DMFaenor

he/they

5.0

(55)

Timezone

America/chicago

Language

English

Identity

Streamer

Neurodivergent

Artist

Cosplayer

Voice Actor

Game Designer

About DMFaenor

Imagine The air is cold, stale, and dry. You entered to half-buried hill of old stones following clues scrounged from the lair of cultists, paired with research the wizard spent weeks on...weeks of boredom in the sleepy town. Now, you finally get to stretch your limbs and do what you do best! Ahead of your group the darkness billows like a gauzy curtain. Rock dust grits beneath your boots as the party creeps into a broken chamber. The small sounds you make echo back to you seconds later, distorted, and the ceiling is lost above you in shadow. You can feel the crushing weight of stone above. The fighter carries a torch which gutters in a sudden wind. Sounds creep from the surrounding dark; the dry rasp of scales on stone. The sorcerer's eyes go white as it watches from above through the eyes if it's familiar. The sound of the rogue's footsteps fade as they slip away from the torch's light, knowing that an attack is imminent. Inhuman throats hiss all around the party, whispering coughs punctuating the roiling darkness. At the edges of the torch light the gloom takes shape. Scaled creatures in filthy robes hiss as they charge into the circle of the party's light...What do *you* do?! Decades of Passion and Experience are your Game Engine Play campaigns that are a combination of player-generated and GM-inspired. Be immersed in rich description, action, problem-solving, and meaningful choice! Enjoy tense combat in a combination of grid tactics and narrative description. Dive into sandbox-style play, build your character’s name, resources, and power while unraveling mysteries and secrets. Then use those secrets to alter the direction of the world story, impacting hundreds or thousands with your decisions. Interact with new game mechanics, magic items, and creatures. Personalize your character and tie their abilities to the history of the world. Enjoy tailored gameplay based on character background, abilities, and player playstyle. Delve into grounded and human settings, with events happening beyond your character's actions, and NPCs who have agendas of their own. Experience detailed, evocative worlds, and explore them with a fun table of players and flexible GM who has something to offer every playstyle! Different Playstyles I run several tables and each table has a different game style. New players are absolutely welcome! I enjoy bringing new players in. It may actually be one of my favorite things. New players always bring a fresh perspective, a curiosity about the game, a willingness to flow with others, fresh creativity, and bravery when it comes to trying new things. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons are my best tables for new players. Some of my tables are more challenging than others, some campaigns or groups leaning more toward grittyness, hardcore gameplay, and deep detail. Regardless, the groups that form around my game tables are all gracious and patient...because this is what we feel it takes to make a great game! Old-School, Narrative, and Homebrew I combine elements from many editions of the game, alter rules for each table and world to match the theme, and in many ways tailor the game to my table. If you are looking for a strict interpretation of 5e rules, looking to play the mechanics, min/max, run game-breaking builds, etc, and are put off by homebrew and rule changes I may not be the DM for you. However, if you are into the spirit of co-creation, like characters that are unique to the table, and want both narrative and granular play then feel free to join us and observe a session!

At a glance

4 years on StartPlaying

1031 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Teacher

Featured Prompts

My favorite books are

Lord of the Rings, Tolkien Winter of the World Series Black Company Series Wheel of Time Recluse Sage Corum, Elric, and Hawkmoon Series Dune Series (the whole thing) Armor Thieves' World Homeland Saga Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams Amber Saga, Zelazny +

My favorite shows/movies are

Legend The Dark Crystal Wizards Heavy Metal, both versions Lord of the Rings Trilogy Star Wars, Original Trilogy Conan Series Krull The Neverending Story Labyrinth Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990 Blade Runner, Bladerunner 2049 Akira Castlevania Princess Mononoke Underworld Series Blade Series +

My favorite system of all Time is

Mage: The Ascension 1st and 2nd ED The lore, the magic system, the feel of the game are all second to none, for me. The stories you can tell surpass any game I have played.

