Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse — It’s All About that Gear
Greetings ghouls and gals. Nerdarchist Dave here and I’m going to try to help you get through a zombie apocalypse. First things first it’s all about the preparation. Once you find yourself in the middle of an invasion from the living dead it might already be to late.
How to Speeks Goblin | Happy ThanksTaking
It's the holiday season and time to spread mirth and joy or mayhem and discord if you happen to be a goblin. Just because their little green, vicious, and goblin doesn't mean they don't enjoy holiday celebration as much as the next person. Let's see...
Exploring Spelljammer for 5E D&D
Flashback to 1995 — Spelljammer. The second edition campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons I liked playing. Flash forward some to 3E D&D, an edition I enjoyed for many years but an edition I will not be playing in the foreseeable future. Will I ever get to play Spelljammer again?
How to Speeks Goblin | Promotion
When one goblin pass the mantle of leadership to another goblin it's truly a special moment in one of their lives. This week lets take a look at how goblins choose their successors. Is it bloodline? Is it who has the best leadership qualities? Or...
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.
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.
How to Speeks Goblin | Spa
Every feel like you just needed to get away? Well maybe our little green goblin friend here can help. In this weeks "How to Speek Goblin" we see what goblins consider a spa day. Looks like this dwarf is finding out the hard way to...
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?
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.
How to Speeks Goblin | Roll-Playing
If you ever wondered how goblins role-played, well wonder no more. Goblins have a fine tradition of role-playing...
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.