We sit down with Luke, the Dungeon Master behind DM4Hire, to discuss his journey into tabletop gaming and his experiences running Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. He also offers advice for new DMs and reflects on the challenges and rewards of storytelling.
See full episode transcriptTranscript is autogenerated by AI
Welcome adventurers to want to play D and D we are here with our dungeon master, Luke, and we figured we'd go over how Luke got started in DMing and way of getting to know your DM a little better. Welcome aboard Luke. Thank you. Thank you. And great introduction, by the way, as well.
I'm very happy to be here and be able to talk about tabletop gaming and running games in general. Heck yeah. So we ended up, I think we met at a creator's meetup for Jacksonville. Didn't we? I [00:02:00] believe so. I think it's been longer than that too. Cause like we met in passing for the likes of like games, arts and music, but Brian and yeah.
Colleagues and whatnot. And then I think it wasn't till the creators meet up. I think last year where we were properly introduced. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So we like traveled in, in the same circles and then it wasn't until the meetup that we were like, I've seen you somewhere before yeah,
it's a small role, especially with the city we live in, man. It's, that's amazing when it comes down to that.
So, tell me a little bit about yourself. I'm Luke, or D'Empire Incorporated, CEO and co founder of the brand itself. Not much company, but it's a brand. Hopefully in the third year we'll get an LLC where we can be legally a company. But, outside of that I am a independent Dungeon Master for tabletop RPGs and the likes of that.
Dungeons and Dragons, Marvel Multiverse [00:03:00] RPG, and many more that we're going to be offering for players through our development. Not only that I've also ran games for official offense here in our lovely city of Jacksonville, from Bull Matsuri, which was just last, oh, was that last June?
It was June. Yeah, last June. And then we also had Jack's PopCon, which was the first one. Event for the Jacksonville Public Library and big success and fanfare follow, pursuit, and ran games for that along with organizing each tabletop game from the lovely Dungeon Masters that we have within our very city of Jacksonville.
Some of them work under DM4Hire. Some of them are also independent as well. So it's a way to give spotlight for DMs or GMs. Cause again, Dungeon Masters specifically for Dungeons Dragons. About a Game Masters for a game who's happy to be the master of it. And so on and so forth.
When did you begin playing Dungeons and Dragons? So I [00:04:00] got into what most people call a hobby of Dungeons and Dragons. Back in 2018, I was about a junior.
someone would know it as 11th grade high school. And at the time I was watching stranger things season one, and I was, in a way, introduced through D and D through, I want to say it was like the second edition of D and D that. The characters from that show were playing and it really got me thinking of man they look like they have a lot of fun, I might as well try to get into it since I've heard it through the grapevine, but never dived into the rabbit hole.
Like I have like months after and then. And I also made a post featuring Cabal, who is my ball python. He's 10 years old now. I did a little photo where he had a little wizard hat and a little d20 that I got from, a little hobby shop I was with my friends with at the time. And then a buddy of mine that I've known from [00:05:00] church DMs me and he's Hey, I heard you're interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons.
And I'm like, yeah. And so we talked and he invited me over to his house and I met his friends from his high school and such. And then from there, like the rest is history when it came down to playing almost every week, Saturday night with the boy. Yeah. Playing to Oh my gosh. Playing from like 2 to 3 PM all the way to 1 AM in the morning.
That's how deep we like got into that game. Oh, wow. Yeah, I know those sessions can go pretty long. Oh, yeah. And I miss those, too. Going from almost a whole day where it's nothing but D& D, and having a one hour lunch break to go grab something near the house, and then come back and continue doing the session from there.
Yeah. So you started off as a player, as doing Dungeons Dragons. Yes, yeah. I feel like that's part of it. Probably the best way for anybody that wants to [00:06:00] get into Dungeons Dragons is definitely learn as a player first when it comes down to the fundamentals and like the functions that each class offers.
And the first class I ever played, in Dungeons and Dragons was the rogue, which I highly recommend for anybody getting into D& D. Either start off as a rogue or fighter or a bar a barbarian, if you will. But if you want to be a spellcaster and try and get into it, which I know spellcasting can get a little confusing because there's a lot of stuff to remember.
Math to add up and X, Y, and Z which thankfully I can highly recommend starting off as a cleric, if anybody dares to, step into the realm of spell casting, if you will. Okay. Yeah, I think when I first started, I started off with the rogue as well. It was something about those sneak attacks.
