An interview with a DM

The second of Micah’s Role Playing Game (RPG) DM interviews ahead of SHO 2019 – with Hannah Ashley. Originally published via Pyromaniac Press

Hannah RPG DM Harry Potter BroomStix

What games are you running at SHO?

I’ve got a bunch of the indie one shot style RPGs, the type you probably wouldn’t run a campaign for, but are a bunch of fun for a one off. From my list, whatever people want to play – I’ll run.
Some of them include:
Honey Heist – you’re bears trying to steal honey from the humans (Complete with dress-up props)
Lady Blackbird – steampunk pirates meets firefly.
Goat Crashers – you’re goats trying to crash a human party.
Pride and Extreme Prejudice – regency ladies and giant robots powered by eldritch curses
Crash Pandas – a game about racoons entering the world of illegal street-racing in LA.
Dungeons and Doggies – D&D but you’re playing dogs.

Pick one RPG and tell us a little about it (what it’s about, why you like it)

BroomStix – A Harry Potter RPG. Players get to create a character, select their house and favourite subjects, then see if they can survive a year at Hogwarts, stopping Death Eater Plots and still passing their OWLs. What’s not to love??

Editors note – urgh, I soooo want to join in and play this game. Down side to organising it all, I don’t get to actually DO any of the cool things on offer. So frustrating. E

Describe the game mechanics. How does it work?

It’s based loosely on the D&D D20 system. As the DM (or should it be HM – headmaster), i describe a situation, and you tell me how your character would react and what they’d do. I then tell you what skill you’d need for those actions. That skill might have added bonuses, based on things like your heritage, school, favourite subjects etc, and then you roll a D20 die and add the bonus to the result to determine your score for that skill check. The better you roll, the better the outcome.

Tell us a little about yourself. How long have you been playing/running TT RPGs, and what do you like best about them in general?

I was introduced to TTRGS by my now-husband about 5 years ago, playing D&D 5e Season 1 with my tea-drinking, scone baking Half Orc Barbarian. The appeal for me was getting to tell a story together, and work all together (in the theory) towards a common goals. Not long after that, I started running D&D too, and haven’t looked back. I ran Honey Heist at last years SHO, and had a bunch of fun, can’t wait for all the games this year!

You can catch Hannah in action at SHO, along with a bunch of other great DMs. For the full timetable of events check out the RPG page. Tickets are available via Humanitix or at the door.