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Sam

he/him

5.0

(29)

Timezone

America/los Angeles

About Sam

Hello! I'm Sam Tillis, proprietor of stillis.gaming. Thanks for reading my profile! I'm going to let you in on a secret right off the bat: I believe that roleplaying games are the greatest form of storytelling. I've been an actor, a director, a writer, and a teacher, so I've told a lot of stories in a lot of different ways, but RPGs come out on top every time. This is because, unlike in movies and plays and novels, we are our own audience in RPGs. We're not creating the story for mass appeal or to reach for some high literary standard, but for our own fun and fulfillment. What we create at the table is collaborative—every player influences the story, often in directions that surprise even the GM!—unique, ephemeral, and fiercely our own, like a shared dream. When a good RPG wraps up, everyone involved has memories that will last them a lifetime. I have been playing roleplaying games since the age of twelve and GMing almost as long. My players have explored kingdoms of legend and lore, galaxies filled with scum and villainy, mutant-filled metropoles, and much more, defeating villains as grandiose as gods or as personal as their own demons. I've done games with elementary school students and elders, soldiers and coders, teachers and therapists and authors and actors. Each has been totally different, unique to those people in that time and place. Feel free to reach out to me at any time at stillis.gaming (at) gmail (dot) com. I look forward to the stories we will create together. Let the games begin. :)

At a glance

4 years on StartPlaying

153 games hosted

Highly rated for: Creativity, Storytelling, Inclusive

Featured Prompts

I became a GM because

...it never struck me to do anything else. I DM'd my first D&D game (3rd edition, baybeee) before I ever played; I had a story I wanted to explore, and my hapless friend got to be my guinea pig and explore it with me. (Tristan, if you're reading this, I hope I've made it up to you subsequently.)

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

...running games. I used to be a teacher & tutor, and in a different life I ran a science-fiction/fantasy theatre company, but now I GM full-time for adults and children!

How Sam runs games

I love games that put the players' choices and characters front-and-center. Generally my games are open-ended, with players receiving a mission or quest and then undertaking it however they see fit. Scenes that are just character-building roleplay are not uncommon, and combat tends to exist as just one possible means to accomplish a goal. That being said, when the situation warrants, I love an exciting set-piece: a chase scene through darkened city streets, a brawl in a crashing airship, a clash of armies or a faceoff against an epic monster. In my games, these scenes tend to be fast, furious, and action-packed, and players sometimes only make it out on top by razor-thin margins.

Featured Prompts

Rules are...

...the constrains within which we tell a story. RPGs are like poetry: the artificiality of the rules breeds creativity and ultimately shapes the resultant art. If rules get in the way of the story, something has gone wrong: we either need to change them or find out how to shape the narrative to fit.

Sam's Preferences

Systems

Dungeons & Dragons 5e
Cypher System
Pathfinder 1e
Fate Core System
Savage Worlds
Call of Cthulhu
Dungeons & Dragons 3/3.5e
Mutants and Masterminds (3e)
Fate
Blades in the Dark
Mothership
Band of Blades
Scum and Villainy
Godbound
Stars without Number (Revised)
Worlds without Number
Traveller
Star Wars 5e
The One Ring 2e
Adventures in Middle-earth
Fabula Ultima
Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures
Wanderhome
Don't Rest Your Head
Into the Odd
The Quiet Year
Valor: the Heroic Roleplay System
Fellowship
Diaspora
COWBOY BEBOP The Roleplaying Game
Apocalypse World 2e
Everyday Heroes
Cairn
The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying 5e
Electric Bastionland
Cities Without Number
Inevitable
Fate Accelerated
Cloud Empress
Nobilis RPG 3e
Farflung
BEOWULF: Age of Heroes
Stalwart '85

Game style

Roleplay Heavy

Sandbox / Open World

Realm Building

Social

Sam's games