game master profile header image

Cost Per Player

$40.00
GM Griff

GM Griff (he/him)

5.0

(6)

Published Writer

Less than a year on StartPlaying

5 games hosted

Highly rated for: Knows the Rules, Rule of Cool, Inclusive

About me

"If one of you goes down inside the dungeon, and the rest of you leave their body there, I *will* hurt you with it." - GM Griff, Personal Rappan Athuk Campaign I've been running and playing Pathfinder for more than a decade, in both official and unofficial campaigns. Starting to consider I may have an addiction... -------------------------------------- Hello and welcome! My name is Griff and, with any luck, I'll be your host. I have experience in a couple of different game systems, including multiple versions of 'The World's Greatest Role-Playing Game' (a dubious title at best), but my one true TTRPG love will be Pathfinder 1st Edition. My most recent personal foray into running a TTRPG is an extensive West Marches style campaign focused on exploring the recesses of Rappan Athuk from Frog God Games and Necromancer Games. But apparently even a roster of 15+ consistent players and 60+ games in 18 months aren't enough to scratch the itch. So here I am! A good session/campaign doesn't involve the GM being against the players. It does, however, require a legitimate risk of failure to be rewarding. So I try to walk the line between antagonist and antagonisTIC. We're all here to have fun, after all, and that involves me both somberly remembering fallen characters, and cheering with the party when they manage to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. -------------------------------------- One of my favorite stories regarding my most recent campaign involves a group of low-level adventurers getting the better of a demon WAY outside of their weight class through clever planning, frantic fleeing, and an unapologetic amount of dumb luck. So they're digging around in Rappan Athuk, the Dungeon of Graves at level 3 or so. They come across a CR 11 demon trapped within a summoning circle and sitting on a pile of treasure, begging to be let out. Such a dangerous encounter, the measurements just say 'Don't Even Think About It'. Well the Bard's player fails a Knowledge (Religion) check and mistakes the demon for a devil and tries to, shall we say, make a deal. The demon convinces him to shake for it... and breaks the seal. The demon hands him a magic ring, then tries to grab the Bard (been a while since he ate, he's a hungy boi). Well the Bard casts a spell to parry the attack. 'No worries,' I think, 'the attack roll bonus was stupid high. He'd need a natural twenty to-...' Natural Twenty. The Bard bats the demon's claw away, chipping a nail in the process, grabs the magic ring (worth 100,000 gp), and starts HAULING ASS. The party bails at Mach 2, slamming doors and dropping smokescreens behind them as they make a break for the exit. The demon is tearing through doors and hallways behind them. They escape and start running into the wilderness, thinking they'd lost him. Me: "Why would you think it wouldn't leave the dungeon?" Them: **PANIK** Bit of quick thinking and map knowledge, the party decides to lure the demon into the lair of a bigger nasty they'd wisely decided to avoid tangling with in the past. A few more lucky rolls, some misdirection, and a heart attack or two later, and they've set up camp and are waiting to check the results in the morning. Then they hear the fight from half-a-mile away. They check the cave the next morning to find no sign of the demon (except a LOT of blood), and a froghemoth with a tummyache. For some reason they declined my offer to let them try to finish it off. The party pats themselves on the back and heads back into the dungeon, bright and early, to grab that nifty pile of treasure the demon had left behind. Right as they were packing it all into their bags, the demon steps into the room with them and closes the door behind it, trapping them all within. It's at half health and FULL ANGER about almost being lured to its death, having had to teleport out of the stomach of a monster a few hours ago. That was the single closest fight I've ever participated in, in my years of GMing. I still can't believe they managed to pull it off, in no small part thanks to the ring they'd stolen from a demon. I've also never been more proud of my players. --------------------------------------

GM Style

I'm capable of running a wide variety of encounters and situations, my passion is player agency and tension. While I pride myself on extensive rules knowledge/familiarity (and a blistering Googling speed behind the scenes), I'm not one to let a gap in the system get in the way of a good time. Tell me what you want to do, and I'll help you find a way to make it happen. For good and ill. Strengths: - Combat (generic and "set pieces") - Exploration (On macro and micro scales) - Rule of Cool (Games should be fun) - Player Agency (I'll help you make it happen) - Improvisation - Rules Familiarity - Flexible schedule (I can run games at 2am on a weekday if that's what works) Weakness: - Variety of NPC voices - Can get flustered when an encounter is too easy to be engaging. (Working on it)

Games played
Game platforms used
What's StartPlaying?

Tabletop Roleplaying Games Run by Game Masters

  • Find a game to join solo or search for a professional game master for you and your friends/coworkers/family.

  • Book your session and wait for the Game Master to approve you.

  • If you don't have a blast with your first game, your next game is on us.