Stephen Fleetwood (he/him)
5.0
(8)
2 years on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, Knows the Rules
About me
Hello! My name is Stephen Fleetwood. I love to run games and have spent my whole life loving running games. I have run games for friends and strangers, at clubs and conventions. I have run games I have written, games I have published, and other people's games. I tend these days to love running theatre of the mind games, with smaller systems, where I can invite players to a unique experience. I want to run you a game where you have epic encounters and cunning mysteries and get to see worlds you might never have seen elsewhere. I believe in games where the characters are central to the plot and the world and tend to run games where the characters are significant players and influencers in the fate of the setting. I am a partly improvisational gm, and never run from pre-published encounters. One of my great joys in gaming is my players taking a random tangent and running with it. Keeping up with them and giving the places they go satisfying, interesting, and awesome conclusions is what makes me happy when running games. I love safety techniques and will include them in any game I run.
GM Style
I love to run games that put the characters front and center. I like to make the characters consequential and important parts of the worlds of the games I run and put them in situations to change the world and be big damned heroes. I tend towards a more improvisational GM style, so there will be no railroads for the players in my games. Instead, I like to offer a wide-open world where the players can choose routes towards their eventual goals. it is then up to me to make sure that the route is interesting, fulfilling, and awesome! I like investigation, roleplay, and combat to be all mixed in my games, with a focus on making every scene as memorable and interesting as possible. In one-offs and short games, I like to focus as much as possible on the important, exciting scenes and use flashbacks and assumptions of competence to cover the background things.
Games played
Game platforms used
Game Master Reviews (8)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Storytelling
Creativity
Knows the Rules
Jamie
Stephen has GM'd game for for our gaming group for over 25 years. Having played games run by many GMs in my years, I can confidently Stephen is the best. He has a unique approach got roleplay games, he builds living worlds that react to the players interaction. He rewards players for strong roleplaying moments and creative ideas, often molding the path of the game to allow players to explore interesting things they discover. This flexibility allows for extremely fluid and creative games. The true masterwork is how he turns that story back to his grand finales.
Mark
I've played in many games Stephen has run, and he is always exceptional both in terms of his own passion & energy & enthusiasm, and also his interaction with his players. Every time I have played in one of his games, it has been a privilege. 🙂
Mike
I've played in a number of games with Stephen. When we played a Dune game in particular, I was amazed as his knowledge of the IP universe, how efficiently he had us collaborating on the creation of the major factions in the game, and how he seemed to conjure the perfect Aspect or Stunt name whenever we were stuck. An all round nice guy. Plus, he has the voice of Brian Blessed - you can't go wrong with Stephen..
Benjamin
Brilliant GM - many years of experience, creative, engaging and really draws the whole group into the game. I cannot recommend highly enough.
Robert Parkins
Stephen is a great story teller and is fair when using rules. I have always had fun when in one of his games. When adjudicating an encounter, he knows the the rules and the numbers so he is good at resolving everything the players come up with. He is always friendly and helpful.
Patrick
Stephen is an amazing DM with a great feel for story telling an eye for drawing the players individual backstories into a single narritive that ties into the central plot. He is adaptive and open to the free will of the party whilst still managing to 'Herd us cats' in the right direction without it feeling restrictive. I would sign up to a game run by Stephen anytime.
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