Light
he/him
5.0
(3)
Timezone
Language
Identity
About Light
Hello there, I go by Light, Ben, DM or you can scream some comprehendible noise. I respond to all of those with varying levels of enthusiasm. Been a nerd all my life but got into DND somewhere around 2020. I've been DMing mostly DND 5e every weekend since. As such it is my most comfortable game having done countless one shots, many month long games, and a few year long campaigns. I've done a little with Call of Cthulhu, Monster of the Week, Fallout2d20, MaidRPG, CyberPunkRed, and a few other systems that once more proficient with I hope to start running as well. I work my regular hours as a substitute teacher but decided to come here to have an excuse for why I'm running a game every other night that won't get me criticized... as much.
At a glance
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, World Builder
Featured Prompts
I became a GM because
My brother was frustrated with his players and wanted a game where they would be kept on track, so I made a game idea for him and through playtesting it with him I eventually got into running DnD.
People are always surprised when I tell them
I wrestled the state champion in my high school wrestling days. He whooped me good.
When I'm not running games I'm...
Making homebrew for dnd or attempting to design my own ttrpg.
How Light runs games
I like high magic, high fantasy, open worlds with my goals being that the mechanics of the game are engaging for everyone and the logic of the storytelling makes sense within the over the top worlds. That said I'm usually best at making thematic worlds with clear and repeating themes that can be engaged with inside the scope of a game. If you are tossed into a world with constructs everywhere you can likely make yourself a robo-dog. I like to make challenging encounters, be it social, environmental, or combat, that players can beat with the tools they have and not have to resort to gimmicks and cheese that makes every encounter hand waved. My goal is always to challenge the players in fun ways, not kill them or get one over on them. I deviate from the usual storytelling to make creatures more interactive and less one note as some game lore might have them with the goal of making play where you can engage with anything and everything in more than just hitting things. That said I do like combat and monsters and can design for very high powered scenarios if everyone is on the same page of powerscaling. I'm not one for high immersion. I like jokes, NPCs with names that are puns, the occasion slapstick humor and things of that like. Though I have run monster hunting, horror, survival, political intrigue, and dungeon crawls I never get so serious that juvenal humor won't slip its way in at some point. So if Cpt. Jack the Mule ruins your immersion than I might not be your GM.
Featured Prompts
I deal with rules issues by...
Having memorized a ton of the rules. I may not have them all but usually I can remember what is on my player's sheets better than they can. Somethings I do house rules for but most of it is classic rules as written.
My games focus on...
Player choices in an open world and how your choices change the world around them. Even when I have one shots I like to make games have diverging paths where players get to choose how things unfold and get different endings. All about choices.
When it comes to voices
I try to give each of my NPCs a special voice both to make them different and to make them entertaining.
Light's ideal table
I like to tell a story through people and monsters. Be it by fighting or conversing, the way to get the most out of my games is my interacting with the NPCs. This means there is a good amount of fighting and socializing. I like to make big scary monsters that are built different and make you fight for every win which is good when every player is on the same general powerlevel. I can handle minmaxed powergaming and all of that as long as everyone does it. I can skip fights with good roleplay and well thought out conversations if people want to talk instead of roll dice. I just want everyone to be on the same page when trying to play. Summed up, I do well with players that either build to fight everything and win or have an idea to talk their way out of any situation. I usually don't have things very serious with a bit of humor or puns. Plenty of which are a bit juvenile. I like to tell stories of adventures that make their own way while helping out the little guys. Not always good people but usually doing bad things to people that are worse than you.
Featured Prompts
I think it's a red flag when players...
talk about how their character can beat other player characters in a fight. Every character serves a different purpose and just cause you could win in a fight doesn't mean you should bring it up especially if no one else is interested in testing themselves against you.
I think min/maxing...
is fine as long as everyone is doing it to the same relative level. When one person is far stronger than the rest they never feel challenged or anything that challenges them is impossible for the rest. I prefer everyone to be around the same level be that causal or power gamed.
My table is not the place for...
unengaged players. If I'm going to make every choice count I don't want someone that doesn't want to make any choices or only pays half attention to the game.
Light's Preferences
Systems
Game Mechanics