Jim
he/him
4.7
(9)
Timezone
Language
Identity
About Jim
I picked up the DM screen in 1985 because nobody else at the table wanted to. Forty years later I'm still behind it — and I wouldn't have it any other way. I ran games through the late 80s and 90s until my son was born in 1999. I stepped away for 21 years, came back as a player for five, and have been running games again for the last three. That time on the player side of the table changed how I DM. I know what it feels like to have your choices ignored, your backstory forgotten, and your character treated like a token on a map. I don't run games that way. Even now I still sit down as a player at least once a week — I never want to lose that perspective. What I care about most is simple — I want your character to feel like a real person living in a real world. Not a collection of stats working through a plot. A person with history, relationships, and something to lose.
At a glance
4 years on StartPlaying
45 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, World Builder, Teacher
Featured Prompts
I got started GMing...
lol no one else in the group would run a game so I did :)
How Jim runs games
I build worlds and let players pull the threads. My prep goes into the world — factions with agendas, NPCs with memories, situations with consequences. I don't write plots. I create a living place and then watch what you do to it. The story that comes out of that is always better than anything I could have planned. My favorite moment as a GM is when the world reacts to something a player did three sessions ago and they realize it was never forgotten. That's the game I'm trying to run every week. Combat is real and tactical — rules as written keeps it fair and tense. Outside of combat, good roleplay is rewarded. Describe what your character does and the world will meet you halfway. I also use Discord between sessions — channels for downtime, one on one moments, and building out your character's life beyond the scheduled game. The world doesn't pause between sessions and neither do I.
Featured Prompts
Rules are...
Rules are the foundation of the game. But they don't have to be the end of one. If something works in the game and makes it more fun (for everyone) then its all good.
Jim's ideal table
Players who treat their character as a person, not a build. I love backstory — but what I really love is watching a player make a hard decision in character even when it costs them something. That's the moment the game becomes something worth remembering. My best sessions happen when every player at the table is invested in each other's stories, not just their own. Old school sensibility — describe what you're doing, engage with the world, let the fiction lead. If you show up ready to play a life and not just a character sheet, we're going to have a great time.
Featured Prompts
I love it when a player
Play their "character" role play is what makes it fun.