Jess
she/her
5.0
(26)
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About Jess
Hi! I'm Jess, and I'm: ⭐ An award-winning TTRPG designer ⭐ An experienced actual play podcaster ⭐ A published sci-fi author ⭐ A GM of over 15 years ⭐ A professional educator I especially love: 🎲 Running open-world, open-ended sandbox games driven by player agency and dynamic, interconnected factions, NPC relationships, objectives to make the world feel alive. 🎲 Sci-fi systems like Mothership and Shadowrun—I even have a circuitboard tattoo on my scalp. I also run my own games, like the Starship Troopers and Helldivers-inspired 'narrative wargame' PLANET FIST! When I GM: 🎲 I'm careful to make sure every player gets their turn in the spotlight. 🎲 I always weave player-created backstories into the existing world. 🎲 As a designer of multiple GMless games, I'm skilled at bringing the best contributions out of other players at the table, enabling them to contribute and help shape the overall world. 🎲 My players praise my knack for drawing connections between characters and stories, in ways that make the world feel rich and inhabited. You can hear me GM on AP podcasts like Role Playing Public Radio, and facilitate my award-winning GMless games Going Rogue and I Have the High Ground on podcasts like A More Civilized Age, One Shot, Party of One, and more.
At a glance
2 years on StartPlaying
5 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, Storytelling
Average response time: 19 hours
Response rate: 83%
Featured Prompts
When I'm not running games I'm...
designing them! Also, writing (and reading) science fiction, recording actual play podcasts, writing music (synthwave), playing roguelikes, teaching primary school, and more!
How Jess runs games
My GM style emphasizes one element above all else: a living, breathing world. This means: 🎲 Players are welcome to go off the beaten path. 🎲 My preparation emphasizes a deep, connected web of factions, forces, and NPC relationships that make for an interesting and responsive environment no matter what direction players decide to go—rather than a railroaded linear narrative. 🎲 I combine this with illustrative descriptions and heavily stylized character voices and performances to deliver a world players can feel immersed in. This emphasis on rich relationships and a narratively compelling world does not, however, come at the expense of combat! In designing my own game PLANET FIST, I focused above all else on creating combat that was more than making the same to-hit roll then potentially doing nothing on your turn when you miss. I take this same approach to GMing other systems like Mothership and Shadowrun—two systems I appreciate for offering players a variety of unique ways to meaningfully engage with combat. I believe: 🎲 Every turn should come with an interesting decision to make. 🎲 Every result should advance the story that is inherent to any firefight. 🎲 Each turn should have clear stakes, with the potential for triumphant successes and "I've bested the GM" moments, along with the sort of compelling failures that foster stakes and narrative tension, and tee-up those successful moments. As a professional educator, I also pride myself on my ability to introduce players to new systems of all kinds, and ensure they're having fun with them from session 1 (or 0!)
Featured Prompts
My games focus on...
a world that feels alive. By creating people, places, and relationships that feel interrelated, and like they have a history and life outside of the PCs, players can go in any direction and watch the fabric of the game world change in response, rather than following a linear narrative every time.
Jess's Preferences
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