D&DG GAME MASTER TEAM
Meet the people behind the monsters!
They’re the monsters you fight, the villagers you save, the heroes you aspire to be, and the villains you desire to crush. Behind the screens, laptops, and tablets at our tables are our wonderfully inviting Dungeon Masters. Whether they run games full time or in their spare time, you’ll always find a wide variety of adventure at each and every table. DMs are handpicked and tasked with lovingly crafting their own stories as part of an enormous and interconnected world. Tales of intrigue and wonder, deceit and betrayal, heroics and hardships, cultists and carnivals. All woven together by our team for your enjoyment!
Craig Chapman
What is your DM style?
I always riff off the idea that DMs have archetypes, just like classes. And I like to think I’m specialized, but really, I’m probably a Bard. Jack of All Trades, Expertise in a handful. I dedicate the majority of my time to building deep worlds and stories that really allow you to live in the world, and try to listen as much as possible to you so I know what your characters want to do. I live for improvised stories that are even better for existing in the extensively pre-written frameworks I spend far too much time on, because it’s less fun telling the story if I’m the only storyteller involved.
How long have you been a DM?
About 16 years now, if you count when I started DMing on Neverwinter Nights. Pen and Paper, 13. More than half of my life thus far, and I’ve never stopped loving it and letting it consume my life.
What is your favorite thing about D&D?
Telling stories communally. Learning what sorts of stories people want to tell, and enjoy hearing from others, that’s what I live for and consistently hunt down. Nobody gets to leave my table without being at least a little involved in that process, with respect to their comfort level. Everyone has at least one good story, and I aim to bring it out and make it a part of the world. And let you write new ones with friends, too! The sorts of memories you make over D&D are the ones that will last an eternity, and the ones that enter into public culture and have their origins practically lost to time. The number of stories and even game effects that are based on earlier adventures in previous editions always makes me grin and hope that one day my stories will fit in there, too.
What is your favorite thing about D&DG?
The lasting community. In most D&D games, you’ve got maybe 9 people at most, 8 and a DM. Some wild groups run higher, but the average is probably 5.5. In D&DG, sure, we run close to that average, but with our sheer number of DMs and players, we wind up with a substantially larger base of community members. That community has truly forged into something wonderful and special over the years, and I look forward to watching it grow even more as time goes on. The bonds and friendships that have come out of it, and the sense of being a part of something – those are incalculably wonderful. If you’re looking for a home, you can find it here.