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Author: Doug Vehovec

Nerdarchy > Articles posted by Doug Vehovec

Immerse Yourself in D&D Adventure with Dragons of Stormwreck Isle

Initially released as a Target exclusive the new D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is now widely available. Designed to function as a fresh new gateway perfect for introducing players to the game, the set includes rules, an adventure, pregenerated characters and a set of polyhedral dice. Wizards of the Coast celebrated the release with a slew of additional resources too.

What’s Really Going on With One D&D?

The paradigm shifts once again! Set aside all the crunchy calculations and simultaneous calls of nerfing and power creep. Something else is taking place through Wizards of the Coast’s move towards the One D&D experience. During our recent live chat discussing Unearthed Arcana 2022: Expert Classes we touched on parts of the latest playtest reminiscent of earlier editions of the game. Several people watching along called out stuff bringing to mind third and fourth edition, which for at least one commenter felt exhausting and an oversimplification. In my estimation something deeper than mechanical callbacks seems to be happening and that’s what’s got me fascinated. Let’s get into it.

Tales from the Shadows Dares D&D Adventurers to Tread the Twisting Paths of Shadow

I’m just going to come right out and state Kobold Press is the best third party publisher of material for Dungeons & Dragons. Their brand of D&D fits right in with my own approach to the game and whenever I get my hands on a new title of theirs I always find lots of stuff for my games. Recently I shared my thoughts about their Book of Ebon Tides and in this post I’m looking at its companion title Tales from the Shadows. The former already had me feeling excited to explore the Shadow Realm (what I call the Dreaming World) in my own games and the latter makes it even easier with 14 adventures playable separately or in sequence. Let’s get into it.

Attention! The Stars are Right to Start Playing Achtung! Cthulhu with a FREE Misssion

Despite discovering the works of H.P. Lovecraft as an adolescent in the 1980s during the same period I became an RPG enthusiast it’s been that long since actually playing a game inspired by those stories. I don’t remember too much about Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu RPG other than evocative investigators like Antiquarians. Today I came across a reminder it’s been far too long since playing a Lovecraftian RPG when I saw how Modiphius Entertainment released a free mission for their Achtung! Cthulhu game.

Crime Role-Playing Game, Bosses

Going Wild to Create the Free Zoo Mafia RPG Quick Start

Zoo Mafia RPG began a while ago with a simple misheard comment and now here we are releasing a free Quick Start packet of the game out into the world. It’s a wild new direction for Nerdarchy and we are more excited than ever before about what lies ahead. We’ve shared video design diaries of the development process and live streamed our first playtest and I thought it might be fun to give some looks behind the curtain of the Zoo Mafia RPG Quick Start version now available for folks to Go Wild, Do Crime and Don’t Let the Humans Catch You around their own gaming tables. I’ve also got a bit of future development plans to share, so let’s get into it.

Book of Ebon Tides Holds a Dark Mirror Up to Your D&D World

The concept of other dimensions overlapping the real world captured my imagination decades ago with an RPG called Wraith: The Oblivion and in my D&D setting this holds true. Like the Dungeon Master’s Guide describes the Feywild and Shadowfell exist in parallel to the Material Plane, occupying the same cosmological space but distorted and exaggerated (in my setting they’re combined into a singular Dreaming World to mirror the Waking World or Material Plane). Despite presenting a compelling dynamic with very little exception neither the DMG nor any other official material really explores any of this space. Book of Ebon Tides from Kobold Press, like so many other titles in their library, represents a terrific grab bag of ideas to help make your shadowy fey realm exciting, engaging and unforgettable. Let’s get into it.

Your Imagination is the Only Limit of RPG Stories

One appreciation both RPG and technology enthusiasts share is for customization. We love options for helping us create the experiences we enjoy the most. Brave Alice Studios understands this and put their passion into creating a platform designed specifically with your stories in mind. RPG Stories is a 3D Virtual Tabletop containing a massive world builder with models and assets for medieval fantasy, modern horror and science fiction (so basically anything at all). For a non-savvy technological person like myself the most appealing option is Auto Mode for users who like to create content easily and fast, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Let’s get into it.

