About me

PLEASE NOTE: Gender identity can be a funny thing. When I first started on StartPlaying I identified as a woman and went by Megan the Bearded Lady. Some old reviews may refer to me by a name I no longer use. I now go by Luke (still Bearded), and I use he/him/his pronouns. Thank you for your understanding. Greetings, players. My name is Luke, and though Dungeons & Dragons was banned in my household growing up, I dove right into the deep end as soon as I moved out and I have yet to come up for air. I got my start as a GM back in 2011, cutting my teeth on Savage Worlds and moving on to Pathfinder before eventually settling on D&D 5e when Curse of Strahd came out. I dabbled a bit in Pathfinder 2e during Wizards of the Coast’s questionable handling of the OGL, but I switched back, finding the simpler ruleset to be more conducive to what I really want to get out of the TTRPG experience: collaborative storytelling. I have done a mix of live DMing–both in-person or virtual–and play-by-posts in the past, and it is the latter that I am going to focus on for my campaigns here on StartPlaying. I have a history in creative writing, having graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in English in 2014. While it did not end up being my career path (I pivoted to libraries soon after college), writing has always been a hobby of mine, and I am excited to flex my creative muscles with this new endeavor. A note about my games: I love D&D 5e’s rules (specifically, my campaigns on here will use the 2024 rules), but I also love Paizo’s Adventure Paths for both Pathfinder and Starfinder. No offense to WotC, but with rare exception their adventures don’t hold a candle to their competition’s in my opinion. As such, my games on this platform will be penned by Paizo, and converted by me to 5e. This includes several Starfinder adventures, for which I am homebrewing new species and items to better fit a sci-fi setting.

GM Style

Join one of my games and you will notice three things: 1. I write well. My posts will have proper grammar and will be engaging and substantial. They may occasionally be shorter when the situation calls for it, especially when I’m trying to move combat along, but I will never just write “Okay, John hits and deals 3 damage. Tammy, your turn.” I will narrate each scene with a level of detail that is worth your money. Each of my campaign listings will have a writing sample to illustrate the detail you can expect. 2. Even when running a pre-written adventure, I am able to seamlessly integrate character backstory into the narrative. I pride myself on my ability to create engaging storylines for the PCs and slowly unravel them over the course of a campaign. It is probably my favorite aspect of GMing. 3. My games are challenging, in a good way. They are not meat grinders by any means, but neither are they cakewalks. You will have to fight for victory, and that will make it all the more meaningful. Character death is always a possibility.

Games played

Game platforms used