Some people are fortunate if they get to play Dungeons & Dragons once a month. Others haven’t gotten to play in years. The running joke is that the greatest challenge to any adventuring party is scheduling.
And it’s true.
But, in a day and age where there’s more down time than a lot of people have seen in a generation, and escapism is more important than ever, scheduling, while still the greatest hurdle, doesn't hold the challenge it once did. Now, the question is, "Who’s going to go through all the trouble to run a game virtually?"
That’s where I come in.
I run role playing games almost every day of the week, and sometimes even twice in a day.
I’m able to play that many games because I don’t commit a lot of time to world building, maps, encounters, or research of lore ahead of time.
Because I create the world around my players' characters, and respond in kind to their actions, I don’t have to come up with multiple potential outcomes. We let the dice decide for us, in the moment. And if, god forbid, I can’t think of anything in that exact second, I can choose to make players tell me how things work out, or go wrong. I can have them name the diner across the street or the waitress slinging hash browns, coffee, and seven layer cake. Or I can have them describe in vivid detail the greatest villain their character faces. The onus is on all of the participants to create the world.
It's easier than people think.
Within five minutes of sitting down with my players we have an idea of the setting and genre of our game. Five minutes after that, and we’re discussing the intricacies of a character that they’ve wanted to play for years, or one they came up with on the spot.
Players love it. They love getting to describe their characters’ aesthetics, their weapons, their personal effects, and even their animal, or demon, companion. They can conjure magical implements and visit artificers, or quartermasters for armor and enchanted gear. And they don’t have to count out their gold and silver and copper coins to get it (unless that's an established part of the way this world works). They have everything they need to play the character they want to play NOW.
And as the story progresses, so do the narrative stakes. Players can interact with a bevy of characters plucked from the imagination of anyone at the table, with relations ranging from long lost lovers, to spies in the government, to wizened old grannies telling stories about before the war. Every encounter is an opportunity to uncover a thread in a narrative, and every time we follow that thread we find something lurking in our subconscious that we’re terrified and excited to face.
Throughout it all I’m on the edge of my seat every bit as much as my players, because we’re going to find out what comes next … together.
~~~
Games that I have run or am actively running -
- The Mercenary Guild -
Now beginning its third season, The Mercenary Guild started running in October of 2019!
Imagine the format of Charlie’s Angels, Mission Impossible, and James Bond set against the backdrop of 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
Players can “drop-in” to anthologized style game play where missions are assigned, gear is issued, and narrative stakes are high.
Returning players can even choose to create a roster from which they can select the character they most want to play.
- Promise of Heaven -
After the destruction of the ruling planet in the Enyaran system, its former Steward, Shawnee Hawthorne, and their band of close allies, both new and old, are pursued across the solar system, trying to stay a step ahead of a cabal of religious and political players all vying for an unthinkable power.
This game incorporates both D&D 5e and 2d6 systems with each of the players playing multiple characters across varying perspectives on the same universe. It spun off a 2d6 based adventure called “The Billy Blackwater Adventures” based on the notorious space pirate who now accompanies Shawnee and their crew.
- Alone Together D&D -
Born of the 2020 Covid stay-at-home order, I had an idea for the characters in this story to all be left alone at the end of their introductory session.
I played one-on-one games with each player before introducing them to one another, and the game world at large.
It has turned into an adventure at sea, deep beneath the ocean, and into the depths beyond with a cast of characters trying to understand the mysteries of life, death, and the forces behind a plague of darkness that infects animals and bends them to unrelenting violence against those settling a new continent.
This 5e adventure has been running weekly since March of 2020!
- Haven's Refuge -
Tossed among the waves after a shipwreck Haven finds herself, at first, alone and battered on an island that exists on no map.
Finding an ancient, but advanced, civilization she is thrust into an age old conflict as she is tasked with finding a long hidden sorcerer, picking up friends, and sometimes lovers, along the way. With her trusty pitbull, Mama, at her side she crosses a new continent seeking knowledge and safety in The City of Kingdoms.
A deeply adapted Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game, this dyad is crafted with the intention of being transcribed into a novelization, and ultimately a series of books as we continue to delve into the characters and their escapades.
- Where We're Going, We Don't Need Gods -
30 years ago a tenuous truce between the deities of Paralon was broken. The ensuing scramble for power left many of those gods, and their followers dead or weakened to only a fraction of their former power. But in their deaths, great streams of divine energy now flow through the planes, causing the rise of tremendous factions, including a group of level 20 characters, hell-bent on achieving godhood for themselves, and destroying any who would oppose them.
