"Joel has been an exceptional DM for our Mass Effect 5E campaign! His storytelling abilities truly shine, creating an immersive galaxy that captures the essence of the Mass Effect universe while giving us freedom to shape our own narrative. What stands out most is Joel's perfect balance between respecting the established lore and allowing creative flexibility when it enhances our experience. His sandbox approach has given our crew meaningful choices with consequences that feel impactful. His GMing style adapts wonderfully to our group's preferences - he's flexible with rules when it serves the story but maintains enough structure to keep things fair and cohesive. Joel's inclusive approach ensures everyone gets their moment to shine, whether in combat or roleplaying scenarios. The character development opportunities he's created have been fantastic, with personalized story arcs that tie into the larger campaign. Joel's preparation is evident, yet he improvises brilliantly when we inevitably take unexpected paths! If you're looking for a DM who combines creativity, inclusivity, and storytelling prowess while making science fiction roleplaying accessible and exciting, Joel is absolutely your guy. Our Mass Effect adventures have been unforgettable thanks to his guidance!"

Where should I begin? I was lucky enough to join a group with Joel gming and it was so awesome to be a part of. Joel was always accommodating to our ideas and choices-no matter how out there they might be! He also, through the use of roll20, had wonderful visuals, music, sound effects, and maps for us to help further bring us into the world we were playing in. I can easily say that when you join one of Joel's games you will feel the passion he has for gming and the work he puts in to make every session as sick as possible.

Joel has been an absolute blast to have as a DM. I typically wait until the end of the campaign before I leave reviews so I can give a complete breakdown of everything that's happened, however, I think I can say with absolute certainty that he's a great guy. He is very easy to approach and talk to about really anything. He's very open to any ideas you might have and can give very clear explanations as to why it won't work. And while he might not hold back or pull any punches in combat, it never felt unfair. Every victory felt hard fought and earned. He's not perfect and might not get every rule right or remember everything right away, but considering that he has to run literally everything else, I think that's more than understandable. I've had an absolute blast in his campaign and can't wait to see what he has in store. And I'll be sure to join any other campaigns he might run if I am able.

I hadn’t ever played D&D before joining Joel’s campaign, and I didn’t know what to expect. Even though it’s been a while now, I remember being terrified before session 0, but honestly felt so excited and happy after maybe five minutes in. He didn’t make me feel stupid for any questions I asked then, and still doesn’t, even though I’ve been playing with him for months now. Since then, I look forward to a session with him every week, even if I know we’re walking straight into a tense battle or difficult conversation with NPCs. Okay random Joel stuff now that is rad. He always asks us how we’re doing and actually wants to know the answer. He has awesome background music that really gets you into the atmosphere of the scene. Some of it even has our characters’ names in the lyrics. He makes complex and beautiful maps and character icons. He sometimes reminds me when I have a helpful new feature that I forget about. (I forget a lot.) He knows the rules and will double check them as needed to ensure that everything is above board if there's any question. He has us roll luck checks to determine the outcome of things, so a plot line isn’t just bent to his personal will, but left to the dice to tell the story. He sometimes tells us what could have happened if a different number was rolled- (which I love!!) It keeps the height of the stakes at the front of my mind and also showcases his creativity in being able to come up with multiple detailed outcomes of a certain situation on the fly. So neat. He challenges me and my party members, but not to the point that we feel helpless and useless. In fact, when I first started, I often felt like my character was a bit useless; however, he constantly makes sure to point out when someone does something great that should be celebrated. In critical moments of battle or rolls on tables, he’ll take his hands off the keyboard and hold them up on camera so there’s no question about him metagaming or fiddling with stuff behind the scenes to change an outcome to his wishes. He does fun and diverse voices for all the NPCs, and you can tell exactly who he’s voicing at any time because they’re all so unique and distinct. He does an unreal amount of background work. When we find a unique item, we as a party have received MULTIPLE spreadsheets and documents from Joel with literally thousands of words each. For example, my character expressed interest in bonding with a dragon when they found a book on dragons. Joel then wrote up an over 2300 word document on dragons and posted it for us to read. He did the same thing with even more words for another instance of finding something marvelous. Joel seamlessly facilitates the highlight of my week, every week. Long story short- Pros: - Phenomenal guy. Very empathetic and considerate, as well as creative, bold, funny, and intelligent. - Creates a space where the players feel comfortable both exploring their characters as well as just being ourselves. - Helped loads in session zero when I literally had no previous interaction with D&D apart from watching a few Dimension20 episodes on YouTube. - Incredibly knowledgeable about lore, geography, species, classes, spells, character abilities, and things that I would never have even expected to come up. Cons: - Should definitely brag about himself a lot more because he is fully incredible. Jk- no cons.

Joel has lead me from being a brand new player to now almost a year into our campaign. His ability to guide new players through at their pace while keeping the game moving and allowing more experienced players to feel challenged is second to none. The more I learned the game, the more Joel has set challenges in front of me to push myself as a player, both RP and combat-wise. During combat I as a player can almost always tell that Joel is taking great care to balance between creating challenges for players following rules as written and giving grace in places where the player might have made a different decision given the most likely outcome. His priority always seems to be serving the greater narrative, but he always allows the dice to tell the story. My favorite line from Joel is when he points out at the top of combat the "potential for TPK", giving us players a fair warning that it's time to lock in. Joel's games incorporate a healthy balance of interesting RP and world building as well as challenging combat. He takes care to make the world not feel black and white and highlights the nuances of the decisions that you make as a player and how they influence the world and the people in it. In almost every scene featuring more than one NPC he excels at RPing the differences in their personalities and how they interact with your PCs. The most exemplary scene I can highlight to represent Joel's play style is one where my party had assembled a counsel of NPCs to vote on a major decision, and each NPC's vote was clearly influenced by their experiences both with and without the party, with the last tie-breaking vote genuinely shocking me as a player and my other party members. In summary I can't recommend Joel strongly enough for both new and experienced players seeking a balanced combat/RP experience in a world that feels lived-in and where the players' decisions have significant effects on the story as it evolves.

PROS: - Creates a fun and engaging atmosphere with unique NPC's and detailed/highly descriptive environments - Allows players to invent creative ways to use spells, class features, or roleplay choices while still keeping things fair and enjoyable - Puts a lot of time and effort into creating custom magical items that coincide with our PC's classes and abilities - Combats are challenging, complex, but also balanced and fun to experience. The enemies act in a reasonable and realistic way while not feeling unfair or targeted. They also are very rewarding and wins don't feel like they were handed to us on a silver platter. - The worlds are so well fleshed out and exciting to explore - Is very beginner friendly and doesn't hesitate to answer any questions or point out class features that are missed that could be useful in the moment - Is very respectful of his players and makes sure we all have our voices be heard - Overall is just a very comforting prescense that makes you feel like you can be your goofiest self with all the shenanigans and tom foolery that D&D is made for CONS: literally nothing he is a saint