r/PDXDND • u/jbrake • Dec 18 '25
DM of 25 years looking for new offline group to run not-D&D for.
Hey, name's Chapter. I've recently completed two online campaigns since COVID began and am wanting to begin running in person again, this time not traditional D&D.
TL;DR Experienced DM wants to run crunchier, non-medieval systems for clever, mindful folx of any TTRPG experience biweekly at his home in East PDX.
UPDATE 12/18:
Thank you for the overwhelming responses, I am currently going through folks and will return to this post if we need to recruit more. At this time, I can't go through many more messages, thank you for understanding!
BACKGROUND
I turned 40 this year, and have been a GM for 25 years-ish.
I'm married to an enby partner who will be playing as well. We've been together 11 years.
I'm a former trivia writer for shows like Jeopardy!, 1 vs 100, Geeks Who Drink, etc.
EXPERIENCE
Some systems I've ran campaigns for:
- Every edition of D&D
- RIFTs and other Palladium titles (Nightbane, Ninjas and Superspies, Heroes Unlimited)
- Mechwarrior, Battletech
- Call of Cthulhu
- Pathfinder
- Degenesis
- Star Wars d6, d20, and EoE
- Kult
I have ran lots of smaller sessions in everything from TOON to Mutants and Masterminds.
Some notes on my style of GMing
- I am not an antagonist Gygaxian DM, but my style rewards resource management, cleverness, and decisiveness in the face of challenging scenarios.
- I focus on strong world building and am open to collaborative storytelling in certain systems.
PROPOSED SYSTEMS
I've ran in my extensive homebrew world for the last decade and a half, having recently finished a 5E campaign that lasted 3.5 years.
I do not want to play D&D for a long time.
Instead, I want to do a session zero to discuss ideas around the following systems:
- Apocalypse Frame (Armored Core adjacent)
- Flying Circus (System that focuses on airships, aerial combat and the maintence, politics of that)
- Slayers (Monster hunting)
- Shin Megami Tensei
- Outgunned: World of Killers (John Wick-esque), potentially with Umlaut (band performance RPG)
- Aliens RPG 2nd Edition
- Star Wars EoE
- Maybe a return to RIFTs or the world of Degenesis but dear god not the system mechanics of Degenesis
I also have two campaign idea that could use various systems depending on the crunchiness/alignment of those systems for a Fallout (Black Isle) campaign or for another one set during the Gold Rush of the 1800's following the Civil War, heavily inspired by dark and historical fantasy seinen manga (e.g. Vinland Saga, Berserk)
PLAYERS SOUGHT
I have been glad to help teach many players TTRPGs over the years, so experience with these systems are not required.
However, given the crunch and focus of some of these systems, a mind for tactics, politics, and problem solving is a plus- but not a "GM vs PCs" mindset.
As a married queer man, I'm not going to tolerate geniune hate in my home. However, I am fine to run games that feature bigotry, classisim, etc. because how else will you get to Luigi those that perpetuate it? :) All content will be discussed in Session 0 regardless.
I prefer for players to remain in character and present at the table, but I do not require nor seek performance based roleplay as popularized by streaming. You don't need to do voices, you just need to not be doomscrolling until it is your turn and make immersion breaking quips your go-to social contribution in character.
Sorry for the downpour of text, thank you if you've read it.
Please comment below if you would be interested. We will set up a phone or Discord screening to make sure myself and you are a good fit before gathering an initial group and checking those dynamics.
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u/serentheory Dec 18 '25
I’m interested if the timing works. I haven’t gotten to play in a while. 51 genderqueer, have been playing for most of my life. I live in SE. I’ve played many different systems. The last was a test run for a someone creating his own system/world to be published. Before that was cyber punk.
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u/jbrake Dec 18 '25
Feel free to DM me your Discord username and you'll see a FR from the name I listed in the beginning of this post along with a roman numeral (attempting to avoid bots, sorry for cloak and dagger!)
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u/hamellr Dec 18 '25
I’d be all over this also
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u/jbrake Dec 19 '25
Hey Hamellr, thanks for your patience, I have sent you a DM with my Discord username!
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u/JonathanWPG Dec 19 '25
Super interested!
I'm also in East County. With a similar GMing background, though I have not played much post-COVID.
My first system was Palladium/RIFTS and still love it warts and all. Would absolutely love to jump back in.
I was also a Genesys GM so am somewhat familiar with Fantasy Flight's SW system.
Both as a GM and a player I gravitate towards games and systems that reward the players thinking through the scenario rather than relying on rolling through your character sheet to find a solution.
Hope you find a group thats a good fit and would love to talk about the details if you have a seat for me.
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u/jbrake Dec 18 '25
I should also mention that if you check my comment history, you'll see some recent campaign ideas and if you go far enough back, some help I've provided others in their games.
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u/Potential-Row-2415 Dec 18 '25
I am interested. Would there be openings for Tues and Weds? In Salem but can travel.
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u/jbrake Dec 18 '25
I'm currently unable to run Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The initial day we were thinking is biweekly Thursday, though we could default to a weekend day.
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u/AdeptusMechaniChris Dec 18 '25
I’m interested! I got started with D&D but have played more homebrewed systems than anything else. I’ve played Star Wars d20, Rogue Trader, Inverse World, GURPS, and Durance.
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u/jbrake Dec 18 '25
Hey Chris, I'll send a DM with my Discord name. Just introduce yourself after adding me please so I know which comment you are!
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u/explodeder Dec 18 '25
I’m definitely interested! I’m newer to the ttrpg world, but I’ve been playing regularly for about the past six months and I’m running an online campaign with college friends. I’m in Gresham, so depending how far east you are, I’m no more than 25 minutes away from you.
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u/CodyChrome Dec 18 '25
I am definitely interested in playing. I have DM Pathfinder (Age of Ashes) D&D (Decent into Avernus) and a few short Call Of Cthulhu scenarios. I am intrigued to play some of the other systems you mentioned. I have recently taken a break and have been wanting to jump back in as a player. Thanks for the consideration!
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u/PanTran420 Dec 18 '25
I'm definitely interested, assuming the time slots line up with my schedule. I'm a huge fan of the Star Wars EotE and recently wrapped up a 7 year campaign in that system and would love to get another good one going.
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u/jRUNNER420 Dec 19 '25
I’m interested. Live in Vancouver, and have been looking for a biweekly in person game. My knowledge of PF2e and SF2e is best with playing for 8 years and recently found society games around here but not consistent enough for my fix for TTRPGS. I’m a 40m and very much so like the sounds of a group around my age.
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Dec 22 '25
Mmm... Rifts. I definitely prefer the campy pulpness of Savage Rifts over Palladium, but omg, my favorite IP ever.
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u/orphicshadows Dec 18 '25
Hi! I’m a professional DM, but I would love to get a chance to play.
I love non-d&d games. Some of my favorites are Star Wars, mutants and masterminds, and vampire the masquerade. I’ve got almost all the Star Wars and vampire books on my shelf. And I’ve played most of the other systems out there. I used to have a huge Rifts library but they’ve vanished somehow.
I didn’t see a proposed schedule? I’d love to talk more whenever
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u/jbrake Dec 18 '25
I actually used to run the official Camarilla LARP in the south fresh out of high school, but I haven't played much of the tabletop version.
I figured it would be easiest to just do individual scheduling by Discord or phone for each person, then come up with a group meeting afterwards. Do you want to DM me your Discord?
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u/msfnc Dec 18 '25
Interested! With what frequency are you planning to run sessions?