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Nathan

Nathan (he/they)

5.0

(6)

4 years on StartPlaying

2 games hosted

About me

Greetings y'all, I'm a stand-up comedian and actor turned games academic turned professional DM and I've been playing/running TTRPGS (mostly 5e) since I was a wee lad of twelve. I've spent the last year running four concurrent Curse of Strahd campaigns for about twenty of my friends, as well as some custom one-shots. Here's what they've said about me: "Nathan is very good at responding to feedback and adjusting gameplay and tone to better fit whatever our group wanted to do. Everywhere we went in Barovia Nate deftly peopled with memorable, engaging, and charming NPCs that were just fun to interact instead of the usual cast of forgettable shop keeps, guards, and villains." - Nancy M. "Nathan took the time to help new players in our group learn the ropes-- he met with us over zoom to help with character creation and continued to patiently explain and reexplain rules and mechanics over the next year." A. Cooperman "Playing over Zoom or Roll20 is tough. Nathan did a tremendous job providing high stakes, moments of tension, sadness, humor, excitement, and satisfaction throughout our sessions. Even when we couldn't play for weeks, Nathan was awesome with reestablishing the tone without missing a beat and that helped all of us stay engaged." C. de Mari "They let us resurrect a European house music themed queer silver dragon who had been dead for a few hundred years and really knocked the associated lighting and soundtrack out of the park. His German accent could use some work, but their pun game is on point." - D. Carr "Nathan made me grossed out by an NPC who got turned into soup... over zoom... and I make model human organs for horror movies in my spare time." - D. Schlosser "Nathan is a great DM! He created a space that was comfortable, flexible, and fun, and it was especially beneficial for first-time players." - B. Bove Whew! Back to me: I can run regular campaigns or one-offs, but my specialty is running custom games tailor-made for individual groups of players. Drop me a line and let's roll some dice!

GM Style

In terms of style I tend to opt for a button down and headphones, but my hair has a mind of its own. Seriously, I'm all for character work and roleplaying, except for the several recurring combat-centric sessions I run. (Roleplay, humor, voices, improvisation, exploration.)

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Game Master Reviews (6)
FlameSwimmer avatar

FlameSwimmer

Played 1 sessions

LOVED this game. Flexible GM, fantastic, descriptive storytelling, and engaging encounters. Perfect amount of silliness to keep the game fun. Not a stickler for the rules; try to convince the GM, if you dare! Will absolutely be booking this GM again.

Simon Wright avatar

Simon Wright

Played 1 sessions

Really, really good. Really good. Nathan ran this one-shot with great pacing and characterization. He knows his stuff - the rules as well as the drama. The quasi-villainous NPC had depth and balance that is hard to do but Nathan pulled it off with aplomb. This one-shot was exactly what we were looking for - a mixture of fun and seriousness...traps, cool monsters and (several) near-death moments. One of the best games of D&D I've played! Thanks Nathan.

Jesse avatar

Jesse

Nathan ran a very fun one shot for me and did an amazing job. He is knowledgeable of the system and built encounters full of intrigue. He's good on the fly to add the other PC's and I talked out way around many of his encounters. Thank you Nathan I hope to sit at his table again soon.

Sam avatar

Sam

Had a great session playing a one-shot as a High Elf Wizard with Nathaniel. Nathaniel is a great DM, great sense of humour throughout the campaign, uses a range of voices and a lot of theatre of the mind. Combat was well paced using Roll20 with a good mix of combat, exploration and dialog through out the one shot.

Dani  avatar

Dani

Nathan is a incredible storyteller who does a excellent job of weaving plot points with improvised role play moments. He makes time and effort to check in with players to help cultivate a community and space that is welcoming and affirming for everyone playing. In terms of game play, he is very well versed on the rules and makes fair judgement calls when things are ambiguous. I’ve played multiple dnd campaigns before, but few have felt more satisfying as a player. All of the PCs had moments to shine and gave people space to have fun and explore the world and characters they have created.

Jeremy Weinstein avatar

Jeremy Weinstein

Nathan is a smart, receptive, and caring DM with a flair for whimsy. I played through Curse of Strahd as well as numerous one shot 5e adventures with him and he benefited our group at every step of the way. We had a number of new players at the outset and Nathan was both a great rules/teaching resource and a charismatic guide for breaking free from our role-playing shells. One great example of his DMing style was during Curse of Strahd when the party had really messed up and morale was low; Nathan (with the consent of the party) transported us all to a homebrewed pocket dimension where we found ourselves in an episode of "Strahdvivor." On a tropical island and at the whims of a flamboyant-beach-bum-vampire-game-show-host our characters competed for goofy magical items in a number of challenges spanning 2 or 3 sessions. By the end, party morale was at an all time high and we were ready to rejoin the fight against the dark terrors of Barovia. I could go on about all of the wonderful moments in that campaign but suffice to say Nathan's DMing was some of the best I've experienced and I can't recommend him enough for all your ttrpg needs.

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