Yeah, that drew me in. Yeah, sneak attack was good too. But for me the party just needed a rogue. So they're like, Hey, you want to be a rogue? I'm like, [00:07:00] sure.
Kind of just filled in that space, huh? Cause the party composition we have was myself as the rogue my buddy Cole as the cleric. He always plays clerics every time. I feel like that's it was like bread and butter when it comes to D& D. Our buddy Grouse was our paladin, our buddy Morris, whom, by the way, both are named Brian, so I always call them by their last names.
He played the Dragonborn, I think he was either Draconic Bloodline? Yeah, I think he was either Draconic or Divine Soul Sorcerer. And then, my buddy Joe, who would be there from time to time he would play as the ranger but again, he was there time to time, but mostly it was like, three to four of us, and my buddy from church, who was our dungeon master, and also retired yeah you was awesome.
So as you're playing at what point did you decide, [00:08:00] Hey, I'm going to give DMing a shot? And so that kind of came in through, I want to say about like middle or late. It was after I graduated my senior year of high school, and again, I've been playing, D& D for about a year or two, depending on how time flies and such.
And I really wanted to try to, step out Behind the scenes or behind the screen, if you will of running a game and like telling all these cool stories. And at first I wasn't good, which I mean, for anybody doing something for the first time they're never going to get it on like the first trial last year, like extremely lucky.
And even then I would highly recommend practicing after you didn't fumble the first time. And so for me, I was in a way trying to mimic the DM style that my friend Ozzy had, and, I felt oh, I need to be more like, theoretical and [00:09:00] try to fit in combat as best I can, or, try to have a mystery element to it.
And then that's where I learned the first time of either reading the room or like knowing what your players want. For the game which a nice little blend of RP and combat, because I know a lot of people like to play combat, they want to fight goblins and want to fight monsters and want to do some cool tricks that they don't really get to do either at other games or, in general when it comes down to it.
All right, so you mentioned that you had your first session and it didn't go pretty well, you you want to elaborate on that or is it? Yeah, of course. Again, me being a new DM at the time, from player to DM I had this whole setup where, y'all start off at a tavern, the usual.
Tabletop trope of where, oh, this is where we all meet, right? We in the bar. That happens, they fight a couple thugs, one of which is a gnome that, in most iterations of that scene that I have played through, [00:10:00] which was three times, that gnome always ends up being thrown through a window. Every time.
Every time. And so that's where I was like, okay, I know these guys are either going to do the same route or there's going to be different routes because again, the players and the DM are at that time doing like a collaborative thing. storytelling. So that's, I think, after that first session or the first two or three sessions where I want to have that collaborative story.
It's okay, if they're going to go here, have this ready. If they're going to go there, have that ready. So always have a plan B when it comes to oh, okay, this is how, I shall go. But at the same time, again, while still an up and coming DM, I still had, a few bumps in the road where an old friend group whom I don't hang out with as much for obvious reasons completely sabotaged a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign that I had at the works.
Okay, so [00:11:00] for people who have played Ghosts of Saltmarsh I think it's mostly like in the early levels where there's like a haunted house, like an old black wood house. They have to go through to find a treasure. Yeah. A buddy of mine who I worked with to make him a sharkkin, which is like a homebrew, like humanoid shark race.
Okay. And did the mistake of making him a size large. And instead of oh, go for their house and try to find what we're looking for no, he just destroys the house. Oh. Yeah, he grabs a tree and just starts wrecking it. And then I was like will o whips start coming out of the debris and now they have to fight some spirits and whatnot.
So I was like, okay, that kind of worked out. We're like, it wasn't the attendant route, but we still made something cool out of it. Yeah. Yeah. And then, the straw that broke the camel's back was, so I had a character who may or may not be based off of Edward [00:12:00] Kenway from hit game Assassin's Creed Black Flag where pretty much after the party got done with the task that was assigned to, or assigned from Kenway it was like, okay, here's what we can do If you want X, Y, Z, you have to race me in the water to try to achieve, your pay and so on and so forth.
And this is a guy that's competing against a shark man that's a size large. And instead of them like diving into it, cause, Fantasy for a reason. They're like, no, it's, BS, and we should kill him because XYZ and we're bad. We're pirates. So the next session, cause we left that on a cliffhanger where the shark bites the other half of Kenway, but turns out it was a fake and he gots like this acid ooze.
