James

About me

I've been playing D&D since 1990. I stepped away for a stretch — the Navy, an ambulance, a graduate degree, a family — and came back six years ago carrying everything those years put into me. I hold a BA in Religious Studies and an MA in Cultural Anthropology. I didn't pursue those degrees to teach. I pursued them because I've always been drawn to what sits underneath — ritual, symbol, myth, the deep structures that shape how people make meaning out of chaos. That framework lives in every character I build. I don't write backstories. I build people, grounded in real history and belief and the kind of psychological weight that surprises me as often as it surprises the table. As a hearing-impaired veteran, online voice chat creates inconsistencies my hearing aids can't always compensate for. Text-based play isn't a workaround. It's the format where I do my best work. When I'm not playing, I run my own Play-by-Post campaigns — small tables, dark themes, the kind of games where your character isn't just participating in a story but is the story. I also organize Dungeons & Drafts, a live monthly game at a local brewery built to bring new people into the hobby. I love this game enough to share it with strangers. If you're a DM who values depth, creative investment, and a player who will never phone it in — I'd love to find a seat at your table. And if you're a player looking for that same standard on the other side of the screen, I might have a seat at mine.