James McIntosh

Where Icarus shines is in his extensive preparations for sessions. Many of my games with Icarus have often involved a degree of investigation and the deciphering of clues, and will often prepare a range of materials prior to the session that may either provide additional context, or hint at certain details that can be useful in a range of scenarios. A standout for this was a Cyberpunk 2077 fully designed heist investigation document/powerpoint where more details about different security system's etc became revealed as players gathered more information about the target. Various successes/fails in rolls left parts of the document revealed or blacked out, which added to the immersion and helped the group plan an approach to the heist. Other instances include briefings and letters from characters in the Warhammer 40k universe to establish context. At the core of his games, Icarus is about having fun. You can hear is enthusiasm rise as players get more creative and engaged, and sometimes will be more invested in your rolls than you are. He's highly detailed oriented and knows the rules of his games extensively (I don't think I've ever seen him need to check a rulebook mid-session), but is flexible, notably in applying the rule of cool, within reason. His detailed descriptions of the events paint an engaging picture of the action happening around your characters, and whilst not an actor at heart, will do his best to embody the characters in the world with joy. Every group is different and he's willing to tailor the content/pace based on the group dynamic and group feedback. I remember being the last surviving guardsman from a space station defence; a tripping dwarf that saw a giant horse in the distance and imagined scaling a wall whilst actually clawing at the wallpaper; a cannibal in the metro trying to make other players eat my mystery meat (secret mission) as the missionary enslaved children to a secret religion as fighters whilst Gforce's magic shotgun basically one-shotted the boss; an edgerunner backflipping off a moving truck and firing a missile launcher whilst switching stat sheets between my alternate personality mid-flip due to a special crit-success condition, then immediately switching back from the crit-fail condition; a pirate having a ship-length distance heart to heart yell about my captain's ex-wife, amongst many other memories. Perhaps the greatest quality of Icarus' games is that they are memorable, and moments from them often pop into my mind and make me break into a chuckle or a smile. That's what keeps me coming back.