Paul
he/him
4.6
(13)
Timezone
Language
About Paul
Everyone has a story in them. Let me help you find yours. It can be hard for those who want to play TTRPGs, but either can’t find a group or just don’t know how to get started. Let me make that easier for you by offering my services as a professional Game Master for whatever game system you’re interested in playing. Let’s build a story together, while leaving you the freedom to explore and enjoy the world you’re creating without being bogged down by rules and multiple plotlines to keep track of. I've been doing this for over 30 years and have garnered a reputation for being a little outside the box but--at the same time--being 100% inclusive. The goal is for everyone to have fun and for nobody to feel left out. Also, if you see me advertising a game with no players yet, and the scheduled day and time doesn't work, message me with a day and time that would work and I can possibly move it to that schedule. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions!
At a glance
3 years on StartPlaying
129 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, Sets the Mood
$15 per session
Average response time: 3 hours
Response rate: 100%
Featured Prompts
My favorite books are
Dungeon Crawler Carl, Lord of the Rings, House of Leaves, The Dark Tower, Project Hail Mary, The Broken Earth trilogy, This Is How You Lost the Time War, Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes, 1984, Slaughterhouse Five, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, plus many others....
My favorite shows/movies are
Doctor Who, Altered Carbon, Krull, Lord of the Rings, The Fifth Element, Cowboy Bebop, .hack/Sign, Sword Art Online, Star Wars, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Invisible Man (1933), Army of Darkness, Blood Machines, Night of the Living Dead (1968), Repo! The Genetic Opera, plus several more....
The three words my players would use to describe me are...
Flexible, Unpredictable, and Creative.
How Paul runs games
I'm a big fan of roleplay and doing character voices. I enjoy tactical combat, but I'm also a huge fan of theater of the mind gaming. I want players to be able to solve problems on their own, but I'm not beyond calling for an intelligence roll to "jog" a character's memory about something they might have forgotten. Basically, I want to make sure everyone is having fun, regardless of how they like to play. All I ask is that everyone keeps an open mind and--above all--everybody respects one another at the table.
Featured Prompts
If my games were Movies they'd be directed by...
Depends on the game. I have games that could have been directed by Peter Jackson, some that could have been directed by David Lynch, and some that could have been directed by John Waters. Pick your poison.
My games focus on...
All of my games are story-driven. My educational background is creative writing, so I'm always going to craft my games with the story at the forefront. I could run a game that's just a battle royale, but that's not as much fun for me as crafting a story that everyone can participate in telling.
Rules are...
Rules are the laws my games abide by...until they stop making sense. I will always defer to the rulings that make sense over the rules as written...because as important as rules are to a game, they don't factor in every single imaginable situation that a player can conjure up.
Paul's ideal table
Players who love telling stories, love to roleplay, and love to interact with the other players are usually going to have the most fun out of my games. It's easy to get bogged down in rules and mechanics, but the games where each player has their own story and--through roleplay--are able to tie their story in to every other player's story (and mine, for that matter) are the games I specialize at.
Featured Prompts
I am for a vibe that's...
I like tension in a game, but I also like to lighten the mood when it makes sense in the story. I enjoy players trying to problem-solve in encounters, rather than just throw a bunch of monsters at them and expect them to fight or die. I just want everybody to have fun.
I think it's a red flag when players...
Players try to take the story over and force it down a certain path with no regard to the other players are not going to last long in my games. We're all here to have fun, and if a player's antics is causing one or more of the other players to want to leave the game, that will not fly with me.
My table is not the place for...
Murder hobos and players who are just trying to gain XP as quickly as possible, with no regard to the other players.
Paul's Preferences
Systems
Game Mechanics