Erika Kathryn

Featured Prompts

How Erika Kathryn runs games

My mantra is we’re here for a short time, not a long time, and to have fun. Life is stressful enough, games should be a place to connect and express joy (and enjoy a laugh or two…or thirty). We will never spend thirty minutes inspecting a piece of paper trying to determine just how valuable or integral it is to our mission, in my games. Rather, I’ll tell you pretty succinctly within the first or second skill check, if it even comes to it (“There’s a well-worn desk in the corn, a clutter of papers strewn about. Anyone with a passive perception score above 10 can see they’re old receipts, invoices from past shipments.” “I want to investigate them!” “OK … You notice the ink is old, faded between words. The paper looks crumbled at one corner, another sheet of parchment looks like it was torn when it was first opened. There is nothing noteworthy about the shipments themselves.”). I will, however, point out when there is potentially something to be investigated further (“The room is large, a cluster of boxes in the back, well worn chairs set up in some semblance of a circle. Windows line the back wall, and bookshelves fill the remainder of the space. Anyone with a passive perception score above 10 would notice the window sill has discoloration, though the glass appears to be in one piece.”). Action and choices are made to push the story further and to develop characters, in equal tandem. Even in fast-paced gameplay (tackling a single chapter from a sourcebook in one session), the way we execute the tasks color the world and I will often ask players to recount how they imagine the scene unfolding. For how dramatic and descriptive our scenes may be, there is always a comedic throughline to break the tension. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are my favorite literary devices, and I hope my players leave my games having spent just as much time strategizing as they did laughing. (And, if all else fails, we have fun flavorful NPCs to keep us amused and on our toes along the way. I play into the dramatics, though I wouldn’t say I’m a master of character voices. I do, apparently, tend to fall into a New Jersey accent far more often than I would say I’m comfortable with [I was raised in Philadelphia, dangit!]).

Featured Prompts

Erika Kathryn's ideal table

Players with deep histories to their characters & Players who are still figuring out their character's alignment are invited in equal-measure. We use the story to either challenge (and reinforce) your character's ideals, or to help develop them into something more concrete. Once in a game, we meet via my Discord. The server is used for information sharing and game tracking, as well as to connect with each other. Often, you will find both myself and players sharing gifs in the game channel during a session, or you’ll find us exploding with excitement over someone’s recently commissioned character art that they’re finally able to share with us all. I have started running movie nights where anyone is welcome to pop in and watch, and have begun polling interest in game nights (magic the gathering). Participation is never required, though I have found it to be an especially welcoming bunch no matter where you land. No matter what, my table is supportive, understanding, and nonjudgemental. Life comes first, always. We treat each other with respect, always. I have found that so long as we move with these values at the forefront, the fun unfolds organically.

Featured Prompts

Systems

Platforms

Game Mechanics

Themes

Game style