Zombies Ate My Brains And I Like It

For the past couple of months I’ve been on a major zombie binge. It started with rewatching The Walking Dead before catching up on the most recent season. In the midst of binge watching I wondered about any cool zombie videos games out there and of course tabletop roleplaying games. I found both. I’ve been thinking a lot about the zombie survival genre lately, making my brains a tasty treat for the shambling undead. Let’s get into it.

Follow the Rule of Chaos as Agents of Hell in Your D&D Game

Are we the baddies? You’ll have to determine this for yourself and you’ll have to weigh the odds when your Dungeons & Dragons adventurers follow the Rule of Chaos. This 5E compatible game plunges players into the role of demons compelled to do the bidding of those who summon them. But there’s always loopholes to exploit, providing windows of opportunity for clever demons to enact their own designs. Stealing artifacts, haggling for mortal souls, starting a cult — who knows what an enterprising demon might accomplish?

Join the Public Playtest for One D&D as Wizards Presents Reveals Big News Including 2023 Release Schedule

Wizards Presents announced new products and updates from both the Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering teams like the upcoming Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen and Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn, an exciting development for D&D Beyond, celebrating the 35th anniversary of Drizzt Do’Urden and the D&D release schedule for 2023. But one announcement stood out among all others. One D&D is the codename for the next generation of Dungeons & Dragons, with updated rules fully compatible with 5th Edition along with impressive 3D creation tools. Let’s get into it.

Prime Your Plasma Engines to Blast Off with WayStar RPG

Penny Dragon Games fires up the rocket boosters and takes off for the stars as a follow up to Bergin’s Book of Beasts and its 200+ new beasts and beast-flavored subclasses for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. This new project, called WayStar, presents a complete science fiction roleplaying game based on the popular 5E system. Part of their previous project included a campaign called Firestar Falling involving the crash of an evil meteor and the ensuing peril. Perhaps out there in the vastness of space heroes might discover its origins in WayStar? Let’s get into it.

Journey Over the Troll Bridge to Keep Magick City Aloft

Our great friend and amazing creator Brian Colin just launched a crowdfunding campaign for his latest brainchild. Over the Troll Bridge is a narrative roleplaying game of high adventure based on the Down We Go system. The rules light game focuses on collaborative storytelling and Brian recently ran a one shot for our Tuesday night Nerdarchy crew. We had an absolute blast! I love tightly focused RPGs like this so let’s get into it.

Excavating Unearthed Arcana that Didn’t Make the Cut, Part 5

Courtesy of the Dungeons & Dragons design team’s plethora of Unearthed Arcana playtest documents over the years we’ve seen a ton of new character options evolve from initial concepts into their final versions in official published products. Each Unearthed Arcana follows up with a survey for players to weigh in with their thoughts and impressions, which the team uses to guide further development. Some remain largely the same, some change drastically and many don’t pass this playtest stage. At this point quite a few subclasses, feats and other 5E D&D character options fall into the latter category. Curious what didn’t make the cut? Let’s get into it.

Excavating Unearthed Arcana that Didn’t Make the Cut, Part 4

Courtesy of the Dungeons & Dragons design team’s plethora of Unearthed Arcana playtest documents over the years we’ve seen a ton of new character options evolve from initial concepts into their final versions in official published products. Each Unearthed Arcana follows up with a survey for players to weigh in with their thoughts and impressions, which the team uses to guide further development. Some remain largely the same, some change drastically and many don’t pass this playtest stage. At this point quite a few subclasses, feats and other 5E D&D character options fall into the latter category. Curious what didn’t make the cut? Let’s get into it.

Excavating Unearthed Arcana that Didn’t Make the Cut, Part 3

Courtesy of the Dungeons & Dragons design team’s plethora of Unearthed Arcana playtest documents over the years we’ve seen a ton of new character options evolve from initial concepts into their final versions in official published products. Each Unearthed Arcana follows up with a survey for players to weigh in with their thoughts and impressions, which the team uses to guide further development. Some remain largely the same, some change drastically and many don’t pass this playtest stage. At this point quite a few subclasses, feats and other 5E D&D character options fall into the latter category. Curious what didn’t make the cut? Let’s get into it.