Easy Roller Dice Company KickStarter Shout Out and Weekly Wrap 4-17-2016
Hello and well met traveler of the Internet,
Nerdarchist Dave here with another Weekly Wrap. First off I wanna give a quick shout out to our secret Facebook group The Company of the N.A.G. They held their first game in there, awesome! I hope to see more games going on in the N.A.G. Not only that, but great conversations about RPGs specifically 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons are happening daily.
We’ve got the game with fans coming up tonight 4-24-2016 @ 7PM Eastern Time.
Croak Hollow 5E D&D Play Through Live
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Warlock
Well my friends you have made it to successfully to another Friday. It is time for some more player tips, Adding more class to your class and this time I am going to tackle, arguably the crowd favorite class, Warlock. Last week we talked on the Sorcerer, and you can read about it here.
The warlock has the ability to do things all because a Faustian bargain made with a ‘dark’ power. Well that is stretching it a little. There is nothing that says it has to be a dark power and in fact with the Unearthed Arcana the pact of Light warlock looks like it is designed for good guys.
The sorcerer is born with power and the warlock makes bargain to get it so in that they are the same that they do not have a lot of time spent in there back story where they are trapped in some kind of training mode. So because of this they too have a lot of time free to enter a lot of story into it.
Buyers Guide- 5E D&D for Dungeons and Dragons for Beginners
Nerdarchy has been asked many times what do I need to play Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Before I get into that last week we covered non combat encounters.
Dungeons and Dragons RPG has been around for a long time. For as long as it has been around to be a player all you need is a players handbook and a set of polyhedral dice. You can grab the products here.
The players handbook has all the rules you need to play the game with loads of race and class options. With the many different races and a dozen classes there are more options then a person can play over the years.
So lets actually talk some numbers. If you count subraces you can technically play 24 different races. That is a ton of options. While there are 12 different classes in 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons they have options within each class giving you even more options and flavor. If you count all the archetypes available you actually have 40 choices in classes. So if you want to count alignment out of the equation that is potentially 960 mechanically different race class combinations. If you do add alignment into it is over 8500 possible combinations.
Blast from the Past: The Micronauts
[caption id="attachment_10572" align="alignright" width="434"] Space Glider, one of the original Micronauts, came with a removable helmet and a jet pack with wings that sprang open.[/caption] In 1976, just in time for the science fiction craze which would be kicked off by Star Wars, the Mego toy...
April Dungeon Crate Unboxing and Weekly Wrap 4-10-2016
Welcome and well met internet traveler,
Nerdarchist Dave here with another week in Nerdarchy. As always hoping you got your game on this week. Nothing like spending time with friends and family playing make believe whilst rolling funny shaped dice. This weekend was our 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game run by me. The game play should go up on YouTube next weekend.
Speaking of next weekend that is when you can expect to check out Nerdarchist Ryan’s live game play with the fans Sunday 7 PM eastern time 4-24-2016.
The following weekend we’ll be recording our session zero and a social contract for Scott’s Shadow Run game that will be powered by the Cypher System.
It’s that time of month when we get our monthly box of Dungeon Crate by we I mean Ted. So in our weekly wrap vid we unboxed this April’s Dungeon Crate.
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Sorcerer
Greetings and Happy Friday. Today we will delve deep into the Sorcerer class. Last week we did a player tips, adding more class to your class with the Rogue. If you missed it you can read that article here.
So first we look at the sorcerer and see what it really means to be one. A sorcerer is one who is blessed with magical power. It is something they are born with. A warlock makes a pact with a being of significant power. A wizard studies and learn with a tedious amount or work and memorization. A sorcerer just is magic.
That statement means several things. One we have to look at the origination of that power. As of now we only have chaos and dragons in the Players handbook and the storm from an unearthed arcana as sources of where this power comes from.
“It’s a TRAP!”… In Dungeons and Dragons 5e
“The party steps inside the cavern as their rogue gives the “all clear”. Suddenly they realize that the shadows on the edge of the room begin to move and out of the darkness they hear the sounds of blades being drawn! The party’s rogue steps forward and says, “Sorry guys. I’m just in it for the gold!” Outnumbered they are taken prisoner!”
“It’s a TRAP!” The oldest line in the book, and in my opinion one of the best ways to add drama to a story. Today I want to cover a few ways to catch your players off guard and force them to use their wits and skill to solve their conundrum instead of their brute force or magic items.
How Do You Capture Your Players?
Rethinking Finesse in 5th Edition D&D
A brief history of Finesse
A brief history of FinesseThe idea of using Dexterity to influence melee attacks in Dungeons & Dragons officially came about in Third Edition D&D with the Weapon Finesse Feat. Before that, all melee attacks were based upon Strength unless one’s DM came up with a house rule. For the first time, this allowed lighter combatants to stand toe to toe against heavier opponents, at least if wielding a rapier, dagger or a handful of other weapons.
Along comes Fifth Edition, and instead of making Finesse a Feat, it becomes a property of particular weapons (All in all, I personally consider this an improvement, though I have a quibble or two I’ll mention later). However, there is a subtle difference between how Finesse works in Fifth Edition than in earlier editions.
In Fifth Edition D&D, Finesse weapons use not only Dexterity, but can also use Strength. This might seem a minor difference, but it can be an important one.
The Fifth Edition Difference
The notion of Finesse as a Dexterity modifier for attacks seems to continue to hold, at least in my experience. Most wielders of Finesse weapons tend to be of the lighter sort, your Fighters with rapiers, Rogues with shortswords and daggers, etc. This makes a certain amount of sense because the majority of Finesse weapons are of the lighter sort and more fitting to agile combatants.
