Emma

We've been gaming together for many years now. Every game is always a surprise in what will happen next.

Short Review Awesome GM that you have to play with at least once. Great for everything from first time gamers to hardcore dedicated life-timers. Long Review I’ve been gaming for nearly 40 years now 15 of which have been with Alf. It’s hard to nail down a single thing that truly stands out since he manages to bring an amazingly diverse set of skills to the table. Gaming with him is a unique event that I think will alter how must people view gaming and I’ll try to break down the main topics. World Building – This I think is easily one of the things that sets GMs apart. One of the things I think most sets Alf’s world apart is that it’s alive. The world exists outside of you and NPCs have lives of their own. This means if you leave an area and come back later things may change and you could be facing all new experiences as people have lived lives independent of your interactions. I’ve found myself finding excuses during his games to return to old locations because I’ve found myself forming a type of attachment to an NPC that has no bearing on the game. Learning – One of the most important things I’ve found in a GM is how do they handle people who’ve never gamed before. I’ve been in several games now that Alf has GMed with a brand-new player in our group of seasoned players. At those times he’s shown an amazing capacity to both challenge the veteran’s while still allowing the new player to keep up and be a vital contributor to the group. Freedom – As a general rule Alf has never told us “No, you can’t do that”, he’s always said his job as a GM is to tell you how the world reacts to your actions not what those actions should be. If you decide halfway through an adventure that you’re bored with the dungeon and want to become a pirate he’ll just tell you “Ok”. But you are also free to accept the outcome from your actions. If you decide all of the sudden you want to burn a village to the ground because “Why not” he won’t tell you not to do it, of course that now means your probably going to be hunter down for those murders since as I said before this is a dynamic world. This allows for an enormous ability to truly control the fate of your characters story and regardless of the outcomes I’ve always felt like it was my decisions that ultimately but my characters where they ended up.