Introduction
An Enthusiast is a GM Archetype recognized by Extraversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Perceiving traits. Your mind flows only the greatest of stories, and your energy carries those thoughts into actionables. The combination of such a potent mind is tempered only by the natural goodwill and desire to see others thrive. It is clear that you have more than a passion for life, but a passion for the life of others with energy that flows in all directions.
Experiences with you leave people feeling like they've been with a longtime friend
That energy translates plainly with any interaction that reveals a creative force with a gentle soul. But, of course, all of this stems from a full heart driving a longing for meaningful and emotional connections. Experiences with you leave people feeling like they’ve been with a longtime friend. Strangers turn into friends, and new companions quickly become committed allies in most cases, but that depends on if they stand by your enthusiasm.
Game Mastering Styles
Brimming with hopes and dreams, ideas and experiences, passion, and an open heart, you carry this energy into any game that captures your interest. For you, finding the right game system or setting is like finding a long-lost love. You develop a special connection, and despite its flaws, you will find a way to add to it rather than subtract it. As such, a game with too many rules and/or structured mechanics can be too limiting.
a game with too many rules and/or structured mechanics can be too limiting
Rather than choosing to limit a game, working with something relatively light is refreshing and gives you the space to build worlds and add new rules to enhance the experience truly. When the connection is correct, you will likely spend most of your time and money investing in fostering your new relationship. Looking for additional supplements, researching the history of the system makers, and understanding the inspiration for the setting is just the start of your burning passion.
Because your passion for the game is enough to carry your energy, there are a few limitations to how you set up your games. You could easily run a long-term campaign while having a series of one-shots with strangers and still will want more. You seek any opportunity to run the game and are willing to throw caution to the wind to get more hours exploring the creative experience you share with others. For you, being a GM is not a responsibility you take lightly, and you work with all your heart.
Storytelling Style
You are overflowing with imagination, creativity, and curiosity, which is evident in how you spend time crafting a tale that enriches the lives of everyone playing. With a mind that delights in the wonder of existence itself, your stories carry profound emotional implications paired with stories that feel larger than life at every turn. Even a simple task such as shopping is an opportunity to meet an NPC that could change a person’s life. Connecting everyone in one way or another, the story weaves that thread.
The story's narrative can become so grand that there's no closure
Enthusiasm can be infectious, and yours is a field of radiation that brings positive vibrance at every opportunity. The stories continue to grow, expand, and evolve, which can cause the problem of being so bright that it burns out. The narrative can become so grand that there is no closure. You find a way to offset this by grounding the epics told, reminding people that even the most extreme circumstances begin and end with just the people by your side.
The narrative will attempt to unlock a depth never presented: the power of your energy. It takes even the smallest grain of excitement and finds a way to spread it over miles of thoughts and grow a garden of shared enthusiasm. Such a feat is attainable by having a refined emotional sensitivity to respond to minor details given by a person. People genuinely are books to be read, and you are excited to see what stories they make of their own accord.
Table Management
There are few more excellent moments as a GM than shoring your sense of wonder and inspiration with your players. You base each story on something that speaks to your heart and encourages players to do the same. You are likely to remind players that they are allowed to bend or break specific rules, and at times will encourage people to go outside of the expectations of the game itself. You can even reward the players when they do something unconventional and creative as long as it pushes them to continue with that passion.
Your most distinctive approach to managing the table is to have an open discussion
You may desire to avoid laying down the rules as a deterrent, fearing that it will stifle future creativity and close someone off. However, you may know or will not use the rules when necessary. Creativity is critical, and the rules become more relevant if you know there is a bigger payoff in a story. It is not a matter of picking and choosing what rules, but you know what will cause the most significant emotional response and will nudge that way.
Your most distinctive approach to managing the table is to have an open discussion. If there is ever a moment when someone needs clarification on a specific mechanic or might be misattributing the rule, you are willing to have a conversation in a moment. Establishing what the official rules are at that moment so that everyone understands, then choosing to express that you wish to make an exception for what is enjoyable. It is not a moment of concession but to provide confidence in the players’ decision-making.
