Join us as we chat with the creator of Dark Mage Games and his journey into professional GMing.
Jared: First off tell us a little about yourself?
Joshua(DM): My name is Joshua, and I’m the creator behind Dark Mage Games. I’m a martial arts instructor, husband, and father of two. When I’m not teaching or spending time with my family, I’m usually building worlds, writing adventures, or running campaigns.
I’ve always been fascinated by storytelling, especially stories where the audience gets to shape what happens. That’s what I love most about tabletop roleplaying games. Watching players make decisions I never expected and seeing those choices permanently change the world is something I never get tired of.
Outside of gaming, I spend a lot of time creating maps, designing encounters, recording content, and constantly looking for ways to improve the experience at my table. Whether it’s rewriting published adventures, building immersive Foundry worlds, or creating original campaigns, I genuinely enjoy the craft behind Game Mastering.
My Christian faith is also an important part of who I am. Looking back, I can see God’s hand guiding this journey in ways I never expected, and I’m grateful for every opportunity that’s come from it.
At the end of the day, my goal is simple: I want players to leave my table with stories they’ll still be talking about years later.
J: When and how did you get started in tabletop games?
DM: I got started in tabletop RPGs in 2018. My boss wanted to run a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and my wife and I decided to give it a try. I had no idea how much I’d enjoy it, but I fell in love with the hobby almost immediately.
Then COVID happened.
Like a lot of people, we suddenly had more time at home, so I decided to try running a game for my wife and my mother-in-law. That’s when I discovered what I really loved wasn’t just playing—it was telling stories.
When that campaign came to an end, I realized I wasn’t ready to stop Game Mastering. I found the Across Worlds Discord community, started running free games there, and that’s really where everything took off.
Jared: What made you want to GM for tabletop games, let alone as a Professional GM?
DM: I never originally planned on becoming a professional GM.
I was running games because I loved doing it, and over time I kept putting more and more work into them—rewriting adventures, building custom maps, adding music and atmosphere, and creating worlds that reacted to player choices.
Eventually people started telling me, “You should be getting paid for this.”
At the time I was running free campaigns through Across Worlds, and eventually I had more people waiting to join my games than I had room to run them. Between the encouragement from that community, the demand from players, and the fact that I also needed additional income for my family, becoming a professional GM felt like the natural next step.
Charging for my games also created a greater sense of responsibility. If people are investing both their time and money in my table, I want every session to feel like it was worth that investment.
J: Next tell us about the beginning of Dark Mage Games?
DM: In many ways, The Wailing Forest is both the beginning of Dark Mage Games and where I hope to take it in the future.
When I first started building Dark Mage Games, I wasn’t running published adventures. I was creating my own. Wailing Forest was my first major original campaign, and I wanted to share it with as many people as I could.
To get that first group together, I offered free seats to two tabletop content creators on X. One of them was an old friend who would later help me come up with the name Dark Mage Games. Two other players joined them, and together they became the second group to experience Wailing Forest.
That campaign taught me something important. People weren’t just enjoying the adventure—they were talking about it long after the sessions ended. It showed me that creating memorable experiences was something I genuinely wanted to pursue.
As much as I loved running original content, there was one challenge: I was still an unknown Game Master. With only a handful of reviews, it was difficult convincing strangers to commit to a homebrew world they’d never heard of.
So I made a practical decision.
I began running well-known published adventures like Curse of Strahd and Drakkenheim. People already knew those worlds, which made it easier for them to trust a new GM. Those campaigns helped me build experience, earn the trust of my players, and grow Dark Mage Games into what it is today.
Ironically, that path has brought me full circle.
The long-term dream has always been to return to original stories like The Wailing Forest. Everything I’ve learned—from running published adventures to building immersive Foundry experiences and growing a community—is helping prepare me for that goal.
In many ways, Dark Mage Games started with Wailing Forest… and I hope one day it’s the adventure people know me for.
J: Where did the name “Dark Mage Games“ come from?
DM: Before Dark Mage Games, I actually went by The Homebrewinator.
As I started taking Game Mastering more seriously, I wanted something that better represented the style of games I was running.
I asked an old friend to help me brainstorm ideas, and the inspiration came from a character I’d played years earlier—a Ramalan assassin who specialized in magic. Ironically, the party never even learned his name. To them, he was simply “Magic Man.”
