Brian
he/him
Timezone
Language
Identity
About Brian
Salve, piacere! I'm Brian and I've been playing TTRPGs for 20+ years, 10+ GMing in a variety of systems including Pathfinder 1E, D&D 3.5/5e/2024, MotW, TSL, and Avatar Legends. I love running games with strong emotional and social hooks, heroic protagonists, charming NPCs, and an occasional dad joke. I want to run a table where players laugh, cry, and spend an hour recounting the session to beleaguered friends and loved ones because the story we created together was just that compelling.
At a glance
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Featured Prompts
My favorite books are
A Wizard of Earthsea, Guards! Guards!, Mistborn, Redwall, The Dispossessed, Too Like the Lightning, Gnomon, The City and the City, and a bunch of other books I'm forgetting.
My favorite shows/movies are
The Good Place, Miyazaki, A Knight's Tale, Kingdom of Heaven, RRR, Sorry to Bother You, FLCL, Firefly, Clone Wars, Rebels, Vox Machina, Mighty Nien, AtLA, Korra
When I'm not running games I'm...
Writing, making music, drawing, parenting, working, attending concerts.
How Brian runs games
My games tend towards theater of the mind, with a focus on characterization and problem-solving. I love players who come up with creative or unexpected solutions while sticking to the spirit of the rules/conventions of the system at play. I tend to use battle maps only in higher stakes situations, but I do try to employ visual aids wherever possible. I prefer good teamcrafting over niche buildcrafting, but I always do my best to present scenarios in which each player can utilize their unique abilities as well.
Featured Prompts
My games focus on...
Presenting players with choices that bring out their characters' internal conflicts with a healthy dose of levity to make sure everyone gets the chance to laugh and cry at the table.
Rules are...
There to help us determine what is or isn't possible in any given scenario, but if a rule is vague or up for interpretation, it's up to the table as a whole to (quickly) decide where the boundary should be placed.
When it comes to voices
Tone and diction bring out more character than accents, but I give them a shot every so often.
Brian's ideal table
My tables tend to be narrative focused and collaborative. I like to run a session zero or equivalent to help everyone get to know each other's characters, often including something akin to MotW's history section. Players who want more than a spreadsheet with legs or a pun on wheels for their characters work best for me, as it gives me something to sink my teeth into as a GM. Light-hearted with room for serious moments, like AtlA or Vox Machina.
Featured Prompts
I think min/maxing...
Is fine, in the context of a tactically challenging game. I don't tend to run specifically tactical games like that, so it may be unfulfilling to the minmaxers out there.
Brian's Preferences
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Game Mechanics