Jesse the GM

he/him

5.0

(7)

Timezone

America/new York

Identity

Artist

Teacher/Educator

Game Designer

About Jesse the GM

I've been GMing TTRPGs on-and-off since grade school. My early D&D obsession gave me a love of reading, drawing, and dark, weird, underground spaces. I recently started Scrying Skull creative studio with a friend. We're self-publishing adventures, doing art and design for other game creators, and running games. Check us out at www.scryingskull.com. I play Rules as Written, but I fully encourage creative ideas. I promise to do everything I can to keep you engaged and on your toes!

At a glance

1 year on StartPlaying

33 games hosted

Highly rated for: Teacher, Sets the Mood, Storytelling

Featured Prompts

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

drawing, designing an adventure, at the gym, or hanging out with my cats.

How Jesse the GM runs games

I run fun, friendly, immersive, and challenging games. I aim to bring old-school creativity and player agency together with modern systems and rules. I'm big on dungeon procedures (time and resource tracking, random encounters) because I think they add a level of transparency and challenge that players can engage with tactically. I prepare a part of a world, with all of its moving parts, for a session and then let whatever happens happen. I'm all about player agency and letting the the dice fall where they may. The world should be run as a simulation that reacts to what the players do. The spirit of friendship is important to me in TTRPG sessions. In order to have really good sessions, I think it's important that people get along and enjoy each other. We'll communicate before playing so that we know that our table will be a good one.

Featured Prompts

Rules are...

there to run the simulation.

Jesse the GM's ideal table

Just for convenience and quality of life, I want my players to have a decent sound setup, learn the rules enough to run their characters well, and learn the basics of using Foundry. I'm happy to teach, but I do expect people to learn! I consider this baseline good manners to make sure everyone can have a nice, immersive session. I like it best when everything is running so smoothly that the rules almost fade into the background and we can really imagine the scene we're in. I like brave players. I think the most fun comes from overcoming hairy challenges. Characters die sometimes. I like crafty players that come up with creative solutions and turn a seemingly impossible situation into a win.