Expendable Name

As a caveat to this review, I must disclose that I don't actually use the StartPlaying platform for tabletop sessions or discovery. Instead, my experience with hinder has been through Roll20 and Discord, so I can only provide experiences in relation to those two platforms. Hinder, or rather Sam, has been a consistently stellar GM in all games I've had the pleasure of participating in. He is an approachable GM who adheres the idea of collaborative storytelling, wanting to both share a story as well as allow players the ability to shape it. If a player has an idea, theme, or concept they want to do, he's more than willing to flesh it out into a narrative that will be enjoyable to both play and run, while also seeding core knives to help develop background threads and player connections to the world. At the same time, if a player doesn't have an idea, he's more than happy to help the player sit down and work through the sort of adventures they want their character to go through. Basically, Sam is easy to talk to, and willing to have frank discussions with the goal of finding something enjoyable for all involved. He's also knowledgeable enough in the systems he runs, primarily 5e, that he's comfortable in branching from the baseline rules. If a player wants to do something that isn't strictly codified in the handbook, Hinder will come up with a way that utilizes the game's systems to make it happen. He's also not afraid of implementing variant rules--always explained to players before any commitment so everyone has a full understanding--in order to provide variety to the system as well as the setting. As a storyteller, Hinder excels in both construction and execution. As mentioned above, he's willing to work with players to incorporate elements in such a way where everyone has a chance to shine, while at the same time providing a compelling narrative arc to tie those elements together. He'll easily make NPC characters that the party adopts, or create someone so unlikeable that everyone will be invested in their destruction, while improv-ing any npcs or locations that players may suddenly decide they want to will into existence through the consequences of their actions. ...Huh. Honestly, I could go on, but I've only just realized that there's no word count limit for the review system, and it's clear my wall of text needs one. In summary, 10/10, would witnessed-the-birth-ofa-spidergod again.