Isa The DM

she/her

5.0

(24)

TOP GM

Timezone

America/chicago

Language

English

Identity

LGBTQ+

Women/Femme Identifying

No Gen AI

About Isa The DM

Hello & Welcome to today! I am Isa and I am so glad you stopped by. Nothing brings me more joy than TTRPGs. I have been running games for a little over 10 years now and have enjoyed every minute of it. No matter your experience level, you have a place at my table. All of my adventures are built to be enjoyed by everyone! I have a background in improv, theater, and writing. My games focus heavily narrative and collaborative story-telling, putting the players in the driver's seat of the story. There is nothing I love more than getting a group of strangers together and watching them become a party. I hope to adventure with you soon! See you at the table!

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

11 games hosted

Highly rated for: Storytelling, Inclusive, Beginner Friendly

$20 per session

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

Top Game Master

One of StartPlaying's top-rated GMs, a player favorite and highly recommended.

Featured Prompts

I ran my first game...

in Monster of the Week! Did I accidentally TPK the party and start the apocalypse? Yes, yes I did. Was that the last time I ever TPKed a party? No, no it was not...

My favorite shows/movies are

Lord of the Rings (who doesn't have that on their list??), After Hours (a brilliant, odd 80s film), Our Flag Means Death, and Pan's Labyrinth.

How Isa The DM runs games

My style is consistently balancing the scales between horror/emotional depth and silly shenanigans. Some adventures I run fall to one side more than the other, but almost every single session has a bit of both in it. I am roleplay heavy with an appropriate dose of combat. I enjoy giving the players moral quandaries where there is no right answer but it makes them decide as a group what matters to them most. I do my best to make sure the players feel they have agency in the world as well as the agency themselves to tell me what is happening around them. I encourage this type of collaborative world building and story telling in all of my games.

Featured Prompts

I deal with rules issues by...

There are times where the rulebook will have it spelled it, at those times, I will follow the rule as the book says. BUT typically if you give me a good enough reason, and the rest of the party is on board, I will let you try.

When it comes to voices

I do them A LOT. I love giving NPCs voices and physical characterizations to give you hints or insight into what the characters motivations might be.

Isa The DM's ideal table

The players that tend to enjoy my games are ones that like to engage in the story, figure out puzzles and enjoy putting together clues to figure out the main story. I tend to not be for people who enjoy very "crunchy" numbers focused games. I almost always will reward the choice that is more narrative based. That is to say, there almost always will be combat at some point, but it is not the main focus nor will it be a majority of the session. My online tables are fairly low tech. I use only the necessary VTTs, websites, etc. that the game requires. This is very intentional since having complicated tech can not only confuse players, it can also slow down the story and take players out of the narrative we are building together.