Michael

I cannot in good faith recommend Salim as a GM. There are of course the minor complaints. His games are pretty barebones, blank battlemaps, no custom art, not even Midjourney. A world that feels oddly empty. On several occasions he has misunderstood rules, or mixed up rules from different editions of the game. But who hasn't? There are the personal complaints. The game I played with him was very focused on combat. There were few NPCs to interact with, or challenges that could be overcome with skill and foresight. But those are subjective. The biggest reason I cannot recommend Salim is because he has a very hostile personality. This is a GM who rejected an interesting sounding home-brew because it had no pictures. Who once asked me if I had any questions about an upcoming game, and then told me not to waste his time with "stupid questions". After the last session I played with him, I messaged him in private and told him that I wasn't having much fun with his game. I explained that I felt there was little to do in the game besides combat, and that my character hadn't really done much to effect the story in 5 session. I also explained that I felt he was unfairly targeting my character, because he seemed not to like my character concept. He immediately turned hostile. Blamed me for not "creating my own fun". Told me I was a "shitty player". Tried to blame a player that had earlier left the game for my lack of enjoyment. And finally he blocked me from his Discord, and deleted the game we were playing. A game which by then had 3 players, having gone through a total of 9 in as many sessions.

I was skeptical when I first heard about Start Playing, but Austen really won me over. He always goes above and beyond in making sure that everyone has fun at his games. Not only does he know the rules, but he knows how to make sure that everyone is involved and engaged with the game. And he clearly puts a lot of work into his campaign.