end all of the character), I enjoy a good, high-stakes lethal combat and gripping narrative that we all collaborate on and get lost in, and one of my most commonly uttered phrases is "Sell me on it". I love when players outsmart me (which happens every session) and come up with brilliant ideas I never would have thought of. I am always up to try a new system and love exploring new games. I don't mind some rules crunch if it's there to support the story, or if the fluff is substantive enough to provide some fun, and there is always a time and place for some seat-of-the-pants "GREAT SHOT, KID, THAT WAS ONE IN A MILLION!" high-octane action!

Featured Prompts

I once ran a session...

that made one of my player's cry (in a good way!). It was a very intense, emotional denouement and conclusion of a long-sought, hard-fought goal that was the perfect capstone to end our campaign. Ask me about "Martin's wife and the vampires of Mousillon."

My games focus on...

Immersion, exploration of fascinating worlds (whether they be of my own creation or someone else's), exploration of deliberate themes, tones, and ideas agreed upon by the group beforehand, an emerging, dynamic story, and of course, fun!

Rules are...

there for a reason but not immutable or unchangeable. Most systems I play I don't often find reasons to alter or ignore rules, but there are always exceptions and I'm not afraid to hand-wave a rule for the sake of fun or flow, or make an on-the-spot judgement call to keep the game moving.

John's ideal table

My ideal table is a group of people who all agree that we are here to have fun and build something interesting and enjoyable together. Players that will fit well at my table are players who love to play, have fun, and still be respectful of and mindful of other player's (and my own) play styles, boundaries, and preferences. My table is generally a pretty laid back, welcoming place where we can all lean in and get lost in that "flow state" when we want, and still have fun and laugh at bad luck, my mistakes, and each other's jokes. If you enjoy good company, want a table where you feel at home amongst friends, and can respect those around you as individuals and humans, you will always have a place at my table.

Featured Prompts

I love it when a player

comes up with a brilliant idea that throws a big, fat, wrench in my initial plans. Few things bring me more joy than when a player comes up with something I never would have thought of to solve a problem or bypass an obstacle. Another phrase I use a lot is "Oh, man, that's genius!"

I think it's a red flag when players...

try to force other people to play their own characters a certain way. It's important to set expectations and all agree on the kind of game we want to play, but it's never helpful for anyone when one player tries to impose their will on another by manipulation or coercion, subtle or overt.

I think min/maxing...

is not harmful in and of itself, but can be problematic depending on the why behind it: it's great when the Wookie uses Force Pull to pull a freighter out of orbit then crashes the speeder, but no one likes when one person is trying to "cheat the system" and "win" the game for themselves.