Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos Expands What 5E D&D Can Be
A press briefing early this week gave Wizards of the Coast an opportunity to share details about the three new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books slated for release in fall 2021. Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos gives 5E D&D adventurers a chance to play students at an incredible magical school and the five unique colleges comprising Strixhaven University, drawn from the multiverse of Magic: The Gathering. Characters explore the setting over the course of four adventures, which can be played together or on their own. The book also includes a poster map showing Strixhaven’s campuses on one side and location maps on the other. Let’s get into it.
Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons Reveals Big Secrets About 5E D&D’s Iconic Monsters
During a press briefing this week Wizards of the Coast I learned a ton of details about one of the three new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books slated for release in fall 2021 in particular. Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons dives deep into the lore of these mythical creatures. During the meeting Ray Winninger, executive producer in charge of the Dungeons & Dragons studio, asked what could be more important to 5E D&D than the creature who lends its name to the game itself. I’ve got the details on what to expect inside so let’s get into it.
Wild Beyond the Witchlight Whisks 5E D&D Adventurers to the Domain of Delight
During a press briefing earlier this week Wizards of the Coast shared lots of details about one of the three new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books slated for release in fall 2021. Wild Beyond the Witchlight takes adventurers from the Witchlight Carnival to the Feywild and is designed for 1st-8th level characters. This book comes with a poster map showing the carnival on one side and the Domain of Delight Prismeer on the other. Chris Perkins, senior story designer for Dungeons & Dragons, revealed some whimsical secrets about the first official 5E D&D Feywild adventure so let’s get into it.
Behind the Scenes of Untraditionally Arcane — an All Wizard Campaign for 5E D&D
It is time for a new campaign on the Nerdarchy Live YouTube channel with the Chaos Crew. One of the players tossed out the idea of doing an all class party and we were off and running. Untraditionally Arcane is a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign featuring a party of wizards. The campaign premiere on Jan. 29, 2021 at 8 p.m. eastern streamed at Nerdarchy Live with future episodes streaming the last Friday of each month for viewers to watch live.
Behind the Scenes of Dungeons & Delving — the World’s Greatest Game Show!
Over at Nerdarchy Live on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. a group of nerdy gamers muster to play tabletop roleplaying games. Players in the group rotate Game Master duties after each campaign wraps up following a preset number of sessions. On Jan. 19, 2021 a new campaign began. Dungeons & Delving is a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Gameplay sessions tend to jump right into the action so whether you follow along live each week or catch up with VOD here’s some background information and guides to the players, characters and campaign scenario for the world’s most popular dungeon delving game show.
Join #My30DayWorld RPG World Building Challenge with Jorphdan
Renowned YouTuber Jorphdan’s (the PH is silent) normal repertoire includes Dungeons & Dragons lore videos on everything from Forgotten Realms to Spelljammer. Spurred by My 30 Day World challenge put out by Absolute Tabletop and a Fantasy World Building Guide from WebWriter.net, Jorphdan concocted a challenge to end this 2020 — 30 Days of RPG World Building! If you missed out on NaNoWriMo or GamoWriMo never fear because there’s still plenty of time to do #My30DayWorld challenge!
Revilo Con Virtual Convention Offers Free Online Games, Panels and Events
Hello fellow gamers. I am here to share some cool information with you about the inaugural Revilo Con, a virtual convention with a weekend of gaming, events and panels including Worldbuilding with Isaac and Brian — Hosted by Ted Adams (that’s me!).
Wizards of the Coast Announces Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden for 5E D&D
DND Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage is live and in the tradition of Wizards of the Coast’s annual announcement celebrations, the next campaign storyline was announced during this year’s event, which live streams from remote locations while participants continue to stay safe by staying home during the COVID-19 outbreak. For this year’s community celebration D&D teamed up with big personalities in the entertainment world to create a star studded event for the most worthy of quests. DND Live 2020’s live play games, announcements and panels taking place throughout the event raise money for Red Nose Day to help children affected by the global pandemic.
Watch the Latest D&D Storyline Come to Life at D&D Live 2020: Roll with Advantage!
