Josh Burgess
he/him
5.0
(3)
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Identity
About Josh Burgess
I'm a 41 year old GM from Michigan, and the host of popular Actual Play podcast What's in The Rift. Previously on Rusty Quill, now on Fable & Folly and streaming, What's in The Rift is a Cortex Prime actual play podcast. I have experience running everything from FATE to Daggerheart to Roll for Shoes. That includes all the big names, like Pathfinder (1 & 2), D&D 5e, Shadowrun and more. My games tend toward philosophical concepts and moral/ethical dilemmas, with less focus on fights and more focus on mind-melting stories.
At a glance
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, World Builder
Featured Prompts
I became a GM because
I love facilitating stories and worldbuilding even more than I love playing in the game. My campaigns are always deep and immersive because I can't help but obsess over characters and setting, and I revel in creating frameworks for memorable and fun collaborative stories.
People are always surprised when I tell them
I hadn't touched or even considered a roleplaying game as something I'd be interested in until after my thirtieth birthday. Once I started, I haven't been without a game with the exception of the first six months after my daughter was born.
When I'm not running games I'm...
Producing, editing and sound designing a couple audio dramas and my actual play podcast What's in The Rift.
How Josh Burgess runs games
My strongest campaigns are those that focus on mysteries, political intrigue, or "massive implication" tales — stories whose conclusions involve fundamentally altering the world, the players, or reality itself. I'm comfortable running pretty much any setting, but particularly enjoy fantasy, sci-fi and horror. I will run combat, and put effort into designing fun mechanics, but if you're looking for a hack-and-slash, you might want to look elsewhere. If you're coming to my table, you're coming for an immaculately planned world, fun and immersive elements, and mind-bending and philosophically challenging stories.
Featured Prompts
My favorite trope is...
morally grey scenarios. My villains are often tragic, or at least understandable, and my heroes are flawed. The decisions you make as part of a game I run are going to be tough, and will rarely have a clear cut morally superior choice.
My games focus on...
immersive storytelling and philosophical conundrums. When you sit down at my table, I want you to get up a few hours later feeling some big feelings and very invested in the narrative.
Rules are...
useful guidelines, but secondary to a great story. If it's going to make the experience more fun for everyone, I'm likely to bend rules to fit the scenario. Pacing and agency far outstrip strict adherence to a rule book. That doesn't mean you throw it out, of course!
Josh Burgess's ideal table
If you play TTRPGs because you love the story you tell with it, you'll like my table. If you play because you enjoy the agency to significantly change the outcome of narrative, this is the spot for you. I am an inclusive and supportive GM, and I want to ensure that there is equal focus on the players and their characters. Games are played because they're fun, and I strive to keep everything as fun as possible for all participants.
Featured Prompts
If you're into ___, you're going to love my table
mind-bending stories, strange fiction, philosophy, epic fantasies or dense sci-fi tales
I think metagaming...
is great! You should bring the knowledge you have into a game. If I'm designing a game where you have to pretend to be ignorant of things, then I'm doing it wrong. A tabletop game is full of characters, but it's designed for players, and that's what I focus on.
My table is not the place for...
hack and slash, "roll a million dice and then move on to the next fight" campaigns or sessions. Unless you're willing to engage in solutions where killing your opposition is rarely the right answer, you probably won't have fun in a game I run.
Josh Burgess's Preferences
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