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November 2014

Nerdarchy > 2014 > November

Making and Using NPCs in an RPG

Hello tabletop roleplaying game fans welcome to Nerdarchy. Nerdarchist Ted here and today we are going to talk about your nonplayer characters, or NPCs. These are your staples as a Game Master. Every single monster and person that is not controlled by a player is an NPC and it is up to you as GM to breathe life into them. When planning an NPC you need to keep several factors in mind.

Brigade Con

Build a Better Adventure with Terrible Terrain in Your RPG

Nerdarchist Dave here and it’s time to talk about some RPG encounter building. I’m going to make this a miniseries article containing four parts. On Nov. 15, 2014 Nerdarchy took part in the online convention called Brigade Con. Brigade Con is dedicated to tabletop roleplaying games. There was a ton of online games and discussion panels going on for just over 24 hours. Terrible Terrain was the name of the discussion panel we ran. Later in this article you can check out the video. In the meantime I’m going to elaborate on our discussion and break down the encounters more in depth.

Winging It! Running a Roleplaying Game on the Fly

Nerdarchist Ted here and today I would like to talk about Game Master tips. There are many styles to running a game and each Game Master discovers the style that works best for them. Your GM style might be to over plan a roleplaying game, plotting out the adventure and anything you think the players might do. This is quite exhaustive and time consuming on the GM. Your GM style could be to plan your adventure bare bones and either force your players to work with the material prepared or deal with situations as they come about. The merit of this style is you have some material planned and only if the players go off track do you have to think quickly and come up with something. Then there is a GM style of totally allowing the players to do as they choose and come up with encounters and material completely on the fly. The advantage to this is it’s totally an improv situation and has zero time taken to write material.

Rewarding an RPG Character’s Backstory

Hello and welcome to another article here at Nerdarchy.com. My name is Nerdarchist Dave and I’ll be laying down some Game Master tips for you today. Have you ever struggled with getting your players involved in your game? Maybe they ignore every one of your plot hooks. Perhaps they aren’t willing to interact with your finely crafted NPC’s. Or they don’t care about the living, breathing city you’ve lovingly sculpted from your imagination. Have you asked yourself why this is? Or do you blame the players, because let’s face it you’ve done everything you could to give them an awesome experience. I see a lot of Game Masters in tabletop roleplaying games who struggle with letting go of the reigns a little bit. After all it’s their game right?

game master tips

Is This You? Common Game Master Mistakes

I’ve been throwing funny-shaped dice with my friends for more years than I care to admit. Most of those games I’ve run the game as the Dungeon Master. Most of those years I spent making things far more difficult for myself than necessary. In this article I’m going to impart to you what I consider to be the most important of all the Game Master tips I have to give. Let’s face it, we play tabletop roleplaying games like fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons for one reason above all other reasons, and that is to be entertained.

Running a Game of 5E D&D

Hello, Nerdachist Ted here to talk about fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. With each edition of D&D there are changes in perception and rules to challenge Dungeon Masters. With the Player’s Handbook and Monster Manual now completely available, running a game is easier but we have yet to get the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I wonder what new secrets or bits of information lie in those pages. I have run two sessions of 5E D&D for the Nerdarchy crew and friends and in just those two sessions it has changed my perspective of being Dungeon Master