Throwing many of the mechanics of D&D to the wind, these demigods can move with ease across the planes of Paralon through the "firmament" from which they can also draw *ANY* implement from the compendium of Dungeons & Dragons, or create homebrewed items on the fly, at the DM's generous discretion, of course.
- The Trail -
On a train chugging its way through the foothills of the Georgia mountains in the late summer of 1953, we meet Mudd, and his traveling companion Aesop. Weathered from a life of poverty on the tattered edges of civilization, but empowered by backwoods and delta magic respectively, they begin to see evidence that the Old Gods in the mountains aren’t happy.
Played with my 2d6 variant system.
- The Missing Avatar -
Set 150 years after the end of The Legend of Korra, the world has existed for more than 30 years without an Avatar.
In response, the White Lotus has created a school to push exceptional benders beyond their singular elements in an unspoken effort to identify the next Avatar.
The arrival of the fourth descendant of Avatar Aang, Bumi III, and his wild haired compatriot, Arrow, both airbenders, to New Republic City brings a torrent of change as they’re thrust into the care of a split-personality instructor from the Academy of Elements. As they face an oncoming storm, they band together in an attempt to find the next Avatar and keep evil factions from gaining too much power in their absence.
Another of my 2d6 games, this imagining of a future in the Avatar universe was my proving ground for game play with adolescents. The youngest player is 9, and he’s every bit as capable of steering narrative as any adult d20 player.
- Harry Potter Girl, In a Potter World -
A dyad 2d6 game, this game follows Kory Grindelwald as she navigates her impending adolescence, the disappearance of her ghastly father (whos untimely death left her and her brother all but estranged), and her hopes of a letter from Hogwarts, despite the hurdles of a cursed name, and an abject lack of ability to cast spells.
She crosses mountain and stream to find the Baba Yaga whom she hopes can help her find her father, tap into her magical nature, and most of all, keep her from reverting into an obscurial . . . again.
- Rackon and Rackon Investigations -
Set in the sepia tones of 1920’s Chicago, this “detective noir” series centers around Ziggy and Merrick Rackon, a loving couple whose willingness to stick their noses where they don’t belong propels them into a series of “who-dunnit” conundrums that take them from the high-life to the underbelly of the windy city and back again.
Another running 2d6 game, specifically skinned for the couple I run it for.
~~~
One-off games and Mini-Campaigns -
- D&D Dress Up -
For three days running up to Halloween, I ran a series of one-off games for participants who HAD to get dressed up to participate!
Fighting powerful demons who draw life from their guests, helping wizards find powerful artifacts, and traveling to the far north to investigate a recent rash of killings, the players had a blast, and I had just as much fun running the games!
The final game was specifically run for adolescents, and has cause a spinoff holiday game!
- Holiday Adventures -
The days are getting shorter, and that means that the denizens of the night are on the prowl!
Our adventurers have been called to Vinternacht by Governor Wenslass to deal with the recent abduction of a number of children by what seems to be an aberrant creature.
Mustering all their courage, they make their way to the darkened corners of the globe to save the kids, and perhaps, themselves.
A new spinoff from the players of "D&D Dress Up".
- The South Pole -
A Geodude, a court jester, and a diminutive necromancer seek out a powerful undead wizard’s lair, located under the South Pole, to retrieve the “Tome of Knowldedge”. Let’s see if they’re smart enough to make it out alive!
- The Big Suck -
Klaus, an aspect of the renowned Santa Claus, and Amemnon, an aspect of The Muse are dragged by Amemnon’s ex, Death, on a rag-tag adventure beyond the planes to find a threat great enough for them to put aside their differences.
- We’re off to Save a Dragon! -
Holly, a jolly human raised by elves, Edwin Evil Scissor, a syphilitic wizard who’s fallen out of favor with the queen, Geo, a gelatinous entity inhabiting a set of full plate armor, and Flik, a wispy fire nymph, all descend into a mountain where the ancient dragon Xenos has been imprisoned.
- The Billy Blackwater Adventures -
A 2d6 spin-off of “Promise of Heaven”, we chart a course with the space pirate Captain Billy Blackwater along with his first mate Jack Killington, and their engineer Robby Roshambo. Their daring heists and nail biting escapes from imperial forces underpin the greater narratives of “Promise of Heaven” and give a different perspective on the politics of the Enyaran system.
- Mecha-Battalion -
Strap in for an interplanetary, futuristic, mech suited blast, as Mish, Viper, Akema, Ryker, and Beetle drop onto low orbit battle stations, roam over scarred landscapes, or duel in open space. Also played anthology style, every game session is different, and is played with the 2d6 system described in more detail throughout the site.