Session Resources
A vault of ideas, interests, and hobbies provides a near-endless supply of options to enhance the table. Initially, this can be an overwhelming and even scattered list with so many different tools overlapping and performing similar tasks. Then, however, you are ready to pull out every one of them when the moment calls. This level of creative flexibility allows you to act on your feet and have a new tool to cover a sudden event.
You're considerate of players' enjoyment, though your tools and notes are likely scattered
Theater-of-the-mind is the easiest to start with, but you are ready to pull out a map for every scene. NPCs are identifiable to the best of your ability, music is ready to be played as ambiance for each moment, and there is a mood board for each distinct encounter with images as reference. Your consideration for the players and their enjoyment is meticulous, even though your tools and notes are potentially scattered.
Your favorite tool is simply being in the moment. When interacting with the players, you have collected every detail they give you during a session and provide them with a personalized experience. In addition, you take the time to learn who your players are, no matter how much time you have, and dedicate moments to them. This dedication means having access to their character sheets, notes, and other resources is vital to you.
The Game Master's Toolbox
- World Anvil: A worldbuilding program that helps you create, organize and store your setting with detailed wiki-like organization and interactive maps to store your notes.
- DnD Beyond: An excellent place for digital character creation and creating a campaign group for easy roll shares and sheet management.
- Notion (TTRPG University Notion Templates)
- Evernote
- DnD Beyond’s Encounter Builder: I’ve heard it’s helpful. You can build an encounter and determine its difficulty level based on math.
Role Generator: You can randomly generate everything from cities, to magic items, to herbs, to NPCs. https://www.rolegenerator.com/
- Inkarnate: For fantasy world and city maps. Yearly subscription.
- Wonderdraft: For fantasy world and city maps. One-time purchase.
- Dungeon Scrawl: For creating flat and isometric dungeon maps. Completely free.
- Dungeondraft: Building and Dungeon crawl maps, full color.
- Azgaar Github Fantasy Map Generator
- Dungeon Fog: Free map-making tool
- Dungeon Map Doodler
- Spotify: There are so many D&D playlists to choose from, or, pick your favorite video game tracks to play.
- Syrinscape: With Syrinscape, you can control the master playlist and players can decide their preferred volume from their end.
- YouTube Premium: Put on a 3-hour ambiance video without commercial interruptions.
- Google Forms
- TTRPG University Google Forms to Copy
- DMs Guild: A place to find supplemental guides and campaigns to enhance your official D&D content.
- Drive Thru RPG: The all-TTRPG sister of DMs Guild.
- The Monsters Know: A book series about monster tactics and strategies to help enhance gameplay.
- Point Buy Calculator: Doing a character sheet from scratch? This will help so much with the number crunching. https://chicken-dinner.com/5e/5e-point-buy.html
- DnD Beyond: The best place to build a digital character sheet. Fully connected to all the official D&D content. Makes leveling up take about 30 seconds.
- Wild Shape Tracker: Super helpful for druids. https://arcaneeye.com/apps/wildshape-tracker/
- Character Backstory Template: https://arcaneeye.com/dm-tools-5e/dnd-character-backstory-template/
- Xanathar’s Guide to Everything: I use this particular book ALL the time to help build my character backstories. There are roll tables in the “This is Your Life” chapter.
- Google Dice Roller: Super simple. Go to Google, type “dice roller,” and you have a dice roller.
- Roll Dice With Friends: You can give your temporary room a custom name, share the link with your friends, and all roll together!
- Owlbear Rodeo (straightforward and intuitive)
- Canva (DIY, simplified VTT)
- Roll20 (complicated learning curve)
- Foundry VTT
- Norse Foundry
- Shard
- Tablespire
- Tabletop Simulator
- Fantasy Grounds
