Infinite Storyteller (Teller)

he/him

5.0

(5)

Timezone

America/new York

Language

English

Identity

LGBTQ+

Neurodivergent

Teacher/Educator

About Infinite Storyteller (Teller)

Hello! I'm Jacob, AKA The Infinite Storyteller, or Teller for short. I always have a story on my mind, and I have loved bringing characters to life and acting out scenes since I was a kid. When I started running tabletop games I had a magical moment where the group's collaboration made a story that was better than anything I had dreamed up. Ever since, I've been hooked. I have played in numerous game systems, and I have run a variety of games across several TTRPG systems, including Dungeons & Dragons, Weave, and Blades in the Dark. I try to immerse players in the world and story, and encourage them to play in the space and make believe, all the while using the structures and rules of the system to provide stakes and uncertainty (let the dice help tell the story!). I love the blend of structure, emotional investment, and sheer chaos that makes tabletop role playing games the incredible game/storytelling vehicle/hobby that it is. So, what story shall we tell? Will you be a questing hero? A scheming mastermind out for themselves? An eccentric researcher? A haunted street thief? A tragic lover seeking to reunite with their beloved? When I have the privilege of telling a story with someone, I help them create a character they feel connected to and that pulls them into the world we are creating together. So step into a realm of Infinite Stories, and let's laugh together, cry together, adventure together, and imagine the next story you'll tell people about for years.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, World Builder

Featured Prompts

My favorite shows/movies are

Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Dune Movies, Pacific Rim, Avatar the Last Airbender, Batman the Animated Series, Ocean's Eleven, Bluey, V for Vendetta, Peaky Blinders, Ex Machina, Invincible, Dimension 20/any Dropout content, The Sandman, The Good Place, Bridgerton, Pippin (the musical).

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

Creative, unpredictable, theatrical.

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

Cooking, practicing tai chi, spending time with my family, reading, playing video games, and skulking around the alleyways of my city on wild Dionysian adventures

How Infinite Storyteller (Teller) runs games

When I GM, my primary goal is to tell a story. At the start of each campaign I work heavily with players to establish their character, find ways to work their personal arc into the story, and learn what they want their adventures to look like. My goal in all of this is to make the game feel alive and meaningful, to excite imagination and enthusiasm in my players. Once this set up is done, I build out a rich history for the world and set events in motion around the players. During games I use character voices, art, and narrative description to give the players a rich template information to respond to. I am also a very improvisational GM. If a player makes an unexpected choice I will build the world out around them to honor that choice, while keeping the group’s goals in mind. Collaborative storytelling means we follow the best story, whether it’s the one I had in mind or not. When this foundation is established, conflict and drama arise naturally. I want conflict to feel meaningful and have stakes, rather than a random encounter or "grinding for xp". However, there is nothing quite like creating a truly twisted villain and then setting the heroes loose against their antagonist. Ultimately, I want to respect my player’s time. They entrust me with their precious free time, their energy and focus, and their hard earned coin. I want to honor that commitment by knowing what kind of story we want to tell together, and then doing my part to provide that story to the players.

Featured Prompts

I once ran a session...

Where the D&D characters had to navigate a trap that pulled them into a pocket dimension tabletop game. Set in an office, the "characters" were the real-life players. Each player played their D&D character "playing" a different irl player in a body swapping fourth wall breaking game within a game.

I prep by

Trying to think of as many details as possible and documenting them for easy reference. Character motivations, world lore, locations, events, and plot twists all can become parts of a Rube Goldberg machine that I can set in motion as the players begin taking actions.

My games focus on...

How the players move through the world and how the world responds to their actions.

Infinite Storyteller (Teller)'s ideal table

My ideal table is there to have fun, happy to crack some jokes to break the tension, and then dial in again to get back to our scene. I try to welcome everyone, meet them where they are regardless of experience, and then throw them into a new world. My ideal player is happy to do the work up front to make sure that they know who their character is and how they fit into the story. I love meta-conversations (at the start) so I can know what sort of journey you're looking to go on with the character you create. If you like making fleshed out characters who feel grounded in the world they live in, getting emotionally invested in them, and are ready to have that character thrown into wild, surreal, unexpected adventures, we'll get along great. My tables are very collaborative- We are not there to compete to see who is the best tabletop player, but rather to lift each other up and try to make the best shared story we can. I use reference images, music, maps, and vivid descriptions to make the world feel real. From there my hope is that players engage in the world and begin to drive the story forward themselves, with me "laying the track" as they choose their path forward. I try to combine freedom of choice with narrative direction in order to make a story between a sandbox and railroading where the adventure is there waiting for you, but does not have a "single right path". My table is always a safe and respectful place for anyone who comes to it, and we keep it that way. Layered on top of that baseline of safety and respect we add a healthy dose of crazy character voices, bad puns, visceral consequences, and a healthy dash of snark. Most of all, my ideal table is fun!