Quill

About Quill

What do you get when you combine a Veteran Roleplayer with a Baby DM? Why that would be me! As a teenager I played unstructured roleplaying in chat rooms and message boards, long before "social media" was a term we all used in everyday life. (Does anyone remember the LOTR Plaza??) I started playing in LARP scenes, particularly the SCA, around the age of 16. At university I was introduced to D&D (3.5e, though I didn't know that at the time), and learned to play purely by the grace of some very patient friends and generous DM's. Fast forward to the pandemic, I'm now in my 30's, when my little sister asks me and my brothers if we want to play D&D with her. A few months, games, and several podcasts later, I'm fully immersed in 5th Edition, and only spreading out from there! Since then D&D, and TTRPG's in general, have become more and more a feature of my life. I have played dozens if not hundreds of sessions in the last six years, some of them "professionally" (in that the games were livestreamed and sponsored and the players compensated). I edit audio for a very popular Australian D&D Actual Play podcast, and manage the Fandom Wikis and Discord servers for them and a few other popular TTRPG podcasts. I am the Events Coordinator for my local gaming/board game café, which mostly consists of organising and promoting TTRPG one shots. And so, recently, I've begun DMing a bit. Mostly very simple Beginner Friendly One Shots that are specifically designed to teach both the players and the DM the rules. Well, everyone has to start somewhere, right? I've had some great times here on StartPlaying, and I want to get more experience under my belt, so I thought this might be the community to spread my wings. Although I'm still finding my feet, I can tell you a few things for certain: 1. I've always been one of those people who believes Roleplaying Games should be about Roleplaying, and that ultimately we are here to tell a cool story together. 2. I'm all about "having fun" and the "rule of cool" being far more important than Rules Lawering all day long. For some people, getting into the weeds about the rules IS fun, so I take that into consideration; I like arguing about the minutiae of the text from time to time too! But at the end of the day, if it stops being a Good Time, it's time to pivot. 3. I run a very "safe" table; I am a big fan of thorough Session 0's and Safety Tools. If you're not into that kind of thing, my table is not for you, but if you like a DM who will look after you, especially if you're a bit tender, if you've been burned by bad DM's in the past, I'm interested in helping you heal and come back to the table with confidence. 4. Sorry-not-sorry, in my "real" life I'm an EDI professional, and I love creating spaces where Diversity is prominently featured and given space to express itself. I myself tick several boxes, and I am going to prioritise storylines that elevate and celebrate characters who IRL would be pushed to the margins. That doesn't mean I refuse to play with non-disabled white cishetero men, it just means the bar for those guys is a little higher sometimes. Games I currently am comfortable DMing include D&D 5e (2014 rules), Pathfinder 2, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and Honey Heist. But I'm looking forward to adding to my repertoire soon. I welcome both absolute newbies who, like me, are still learning the ropes, as well as experienced players who can teach me how to be a better DM by letting me run games for them and allowing me space to make mistakes. Can't wait to have you at my table!