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February 2016

Nerdarchy > 2016 (Page 12)

Easy Roller Dice – Fantastic Dice Company

east roller diceHave you heard of Easy Roller Dice?  If not than I have a treat for you.  Happy Monday everyone.  I am taking a break this week from my normal post about board games.  If you missed last week and want to hear about Dragon Slayer Dice, you can go here.

Nerdarchist Ryan introduced us to these awesome dice this past weekend and I have to say I was impressed.  The dice are crisp and clean and seem to have a very even rolling ratio.  Admit it you all pick up dice and ‘look’ for the one that seem to be waited for higher numbers.  Well Easy Roller Dice are waited evenly assuring you get the random rolls you are supposed to.  Lets face it if you always succeed where is the challenge?

Now we have all seen the buckets or bins of plastic polyhedrals and have sifted through to find those precious few that have whatever desired quality we are looking for, so you are asking yourself by now what is so special about Easy Roller Dice?  To take a quote from their website:

Player Tips Adding More Class to Your Class – Barbarian

barbarianNerdarchist Ted here and today I want to start a whole new series.  Many of you may have been playing D&D for a long time and still have associations built into each class.  Or perhaps you are new and unaware that each class has a broad selection of options built in outside of the mechanical choices.

While some classes seem to have a profession or idea about what the class is, it is merely a suggestion that flavors the mechanics that go along with the other parts of your character.

So today we are going to look at the barbarian.  I will talk a little about the preconceived notions and easy ways to get away from this.

How do You Play a Barbarian?

Multi-Class Character Builds in Dungeons & Dragons 5e Wrap up with the Wizard!

WizardHello fellow Nerdarchests, Art here. I’m back with the next installment of my series Multi-Class Character Builds in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. If you missed my previous article on the Ranger just click HERE.

Today marks my final installment of the multi-classing in Dungeons & Dragons 5e series. So let’s get started with the Wizard…

Let me take a few lines here to talk about the most divers casting class in the game in my opinion… The Wizard. I think the way the Wizard schools give additional abilities as they level is what makes the class so complex yet simple. With the multitude of spell casting schools to choose from the Wizard gains quite a few options as to how you can play them based on their school of magic. I feel that multi-classing with the wizard opens up an even greater realm of possibilities for characters to delve into both for role-play and for combat purposes. With that, let’s get started…

Stairway to Heaven: Fantasy, D&D and rock music

weezerIn 1994 the (then) new rock band Weezer released its first album with the eighth track title being a little song called “In the Garage.” The very first line of the song mentions the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The second line brings up a 12-sided die.

That same year a silly movie called “Airheads” hit the theaters. It’s about three stoner rockers who take over a radio station in an attempt to have their song make the airwaves. Towards the end of the movie, Dungeons & Dragons is mentioned.

Nerds throughout the world applauded.

Okay, yeah, such a little thing as bringing up D&D in a pop/rock song or movie might seem hardly worthy of note today, but you’ve got to remember that nerd and geek culture were far less accessible back in the day, and until then about the only time Hollywood had admitted D&D existed was during a scene in Spielberg’s E.T. Comic books, role playing games, even fantasy and science fiction literature, had not become accepted so much by the larger, overall culture, and often seemed shunted off to dark, little stores surrounding college campuses. Fantasy and the other speculative genres were often considered the stuff of children, worthy only of Saturday morning cartoons.

Player Tips – Ways to get More Immersed in Your RPG – Part 2

player tipsLast week I talked about a player tip about using a description of your character. You can read about it here.  I am going to continue this discussion with another way to be more immersed in your character.

And that is Player Tips: CHARACTER VOICE.

Every day we speak.  We use inflection, volume and other characteristics to send a message.  Many actors are given over to their characters and develop a voice that makes sense to all aspects of the character.  Even if you are not playing Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition all characters have a race, a background and some sort of profession.

Does the character voice make sense for all of those pieces.  If not is there something cool or interesting about that character that makes them speak in an unusual voice?

Board Games in Review – Dragon Slayer – The Dice Game with a Twist

dragon slayerIts Monday, so you know what that means.  It is time for another board game.  Today I want to talk about a cool dice game that I recently acquired.  Dragon Slayer, the dice game with a twist.  Last week I did Quadrillion.  You can check out that article here.

Taken from the rules sheet:  ” You are the world’s most fearless dragon slayers, competing to be crowned the master slayer.  Your brave warrior must search far and wide for these ferocious beasts, defend yourself against its attacks and be ever ready to strike them down.  Even in victory your companions may challenge your courage, demanding that you prove your valor with foolhardy audacity or cower in their mocking taunts.”

Are You Brave enough to be called Dragon Slayer?

Multiclass Character builds in Dungeons & Dragons 5e (The Ranger)

rangerHello fellow Nerdarchests, Art here. I’m back with the next installment of my series Multi-Class Character Builds in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. If you missed my previous article on the Warlock just click HERE.

