Kevin Brink

Joshua is one of the most gifted GMs it has ever been my privilege to encounter. He combines the creativity of an artist, the patience of a teacher, the expert plot twists of a novelist, and the skill of a craftsman with the wit and improvisational skill of a stage actor. When we fought a combat on the Eiffel Tower in a superhero campaign, he didn't lay out a map... he brought out a scale model he'd built, articulated to buckle and collapse in the event of battle damage. When I wanted to play an oddball character in Deadlands, a creation of mad science instead of a mad scientist directly, he set aside his original thought of "no" and considered what it would take to turn that into a "yes", and then turned that "yes" into a storyline that brought both cheers of elation and tears of sorrow to the group. When we fully "noped" out of a Pathfinder plot line because of a misunderstanding of the intent, he took the time to understand why, rewrote his story to correct the misunderstanding, and moved us on to a new thread without recrimination. And when we the players come up with an idea as crazy as teleporting an explosive-vest-wearing werewolf into an airplane to curse the end boss before she can escape and inject herself with vampire blood, then detonating the explosives to bring down the plane, he laughs, admits he didn't see that coming, and rolls with it. No ego flexing, just masterful yes-anding to bring a great story to a truly epic conclusion. Addendum: One thing I very much like about Josh's Pan'gaea setting: the very clear feeling of "the DM is on your side". In other RPGs (if they're run well), that rule remains true, but tends to feel somewhat overshadowed by the adversaries. In Pan'gaea, the constant humor really helped it feel emphasized.