Cause again, it's a fake form of Kenway. So that was like, okay, I set it up where They're now going on a rescue mission, and they just didn't like that. They didn't appreciate [00:13:00] the, trying to have a plot hook for them to go on this adventure. And I was discouraged from that, of awful players that didn't really appreciate to set up or at least, be like, Oh, this is fantasy.
Let's, see if this man can beat this shark in a swimming race, whoop dee doo, but yeah, so that concurred. So that was about like 2020 2021. So I was like on. Oh, I should know. I did run a successful campaign after that, thankfully. Now it's happening. That's what I was going to say.
I was going to say that seemed like that could be very discouraging. Yeah. I was going to ask if you could think of a time where, everything pretty much went right, and you were just you know what this is why I wanted to DM. This moment right here. Okay yes. So that was all around like 2019.
So now we fast forward to 2020, and as you and I both know the pandemic happened and everyone's pretty much shut in. [00:14:00] So that meant everybody had a lot of free time. Oh yeah. In 2020. Oh yeah. The reason why I think D& D got a huge increase because people were stuck at home, so they used Discord or they used Roll20 to play games online and, continue their sessions from there.
I remember the first time that was happening when I was playing one of my D& D groups where, the DM and ourselves were trying to figure out what we're going to do, so we adapted to using D& D. Discord to run our games. And so my first campaign I ever did, like my first fully complete, fully established campaign that I set of course Home Brew, which I highly recommend for anybody who wants to start DMing to try a home brew for the first time.
Okay. So pretty much still the premise for the first two kickstart campaigns or campaign kickstarts that I had where, alright, guys. Start at a tavern, which is one of the options for my players to, begin their journey. Either at a tavern, or in a [00:15:00] pirate town, or in one of the northern cities, or at the docking bay.
So I like alternate starts, where I like, oh, we can replay this again, like some point in life, or we can do this one, or that one, or this one. And so the party started off in a little pirate town where You know a guy in a scarf sends a letter to, a couple of select party members who were a rogue, a warlock, and a monk, and so they're assigned to go to this water tower that's surrounded by a whirlpool to retrieve a golden compass for Blackbeard.
And thankfully they're invested. It's oh cool, we get to do some heist stuff and fight, whatever's in this tower, which was a couple of mimics, a couple of skeletons, and so on and so forth. It was really fun gaming around that one, and getting to see them having fun, and to have this creative solution to how they're going to go inside the [00:16:00] tower while avoiding the whirlpool that would have pulled the ship in and crushed them with the, rough water pressure of a whirlpool that was protecting said tower.
So yeah, that was a lot of fun. And then afterwards we continue for over a year. We had, new people join in, mainly like friends from high school and such join in. Then later my girlfriend at the time joined and she had a cool subplot idea that was for the campaign and whatnot.
So yeah, that was pretty much my first successful campaign that I've And sadly didn't get a conclusion because of good old work schedule conflicts. But yeah, he still managed to do like a whole year of Dungeons and Dragons, which was still a good time. Nice. Yeah, we have this saying, life finds a way.
It really do. Now is there any, which one do you enjoy more? Do you enjoy playing or do [00:17:00] you enjoy DMing? Ah, man It's tough because I do enjoy being able to tell a story, but at the same time, as of now looking back I do miss playing here and there but at the same time, I also like to create these characters of oh, here's a random shopkeeper with a crooked eye that welcomes you inside his little potion emporium, and all that stuff.
But also I get to make some cool characters as a player too, that gets to interact in another world that, either a friend of mine or a random dungeon master gets to, run and I get to run my character in a whole new surrounding and even maybe take notes on Oh, I could use this, use that to improve my games.
Okay. Oh, I see. Is there anything that you may find hard to prep for as being a dungeon master? I think the hardest thing to prep for, I think for anybody in general [00:18:00] is probably like the pacing. Like I don't have a hard time with it, but you also gotta like, again, read the room and know what your players are coming in for.
Is it going to be a dungeon crawl or is it going to be a combat focus or RP focus, which I've ran all three types of D& D sessions when it comes down to it. And I have fun with both of them or all three of them in general. And I don't know, I think the hardest thing for me is a lot of like tracking, which isn't too bad, but I feel like I could improve on in general.
