Professional Game Master

Mike Norrishe/him

About me

Hi, it's That One Guy Mike, I have over 25 years of experience as a GM in a multitude of systems. I love building homebrew sandboxes and open worlds for my players to explore. Each world will have its own deep lore with a narrative crafted by the player's choices. Couldn't care less about the evil warlord/gang leader oppressing their people and would rather see what's going on in the world's biggest city or start a business empire? Go for it; there are things to be discovered and stories everywhere you go. Everyone is welcome to my games, as I try to cultivate a culture of acceptance and inclusion at my tables. I am experienced in and offer various systems, including D&D 5E, Shadowrun 5E, Vampire V5, Werewolf 20th, Final Fantasy RPG 4E, Star Wars RPG Revised, Mutants and Masterminds 3E, and many more. Just feel free to ask! Anything from official modules and campaigns to fully realized homebrew worlds. I have been a lover of storytelling and TTRPGs since I was a child because I grew up with a father who held weekly D&D games (AD&D) for his friends. I would read the books while watching my dad run his friends through dungeons and battles. I was 8 the first time I played D&D (AD&D) and was 12 when I ran my first game (AD&D 2E) for friends. Later, I discovered the wider world of TTRPGs and became the go-to GM for my friends and other people they would ask me to GM for. Over the years, I have hosted small tables, large tables, tables at people's homes, tables at hobby shops, and online tables, and I can't get enough. So help feed my addiction to telling stories and crafting memorable experiences for players by joining a table!

GM style

I like to keep a fair balance between combat, roleplay, storytelling, and exploration, with an emphasis on player-directed content to play with party dynamics and personalize the narrative. So that interesting background you homebrewed and wish would get more play? It becomes more than just flavor text on a page of combat stats at my table; it becomes a potential plot point. I abide by the rule of cool and, in fact, encourage players to go for that cinematic action or dramatic character reveal. Even when running campaign modules, I like to spice things up by adding a few twists and elements. I like to give an NPC a voice when they have some importance or something that sets them apart from the other faceless NPCs. I also tend to let combat flow as naturally as possible until it's a large, important, or big bad battle, in which case I like to get a little more fine-tuned while trying to retain a cinematic feel.

Games played

Game platforms used

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