Nerdarchy the Adventurer’s Guild, The N.A.G, and Our Weekly Wrap 4-3-2016
Well met traveler of the internet,
Nerdarchist Dave here with another weekly wrap blog post. This past week we’ve finally launch The Company of the N.A.G. It’s an idea we came up awhile ago.
Since December we’ve been running monthly games with the fans. The Krinch that Stole Father’s Winters Day, Night Terrors, Maze of Mandoon, Enter the Crawl Wood, and we’ve got our next game coming the end of this month April 24th.
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Rogue
Today we are going to get sneaky and talk about rogues. If you missed last weeks article where we added more class to your class Ranger you can check it out here.
So how do you add more to class to your class rogue? Well other than cleric I find that it is entirely possible that rogues off the next in diverse possibilities. If you have been playing a while you might see it but you also might not. Most classes do not have the ability to offer so many possibilities across the alignments other than a difference in personality.
So let me offer up this player tips. Rogues exist on every side of the law and are your specialist within the D&D worlds. Now since they all get sneak attack it does not always make sense but you can play these concepts with ease. You want to exist as law enforcement? Sure you can go warrior but where are you going to get all you skills from? You want to go as an explorer, say an Indiana Jones? He is a perfect fit into the rogue class.
So the next time you are feeling like playing a sneak there is no need to look solely at the petty thief with his only goals being that of wealth. Look to the broader spectrum. You can play a character who at the surface looks boring and blends in with society but when it is time to put on the hat and whip fits in there just as perfectly.
A boy needs a home… (How to find people to game with in a new town or city)
“At fourteen, in 1985 a boy woke up in a new town, in a new apartment. That day he met another boy living in the next-door building who had the same interests. The new boy introduced him to Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition and that’s all she wrote. Sense then I’ve moved quite a few times and each time I found myself looking for new friends and people to game with.”
The times have changed and over the years finding like-minded people to game with became both easier and harder to find in some aspects. I’m writing this article to hopefully make things a little easier rather than harder for us nerds.
Recently I just moved from Houston Texas back to a different side of town in Phoenix Arizona. After the move I got things in order and sat down to looks for a place to go be nerdy. Fortunately in this day and age we have FaceBook and Google so things are just at our fingertips and we don’t have to listen in on people’s conversations at school or join clubs to find places to express our hobby.
The first thing I want to let everyone in on is the FaceBook search engine, and how it helped me. For starters Wizards of the Coast has been kind enough to help people put together FaceBook pages for most major cities for the Dungeons & Dragons 5e Adventure’s League. This format of D&D 5e lets players play pre-constructed campaigns and sends their results in to WotC to be posted for all to see. On the WotC website is also a “Store Finder” that shows stores how have WotC recognition and host those events on a regular basis. This is a good way to find gamers or at least to find people who play RPGs in general.
WotC Store Finder: http://locator.wizards.com/
FaceBook: D&D Adventure’s League (Phoenix)
In gaming as in literature, the villains make the heroes
Can you name this villain? Here’s a hint: He’s a certain Canadian mounty’s worst nightmare.
What is a hero without a villain? Not much, I’d say. Oh, a character can still be the main actor of a tale, the protagonist of a story, but without that villain, the hero can’t really be heroic.
Some might argue there are tales of heroes without a villain, such as survival stories in which the hero bests the elements to save the day, or maybe a romantic tale in which there is only a misunderstanding between love interests though eventually one or both of them proves their heroism by overcoming that misunderstanding. To that I say the villain is still there, but is not so readily seen. In the survival story, the elements themselves can be the villain. In the love story, if there is not an out-and-out villain, the misunderstanding that brings about conflict can be the villain. Sometimes the villain is the hero’s own inner struggle.
Game Master Tips – Using Long Rest, Short Rest and Random Encounters
Nerdarchist Ted here and Nubz had an emergency and I am here to fill in. If you missed his article on the World of Darkness, you can check it out here.
In Dungeons and Dragons the mechanics have built in the use of Long Rest and Short rest as a way of getting back hit points as well as abilities. Some classes are built on needing these while others function just off of their hit point pool.
So because of this need to get abilities back the party is going to want to take a breather now and again. If you have marched, exercised or fought hard for any length of time you know how important it is to actually sit down and try to catch your breath.
Game Master Tips – Random Encounters
South Jersey Geek Fest Discussion, Gaming Announcement, and Weekly Wrap 3-27-2016
Hello and well met travelers of the internet,
Nerdarchist Dave here with another week of Nerdarchy and we are kicking it off with a fan pic. What’s not to love about cats and RPGs? Be warned send us your pics and we might just share them with the rest of the community. To be fair this one was shared publicly on Facebook so that makes this one open season for sure.
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Ranger
Last week I delved into adding more class to your class with the paladin. You can read about it here. Today however we are going deep into the forest with the Ranger. The ranger is one of my favorite class as I am an outdoors kind of guy. Perhaps Because Strider was so powerful that D&D in early editions made it hard to be one but what ever it was the fact that in 2nd Edition you could not just play a ranger made it an impactful class.
With the last several iterations of Dungeons and Dragons they did away with stat requirements to qualify for a class and 5th Edition too away all restrictions. So now those choice classes are ripe for the picking.
So ranger, the class that typically is more at home in the wilderness than in a city. So when making a ranger character there are questions you need to ask. What does it mean to be a ranger? Did you grow up in the wilderness? Did you leave civilization because the people there lied to you and harmed you a deep way? Do you have a connection with nature you do not understand? How did you get started along this career path?