The name Dark Mage Games was suggested during that conversation, and it immediately felt like the right fit.
I still like giving credit where it’s due because the name wasn’t my idea, but over the years it’s grown into something much bigger than the character that inspired it. Today it represents immersive worlds, meaningful choices, and unforgettable stories.
J: What can people expect coming into the website/social medias etc?
DM: I want people to feel like they’re getting a seat at the table.
You’ll find stories from my campaigns, memorable player moments, behind-the-scenes looks at building adventures, and glimpses into the creative process behind immersive tabletop games.
Series like The Polite Devil share true stories from my reimagined Curse of Strahd campaign, while other videos highlight unforgettable moments from Drakkenheim, my original adventure The Wailing Forest, and whatever chaos my players manage to create next.
I also enjoy sharing homebrew content, Game Master insights, and lessons I’ve learned along the way.
More than anything, I want Dark Mage Games to become a place where people who love great storytelling feel at home. If someone watches a video and decides to tell better stories—or even decides to sit down at one of my tables—then I’ve accomplished exactly what I set out to do.
J: What do you see as the future of Dark Mage Games? Goals?
DM: The long-term goal is to make Dark Mage Games my full-time career.
I’d love to build more than just a collection of campaigns. I want to foster a community around great storytelling—a place where people discover memorable tabletop moments through YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and wherever else those stories can reach them.
I’m still figuring out exactly how to get there. Building something like this means being a Game Master, world builder, content creator, editor, marketer, and community manager all at once. It’s a challenge, and I’m learning as I go.
As a Christian, my faith has been a big part of that journey. Looking back, I can see doors opening that I never expected, and I genuinely believe God has guided me to where I am today. I trust Him to guide whatever comes next, even if I can’t yet see the whole path.
But the destination is clear.
I want to be known for running games that people are still talking about years later. If someone finishes one of my campaigns and, years down the road, they’re still telling stories about that impossible decision, unforgettable NPC, or ridiculous plan that somehow worked, then I’ve succeeded.
Everything else—the videos, the branding, the social media—is really just a way to help more people find those stories.
J: What projects do you have coming up?
DM: My biggest project right now is The Wailing Forest.
It’s a completely original survival horror campaign that’s been in development for years and has already gone through multiple groups. Every time I’ve run it, it’s evolved into something better.
Unlike a traditional dungeon, Wailing Forest is built as one enormous interconnected wilderness. Behind the scenes, it started as a little over 200 maps. It’s now a little over 400 maps seamlessly connected together using Foundry’s Stairways module. Players don’t just move from encounter to encounter—they can genuinely become lost. The forest is designed to feel like a real place, and finding your way is part of surviving it.
But the environment isn’t what makes it terrifying.
Jaren is.
Jaren isn’t a monster waiting patiently in the final room. He’s hunting you from the moment the adventure begins. He can sense magic, and every spell you cast risks revealing exactly where you are. Wizards quickly learn that the abilities they’ve relied on for years can suddenly become a liability. In Wailing Forest, survival isn’t about conserving hit points—it’s about deciding whether casting that next spell is worth letting the monster find you.
Everything in the campaign was created by me: the story, setting, characters, encounters, mechanics, and maps. The only thing I didn’t create myself is the music.
Right now I’m rebuilding the entire Foundry world from scratch. After remaking all of the maps, every wall, light source, sound, journal, and connection has to be rebuilt by hand. It’s a huge undertaking, but I believe it’ll be worth it.
Long-term, my goal is for The Wailing Forest to become the signature original campaign of Dark Mage Games—the experience that players can’t get anywhere else.
I don’t want players to remember Wailing Forest because it was difficult. I want them to remember it because, for a few hours, they genuinely felt like they were being hunted.
J: Anything else you would like to add?
DM: I’d just like to thank everyone who’s been part of this journey.
The people who invited me into my first game, the Across Worlds community where I found my footing as a Game Master, my players who trusted me with their stories, and everyone who’s encouraged me to keep building Dark Mage Games.
At the end of the day, tabletop roleplaying is about people sitting around a table and creating stories together. I’m incredibly grateful that I get to be a part of that, and I’m excited to see where the journey leads next.
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