Harper Hankinson

she/her

5.0

(7)

Timezone

America/los Angeles

Language

English

Identity

LGBTQ+

Veteran

Neurodivergent

Women/Femme Identifying

About Harper Hankinson

Welcome to my table! Hopefully, that’s soon to be our table. I have been playing tabletop roleplaying games for around 20 years, and running them for most of those. I’ve run games in more systems than I have fingers and toes, and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. Why so many games over so many years? Glad you asked! One, super simple reason: I love telling stories. Ever since I was a kid, making up ghost stories around campfires, or spinning yarns with Grandpa (and getting admonished by mom for listening to him), I have been drawn to the magic of stories. For me, TTRPGs are the best route to do it, because I get to do it with you, the player. No video game or film will ever be able to replace the raw, shared emotion that comes from building something together and bringing it to a beautiful conclusion over the course of months or years at the same table. I’m ready to put pen to paper, dice to table, together…Are you?

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Teacher, Storytelling, Knows the Rules

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

As much as I love partaking in stories, I love helping build them from the ground up even more. It's hard for me to *not* sit there and think about how I would build something as a GM. Almost anything can become inspiration!

My favorite books are

Few books have inspired me in the same way as the Dune saga, the old paperback Forgotten Realms novels (especially Black Wolf, by Dave Gross), or the modern romantasy trend (I'm a Jaqueline Carey stan). The best book I've ever read though? Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir. It absolutely haunted me.

When I'm not running games I'm...

Watching movies or TV, reading books, or playing video games. The next hit of inspiration for an adventure can strike from anywhere, and I am always searching for it.

How Harper Hankinson runs games

I would describe my approach as cinematic. For me, it's all about the total experience, not individual parts. Description of something can make or break any kind of encounter, whether it's combat, social, exploration, or investigation. I also believe that the players and GM are just two parts of the same team. Everyone is at the same table, so why shouldn't we *all* have a good time? The story is there to serve all of us, to call out to us in our daydreams and wandering thoughts. I want to help craft a game that has you hungering for the next session.

Featured Prompts

I deal with rules issues by...

For me, I will generally interpret things as they are written...unless that's no fun. If it's no fun, then I'll houserule or handwave it, or even just toss it straight into the bin.

If my games were Movies they'd be directed by...

James Gunn. I feel we both lean into building stories because it's *fun*, and that's what we want to communicate to people. If there's no fun in it, then why are we even here?

When it comes to voices

I can do them, but I'm not a professional. Instead, if I think I can't get a voice quite right, I might describe how the character speaks instead of trying to verbally imitate how they sound in my head.

Harper Hankinson's ideal table

Not too serious, not too silly, definitely focused on the game with low side-chatter. I enjoy when players flavor things up, so long as they're not writing Shakespeare to describe casting fireball. I also like weaving character backstories into the main one, but keeping them as side stories that support the main thread. Spotlight hogs and showboaters are my kryptonite, as are folks that don't take safety tools seriously. I use a three-strikes system, unless I encounter bigotry, which earns an instant boot out the door.

Featured Prompts

I think it's a red flag when players...

Talk over others or interject constantly. It's just plain rude and only serves to make the table more chaotic. I'm also not a huge fan of players rolling checks unprompted, then expecting me to rule on it when I didn't ask for it.

I think metagaming...

Depends on the degree to which it's done, but I think it can sometimes be useful. After all, we're real people at a table together, so we can't help it if information from outside the game slips in from time to time. If a player does it to earn advantage though... that's just cheating.

I think min/maxing...

Is perfectly acceptable! It's how some folks enjoy the game. However, I don't enjoy it when min-maxers dunk on people who don't do it, or use their builds to hog spotlights and dominate every encounter.