Cab

Dan doesn’t run campaigns-he forges LEGENDS! His voice acting is Oscar-worthy insanity: every NPC explodes with soul, wild accents, and raw emotion. I straight-up forgot we weren’t watching a blockbuster! Role-playing? Masterful. He becomes villains so vividly I apologized to him for my character existing-then he grinned and unleashed more glorious chaos. Sound effects? Unreal! Sword clashes, roaring fireballs, dying goblins-perfectly timed magic that had us all gasping and cheering. Storytelling is pure sorcery: mind-bending twists, emotional gut-punches, and nonstop epic fun in one incredible symphony. He’s gloriously open to crazy character ideas. My half-owlbear bard-cryptid? Instant “HELL YES!” He celebrated every bizarre concept like the ultimate chaotic champion. Humor? Lethal and legendary. We laughed so hard people fell off chairs and snacks went flying. Pure comedy gold every session. Dan, you glorious madman-10,000,000/10! Best DM ever. Drop everything to play at his table.

Hefty seems like a great DM, very personable, friendly, and knowledgeable. But perhaps not the best fit for large groups of extremely new players. We had a session comprised mostly of new players ranging from those who have played DnD inspired video games to those who had never played any sort of role-playing game in their lives. The overall vibe from the newest of players in the group was that the session was a sustained info dump without enough context. Character creation was shown but not really given enough depth. Players were left confused as to what the classes were and why they'd pick one species over another. Selecting spells was almost entirely left up to the players to peruse without the necessary framing to understand why a spell/ability is chosen over another. Stats were touched upon as in "XYZ is a dump stat" but no correlation to a player’s chosen class and how they might balance the aforementioned stats. What are stats? How do they affect gameplay? While "grab the starting items" is accurate, the many didn't understand what these items were, how they are used, or why/if they matter. Moreover, players were given one magic item of their choice. That’s great, what wasn't great was the brand-new players mid-session being tasked with googling magic items and picking one. Without understanding their class, abilities, or stats... or where to look for magic items... or what magic items are... In the Hefty's defense, he did ask, as he zoomed through character creation, if anyone had questions, although the overall impression seemed to be that he was five pages ahead asking about content the players hadn’t managed to catch up to. One player of the group mentioned that the explanations didn't sufficiently answer the asked question with Hefty moving on before the player had a chance to try and figure it out. Moving into the session it wasn't much better, though it was better in small measures. Hefty did an outstanding job of framing the world, the story, and so-forth. However, the implementation and explanation of the Roll20 VTT left the less tech-savvy players utterly lost and unable to enjoy his wonderful role-play setup. Players were trying to figure out how to upload tokens while the role play was being explained. Unsure as to what they should or should not be doing to interact. In the midst of all of this, the one-shot began in earnest with players being told to roll for various checks. Players were rolling the wrong checks and/or not knowing why they were even rolling. Scene change, struggling, rolling, RP while trying to get situated - rinse and repeat. End of the night - almost end of the session - and we're all finally in combat. Its your turn, what do you want to do? The majority of the players now have no idea what these weapons, spells, and abilities do or why they'd use one over the other. All in all, perhaps it was a bad group for Hefty to DM. Perhaps the players were not sufficiently forceful at reining in the high-speed DM. But it took a group of DnD curious players and turned the lion's share of them into a group of people who now range from unsure if they'd like to try DnD again to outright hostility to the notion of any sort of role-playing game. Having gone through this, my unsolicited advice would be to have character creation occur 1:1 outside the learn to play session. At the very least, this would hopefully give the newest of players a chance to understand their choices and why they do or do not matter. Hefty also might want to seek affirmative responses for various steps in the learn to play session rather than implied understanding prior to advancing. Would I play another session with Hefty as my DM? Sure, he seems like a great DM. The world he crafted and narrative he conducted were engaging – provided you had fundamentals squared away prior to the session. Would I recommend him as a DM for a group of startlingly new players? Unfortunately, no. There wasn't a sufficient bridging of existing knowledge with new content to achieve the necessary hurdle for a learn to play session. Would I recommend him as a DM for players with maybe a session or two under their belts seeking to build confidence? Absolutely. Nothing bad to say about his personality or similar traits.

If you ever find yourself in a session helmed by a Dungeon Master named Nate, consider yourself lucky! Blessed, even! Because this man has somehow mastered the impossible balance between rule precision, improvisational chaos, and the uncanny ability to make a sandwich that will haunt your dreams in the most benevolent way. I have played under many DMs, but few have ever been so patient and meticulous when clarifying rules. Nate doesn’t just answer questions. He pauses, he considers, he double-checks the relevant passages, and then explains things with such clarity that even players who habitually forget how spell components work nod as though enlightenment has finally found them. And while he’s mid-explanation, you can’t help but think, “Wow, I bet Nate could make a really good turkey-and-provolone,” and then suddenly you remember, he does. One of Nate’s greatest strengths is his willingness to accept player suggestions for improvement. Some DMs hear feedback and bristle. Nate hears feedback and says, “Oh, interesting, tell me more.” Then he actually does something about it. And he doesn’t just implement changes alone in some secret DM lair. No, he polls the entire group first. It’s like having a Dungeon Master who also moonlights as a parliamentary moderator, except friendlier and more accommodating and twice as likely to feed you an absolutely sublime sandwich. Honestly, I’d order from him again, and I have no regrets. His character voices? A delight. Sometimes he shifts between NPCs so quickly that I feel like I’m listening to a one man audiobook performance. Other times I’m convinced he’s slipping in little vocal Easter eggs just to see if we catch them. Maybe the barkeep has the faintest hint of an accent from a region he hasn’t told us about yet, or maybe the goblin chieftain strangely resembles a man who has made at least three remarkable paninis in his life. It all blends together beautifully! The worldbuilding, the voices, the plot twists, the fact that I’m suddenly craving a roast beef sub for absolutely no reason. Nate, you magnificent meal-making maestro. But it’s not just the theatrics. Nate encourages creativity in a way that makes even the timid players want to try something weird and wonderful. You want to solve a combat encounter by talking the ogres into unionizing? He’ll let you try. You want to climb onto the chandelier and swing across the tavern to kick a cultist despite having a Strength score of eight? He’ll grin, tell you the DC, and cheer you on even as the rest of the table wonders whether you’ve lost your mind. And while you’re dangling in that moment of wild improvisation, a small part of you thinks, “This would be even better with one of Nate’s sandwiches.” And it absolutely would be. If Nate ran his DM sessions out of a deli, I would never leave. The gameplay, the storytelling, the fairness, the collaborative spirit, it all blends into a wonderful, slightly chaotic, thoroughly satisfying experience. And the sandwiches? Well, let’s just say that if adventuring parties could give Michelin stars, Nate would be a three-star DM with a bonus award for outstanding sandwich craftsmanship. All in all, Nate is attentive, thoughtful, imaginative, consistent, creative, collaborative, and (if I haven’t mentioned this enough) a surprisingly gifted sandwich artisan. I’d adventure with him again in a heartbeat. I’d order from him again too. And I fully recommend that anyone with the opportunity to join one of his campaigns do so immediately, preferably with a napkin on hand, because both the storytelling and the sandwich potential are simply unmatched.

Great teacher. Engaging RP. Open to trying new things! I've learned so much about collecting fluids in vials. 10/10 would recommend.

Great session, would 100% play again.