William Walters

he/him

5.0

(5)

Timezone

America/chicago

Language

English

About William Walters

I've been an avid D&D player since I was a teenager, starting with AD&D back in the early 90s. I've dipped my toes in GURPS, Fantasy Flight's Star Wars, Blades in the Dark, and a few other systems over the years as well, but Dungeons and Dragons has been my favorite. I had been a dungeon master for a few adventures/one-shot games, but nothing serious. In recent years, due to geographic and covid-related separation, I had not been able to play D&D, and had quite the itch to do so. With no DM available, I took the plunge, came up with a campaign idea, crafted a storyline and characters for roll20, and started running a weekly session. The players liked it, and I've expanded to another campaign with different players-but the original campaign is still going, after nearly 4 years. My personal story is not terribly interesting. I was doing microbiome research until recently. I moved to a small city (sans institutions of scientific research, much less microbiome research) to care for an elderly and disabled relative. I'm hoping that my D&D campaign(s) can be a valuable enough experience that people would pay for them.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Knows the Rules, Storytelling, World Builder

$20 per session

Featured Prompts

My favorite shows/movies are

of recent shows, Andor was my favorite. I do also enjoy parody shows, like the Harley Quinn series, Archer, and The Venture Bros.

People are always surprised when I tell them

that I'm a high school dropout but also have a PhD.

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

1. trying to wrap up microbiome research papers from my prior job. 2. working on a turn-based squad game in a dystopian setting in Godot. 3. prank calling scammers who foolishly send an email with a phone number to call.

How William Walters runs games

I do like a mixture of roleplaying and combat. Usually a game session will have some sort of combat in it, but I've had a few sessions with roleplaying only. I do like to encourage and reward creative solutions to challenges or combat.

Featured Prompts

I prep by

I prep by reviewing the maps, NPCs (their motivations, abilities, personalities), and transitions between 'scenes' of the adventure.

My favorite trope is...

My favorite trope is ogres and brutish giants having a cockney accent. However, e.g. a hill giant will quickly become a Hank Hill giant, if a player thinks the accent is trite.

Rules are...

Rules are good for maintaining consistency, so the players and the DM are on the same page regarding "how the world works." If a rule gets in the way of fun though, it should be changed.

William Walters's ideal table

I do like collaboration between the players, and I especially like it when players have created a detailed background and goals/mission/etc for their character-it helps me to create the story and world. I also like to have the players decide whether to reward inspiration (for smart ideas, heroism, or roleplaying) by allowing them to initiate a vote to award it, rather than it being arbitrarily decided by me.