About me

Greetings tabletop gamers! I'm TwoSwordSamurai, and I've been running tabletop rpgs for over 30 years now. In fact, I run a D&D streaming community called Crit Cats if you'd like to take a gander at my game mastering. I fully believe that playing a tabletop game should be fully immersive and take you across time and space to another plane of existence. Games should really have the right maps, music, backstories, and the whole nine yards. Furthermore, I also fully believe that each game should be tailored to the players and their characters for maximum enjoyment. I absolutely adore 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons as well as the 2024 update. We're in a golden age of gaming as a result of this system. Without it there would be no mainstream D&D or games like Baldur's Gate 3! But I also really like other tabletop games like Fantasy Flight's Star Wars, Avatar: Legends, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, and Cyberpunk to name a few. Let's play some games!

GM Style

A tabletop game should be fully and truly immersive. You shouldn't feel like you are sitting at your computer. You should feel like you've been whisked across time and space to another plane of existence. Your consciousness should project into the role of a hero. You should feel your heart swell with a burning desire for justice. You should feel acute loss and desperation when your character does. Your intellect should be tested when your character comes across a tough puzzle. And when your character and party triumph in the face of all but impossible odds, you should rejoice in victory like your character would. I very much believe in customizing games to their players and characters, and I believe that players should really truly feel like their characters are part of the world they are in. I very firmly do not believe in spoilers, but generally every character should end up with a unique specialization and character arc, all based upon the character's backstory and how they are played over the course of the campaign. Allow me to offer a few tiny samples. I once had a player playing a monk who (according to her backstory) had taken a vow of poverty. As a reward for writing a backstory (which of course is completely optional), I typically reward players with a small common magical item as a token of my appreciation. For this player I created a custom item which I called the Beggar's Purse. It's an ordinary coin purse, which was always empty owing to the vow of poverty. However, if someone approaches the owner of the Beggar's Purse in genuine need, then the wearer might find a few coins in it. ;) This of course is just the tip of the iceberg; I'm a big fan of customizing character classes and abilities to fit a player's playstyle or character concept. Some examples of this include Francis, the Euphotic Knight (Water Genasi Paladin of both Poseidon and Lathander) and Gned's (Gnome Rune Knight) Titan Rune. Furthermore, I am an even bigger fan of involving players' characters in the lore of the world. It really helps the players become invested in the outcome of the adventure. An example of this would be that Francis (our aforementioned Water Genasi Euphotic Knight) decided instantly to accompany the rest of his party to the Nine Hells when he learned that his niece was in the city of Elturel when it fell to Avernus, or perhaps when Gned and Razi realized that they had been sleeper agents of the Knights of the Shield all along when their memories came flooding back on the party's journey to Candlekeep. You will find yourself seamlessly woven into the rich lore tapestry of D&D in any game I run. Playing a tabletop RPG should be fun and engaging. This is one of the few forms of entertainment where a bunch of people can tell a story together. It can be a rich and rewarding experience, which is why one of my favorite house rules is that players are allowed to narrate both their own critical hits and their critical misses (natural 20's and 1's). I've picked up many fun and neat ways to enrich the game over my 30 or so years. Another example of this is that I always have players pick out a theme song for their character in Curse of Strahd (usually from one of the Castlevania games) to play on their turn in combat. I've very carefully curated this method of running games over decades to keep the players engaged and involved while keeping the story moving for maximum enjoyment. There is a right time for roleplay and socialization as well as social challenges and diplomacy, just as there is a right time for exploration and making discoveries. Combat should be both fun and challenging, both memorable and rewarding; not unlike discovering treasure and learning of the epilogue of effects from your heroic deeds. When all these elements are brought together in the perfect balance, you have a campaign you're going to be thinking about the rest of the week while you're not playing. Couple tailored customization with the right maps, background music, tokens/minis, custom quests and rewards, fleshed out and voiced NPCs, and anything else this brain can cook up, and what you've got is a campaign you'll never forget. Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? No experience is necessary to jump in and start playing D&D. However, the veteran players will definitely appreciate the depth and richness of the game they find themselves in. This is my promise. Play just one game with me, and you'll never want another DM. Play in a one-shot at half price to test out the game's mechanics, and you'll be convinced by the end of the first session.

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