David Ingram

he/him

5.0

(5)

Timezone

America/los Angeles

Language

English

About David Ingram

Hello! My name is David, I'm an opera singer and actor based out of Los Angeles, CA and I've been DMing for about 8 years or so. I've DMed many tables, settings, adventures, and stories for my friends throughout the years and I'd love to adventure with you! I was drawn to the game ever since I was a kid seeing it in pop culture and the "mystique" of D&D always fascinated me. As an avid gamer, the worlds of fantasy are very familiar to me and the experiences offered by TTRPGs seemed almost too good to be true. That was until college, I overheard a buddy of mine putting together a table to play and I asked if I could join and I was hooked for life. Since then, I've played in dozens of advenures and GMed dozens of campaigns and One-Shots. I've also been introduced to the plethora of amazing other TTRPGs such as Call of Cthulu, Blades in the Dark, and most recently Daggerheart to name a few. When not playing TTRPGs or video games, I'm watching anime with my wife and my favorite dog, Titan.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Teacher, World Builder, Creativity

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

I have thousands of worlds, ideas, stories, and characters in my head and wanted to get them out!

My favorite books are

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and Disk World by Terry Pratchet.

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

Playing video games! I've been an avid gamer since I was 4 years old, I play all genres, styles, and games from shooters to strategy, from cozy games to soulsbornes. One of my favorite passtimes is homebrewing things for 5e from video games. I've made races and items from Zelda to Dark Souls.

How David Ingram runs games

My GMing style is versatile. I like to tailor how I play to what my group prefers. Personally, I love tactical combat mixed with social intrigue in my games, finished with a dash of exploration and dungeon delving. As I get older I've come to realize that a great story can be distilled in 4-8 sessions, so those smaller adventures and arcs are my strong suite but I equally love a long form campiagn or even one shots as well.

Featured Prompts

I prep by

I prep the world and not the story. I like to treat my games like theme parks, players have the freedom to go where the please and do what the like in the confines of the park. So I prep to make sure the park and all the attractions are as fun and engaging as possible.

My games focus on...

My games focus heavily on character and the world. I do my best to try to make the worlds feel lived in and alive, like they're a player at the table to. I enjoy all of the pillars of play from combat, exploration, and social, and enjoy coming up with fun and engaging challenges for the players.

Rules are...

Rules are what everything else in the game are predicated upon, BUT we are also playing a game and the primary objective is to have fun. Rulings over rules, rulings can be bent or tweaked to allow creativity within the confines of world logic, game logic and above table fun.

David Ingram's ideal table

I lead very narratively driven advantures. There's a strong emphasis on lore, story, world-building etc. so players interested in the narrative ascpects of the game will probably be a better fit than those that love the intricacies of the game's mechanics. While I, too, am an avid optimizer when I am a player and reward players with encounters that let them utilize their character's strengths, I think people will find my table more rewarding if they come into it with their sights set on the overarching narrative.

Featured Prompts

I love it when a player

takes risks. The biggest swings lead to the biggest moments (in success or failure!!) so I always love when a player either steps out of the comfort zone and really embraces their character and makes a bold choice.

I think metagaming...

is required to enjoy the game *TO A DEGREE.* We're people playing a game. Even the best actors in the world would struggle to seperate the two completely. As long there's no egregious offenses: players coordinating a plan above table without in game knowledge, disregarding their PC's traits, etc.

I think min/maxing...

is awesome. I do it myself. I only challenge players to come up with a narrative reason for it. I let the most busted stuff at my table fly if the player can give me a strong motiviating backstory or narrative hook to occompany it