How DMFaenor runs games

***What I offer as a GM:*** -Evocative descriptions -Immersive settings -Grounded fantasy -Voices and accents -Co-creation and collaboration -Love of mythology, storytelling, and cosmology -Welcoming and helpful to new players -Rules-medium gameplay -Original creatures, settings, and items -30 years experience (running, playing, home-brewing) -30 years of experience sword-fighting, martial arts, combat sports, larping, and reenactment -A Safe, inclusive space -High Player agency I tend toward the epic, the classic, the pulp, the mystical/mythological, the dark, and/or the heist...often some combination. I am a rules *medium* gamemaster; I love tactical combat as well as a sense of dynamics and action. I primarily use D&D 5e as it has the widest player base, but with original rules and mechanics. I encourage homebrewing and taking ideas from other games, and especially supporting the growth of 3rd party communities. I have no loyalty to WotC, but instead to the overall community which keeps the game alive and fresh. My philosophy is that the rules, the dice, character abilities, and player expectations are all tools to serve the experience of the players as well as the GM. Rules and limitations are often what makes the game fun, and I will sacrifice them in the name of drama, tension, cool, fun, story, or challenge level. I keep the game flowing, but I do not railroad players or tell them what they are doing. I don't ask players to cripple themselves, but I encourage players to make *people*, however they want to build it mechanically. I like to focus on the player to learn what interests them...so I can add more of that to the game.. As a GM I can go all sorts of directions depending on the game and the players. I have run grim dungeon crawls, intrigue-based social games, strategic war-based games. Players can often take their pick of what to dig into. Developing contacts, hide-outs and forts, rising in the ranks of an organization, following epic quests, or surviving their own mistakes! I love doing voices and playing different characters. I love creating an epic world with history and mystery and letting players explore it however they want, though each decision may carry hidden consequences! Exploration, combat, NPC interaction, and world story are often central at my table. Players in my games enjoy impacting the world, events, and the lives of NPCs. I always root for the players, am playful but grounded in my rules approach, but I also play my antagonists to the hilt! I have been playing games and running them for decades, and I have found something...profound. TTRPGs are fun, but they can more than that! They are an opportunity for us to try on different livess, and to work through stories and problem-solve in scenarios we could never enter IRL. TTRPGs allow us to try on new behaviors and vocabulary, and can even help us see ourselves entirely differently, perhaps even helping us develop part of ourselves. TTRPS can be fun, but they can also be relaxing, informative, inspirational, and empowering. Open Seats! *New Players Interested Games Already Started* To make sure new players feel welcome, and to alleviate any concerns of inclusion or immersion common to joining an existing campaign, I offer the following services: Interaction through text, and 30-60 minutes on voice one-on-one to give backstory, setting info, and info on the game so far so that the new player can determine what their character has been doing so far. I will then message the party and catch them up on this. Once the session starts the players will recap the last session (as we do each session, for memory and continuity). Then I will introduce the new character and restate what they have been doing, and take a few minutes for the players to describe their characters, RP a bit, and familiarize themselves with each other. In terms of the game I begin working the new player's interests into the game, and add challenges specific for their character as soon as possible. Check out my videos on youtube and twitch to get a feel for my table style! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1709869096

Featured Prompts

My games focus on...

Living worlds with factions and NPCs with agendas, worlds torn away from our by divine magic, heroes thrust into roles far beyond their station which force them to rise to the occasion. Heroes must marshal their resources, allies, and unearth secrets no one else has...secrets that come with a price.

Rules are...

The limitations that make the game fun, a way the players can interface with the world, and something warped and circumvented by luck, cleverness, power level, and divine intervention!

When it comes to voices

I do all kinds! I love getting into character, developing speech patterns and accent for major characters, and even side characters.

DMFaenor's ideal table

Players who want to experience a bit of the old-school survival aspect of D&D, who want to discover their character as well as their environment, who want to RP aND problem solve with the other players, who can enjoy a setback or loss as well as a win, and who want an immersive experience!

Featured Prompts

I love it when a player

Surprises me with a clever solution or gutsy bit of RP, something that cuts through the challenge with flair and awesome story moments!

I think min/maxing...

That should take a backseat to having an organic character that is born from the world it is being played in. It is something I am cool with, so long as players don't expect to win during character creation :)

My perfect party mix is

Whatever composition comes together when everyone makes the character they want. I find group dynamic is more interesting and scenarios are more challenging when the table does *not* have the traditional party make-up.