David
he/him
5.0
(6)
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About David
I have been playing dungeons and dragons since 1996. I ran my first games in 1999 and really developed my style as a dungeon master while running the Dungeons and Dragons club at my university from 2005-2009. Since then I have continued to run games with my friends, locally and online. My longest running campaign went for 4 years; however, just over two years ago I started an online campaign with my college buddies and the end is not yet in sight. I have run games in AD&D, D&D 3.5E, Pathfinder(1E), Star Wars, GURPS, d20 Modern and D&D 5E. In depth, character driven, custom campaigns are my favorite, but I am happy to play anything from a one-shot (not always completed in one session) and published adventures to themed works and deep dive custom campaigns. I have been developing two settings in which I would love to let multiple adventuring groups play in the same setting, affecting each others lore and the dynamics of the world around them. I am an adult who works as a ski instructor and is constantly interacting with clients. I enjoy getting to know people and tailoring my interactions to my clients. I am also an adult with autism and adhd. I have learned good tools for manageing my time and achieving goals. I am reliably on time for most things I do. I easily hyperfocus on roleplaying settings and spend significant time imagining the many possibilities for my role playing games, and then the players and dice enter and I create unimagined experiences on the fly.
At a glance
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Inclusive, Storytelling, Creativity
$20 per session
Featured Prompts
I started running games because...
its the best way to get a role playing group together. Once I discovered tabletop RPGs I wanted to play more, but often struggled to find a GM. I learned most of the rules and read a lot of fantasy fiction and soon I was the go to GM amongst my friends.
The three words my players would use to describe me are...
prepared, spontaneous and flexible. It is better to be prepared than to have a plan. When I am well prepared I can make plans based on the situations that arise. When I'm working from a plan; hmm, let me check to rules and/or module for how that npc might react... Lets prepare not plan.
When I'm not running games I'm...
skiing, kayaking or hiking my dog. I also love to travel when I can afford it. It is nice to get different perspectives on people and cultures around the world.
How David runs games
I have two custom settings: Deep Dungeons, a high combat dungeon crawl setting where the dungeon is the enemy. Watch out for traps, random encounters, boss battles and more. Players may play multiple characters, at once or staggered entry from a guild. This fast paced setting will hit the nostalgia button. This setting exists to ensure you get to test serious character devlopment and get to see the iconing creatures of fantasy role playing settings. Adventures in Terrala, is a imersive role play setting where the characters exist in a world with significant lore. The societies of many area of this planet are always changing, will you exist within one, explore between them, or change the fate of the realms. Adventures in Terrala are character based full service campaigns. Your characters goals and abilities matter in this setting. I will do my best to create both long term arcs and short term adventures based on what I percieve to be your characters motivations. This is high fantasy setting. One-shots and published campaigns. I am happy to run any games provided to me to the best of my ability. My preferred settings are Fantasy and Star Wars, but I am not opposed to modern. Come have an adventure with me. Last but not least, I enjoy a good intrigue setting. Want to play a mystery? Want to play by post, because making sessions is hard? I am happy to play many types of games, I want you to have fun. When you have fun, I have fun! This is why I do it.
Featured Prompts
I once ran a session...
my players destroyed their world. I did not plan for it, but it happened. Wasn't the end of their campaign either.
I prep by
hiking, driving and reading. I like to imagine a lot of what ifs and npcs/settings the characters may or may not interact with. My worlds tend to have much more lore than the players will ever interact with. This allows me to easily respond to any choices the players make, no railroading necesary
Rules are...
important, but not as important as having fun. At the appropriate moment Rule of Cool is fantastic. Knowing the rules keeps things fair. Deviations from RAW should be examined at debrief to determine if they were RoC for this session or we want it house rule this campaign.
David's ideal table
It is important that my players are here to have fun and are respectful to each other. Players should eb mature enough to recognize when they are making others less comfortable. Players should want their allies to succeed and maybe want to know a little about those allies players. Most RPGs don't have A main character, but a group of them. If the party creates the characters to have genuine connections and interest, the players will too.
Featured Prompts
I am for a vibe that's...
fun but productive. We all like memes and tropes, but it'd better be brief if its during combat. Keep play cooperative and collaborative. Everyone should have a voice at the table.
I love it when a player
describes their critical success. You rolled that nat 20 and you know you succeeded, add some flavor. This is great for character development and is the kind of thing everyone remembers.
I think min/maxing...
has its place. When we are playing a lower power campaign, that barbarian or wizard should be really good at what they do well. When your multi dip character has no theme, or worse, makes the game hard to balance, you are making it harder for the other players. Don't get the party killed that way
David's Preferences
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