Moth

they/them

4.8

(4)

Timezone

America/new York

Language

English

Identity

LGBTQ+

Disabled

Neurodivergent

Artist

No Gen AI

About Moth

Hi, my name is Moth! I'm 26 years old, I have a cat who loves helping run games, and I spend most of my free time doing nerdy things like playing TCGs, video games, and drawing my ttrpg characters. I've been really lucky in that ttrpgs have progressively become a bigger and bigger part of my life, and its allowed me to meet so many interesting people and be part of so many inspiring stories. I've been dming 5.5e professionally (in person) for about a year and I've been dming D&D and other ttrpgs in general for over a decade. Most of my ttrpg experience is definitely with homebrew D&D games, although I've also dabbled in several PbtA games, the upcoming Plotweaver system, Pathfinder, and the Cypher system. I love trying new games and new systems, and I also love experimenting with the use of mechanics from different systems within D&D itself! I in particular have a homebrew setting I've been working on for the better part of my decade DMing that I love sharing with people and seeing how different groups approach different aspects of it across systems, but I've also really grown to love some of D&D's "canon" settings like Ravenloft, Baldur's Gate, and Eberron.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Storytelling, Inclusive, World Builder

$20 per session

Average response time: Under 1 hour

Response rate: 100%

Featured Prompts

I ran my first game...

in high school for a group of friends. The game didn't last long with all our schedules being so different, but the setting and adventure I ran─both homebrew─have seen more games since and are still in use today!

My favorite books are

probably the Magic Kingdom of Landover books. They were the first fantasy series I read on my own when I was younger and I was immediately obsessed with them. The balance between serious heroic fantasy and lighthearted interactions is still hugely inspiring today.

When I'm not running games I'm...

drawing, playing Magic the Gathering at my LGS, or staring at my steam page contemplating whether I should finally play a new game or replay Dragon Age Origins for the thousandth time.

How Moth runs games

My games definitely tend to be fairly roleplay heavy; one of my favorite parts about running games is seeing how different characters react to the same situation. It's important to me that player characters all have a stake in the overarching plotline of the game, and that they have a chance to impact the outcome of the story. In that vein, my games do tend to have very grand stakes to them; while they may not always be heroic, they're often world-altering in scale. I do also tend to love running puzzles. I've ran long-term language based cyphers, I love setting up mysteries for characters to uncover, and I take a lot of inspiration from the puzzle design of games like the Legend of Zelda, Sunless Sea, and Divinity. I would say combat tends to be a lesser part of my games; while a critical part of a lot of D&D games, at least, I do think it's best used as a narrative tool rather than running combat for combats' sake. I like trying to make encounters with interesting terrain, alternative goals besides hitting things until they die, and enemies with personality and goals beyond killing the pcs themselves.

Featured Prompts

I deal with rules issues by...

either: explaining why I am making the call I am if it's a Rule of Cool situation, ruling in favor of the players until a good moment to check the official rule, or for some long-term calls, asking players to let me do some research and return to them with an answer later!

I prep by

writing, reading, and playing games! A good amount of my 'prep' is really just engaging in different medias that inspire the kinds of games I like to run; the rest of it is jotting down whatever comes to mind when I think of it until I can sit down and develop the idea further.

Rules are...

made so you think before you break them. Following the mechanics of the game is important! But I also think letting yourself get locked within the limits of the rules when there's a clear, interesting opportunity in breaking them leads to a less engaging game.

Moth's ideal table

My table is a pretty solid mix between more serious games with a very casual above-board atmosphere! While my games tend to engage with elements of horror quite frequently, I very rarely find the atmosphere of the table itself gets too solemn (outside of, perhaps, character deaths). Players who love building fleshed out characters and getting to dig into extensive amounts of lore will fit very well, and I love seeing players let the mechanics of their character influence their roleplay of it and vice versa.

Featured Prompts

I love it when a player

sends me anything they've made about the game outside of the game! Art, memes, playlists─I recently had a player make a google form for the group to fill out of 'who is most likely to' questions about the party; its so much fun to see people so engaged with my games.

I think metagaming...

is something I have mixed feelings over. I think there are ways for experienced players to use it in a way that makes narrative sense, but I generally prefer players avoid it when possible. I'm totally happy to hear arguments for giving a character some meta-knowledge, though.

I think min/maxing...

is perfectly fine, as long as you're not going out of your way to game the system & have some interest in incorporating it into your roleplay! I'm pretty flexible when it comes to different player styles; I've had min-maxxed and much more flavor-forward builds at the same table with no issue.