Ryan Parsons
he/him
5.0
(3)
Timezone
Language
About Ryan Parsons
I spent my early years building characters for game systems that I'd never play but always dreamt about. While teaching English in Japan, I found a group of fellow teachers and began playing D&D with them. I got to play 4 sessions before the DM quit and I took over. 15 years later, I've played a further 3 sessions as a player and DMed for dozens of players in years-long campaigns. While I've only DMed D&D 4E and 5E, I love nothing more than building a compelling world and giving my players a chance to explore the world and stories with me.
At a glance
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Teacher, Inclusive, Creativity
Featured Prompts
My favorite books are
fantasy books that build a deep world and invite you to consider the actions that the characters take. I love the journey and the surprises along the way. Some cool combat certainly doesn't hurt.
People are always surprised when I tell them
how much I enjoy getting to DM for a table of players. Mainly they seem surprised because I'm talking about D&D with a random person, but my enthusiasm typically sweeps them up in the epic and suddenly someone who never considered playing D&D find themselves wondering if they were wrong.
How Ryan Parsons runs games
I will run games in whichever way the players prefer, but I will still push them. If you prefer difficult and tactical combat, that's what you'll get. But there will be puzzles, social interactions, and moral questions to challenge you and tease you with the possibility of rewards. If, on the other hand, you prefer a game of role playing and intrigue, we'll be sneaky and diplomatic together. You may still find yourself getting your blades bloody, though...
Ryan Parsons's ideal table
Featured Prompts
I love it when a player
finds a way to make their character personal and wants to find their place in the world. I put a lot of time and effort into the world we play in, so it feels nice to have a player respect and mirror that. When a player commits, the game deepens for both of us.
I think min/maxing...
is great because it means I don't have to pull any punches when I'm DMing. You building an optimized character is fine as long as everyone else is on the same juice. If everyone at the table has a stacked character, the difficulty of the game (and thus the complexity of mechanics) goes up.
Ryan Parsons's Preferences
Systems