Daedalus Cain

he/him

5.0

(5)

Timezone

America/los Angeles

Language

English

Identity

Artist

Game Designer

About Daedalus Cain

Got my start in RPGs shortly before WotC started sifting the ashes of TSR, and I've been running games and perfecting my craft ever since. I enjoy mature storytelling, character drama, puzzles, exploration, even tactical wargaming, so I include a mix of different styles in my games and I'm always learning new things. Huge 40k and Mass Effect nerd as well. Lefty LGBTQIA+ ally welcoming to everyone civil and tolerant, even if I often run settings that are nightmare dystopias (40k for example).

At a glance

1 year on StartPlaying

11 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Knows the Rules

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

I like to tell stories with emotional impact. Characters should have growth and development, high points and low points, trials and doubts, and it should feel cathartic when a story reaches it's end. The best ones leave you in tears and exhausted down to your very soul.

My favorite shows/movies are

Lots of sci-fi here - The Expanse, Farscape, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Altered Carbon, Dark Matter, Killjoys, Westworld, Doctor Who, Firefly, Ghost in the Shell - but I've also got a soft spot for MCU (at least Phase 1-3). I've also got an absolutely massive pile of to-be-watched

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

Working in IT or consuming knowledge. I love to read, learn new things, research, anything can be a source for ideas. Between running games and natural curiosity, I probably have some of the craziest browser history you've ever seen.

How Daedalus Cain runs games

I'm most often a "Nick Fury GM" which is to say that I like gathering the Avengers - The PCs come together as a team of highly-competent but often volatile personalities with some of the best abilities and equipment available, facing down apocalyptic foes where the pressure and stakes can lead to high drama. Not every game is like that, but it's the style I run the most often. While I like doing different accents and voices on occasion, I prefer text-driven RP - it's accessible to the hearing-impaired or those unwilling to speak online, it can yield better prose and greater immersion, and everything done in-game has a recorded chat history. Do note that text-driven games will be a bit slower paced due to the medium, but I can type extremely quickly so things shouldn't drag if you're familiar with text games. I'm also getting into PlayByPost for those that have scheduling issues and can't join regular sessions. I tend to aim for high production value for tactical maps with visual effects and custom tokens for everything (animated ones too if Roll20 cooperates). I aim to create worlds with rich lore, vivid descriptions, and living, breathing characters. In-game, I enjoy long in-character conversations, occasional puzzles, some exploration, and tactical combat with competent characters. Some games are mostly RP, while others are mostly combat, depending on what best fits the theme and what the players signed up for. I can run purely combat-driven games that centre on a team of specialists accomplishing objectives as part of a larger war, or I can run politically-minded worlds with dozens of factions and hundreds of NPCs and plots-within-plots that may go for a half-dozen sessions of investigation and manipulation before an attack is ever rolled. For most games, it's somewhere between the two extremes. I'm also willing to run smaller games with only 1 or 2 players and deeper immersion, though the booking price will increase a bit as those require a fair bit more work and attention.