I have been writing for TTRPGs, poetry and prose since 2014.
Rolldark Professional Games Master
Leo’s original setting is so engaging and I feel so invested in my character and how they live in that world that I’m very keen to see this campaign continue.
Review from Rolldark Player
I work as a Games Master for hire with Rolldark, where I have created bespoke adventures to specification for hiring groups. This has included introducing players of all ages to Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition and Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu 7th edition.
Absolutely brilliant campaign tonight. Leo as our GM was fantastic – very accommodating and gentle with us newbies and we all had a whale of a time. Already planning our next one. I can highly recommend.
Review on Rolldark Facebook Page
Adventurers Wanted
Such a daunting premise requires a charismatic leader and Adventurers Wanted: Rebellion certainly has that with West. He expertly directs the narrative with such detailed imagery that it creates a fantasy world before your eyes and his ability to adapt to each situation thrown at him by the players is impressive to say the least.
Becca Chadder for broadwaybaby.com
In 2017, I was hired by Total Party Kill! to be the lead writer for their ambitious 250-hour long Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, Adventurers Wanted: Odyssey. I co-ordinated a team of 4 to create 250 hours of D&D 5e content that was accessible to the public hour-by-hour and dramatic enough for an entertaining theatrical performance.
The show played to a live audience and was also streamed to Twitch, so it had to have a robust enough plot that the team could run it in shifts. The narrative the team developed was a story that had room for player choice and branching decisions, but also drove the players toward climaxes that could be effectively planned for by the team. Highlights involve the heel turn of a regular player, which was developed from the team, dropping a floating island on a 100ft creature and an arc involving the party being manipulated by a pirate lich. The entire show can be viewed on YouTube here.
Total Party Kill re-hired me to write for Adventurers Wanted: Plague which ran at the Brighton Horror Festival in 2017, and then again for Adventurers Wanted: Rebellion which ran at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Plague involved running a short 24-hour arc over 2 weekends, where each performance riffed on a different flavour of horror.
Rebellion was a smaller project, but still ambitious 100-hour long show with 2 writers and Game Masters, and involved linking the narrative up to be a prequel to Total Party Kill!’s monthly show Adventurers Wanted: Omen, which ran in London. I am especially proud of some of the writing in this show, which involved time travel and paradoxes in a climactic battle with a chronomancing final villain. The entire adventure can be viewed on YouTube here.
Working with Leo is a collaborative process. He will naturally bring my best work out of me and helps expand and refine my work in ways that I had not previously thought of.
Reece Lord, GM and Writer for Adventurers Wanted: Odyssey
Steer
In 2016, I wrote Steer, a short horror film, for Aftermath Films, which was screened at Underwire 2016. It is a modern day re-telling of The Minotaur of Crete, as part of a series created by the studio. You can view it here, or learn more about it here.
Leo was fantastic to work with as a writer – not only did he respond well to the brief, but also brought loads of fresh creativity and ideas that really helped bring the project to life. He was always a pleasure to discuss the script with and delivered great work in excellent time. I can’t recommend him enough!
Becki Pantling, Aftermath Films
The Upcoming
From 2014 to 2015, I reviewed film, theatre and art for The Upcoming. You can find a library of my reviews here.
Musical Theatre
In 2014, I wrote the book and lyrics to a new musical called The Comedian for Josh Sood Productions. The show was produced at Birmingham University by the student production company GMTG in 2014.
In 2015, I wrote the book for a new musical called Santa, Santa! for Aidan Bell. You can listen to demo recordings of the show here.
On Storytelling in RPGs
In 2013, I studied to attain a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Birmingham University. For my dissertation, I wrote about the use of TTRPGs as a collaborative writing tool. After some research into other people who had done this, I ran a long, open game of Chaosium’s The Call of Cthulhu 6th edition and used that to create long-form prose out of the resulting narrative.
Leo West 