Mike Thiel

he/him

5.0

(9)

Timezone

America/chicago

Language

English

Identity

Artist

Game Designer

About Mike Thiel

I am a Dungeon Master for 5th edition D&D with 10+ years of experience both playing in and running campaigns. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Game Design & Development - Art, with a minor in English Writing and Literature. This education, alongside my experience, helps me craft interesting encounters and unique characters for all of my D&D campaigns, whether they be campaign modules or one of my fully homebrewed campaigns!

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

1 games hosted

Highly rated for: Knows the Rules, Storytelling, Beginner Friendly

$15 per session

Featured Prompts

My favorite books are

The Red Rising series by Pierce Brown, The Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio, and finally The Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland.

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

..."Engaging, dedicated, and Creative"

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

...Using my B.F.A. in Game Design to work with a team of 8 indie game developers I have assembled to build a first-person narrative puzzle computer game!

How Mike Thiel runs games

I do my very best to create deep long-form narratives with high combat encounters and interconnected personal storylines. Whether I am running a module or a homebrew campaign, I always spice up encounters with personal drama and interesting mechanics. When it comes to One Shots or shorter form stories, I tend to lead into a more narrative heavy experience favoring heavy narration and description to enhance the shorter story. Regardless of the campaign, the players are the highlight, and I often give opportunities for my players to shine in whatever way they see fit!

Featured Prompts

My favorite trope is...

DRAGONS! I love all things dragons. My first ever character was a red dragonborn (for the fire breath), and I seldom run a longform campaign without at least one dragon encounter!

My games focus on...

...narrative. I try to build all of my campaigns and one-shots around impactful themes and deep narratives that tie into the characters (and potentially the players) emotions. The more emotion I can help bring to the table, whether it be fast paced excitement, or deep RP, the game will be!

When it comes to voices

I usually try my best to give each NPC a unique voice and accent, although I will admit, it usually ends up slowly devolving into some form of German, Russian, or Australian accent, if not my voice, just deeper.

Mike Thiel's ideal table

My ideal table is between 4-6 players, all of whom have a love of story, narrative, and role-play. I typically run sessions by narrating a scene than allowing players to engage with it in a sandbox fashion. This allows you as the player to use whatever you have at your disposal to solve any riddle, combat, or RP encounter, whether it be on your character sheet, in your backstory, or from the bowls of your imagination (should the dice agree with you). The vibes of my games tend to be narrative focused as I invite my players to engage with the world in creative ways, to that end the rule of cool usually always applies.