Armando Luis Alvarez (iamisandisnt)

he/him

Timezone

America/new York

Language

English

Identity

Streamer

Published Writer

Artist

Teacher/Educator

Game Designer

About Armando Luis Alvarez (iamisandisnt)

Former Game Developer with 5th Cell (makers of Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life), and internationally distributed filmmaker (Writer/Director/Producer of "Engrams", Cinematographer for "Digital Diaspora Family Reunion," Sundance 2014), once under NDA at Netflix, now here to share my ~30 years (born in '84, so I'm 40 as of 2024) of Dungeons and Dragons experience, professional storytelling skills and natural team-building disposition with you! Check out my web site for info on my varied career: http://www.isandisnt.com Please see my recommendations on LinkedIn from Game Designers that I trained in visual storytelling using Unreal Engine! :) https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamisandisnt/details/recommendations My Roll20 account has a good bit of activity, but not nearly as much as I've accrued over years of forums, chat rooms, email and even WebRPG back in the day :) https://app.roll20.net/users/1499718/iamisandisnt

At a glance

1 year on StartPlaying

How Armando Luis Alvarez (iamisandisnt) runs games

I have been told I am a very good, well-rounded DM. I like to make sure every player is feeling involved, comfortable, immersed and having fun. The careful balance of role playing opportunities, exciting action, interactive environmental storytelling and deep lore mean every player type from Bartle's (slightly out-dated) taxonomy is sure to have a good time. I prefer a somewhat realistic tone, with opportunity for witty banter, clever sarcasm, and hilarious antics, when grounded in the world, with a slight sense of danger. I'm also not a fan of character death unless it's something the player is actively seeking, with an entourage of backup characters ready to step in. The older game systems, especially Gygax's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition, really appeal to me. I've also been a fan of World of Darkness (Vampire/Werewolf 2nd Edition) since the 90s. Would love to explore any of the other games on my Game Systems list, as I have digital versions of all of them! I don't expect you to have any acting chops, nor do I enjoy putting people on the spot to come up with something their character would say, when we are in fact trying to *role play* as something other than ourselves. I welcome a good voice actor (as I have worked with plenty, and find great joy in seeing the written word come to life), and I encourage people to describe what their character says if they don't want to act it out. "Can I ask the NPC about local rumors?" for example, is totally cool in my book. That's what the Charisma attribute is for ;) Personally, I can slip into a voice without realizing it, and I might specifically embellish an NPC I've chosen to pick on, or I might spend an entire session speaking with a broken English accent describing everything in third person. I don't usually pick a specific voice for each character nor will I plan on voice acting all of the time, but it will certainly pop up. Text-based sessions I find can be very exciting, as the inner-writer comes out, free to embellish as one sees fit. I've been doing that longer than anything else, so if players are in tune with that method, I'll be glad to show off my WPM. I've run dozens of online campaigns, one-off adventures, all-summer all-nighter gladiator arenas on AOL, and longer campaigns such as Hoard of the Dragon Queen or home-brewed campaign worlds. I have a whole collection of old-school AD&D adventures that I'm eager to explore, from the A-Q series to Birthright and beyond! :)