Emil

he/they

5.0

(15)

Timezone

America/denver

About Emil

OK 👏Let’s do this. My name is Emil. • Bunnies are mathematically optimized pets. I will not be taking questions. • The best campaign in the world isn’t an AP, it’s the messy one your weird friend ran for you in high school. • Pineapple-anchovy pizza is delicious, but cowards will never know. I came of age in the baroque era of Third Edition and early Pathfinder. Combat was heavy and the rules for grappling required higher order math. All my handouts were barely disguised spreadsheets and my stories had enough teenage melodrama to fill a Tumblr archive. Twenty years later and systems are sleeker. I hide my spreadsheets better now, but the soap opera stuck. These days, I still love and run crunchy, tactical combat games. I also draw on the chaos of Powered by the Apocalypse and the weirdo brilliance of small-press zines. If you have been clutching a bizarre little game nobody else understands, good news! I’ve already devoured it, and I might even have a session prepped and lying in wait for you to ambush your unsuspecting friends with tonight. In the daytime, my alter ego is a teacher. Which might explain my obsession with rules, chaos, and watching characters run face first into obviously avoidable drama. It also means I love helping newcomers find their voice. Whatever your background or experience level, you can count on my table being a safe, welcoming place to learn, explore, and challenge yourself. So, if you are just starting out and worried about being too weird or not getting everything exactly right, congratulations. You are my new favorite. Let’s roll some dice and make some bad decisions.

At a glance

3 years on StartPlaying

219 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, Storytelling

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

Featured Prompts

My favorite books are

Watership Down: Wrecked me as a kid. I thought I was ready. I wasn’t. In the Dream House: Not for people who flinch, or only show pride when it’s rainbow-wrapped and brand-safe. The Black Company: Everything’s broken, but the mess makes sense. There’s comfort in a world I recognize.

How Emil runs games

As a Dungeon Master, I aim to create a dynamic blend of adrenaline-pumping action and immersive role-playing experiences. D&D is, at its core, a combat-centric game, and I wholeheartedly embrace that. My goal is for players to feel like epic heroes, capable of conquering monumental challenges. Yet, these pulse-pounding moments truly resonate only when we're deeply invested in the story, our characters, and each other. That's why I gravitate toward running sandbox-style campaigns. These open-world settings offer players abundant room for role-play, relationship-building, and making choices that leave an indelible imprint on both the storyline and the world at large. In my view, narrative and action are inextricably linked, each amplifying and enriching the other.

Featured Prompts

I prep by

I prep by building worlds that remember what you do. I sketch relationships, map consequences, and leave space for surprises. My notes are full of motives, secrets, and shifting alliances. Enough structure to feel real, enough give to follow where you lead.

Rules are...

The rules are... a good place to start. I do my best to keep things fair and flowing. If something important or weird comes up, we pause and figure it out. Otherwise, I focus on earning trust in my judgment calls so players have the freedom to get creative and push boundaries.

Emil's ideal table

Some of my favorite table moments aren’t big battles or epic plot twists. They’re human choices that ripple outward. I love when players notice each other’s stories. Or form a weirdly intense relationship with the grotesque little fly-devil dungeon janitor. Or when an aerial combat turns into a desperate challenge to ride on top of the evil dragon mech. Rules matter. They’re the magic circle we agree to live inside. But the moments I remember most aren’t about perfect tactics. They’re when the rules become a shared language we use to explore something unexpected. When mechanics support character choices, and those choices leave a mark on the world. One of the best parts of DMing on StartPlaying is getting to meet so many different kinds of players and seeing how each one solves problems in their own specific way. In almost every game I’ve run, there’s been at least one jaw-dropping moment so bold, so clever, so completely unhinged that it ripples outward beyond the session and reshapes my world across all the campaigns I run. My ideal table is full of players who treat each other with respect, stay curious, collaborate freely, and aren’t afraid to do something strange if it feels true. Those are the groups that make the stories you keep talking about years later.

Featured Prompts

I think metagaming...

Metagaming? Sure, just don’t be a jerk about it. Your character probably understands how a fireball works. What matters is keeping the game fun, surprising, and collaborative. No spoilers, no telling other people how to play.