CEO & Founder of The Quest, a lover of people who has been playing and running tabletop RPGs since 2009. RJ  has a passion for storytelling and character exploration that he brings to all of his endeavors. With experience in both clinical mental health counseling and many years of gaming, he’s looking forward to guiding you down the path of your very own Quest!

• Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in the state of North Carolina (LCMHC)

• Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC)

• Certified Therapeutic Game Master (CTGM)

• Bachelors in Cinematic Arts with a screenwriting focus (120 Credit Hours)

• Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CACREP Accredited, 60 Credit Hours)

• EMDR Trained (40 hours)

• Expertise in working with adolescent to adult human beings on issues such as trauma, ADHD/time management, stress & burnout, depression, anxiety, and more.

• Committed to advocacy and accessibility in gaming & therapy for every population.

Tea or Coffee? Coffee for sure. If I were a fish, I’d swim in an ocean of it.

Favorite Food? A nice juicy steak and potatoes!

Sunrise or Sunset? Sunrise! New day, new chances.

Favorite D&D class you’ve played as? Sorcerers! Underrated, in my book. But Bards & Paladins are fun too, anything where I get to let my little extrovert batteries recharge!

Favorite monster to fight? I fought an Aboleth back in 2015, playing as a wizard. Huge, evil, intelligent, evil, psychic, evil, aquatic mind-enslaver monster that lived in the sewers beneath a large city. Did I mention they’re evil?? That campaign forever cemented Aboleths as my favorite (read: most feared and loathed) monster to fight against!

Of course, it wasn’t so smug when it got trapped between the material and astral planes and was subsequently atomized into fishy particles, but how we managed that is a story for another day.

Most memorable in-game moment? While that bit about the Aboleth is a good story, I think my most memorable in-game moment of all time has to be when I ran a murder-mystery style story beat for some of my players.

One character’s father was on trial for the murder, and they had to find clues to determine what had happened. I did not expect the Bard to have taken Raise Dead as a spell they yoinked from the Cleric spell list, so when the victim came back to life, it became a very different sort of adventure after that. Made me a better Game Master in the end, though I was gobsmacked in the moment!

Your favorite quote? “…There is some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.” -Samwise Gamgee

What would you say you excel at as a game master? As a barely-reformed theater kid and film student, I’d say I excel first and foremost in providing my players with opportunities to let their character choices that they’ve made breathe. Chances to explore the world, witness its smaller moments, and participate in its giant setpiece epics, and rolling with my players’ choices so that they know the world responds to them and their stories!

What would you say you excel at as a mental health professional? I’d say my style as a counselor matches my style as a game master- relational, listening first, collaborating and always putting the player or client in the driver’s seat, chasing their own goals. I’m in the passenger’s seat with the map, ready to go at your speed!

Combat, exploration, social scenes or puzzles? I prefer a focus on exploration and combat when the characters are out in the world, but it’s crucial to make time for social moments of roleplay to remind us all that these characters we play as are people too. I occasionally slip the odd puzzle in there for my players, but it’s not my typical wheelhouse, haha.

Do you prefer running detailed combat maps or theater of the mind? I have and do run battle maps when needed, but I began running games in an age where battle maps definitely weren’t online and minis were expensive. I default to theater of the mind, preferring to vividly describe and co-narrate the action alongside my players!

You suddenly gain the power to cast one cantrip and one leveled spell from the game in real life, what do you choose? I choose Prestidigitation instantly for the cantrip. No more laundry day! As for the other spell, I gotta go with Lesser Restoration. Cure poisons, diseases, blindness, paralysis? Time to hang around at my local hospital!