Joseph Wood

Joe made our one-shot at PAX East unforgettable. We had a mix of new and experienced players, and he handled it all smoothly, keeping everyone engaged and laughing. Joe knows how to balance fun and challenge, making sure every player feels like part of the story. Highly recommended if you’re after a session full of surprises and great moments!

Joe is a DM with excellent improvisation skills, and likes to incorporate character backstories into his plots. During my time with him, I felt like each player was given the spotlight, and given an opportunity to shine. He was able to take my backstory and character quirks and make it relevant to the main plot, which is fantastic for maintaining player engagement.

He is also great at character voices as well, capable of portraying everything from old men to young children, and by changing his speaking mannerisms he is able to create NPCs that are audibly distinct. I think this is an especially useful skill, especially during online play, where you may not necessarily have a visual component to help distinguish characters.

All in all, Joe is a wonderful DM to play with, and I look forward to my next opportunity to play in one of his games.

I had an absolute blast playing a one-shot with Joe as our DM! His quick wit and humor kept the session light-hearted and engaging, yet he always knew how to turn up the tension when things got serious. Joe handled every twist and player surprise with incredible ease, adding layers of fun and excitement to our adventure. From start to finish, he kept us fully immersed, and there was never a dull moment. If you’re looking for a DM who brings top-tier cleverness, sass, creativity, and flexibility to the table Joe is your guy. Highly recommended (despite him killing the entire party with Shia LaBeouf D; )!!!

Joe is a great player-focused DM. When I said I wanted to play in a game that was all Bards in a metal band taking on the Tomb of Horrors, Joe made the game happen and endured each and every one of our strange bards… even reworking the final encounter to be theater and musically themed. And then when we all wanted to push the “what if the whole party was X” concept further, Joe jumped on board and let us all be various misanthropic goblins and kobolds for a whole campaign. Joe will embrace and jump on board when you invent a ridiculous concept for a game and turn it into something not only funny, but taking the theme seriously.

When I approached our DM with the idea of a bugbear battle master themed around chess moves, not only was he on board, but he also gave me some great ideas for names. And thus Grob was born. And when I told him about the three goblin pawns Knight Grob would be taking with him on his adventure, we came up with even more obscure openings to name them. And he made sure that Barnes, Benko, and Desprez felt like part of the party (and made sure Grob felt their absence when we got separated by half a continent).

I know I can go to Joe when I need inspiration for a new character or just to bounce ideas off of for my own settings. And I can’t wait to participate in another one of his adventures when the time is right.