Drew
he/him
5.0
(11)
Timezone
Language
Identity
About Drew
I am a professional game designer who is passionate about evoking feelings in my players. My game design background shows up in the way I curate sessions for my players. The game I create is entirely informed by what my players are looking for, and what feelings and types of enjoyment they are hoping to extract from the experience. What sets me apart is I take special care to understand my players, their characters, and spend no shortage of time weaving their backstories into the game. It is very important to me that players feel like they have agency, and that the world they inhabit feels like it would exist and change independently of their character's intervention. If you are looking for a DM that focuses on emotionally driven storytelling, lets the game world and NPC's react to player input in meaningful ways, and goes the distance to make sure everyone is comfortable with their roleplaying, look no further!
At a glance
1 year on StartPlaying
16 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Teacher, Storytelling
Featured Prompts
I became a GM because
I was disappointed by a paid GM experience as a player, and swore an oath to provide great tabletop gaming experiences. In that process I discovered several things: 1) My design background lends itself well to TTRPGs 2) I love doing it 3) Spite is an effective motivator
My favorite books are
LOTR and The Witcher
People are always surprised when I tell them
I sang at a Karoke bar with a former cast member from Glee. I'll tell you which one during a session if you ask!
How Drew runs games
My priority, above all else, is delivering an emotional experience. The tools I use to achieve that are meaningful roleplay, developing NPC's whose motivations you understand and care about, unique (and sometimes silly) voices, and making sure the world reacts believably to player input. I've been in games as a player where the NPC's were either cannon fodder, dispensers of information, or reluctant dispensers of information that were one skill check away from spilling their life story to you. Expect a much higher standard from me. Further, I put significant effort to immerse the players in my game world. Expect highly detailed scene descriptions that use the 5 senses to take you away from the table, and into the game. For example, "You step into the rustic tavern, the old floorboards creak beneath your boots and sing an old song with each step. The smell of hearty meats and spiced ale, paired with the gentle dance of the flames from the hearth fire, beckon you to rest your weary legs" In regards to gameplay and rules, I firmly believe that at it's core, DnD is a game about collaborative storytelling, so don't expect me to get hung up too much on what the rule book says. That being said, where I deviate from some other DM's, is I pair in logic when deciding how your dice roll will impact what happens. For example, lets suppose an orc is standing between you and your friend and you decide you're going to take a shot at the orc with your bow. Typically, if your roll is successful, you hit the orc and deal damage, and if your roll is unsuccessful, you miss and deal no damage. With me, if you miss that roll, not only will you miss hitting the orc, you might nail your friend who is standing behind them. The reason I lean on logic for rulings, is I love to tell great stories, and some great stories are rooted in the chaos we experience in real life. My promise to my players is that while my rulings may have unintended consequences, I will be consistent and do my best to rule the same way in similar circumstances. Finally, expect me to go out of my way to get to know what you expect to get out of the game. As a game designer, it is absolutely imperative that I design a game that is aligned with your expectations, and the way I do that is by getting to know you before we play the game, and ensure I am continually meeting your standards throughout the experience. Do you have a great idea for a backstory and want an opportunity to take center stage to explore it during the session? My prep for the next session will involve me going over your backstory in great detail and finding ways to weave it into the broader narrative. Do you prefer to avoid the roleplaying stage and mainly come for the combat? No problem, you're the strong-silent type and I'll make sure there's a few goblin skulls you can knock together. Succinctly, expect immersion, emotional storytelling, roleplay, world simulation, and player-centric design to be at the forefront of the game we develop.
Drew's ideal table
Featured Prompts
If you're into ___, you're going to love my table
Emotionally-driven storytelling, character arcs, character motivations, and embracing the occasional bad dice roll
I love it when a player
Is very excited to roleplay! If we can let go of the table, and fully immerse ourselves into our characters, I love to see players put on their character's shoes and walk around in them
I think min/maxing...
Is not well-suited for the types of games that I run. Mistakes, chaos, and bad rolls can make for great stories, and I ask that my players embrace the emotions that come with "failure". Reject optimization, embrace roleplay
Drew's Preferences
Platforms