What kind of game do I actually wanna run?Last year, my dear, old Canadian pal Erik Ménard launched his own YouTube channel, Midnight's Lair RPG, for discussing roleplaying games, beginning with superheroes (you might notice the Acrobatic Flea makes an appearance) and gradually shifting towards fantasy.
In this episode of Midnight’s Lair RPG, I lay out my GMing philosophy — not as a list of rules, but as a clear statement of intent. This is a manifesto about high-trust play, meaningful consequences, rulings over rules, earned heroism, and characters who are more than combat builds.
If you’ve ever wondered why some RPG tables feel alive while others feel like tactical exercises, this episode is for you.
Over the many years of our friendship, we've generally been in lockstep in our approach to gaming, but nothing spells that out quite as well as his most recent video (above), which explains his 'gaming manifesto'.
This is pretty much word-for-word my own thoughts on the subject (in a case of convergent thinking, Erik even echoes my recently stated ideas on what makes player-characters interesting).
I've known Erik for years, since discovering the gaming podcast he co-hosted waaaaay back in late 2006/early 2007.
Over the ensuing decades, Erik's always supported my various attempts to get a "dream" campaign off the ground, as I have his. This has been largely in the superhero genre as we're both fans of the classic Villains & Vigilantes system from back in the day.
At one point in 2016 we even 'teamed-up' online to test drive the Third Edition of Villains & Vigilantes aka The Mighty Protectors with creator Jeff Dee, when the new system was being Kickstarted.
- Erik has a very affordable Patreon to help cover the costs of running his new YouTube channel.