About me

Hi, I'm GM Vio [Viowulf, Vio, Joe] By day I'm a scientist (Nerd), by night I'm a GM (Geek). I'm also a husband, dad, and a combat veteran if we want to use identity tags. I've been playing tabletop games since AD&D 2nd edition. As a player I have enjoyed playing Pathfinder 1st and 2nd edition, Delta Green, Starfinder, and D&D 5e. Since the big COVID world event I've really embraced the GM opportunity, finding that I really enjoy running games as a GM even more than playing. As a GM the system I found I like running best has been D&D 5e as it feels the most natural, simple, and welcoming system for so many friends that haven't played before. I love the escape from the real world that role playing provides and especially thrive sharing it with new players. The favorite thing I try to bring into my games would be pulling from the player characters personal narratives, so that the team feels; as a collaborative, they are the main characters brought together by fate, and not just the person passing by who picked up a sword. I've run a variety of short stories and a couple campaigns. My player base has spanned a strong range of personalities being both children and adult, family, friends, coworkers, and strangers. I've run games both in person and through Discord with Roll20. May the dice ever be in your favor.

GM Style

I try to share session focus equally between roleplay and dungeon crawl. In roleplay I try to commit to memorable characters the team will want to interact with who have their own motivations and stories. Within combat I desperately turn the focus away from perfect tactics and try to embrace the emotion, intent, and intelligence of the foes. I like the 'default to yes' rule [from Justin Alexander]. The easiest ruling for a GM to make is 'No'. When you use 'No', everything is simple: There are no complications. No consequences. You don't create anything. 'Yes' moves action forward and creates new situations for us as a team to respond to. I enjoy using maps to set a theatrical background, be it world or battle maps. I try to find a way to incorporate some dungeon crawl into most the games. I think failure is just as enjoyable as success, and our shared stories aren't just about winning the game. Most importantly I want everyone to roll dice and enjoy playing.

Games played

Game platforms used