Gregory Sheets

he/him

5.0

(5)

Timezone

America/detroit

Language

English

Identity

Neurodivergent

About Gregory Sheets

I’m a lifelong tabletop RPG enthusiast and GM, with over thirty years’ experience. I got my start with the good old red box (BECMI) D&D, and it's all kinda snowballed from there. I’ve been running what amounts to the same Star Wars RPG campaign for much of that time, through numerous systems and/or iterations of systems. I’ve run and enjoyed many many other games - I love to learn a new system - and tend toward SF and superhero genres. I’m also a fan generally of comics and science fiction, an incorrigible reader, an aspiring writer, and a student of Zen. The table I’d want to run would be inclusive and welcoming, with a strong focus on collaboration and storytelling. I generally aim to create opportunities for heroes to shine in big cinematic moments, but also for roleplaying, emotional beats, and character development. A bit of humor will tend to creep in as well. At the end of the day, I take great enjoyment and fulfillment from helping my players have a great time. I like to put in the homework on worldbuilding, creating an immersive experience. At the end of the day, the Game is what matters, and everything I do as a GM is in service of that.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

Highly rated for: Creativity, Knows the Rules, World Builder

$25 per session

Featured Prompts

I got started GMing...

Because no one else wanted to? Actually, there were others in my circle who would, but I think I was the one who really got into learning rules and making up stories. I had fun improvising games, and then I started getting deeper into developing ideas into a bigger game world.

How Gregory Sheets runs games

I tend towards collaborative storytelling, heavy on the roleplay and usually in the theatre of the mind style. I like ongoing campaigns with lots of room for character development. Action will usually be cinematic and flashy, giving players the chance for lots of big heroic moments. I try to mostly color inside the lines where it comes to rules, but I also may tend to put the rules aside for a moment if it's a choice between strict interpretations and an exciting cinematic moment. In that vein, I'd far rather make a prompt ruling in the moment than hold everything up to look up rules minutiae when things are uncertain. I'm definitely not the type of GM who's out to 'beat' the PCs. Deaths are probably a rare occurrence, unless it's dramatically appropriate in the moment or serves a larger story. I hate the idea of someone, I dunno, tripping and falling and losing all their HP and having to roll a new character. I want players to be invested in their characters and bring them to life. The big challenges will usually be tied to the big moments in the story, and although the outcome may leave the PCs pretty battered and bruised (I don't want to make it EASY on them!) but hopefully triumphant. In recent years I've tended towards running sandbox type games with a lot of detail to the world, and letting the players' actions drive the story - but I'm not above sneaking a more structured narrative in there if I've had a really clever idea.

Featured Prompts

Rules are...

Great until they’re not. They provide a good framework within which to work, but I’m not here to make people color inside the lines. I’m here to have fun and tell a story, and above all else to facilitate the players doing that.

Gregory Sheets's ideal table

Casual and fun to a point, but focused enough to make decent progress through a game. In-character, I like for things to be taken fairly seriously; not too much silliness or fourth wall breaking, though getting a good laugh out of the GM never hurts and may be rewarded. I like creative players who are there to embody a character and be part of the story. If players do some of the creative heavy lifting for me, so much the better - it just frees me up to create MORE stuff! I also like a table that’s not averse to taking decisive action. I create the sandbox and populate it with entities that have their own agendas. The players drive the plot via their actions and the effect they have on the world. I can lay down rails if needed, but I prefer not to.