Are you excited to learn about the latest Dungeons & Dragons storyline? The tradition of exciting spectacle events from the D&D team continues this year with D&D Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage. While people across the globe continue to stay safe by staying home, the adventures roll on through this virtual event welcoming all gamers to celebrate the D&D community and support Red Nose Day with the most star studded D&D event ever assembled.
8D6 San Diego Gaming Convention Focusing on Eight Disciplines of Gaming
2020 marks the first year of an epic new gaming experience for the Southern California gamer and geek community with 8d6, San Diego’s newest gaming convention, to be held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, April 24-26. Created by gaming and event management veterans 8d6 is designed to spotlight eight principles of gaming. PC games, console games, VR/AR/MR games, board games, card games, roleplaying games, miniatures games, and arts and education of games take the forefront at the 32,000 sq ft. space over 48 hours to deliver as much gaming as possible. And these event organizers mean it — 8D6 will remain open and active for 48 hours of continuous play to allow gamers to capture the nostalgia of old school LAN parties, all night game design jam sessions, miniatures battles and marathon RPG sessions, all in one place.
Nerdarchy the Convention Prep in Full Swing — and YOU Can Help!
Planning and preparation for Nerdarchy the Convention is in full swing! We are putting everything we’ve got into this event and we want to make sure your experience exceeds any and all your expectations. Thanks to the incredible backers for Out of the Box: Encounters for 5th Edition we hit our ultimate stretch goal of creating Nerdarchy the Convention. Hosting events to celebrate nerdy culture and gaming was a dream of ours for quite a while and we cannot wait to share this experience with everyone Halloween weekend 2020. A few months ago we shared an overview of what we’d planned so far at that point and we’ve been charging ahead ever since. But we can only prognosticate so much and we need your help to make Nerdarchy the Convention an unforgettable experience for everyone in attendance.
Help Dungeon Masters Guild and DriveThruRPG Fight Fire with Games
Since late July 2019 devastating bushfires have ravaged large swaths of Australia, the worst the country has experienced in decades. Persistent heat and drought make the problem even worse. Entire towns have been consumed by wildfires, thousands of homes destroyed or damaged and over 7.3 million hectares have burned across Australia — an area larger than Belgium and Denmark together. Because the D&D community includes people from all over the world, we have some personal touchstones to the terrible situation going on in Australia through the creators and people living there who we become friends and fellow gamers with online and at conventions. So it is incredibly wonderful to see the RPG community doing what it can to help. When I saw just now there is a Fight Fire with Games campaign going on at Dungeon Masters Guild and DriveThruRPG I knew right away we had to share this news here on the site.
DC Comics Getting Their D&D On with The Last God
Third party creators publish new content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons every single day. Many times each day. Since I’ve written this sentence there’s probably been a dozen titles published online along with crowdfunded projects and the like. But it’s noteworthy to see the Warner Bros.-owned comic book publishers DC Comics announcing a sourcebook based on The Last God comic book series for D&D. The Last God: Tales from the Book of Ages debuts in comic book retailers and participating digital retailers on April 29.
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount for 5E D&D Revealed
A mysterious new title from Wizard of the Coast showed up on Amazon last week and now we know it’s the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount! The D&D Team at WotC teams up with Critical Role’s Matt Mercer for an official collaboration on a new book detailing the continent of Wildemount where the second campaign of Critical Role takes place. Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount includes player options such as subclasses, magic items and more along with detailed information about the campaign setting, resources for Dungeon Masters and some really cool sounding new material for 5E D&D.
An Olde Gaming Story
Gaming was far different in the era before the internet. A person needed to actually be in the same room to play an roleplaying game or card game. There were play by mail games (Diplomacy was huge for this) but many players didn’t want to wait a week to hear the result of a move.
The gaming business was also vastly different. When I joined the gaming industry in 1991 there was a three-tier distribution system (I think it still sort of is, but I don’t know). Manufacturers would sell their games to distributors and the distributors would then sell them to the retail shops as well as the few mail order outlets. The stores would call distributors who would ship them their orders. When I started with Chessex Game Distributors in ’91, there were also still traveling reps who would go from store to store selling games on behalf of a distributor, but they were becoming a dying breed.