It was like, do you find that people enjoy the combat more or the role playing more, or which one do you think that in your experience that you think they've enjoyed more? And I think out of my campaigns, my one shots, all that put together in an analysis board. I'd probably say they really enjoy the [00:19:00] roleplay aspect, as again, me being not just a freelance actor from time to time on a few film projects, but also someone who has been in theater before.
Yeah. Shakespearean works in high school or musical plays and middle school and such being able to like what would their character react to, to a buff minotaur that's protecting a maze and they have to try to persuade that oh, we're cool and we need to get to point A to point B.
And, how would they, you know, Do that. And how would the Minotaur react to the party and such? So I think it's really fun to be able to, either have a super serious character where they are like afraid of him, like Shroud, for example. And I, like from being afraid to Shroud to getting all giggly about this happy flum that they find in a mountain dungeon, it's hello, I'm Shroud.
[00:20:00] Could you give us an idea of what your current D& D schedule looks like? As of right now, I guess I'm on a bit of a hiatus. I have a little vacation and such right now playing Cyberpunk Red with a couple of colleagues of mine from a local tabletop shop we have here in Jacksonville.
But on most days where I'm running games and such, I'm usually running games on Wednesdays when it comes down to like my one shots or whenever there's a open spot to do like a whole campaign for half a year. That will also be on Wednesdays. But from time to time depending on what I have set up with like events and such, I'll be running games on like weekends for a event here in Jacksonville or someday.
Once that gets confirmed stuff in Gainesville or, X, Y, and Z. It's mainly down to do weekdays week by week, or weekends every once a [00:21:00] month. That's like the schedule I have set up for now when it comes to the running games. Okay. If there was like, if there was one piece of advice that you can give any, like a new, like brand new dungeon master, that's just getting into DM.
And what would that be? And I think it's the one that I have always believed in and what has helped me a lot when it comes to running games. It'd be a two part answer to it. So first part. Comparison is the Thief of Joy, and second is have a playstyle that you're comfortable with.
You don't have to be a Matt Mercer or a Brennan Lee Mulligan or this person, that person kind of thing. And yeah. From there be you. Don't be, so and because Oh, they run their games great this way, I should run it that way. But instead, [00:22:00] do something that you're comfortable with doing and what you think is your style that, is not only fun for the players, but fun for you.
Yeah, I get it. And I've seen a lot of stuff talking about the Mercer effect and how it's bad for new players because they come in expecting a D& D game to be like that. But And on the same hand, I think that's what's also making them interested in playing D& D, is that they see that and they see that play and they're like, Oh, this looks like it could be fun.
And whether they expect that or they, it just, it still gets them to try it out and it brings new people like to the hobby. So last question I have is not really related to D& D. Do you enjoy anything outside of D& D? Yeah. So far I've been enjoying Cyberpunk Red, which I recently got into.
Very fun, being in Night City and [00:23:00] such, which is a setting that my Game Master has going right now. I've also been running a few games. And playing in Marvel Multiverse RPG, which is, pretty much you can be a Marvel superhero and have some powers, you can be like an android, a mutant someone who relies on gadgets really cool concept and plus it feels like you're a superhero with how they do like the dice system and like The RP and such it's really fun when it comes down to it.
I also have my favorite chair, Pathfinder too. So shout out. And Pathfinder.
So you delve into a few tabletop RPGs, not just D& D. Oh yeah, it's always good to broaden the mind when it comes to Oh, there's more stuff outside of Dungeons Dragons that I can. Equally have as much fun as I did with D& D 5th edition. So highly recommend that. Okay. That's [00:24:00] awesome.
That's awesome. Luke, I appreciate you joining with us and I also appreciate you like giving our first time players a nice experience a when it came to Dungeons and Dragons And i'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more from you Absolutely, yeah. And for anybody curious and want to learn more about myself and DMVR Incorporated you can find us on both Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
And of course next year, starting in 2025, we're going to be creating more videos for the YouTube channel that'll be covering topics of tabletop gaming or just games. D& D related stuff in general. That's going to be pretty exciting to work on the video production side of things. So I look forward to doing that.
Take care. We look forward to seeing it. Thank you. All right. Luke, we appreciate you joining us. We'll take care. All right. All right. Thank you. You too.
Had enough? Not yet? Well, like, [00:25:00] subscribe, and leave us a review, and then come back next week at your peril. I can't promise you things won't get dicey.
