Rurik "The Wizard" Dankill

he/him

5.0

(11)

Timezone

America/denver

Language

English

Identity

LGBTQ+

Teacher/Educator

Game Designer

About Rurik "The Wizard" Dankill

Bonjour, Bienvenue, Willkommen, Welcome. I started my role playing journey when I was 13 and never stopped playing. It has since been over 20 years since then and I have spent the vast majority of that gameplay as the Game Master of various games. I like to run home made worlds, but I am happy to "borrow" ideas from literature, history, current events, and pop-culture. My preference is to run long-form campaigns, but I have run several one shots and episodic groups. I have spent most of my roleplaying in the high-magic fantasy settings expected with dungeons and dragons. I have a passion for story driven settings with action driven player characters. Shortly after college I switched from Dungeons and Dragons (3.5) to Pathfinder 1e and then to Fantasy Craft. Throughout school, I would have been classified as a Theatre nerd, but as an adult I have experience managing people through both customer service positions and ongoing roleplaying groups. My longest running campaigns have run approximately 2 years (3 different campaigns have gone approximately this long). I am happy to run one shots, short form games (a month or two), medium form (half a year/semester long), or long campaigns. Most of my gameplay has been in person, but after COVID, I adapted to learn Roll20 and discord as a combo for gameplay.

At a glance

Less than a year on StartPlaying

6 games hosted

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

Featured Prompts

I got started GMing...

When I was very young, at 13 years old. For my 13th birthday, I was allowed to go to the coolest bookstore in my area that had a magical looking center that you could see books from each floor as you looked up or down. I purchased the core rules for Dungeons and Dragons and started running games.

How Rurik "The Wizard" Dankill runs games

I like making worlds that players explore. Sometimes I have a story in mind for that location. Other times I let players express what they want to do in that setting and they drive the story entirely. I like having NPCs that establish aspects of the world by varying in power, varying in narrative importance and interacting with the party in complex ways. Unless the whole table wants to play through a specific story, or the game is a one shot/very short game I will not likely give explicit direction that the story is in one direction and everything else ends the game. I am willing to write new material to allow players to do things that make sense in the world when there are no matching mechanics. I'm unlikely to accept homebrew that I didn't personally write. I like open conversation and creative thinking. I like high stakes combat but can and will make tactical combat if the table prefers. I like intrigue and political/philosophical issues more than dungeon crawling. I enjoy getting into character and having conversations. I am comfortable with being heated in character. My tables will not include rape, torture, mutilation, or most types of body horror (if I include horror elements, they will be existential or cosmic in nature). I enjoy Lovecraft in my games. My job as GM is always to facilitate fun before all else. If it isn't fun, we could do something else.

Featured Prompts

My favorite trope is...

At the end, the monsters were unknowable Lovecraftian abominations. Followed quickly by, "Power is more than how hard you hit something"

My games focus on...

Character freedom and worldbuilding. I want my players to develop the world with me. Stories come from people. If a player knows what they want for a story, I will make NPCs to facilitate that. If they just want to vibe and explore, we can do that together also.

Rules are...

Useful for allowing players to interact with the world and each other in predictable ways. They can and should be broken to enable fun, but only when all players understand that they are being broken on purpose. Accidents happen, follow rules when you can.

Rurik "The Wizard" Dankill's ideal table

I like the rule of cool, but knowing and following the rules allows all people to be cool together. My tables are RP heavy. Combat is there to facilitate: feelings of danger, epic moments, and action/cinema scenes. I like to imagine the gameplay to be like crafting a show with the players that engage in dangerous and exciting things with scenes following three major archetypes: Adventure, Combat, and Drama. Adventure has players engaging with their environment or contests that aren't combat. Drama includes talking scenes

Featured Prompts

I am for a vibe that's...

Here for a good time, and that includes all the feelings. Knowing that everyone feels safe enough to experience more emotions than joy with the team is what I strive for.

I love it when a player

Takes initiative to engage with other players and take initiative to start actions in the game setting. Collaborative story telling is best when everyone is participating and stories revolve around character development. Characters that don't interact aren't developing.

I think min/maxing...

Shows a mastery of the system. I encourage all players to play at their level. If you want to build something strong mechanically, I will help players that are not at your level of mastery to also feel cool. You should also feel rewarded for having game knowledge.