Craige

About me

Hi, you can call me DM Axar. Why Axar? Axar is a gnome magician I discovered while exploring the Forgotten Realms. He’s my alter ego in Faerûn—an 8th-level mage with a modest keep inherited from another wizard. The name itself came from a fantasy name generator, though it also happens to be a Hindu word meaning “imperishable” or “alphabet.” I liked it, and he stuck with me. I began playing tabletop RPGs in the 1980s, when rulebooks were passed hand to hand, maps were drawn in pencil, and campaigns lived or died by the attention of the people at the table. That habit of truly listening—really listening—never left me. Over the decades, I’ve played and refereed a wide range of systems: Traveller, RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, Twilight: 2000, and many editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Of all of them, D&D 3.5 remains a favourite—a system with enough structure to reward careful thought and enough flexibility to support genuine storytelling. My style as a GM is deliberate rather than frenetic. I value continuity, consequence, and collaboration. I enjoy players who take notes—not because they must, but because they want to remember the people they met, the promises they made, and the threads they chose to follow. Worlds feel more alive when they are remembered. I like to become friends with players rather than treating the table as a four-hour business encounter. I enjoy teaching (and learning) rules and explaining why things work the way they do, but I am not interested in adversarial play or performative cleverness. I value collaboration, imagination, and respect for everyone at the table. I use rules seriously, bend them thoughtfully, and apply the Rule of Cool when it serves the story rather than replaces it. My campaigns are story-driven and character-focused. I use voices when they help, visual aids when they clarify, and silence when the moment needs space. Mood matters. Pacing matters. Listening matters. At my table, rules and evolving character developments matter, but they are not a cage. I aim to apply them fairly and transparently, while leaving room for judgement, creativity, and the occasional Rule-of-Cool moment. I enjoy helping players grow comfortable with both the rules and their characters, teaching systems, and clarifying mechanics along the way. Respect, inclusivity, and shared spotlight are central to my table. This is a collaborative space—one where imagination is taken seriously, and where engaging both in-character and out-of-character is part of the experience. For the coming year, I am offering a weekly D&D 3.5 campaign free of charge, starting in May. Sessions are run on Roll20 with voice over Discord, and audio is recorded privately for my own review and improvement. If you are looking for a thoughtful, story-focused game—one that rewards attention, imagination, and collaboration—you may find a good home at my table.