Kevin Allen

he/him

5.0

(5)

Timezone

America/new York

Language

English

Identity

No Gen AI

About Kevin Allen

I'm Kevin! I'm 31 years old. I've been DMing an online campaign for almost 9 months now, and have the same crew for the last 6 of those months, and just having tons of fun improvising and running interesting high-stakes sessions focused on player backstory and agency, and I've been running an in-person campaign for about 3 months now which has gone very well as well! I have gotten into this very recently but I love doing it and seem to do an okay job and would love to test my skills in a professional context!

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Storytelling, Inclusive, Beginner Friendly

$15 per session

Featured Prompts

My favorite books are

I really like fantasy and non-fiction, with the occasional mystery. The Rivers of London series is one of my favorites, as is the House in the Cerulean Sea series. Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is also very good. I love creative, character-focused worldbuilding.

How Kevin Allen runs games

Roleplay and investigation with minimal combat and travel sequences. Combats are always high-stakes when they do happen. I focus on rolling with any punches my players throw at me and adjusting the world and story to fit whatever they and the dice decide. As a result my style is low prep for assets like music and maps and fully developed cities in order to present full choice to the players.

Featured Prompts

My games focus on...

My games focus on excitement. I skip over things that aren't challenging or new to get right to the good bits. Sometimes the main villain dies in the second session, and there will be a new quest sooner than I expected. Nat 20s are my favorite part of any session.

Rules are...

Rules are like a fish tank for creativity to swim within. A blank page is paralyzing, but once you have a narrative and a goal, and the rules binding your actions, the mind can run wild trying to figure out what could happen next. The rule of cool is the only one I won't fudge.

When it comes to voices

I'm no expert on voices but I am learning with every session!

Kevin Allen's ideal table

We are all working together at the table to improvise a story, and should overall respect each others' creative decisions, as long as we're still having fun! Everyone has their own style and I'm cool with everyone joking around about things that happen or taking them seriously, as long as there's that respect for the characters underlying it!

Featured Prompts

I love it when a player

Tries to do something crazy or otherwise not covered by the rules, and I have to figure out what comes next. Improvising entire locations and characters based on the whim of a player is one of my favorite parts of the game. You can try anything, and I will make sure there are interesting results.

I think metagaming...

I think metagaming can be alright if it fuels creativity. If you think your character might know trolls are weak to fire, feel free to make a Nature check. If metagaming gives you a creative idea, give it a try (though I will likely ask for a check). Just be honest and it will be fine.

My table is not the place for...

My table is not the place for worrying over the rules. We are here to do cool things and let our creativity reign. If a rules dispute comes up, I will make a quick ruling for the moment to keep things fun and moving. We can always re-evaluate out-of-session later.