Nicholas

he/him

4.8

(6)

Timezone

Asia/kuala Lumpur

Language

English

Indonesian

Spanish

Identity

Educator

Game Designer

Multi-lingual

No Gen AI

About Nicholas

Nicholas awakens to find himself tied to a small metal chair in a small, windowless room. The walls are blank white and they hear all around them a booming voice. "Who are you?" N: "I'm Nicholas. I'm looking to run tabletop roleplaying games here." "What kind of experience do you have?" N: "I've been designing my own TTRPGs since 2002. I'm very familiar with DnD 5 and 5.5 but have also made my own games and experimented with various other RPGs." "Anything else about you?" N: "I'm a big fan of absurdist comedy, sci-fi, surrealism, and eldritch horror. I also enjoy deckbuilders, social deduction, and TCGs. I was a chef for 9 years and love to cook foods from around the world. I do software design as my main job, but am currently not doing so full-time. I'm an American living in SE Asia. I met my spouse via playing tabletop games online." "What is your favorite color?" N: "Green. Are you guarding a rickety bridge over a mountain ravine?" "How did you guess?" N: "Just a hunch. So if I were to, say, shake the room..." "Oh no..." Both: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH" N: "Okay, that was a mistake. I'm not a fan of roller coasters. On the plus side, the walls seem to have chipped open a bit, and this chair is impressively damaged. Are you still there?" "Eurgh." N: "I'm sorry, but I was worried you were going to ask me the airspeed of an African swallow." "I think... we're done here."

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Beginner Friendly, Inclusive, Knows the Rules

$18 per session

Featured Prompts

I got started GMing...

when I was creating rules-light tabletop RPGs in 4th grade for friends to play. The character was an inflated ziploc bag, and the map was drawn loosely on printer paper. The game evolved as we went, but kept to its high-fantasy roots.

My favorite shows/movies are

Trigun, Apothecary Diaries, Labyrinth Your Name, A Silent Voice, River (2023) EEAAO, My Cousin Vinny, Parasyte Summertime Render, The Prestige Triplets of Belleville, Princess Bride Rocky Horror, Vivy, Howl's Moving Castle 12 Angry Men, Ouran HSHC, Log Horizon Hellsing Ultimate, The Outsider (2020)

How Nicholas runs games

I always prefer to give my players the choice. I usually lean towards heavy roleplay myself, but I've run light roleplay, heavy roleplay, light combat, heavy combat... I trend towards absurdism if I'm allowing myself to go off the rails, and I'm a rather spontaneous GM much of the time. I prep an outline and go from there, knowing that in the moment both myself and my players will have other ideas. Running any game is about creating an experience for the players. We are all part of the social contract, and we are all looking to have a good time! I like giving people a lot of freedom to pick their tools, but I tend to scale up the difficulty in response. I like conditioning die rolls on good roleplay, and providing better rewards for that good roleplay as well. I believe in fumbles and luck rolls (flat d20s) to spice things up. I tend to match the GM-side degree of roleplay to the players. When players want heavy roleplay, they get heavy roleplay and the books are set aside in favor of the spoken word. When players want heavy combat, they get heavy combat with a focus on the technical nature of the game.

Nicholas's ideal table

I pull players into adding their own spin on things, giving a lot of freedom and many rewards. I shape the game to what the players are seeking. I expect for players to follow the social contract. We're playing for fun, so let's keep it that way! I welcome you to join me in making a new story.