DeMo

5.0

(11)

Timezone

America/new York

About DeMo

Call me David or, as most of my friends call me, Demo (from my username). I don't play as many board games or draw as much as I used to because of gamemastering, but that addiction is good news for my players —which could include you! What makes me a GM? Raised eyebrows? Strange voices? Source-material mash-ups? "Yes, and..."? Compelling hooks and tense scenarios? "No, but..."? Intriguing mysteries and puzzling obstacles? Callbacks to party impacts on the world? Deadly and dynamic combats? Respecting players, their time, and interests? Reveals of backstory integrations? Et cetera and potpourri? —Iocane powder? I wouldn't bet my life on that last one, —but together we can sharpen our TTRPG chops and have fun at the same time. When my board gaming friends wanted to try RPGs, the only one willing to GM was me. What I found out was that running games scratched my gaming, creative and crafting, as well as social interaction itches better than any other activity. Nothing else offers that same experience. I consider myself a student of many much more experienced GMs on the interwebs, (especially Professor DM, Sly Flourish, and the Alexandrian...) and also a student of everyone I game with —what twist or surprise are you going to throw at my prep and into our game?

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

21 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Voices, Teacher

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

Featured Prompts

My favorite shows/movies are

Die Hard, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Fargo, The Thing, Wallace and Gromit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, See No Evil Hear No Evil; The Booth at the End, Spaced, The Mighty Boosh, Invader ZIM, Gankutsuou, The Last Kingdom, Dark, Fringe, Community, Drakkenheim...

People are always surprised when I tell them

that I never did theatre in school. I enjoy roleplaying, but I am not an extroverted person —except when sitting behind a GM-screen.

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

spending time with my family, painting miniatures with my nephew, fighting to get approvals from health insurances at my day-job, or watching shows and films.

How DeMo runs games

My goal is to focus on the evolving story and characters. I am a fan of the players, not your opponent. I'm often ready to make an exception for *Rule of Creative* when a player suggests something mechanically justifiable and exciting. I enjoy making handouts, showing random bits of art, and putting on accents (even if they're silly or bleed into each other) and acts for NPCs. (Years of driving friends crazy by roleplaying random characters during social-deception games like Werewolf / Mafia and Two Rooms and a Boom unwittingly prepared me for RPGs.) In-person: Our groups mostly use tactical grids. Online: I am more likely to use theater of the mind until a major location or enemy is involved and then switch to a grid. Combat, social, exploration, and puzzle encounters all have their time and place in a campaign (probably in that order), and I try to make sure we don't go too long without each aspect. I tend to run a lot of investigative adventures, puzzling obstacles, and varied and quirky NPCs, often in dark settings with intersections of comic-relief.

Featured Prompts

I deal with rules issues by...

having the players walk the plank! (By which I mean, if we can't resolve the question within 60 seconds, we move forward with my ruling until we can research it during a break or between sessions.)

If my games were Movies they'd be directed by...

the Coen brothers —and Michael Bay (because the Coens just need more action and explosions), and produced by Bruckheimer since he knows how to get that big-game production-value. (I wouldn't dare try to compare my games to Akira Kurosawa!)

Rules are...

"more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules," yarrr. I run: 1st) Rules as Intended, 2nd) Rules as Written, 3rd) When my memory causes mistakes, we keep rolling on, 4th) I'm always on the lookout to make an exception for *Rule of Creative* when something novel for the situation is suggested!

DeMo's ideal table

Players should ideally be open to collaboration with each other whether that's with creatively, mechanically, or roleplaying. It's a great feeling when we can all come together at the table and roll like a well-oiled, team machine that respects everyone and plays to each other's strengths. I try to set the mood of the table to echo the theme and vibe of the adventure, but if the group has a funny moment in a serious adventure I will promote or build on that because I love when the group laughs together. My tables have always had a mix of shy / reserved and loud / extroverted players. So regardless of where you fall, I'm familiar with making sure that everyone is getting their moments to shine and contribute when they're willing. I will aim to customize the game-world and game-style to the players/group as best I can. However, you are most likely to enjoy my table if you like a mix of encounter types (instead of constant optimized combats), enjoy mysteries, find odd voices and bad accents endearing, like dark settings, and appreciate comic-relief intersections breaking up the seriousness from dominating the whole session.

Featured Prompts

If you're into ___, you're going to love my table

"trying new games" —once upon a time, I wanted to be a teacher: working on my history PhD and teaching video-game design to kids at summer-camp. While I may not be a school-teacher, I am enthusiastic about helping you learn new RPGs.

I love it when a player

does something I never thought of! (You are more creative that you think. Yes, you, reading this.) "—Wait; what are you trying to accomplish?!"

My table is not the place for...

flipping the table, dancing on top of the table (you know what you did, Evelyn), Player-vs-Player fighting (different from characters*), or arguments that bleed outside roleplaying. We're here to have fun together, and that means respecting each other as if we were friends or at least professionals.