Sawyer
he/him
5.0
(22)
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About Sawyer
Founder and Head Writer of Dubious Creatures Press. Californian expat. Alt-rocker. History buff. Vampire-obsessed nerd. Lots else besides. Grab a seat and stay a while. Let's have ourselves a good time.
At a glance
3 years on StartPlaying
237 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Inclusive, Creativity
Featured Prompts
I got started GMing...
Same way most people do I suspect: in high school invited a bunch of my friends over to play D&D on the weekends. Moved into online-only play during the Pandemic years, and eventually met enough weirdos through StartPlaying to inflict a podcast on the rest of the internet.
My favorite system of all Time is
Going to have to be Vampire: The Masquerade (shocking, I know). Its how I got my start in the TTRPG space and without it I probably would still be bussing tables in Oceanside.
People are always surprised when I tell them
Met my wife through TTRPGs. Random, luck-of-the-draw meeting on Discord turns into a lifelong partner. Life is a funny proposition, man.
How Sawyer runs games
Keep it simple, keep it fun. Not gonna throw shade at those who love them a expertly-programmed VTT or a number-crunching combat encounter, but you're not gonna find that here. I'm a firm advocate for the theater of the mind. Love homebrew, love rule-of-cool, love the little roleplay moments that you can really only get from an ad-hoc narrative. You got a story in mind? Great. Let's make it happen. Not a thespian or a theater kid. You wanna bring that energy, that's cool. If you're just here to good time without resorting to "thees and thous", that's cool too. At the end of the day it's a game - if we're not all having fun, what's the point?
Featured Prompts
I prep by
Coming up with a scenario, and letting the players have at it, and then going from there. Don't go for pure sandboxes just cause sometimes it can be rough to focus in on an objective. I'll put a goal post in front of you, but it'll be on you to go get it. And then on me to figure out what's next.
My games focus on...
Characters. There's a reason I prefer Storyteller systems. Prefer more down-to-earth, interpersonal stories than grandiose struggles. It might get deep, or it might get goofy. We'll see what happens.
Rules are...
Meant to be broken. I'm not saying throw the corebook out the window, but also don't stress if you don't remember ever single detail. Also, no shame in being a newbie. If it's your first time with a system, lemme know. We were all newbies once.
Sawyer's ideal table
I got two rules: 1) Don't be a dick. Respect where your other players are drawing a line and everyone will get on and respect yours. And please, remember, this isn't therapy. If you need to vent about something, maybe look for a professional shrink instead of a professional GM. 2) Don't worry so much. There's no right way to do all of this. Don't beat yourself up for not having encyclopedic lore knowledge or not being able to roleplay like a trained actor. We might laugh at your antics but we're not laughing AT you. And if someone is, well, see above.
Sawyer's Preferences
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