I’m going to take up some space and talk a bit about the Ranger in general (Yes, I know I made a booboo and missed the class entirely before). However, there was a reason I missed the anger from before as I have had quite an issue finding good builds that work well thematically with the class. As most people know the basic Ranger as listed in the Player’s Guide is quite laughable and weak, when compared to other classes.  The reason for this is the lack of any real meaning behind their main class feature the “Favored Enemy”. By this I mean it does nothing to enhance the Ranger’s combat potential against said enemies like it used to in previous editions of D&D. I have found uses for multi classing with the Ranger but only as a secondary class (listed in my previous articles), but the Ranger as a primary class has been quite difficult to say the least. So, let’s get started…

How do you Class up Your Ranger?

MTV

Chronicles of Shannara By Terry Brooks is Now a MTV Fantasy TV Series


Hello and well met traveler of the Internet,

Nerdarchist Dave here with a bit of a review, my thoughts, or just plain ramblings about the new series on MTV Chronicles of Shannara based off of the novels written by Terry Brooks. I’m going to do my best to stay away from spoilers. If you aren’t familiar with the books or the shows on MTV it’s fantasy TV series. When it  comes to network television we seem to be getting more nerdy goodness than ever.

Player Tips – Ways to get More Immersed in Your RPG – Part 1

immersedOk tabletop lovers.  We all know that there are all types of players.  Some of you care more about just killing monsters and getting the treasure, but others care about exploration not only of the world in which you are playing but within the character themselves.

There are many ways as a player or a Game Master to get fully immersed in the game you are playing.  As a  Game Master being descriptive, but not overly so, helps paint the picture of what is around.  This can be very different for each group make sure you are not over or under doing it.  Have talks with your players to make sure you are giving them what level they desire.

Tips to get You Even More Immersed in Your RPG

Board Games in Review – Quadrillion – Logic Game

QuadrillionHappy Monday, If it snowed in your area, I hope that you are not too buried to be enjoying your day.  Well Since it is Monday it is time to bring you another board game review.  If you missed last week I was talking about Smash Up Munckin.

Today i am going to talk about the game Quadrillion, by Smart Games.  Now this is a double review because not only can this be a cool game to play, but if you are into Table top RPG’s this can be a resource for you as a Dungeon Master.

You want a puzzle to challenge you players with and are tired of all the same tropes and you have run out of resources.  Why not Pick Up a copy of Quadrillion?

Test Your Brain Power with Quadrillion

Wizards of the Coast Announces The Dungeon Masters Guild

Dungeon Masters GuildHello all and welcome back to Nerdarchy.  Today I want to talk about the Dungeon Masters Guild that Wizards recently announced.  You can view their announcement article here.  If you want to head strait to the guild and start adding to your Dungeons and Dragons 5E Library you can go here.

So if you have no idea what I am talking about let me explain.  By now you had to have heard the news about WoTC releasing the Open Gaming License for 5th edition.  The OGL for 3rd brought so much new product and producers that it was great for the industry.  Not only did we get new content but it also brought new names to the forefront.  Correct me if I am wrong but this is where Mike Mearls was discovered and he is one of the big wigs of 5th edition, so thanks OGL.

What is the Dungeon Masters Guild?

Cast Metal Gaming Dice – Kickstarter

kickstarterHey Nerdarchists and Dice lovers.  Sorry for the late article today we had a little snafu with the scheduling so this is me throwing something up there for you.

If you are a gamer like I am I am sure you love dice.  I have more dice than I am willing to count in my gaming collection, that means dice that are not part of board game components.  I can say without issue that the number is at least in the hundreds.  And yet every time I come upon something new I am eager to add it to the collection.

Are You a Dice Lover?

Dungeon Crate brings RPG loot to your front door every month

boxThere seems to be a subscription box service for just about everything nowadays, from crafts to wines to all kinds of foods and more. There are even a number of different subscription boxes for the nerd or geek in all of us. But what about tabletop role playing gamers?

Before January 18, the pickings seemed pretty slim, but that was the launch date for Dungeon Crate, a monthly subscription box service with a focus on role players and the games we love.

What are subscription boxes?

game master tips

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition – A Return to Ravenloft

RavenloftHello Nerdarchists and RPG enthusiasts.  I am sure by now you have heard the wonderful new of the release of the Curse of Strahd.  Players get to be sucked into the evil world of Ravenloft and forced to contend with the evil power that is Count Strahd von Zarovich.  You can read the full article here.

Will You Descend in Ravenloft and Deal with Strahd?

Here is an excerpt.  “Heroes from the Forgotten Realms and other D&D worlds can easily be drawn into Strahd’s cursed land. Once there, they must contend with the horrors of Barovia. Its people are melancholy, misshapen and grotesque, living in fear of the wolves and other creatures that serve Strahd’s evil will.