Jason Leisemann

he/him

5.0

(15)

Timezone

America/chicago

About Jason Leisemann

Mostly GMing for the last 30 years, I've had more ideas than I could ever get to the table. Hopefully, this will be a chance to get a few of them out of my head! I tend towards story-focused games that incorporate player input and plot threads, ranging from comedic tones to horrific ones. A student of myth, history, and true crime, I try to layer in some of the complexities that show up more in reality than in most published games - the forces of good and evil trend more towards the gray spaces in between, even the worst villains may have the best of motivations, and people are shaped by their pasts as much as their place in the story. I find it's a mindset that helps give a bit more depth to the world, and makes things feel a little more epic when done right.

At a glance

3 years on StartPlaying

371 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, Teacher

Featured Prompts

I got started GMing...

...as the Forever GM among my friends, blending classic and advanced D&D off some of the later printings. Since then, I've only roamed farther into the weird, wonderful aces the hobby leads.

My 3 systems I'd bring to a desert island would be

Hero System 5e - universal and flexible Fabulous Ultima RPG - niche genre emulation Whispering Vault - favorite setting ever

My favorite shows/movies are

Flight of Dragons Hellraiser 1/2 Halloween 1/3 Friendship is Magic Masters of the Universe Thundarr Fury Road Most ID programs Poltergeist: The Legacy Kolchak: The Night Stalker How's that for eclectic?

How Jason Leisemann runs games

I tend to run story-focused games with thoroughly developed worlds surrounding the game's subject matter. I try to focus on allowing a variety of rules content and letting my players run the character they want to run, even if that's just a smidge outside of the rules-as-written. In particular, what I usually enjoy the most is trying to incorporate those characters and their personal stories into whatever the larger story is, even if that means retooling major portions of a pre-written campaign in order to fit the new parts in. So if you've got a character you've wanted to play, but never had a GM who was willing to let you run your half-fiend wildebeest necromancer/paladin... well, I haven't heard that one before, but I'm certainly open to give it a shot!

Featured Prompts

I deal with rules issues by...

Checking to make sure I remember things correctly, and then making a ruling based on what's best for the game at the moment. I may change a ruling after further review, or ignore a rule I find isn't helpful, that's why there's a GM and not an "AI".

My games focus on...

Exploring the world and its lore, as well as questioning the assumptions that players and characters make about who's doing what and why.

Rules are...

...there so everybody is speaking the same language about how the game works. They're how you answer the "I hit you/no, my cape makes me invincible!" argument.

Jason Leisemann's ideal table

My table is fairly casual, focused on everybody having fun and not stressing too much. My ideal player is somebody who wants to explore the world and story around *and* in their characters, and isn't too worried about sticking to the rules as tightly as possible when the alternative is more fun.