Joe

he/him

Timezone

America/phoenix

About Joe

I began playing TTRPs in 1977 and have been game mastering for some 46 years at this point. Started with Dungeons and Dragons and quickly expanded into a variety of other games and genres, including Gamma World, Top Secret, the various World of Darkness games, Traveller in all its forms, Twilight 2000, Shadowrun, Call of Cthulhu, Vaesen, Dune, and more. I'm also a New York Times bestselling writer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. I basically tell stories on the page for a living with 70+ novels in my career and I think the ability to tell a coherent and exciting story on paper vastly helps when it comes to tell a story through the medium of tabletop rpgs.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Featured Prompts

My favorite system of all Time is

Traveller: The New Era. I love the post-Empire setting with its focus on exploration and the dangers inherent in doing so, especially the Vampire fleets still patrolling the space lanes long after the war has ended.

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

working on my latest novel. I write supernatural thrillers and urban fantasy for a variety of publishers, including HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Tor Books, and more.

How Joe runs games

As a group we're telling a story together and my games include a variety of approaches to doing so. Players in my games are expected to use their heads to think through situations and not blindly hack and slash through every obstacle. In character role-playing, tactical approaches to combat, and working through puzzles/riddles/traps are all common aspects of my games.

Featured Prompts

My games focus on...

providing players with a coherent story that entertains them and gives them the opportunity to share in the creation/telling of an epic adventure. I want my games to be memorable and to be shared among friends long after the session is over.

Rules are...

guidelines that are designed to help game masters provide logical and standardized results for game situations. That said, they are just that - guidelines. If the story requires a change in a given rule, I am not opposed to making a change, provided it is necessary and remains consistent throughout.