Ellie

I'll say I'm a pretty picky and annoying person, even before session 0 I was filling Matt up with at least 20 questions about gameplay, inclusivity, creative freedom and he patiently answered all of my questions in the best possible way. The time and effert Matt puts into DMing is visible even from his Foundry VTT's entrance, the addons, how pretty and organized everything is - lots of quality of life and modules that make the game feel more engaging, specially during battles. And then comes the amazing story telling and how comfortable he makes even the less RPer players feel to enjoy and have fun outside battle. Also giving great creative freedom and the right measure of the Rule of Cool, not breaking the game, keeping it balanced. He listens to feedback and does a great job at adapting the campaign to the players expectations. Matt is also very respectful of people's identities and of non native English speakers, like me. I interviewed many many DMs that were starting Kingmaker campaigns and I have no doubt I made the right choice in joining Matt's table, I'm so excited for the next session! Edit: Now it's been around 8 months of weekly games and I can say without a doubt: everything I said before remains true. In fact, I'd praise even further!! Matt is very open to begginer players that are still learning and trying to express their characters through feat allowing to them to be chanced during rest if needed. The same goes for moments where new players/characters join the party and we end up no longer having important skills because of death or a player leaving the table all together. We've had the same set of players for a few months now with the fifth member joining two months ago and I feel we, as players, are very comfortable and "in sync" with each other - and no doubt that level of comfort is thanks to the friendly and respectful ambient that Matt creates as a GM. Matt takes no pleasure in killing off PCs and NPCs alike, but it doesn't hold him back from punishing the unprepared or misfortuned souls. Our characters have lost close friends and loved ones along the way, always with the space to develop and grow from those loses. My own character is a completely different person from the innocent and curious student he was when he decided to answer the Call for Heroes. I can only imagine it's not that easy to keep players so emotionally invested, not only on their own characters, but also on their allies, NPCs and overall story. Also, he is always improving things that he can. For exemple, the visual aid for our settlements: Matt got beautiful maps for both of them and is using the tokens provided by Foundry to create our towns visually and it's all so beautiful! And I'm sure it's not every DM that would go that far to represent the character's choises and the story the players build together. It's a shame I can only choose 3 tags to give and I picked the ones that were most representative of my experience on the table I'm at. But I'll say without a doubt that he's also Inclusive/Safe, Knows the Rules, Sets the mood, GREAT for beginners, Incredible with Visual Aids, does the most Amazing & fun voices and it an awesome and master World Builder. And as a side not, I'll add my own little tag and say that he is VERY patient with annoying players that ask a bunch of questions for RP purposes or the limits to how creative I could be with descriptions of spells and items and whatever else comes to my chaotic mind. haha I even intend, if time permits, on joining one or two other of Matt's tables, because they are THAT GOOD.