Activate Beast Mode for Your 5E D&D Games
Penny Dragon Games invites fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players to live on the wild side with Bergin’s Book of Beasts, a 5E D&D supplement featuring over 200 new beasts plus beast themed subclasses for all your adventurers. This fully funded project already unlocked a bunch of beastly stretch goals and shows no signs of slowing down. An awesome resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike Bergin’s Book of Beasts is packed with tons of great material to unleash your inner beast. Let’s get into it.
Wizards of the Coast’s Reveals Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel Details
The fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons team graciously invited me to participate in a press briefing recently all about the announcement of the next book release in 2022. Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel is an anthology of adventures in the style of Candlekeep Mysteries and Tales from the Yawning Portal centered around a fantastic location within the Ethereal Plane. Like its forebears the 14 adventures contained in this book can be used as standalone quests, strung together to form a campaign with the mysterious titular city at its heart or used whatever way works best for a 5E D&D Dungeon Master and the other players in their group. Let’s get into it.
Journey Over the Troll Bridge and Keep Magick City from Falling into the Lava Below
Hot on the heels of an amazing new tabletop roleplaying game one of the most creative people we know came up with another super fun RPG and it’s available right now. Creature Curation’s Brian Colin put together a brand new game called Over the Troll Bridge, a minimalist OSR (Old School Renaissance) inspired RPG for 1-7 players. Brian developed the game with his kids Wyatt and Ruby, with art by Carey Drake.
Plunge Into the Wilds and Discover Warlock Lairs from Kobold Press
Our awesome friends from Kobold Press surprised me with an advance copy of their new Warlock Lairs: Into the Wilds book releasing March 20, 2022. This will absolutely find a place on my shelf within easy reach because it’s my favorite kind of material and Kobold Press crushes it every time. Warlock Lairs: Into the Wilds contains 19 (wow!) short quests featuring discrete locations with strong themes, unique challenges and engaging story elements you can drop right into your Fifth Edition campaigns. Let’s get into it.
Are You Already Playing Lacuna Part 1?
While tidying up my office I rearranged and curated my collection of tabletop roleplaying games on display. Doing so unearthed a small press RPG I discovered many years ago when the terrific Inception movie came out and I wanted to bring the dream heist espionage scenario to the game table. Lacuna Part 1 from Memento Mori Theatricks nails it with this wonderful indie RPG where players take on the roles of secret agents sent into a dream world where they encounter more than they expect and mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.
Mage Forge Mastery for 5E D&D — Bloodstained Crown
One of the awesome Mage Forge backers suggested we share some ideas for introducing new magic items into campaigns so we developed the free Spirit of the Forge encounter. We like the suggestion so much we decided to expand on it through this new Mage Forge Mastery series where we go much further presenting plot hooks along with formulae and recipes for crafting magic items to a deeper degree than the system in the free encounter. Let’s get into it.
Solving Magic: The Gathering’s Anti-Life Equation
Oh my gods y’all. If you’re like me and cannot abide facing another Magic: The Gathering opponent whose deck is half cards to gain life and the other half getting +1/+1 counters from them or whatever then take a look at the curated collection of 60 cards I’ve been tinkering with and help me solve the anti-life equation for MTG. I’m packing four copies of Quakebringer, four copies of Roiling Vortex and infinite copies of my loathing for life gain decks. Let’s get into it.
Flex Your RPG Muscles with the Fantastically Flexible Cypher System
Twice in the past I bounced off of Cypher System. The first time was at a convention a few years ago so I took it with a grain a salt. The second time I was invited to play in a live stream game and after a couple of sessions I bowed out. When Nerdarchist Dave pitched a Cypher System campaign for our Tuesday night group on Nerdarchy Live I was hesitant. But I’m so glad I gave it a shot because since then it’s become one of my favorite tabletop roleplaying games. Recently I started a new campaign with friends using Cypher System so having run it myself now I’m excited to share my impressions. Let’s get into it.
Mage Forge Mastery for 5E D&D — Charm of Dimming
We keep our ear to the ground for fresh ways to help players create better RPG experiences and one of the awesome Mage Forge backers shared a great idea. They’re excited to introduce new magic items into their campaign through the free Spirit of the Forge encounter and suggested we include plot hooks along with formulae and recipes for crafting magic items to a deeper degree than the system in the free encounter. While this is beyond the scope of the Mage Forge project itself we’ve got all of Nerdarchy.com to explore this great idea starting right here in this new Mage Forge Mastery series. Let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Devil of the City
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel when Nerdarchists Dave and Ted set out to create a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character who fearlessly embodies a true daredevil. We’ve done the rope-a-dope with this character concept in a roundabout way in the past, first as a discussion video several years ago and more recently with the Blind Master. Now we’re going straight to the source for a fresh take with the Devil of the City 5E D&D Character Build Guide. Let’s get into it.
Wizards of the Coast’s Reveals Monsters of the Multiverse Details
Wizards of the Coast held a press briefing recently to share details about the upcoming D&D Rules Expansion Gift Set, which contains new printings of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and a new volume — Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. I’ve got a variety of details to share but I won’t bury the lede for the info a huge number of folks want to know. Monsters of the Multiverse releases for individual sale on May 17, 2022 and it will not be available through WotC’s digital partners like D&D Beyond until this date. Let’s get into it.
Great Magic Items Inspire Amazing Stories for Players and Characters Alike
We love magic items! The source of power for adventurers may have slowly migrated from external to internal over the years but this hasn’t taken away from the joy of discovery when characters glean such treasures from the hoards of conquered monsters or unearth them in long-lost vaults. In our own fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games magic items play pivotal roles whether this means providing the power to best terrible adversaries, grant capabilities otherwise impossible for a character or complement existing features.
Game Masters Aren’t Always the Smartest Person at the Table
One of the benefits of working in the tabletop roleplaying game industry is exposure to lots of different perspectives when it comes to gaming. Whether my takeaway from these is good, bad or indifferent there’s always at least a nugget of insight and ideas upon which to chew. A conversation I frequently encounter deals with the concept of consequences and very often focuses on the notion of dumb decisions from players leading to their characters’ death or otherwise adverse results. Adopting the same parlance I’m coming at this from the perspective the whole debate is dumb. Let’s get into it.
Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Magic Items by a Factor of Three — Wondrous Items
The homebrew content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found at D&D Beyond is astounding. You’ll find hundreds of thousands of spells, races, subclasses, monsters, magic items and more over there and I’ve looked at quite a lot! All the schools of magic, subclasses for each class individually, feats, monsters, races and a variety of other categorizations of 5E D&D content all fell under my gaze here on the website. Most recently I’ve been going through magic items one category at a time, which includes homebrew armor, potions, rings, rods, scrolls, staffs, wands and weapons. Now I’ve come to the end when it comes to magic items and it’s time to check out the over 100,436 homebrew wondrous items at DDB. Let’s get into it.
Tabletop Roleplaying Game Expectations in 2022
It’s the first day of a new year and reflection on the previous year naturally comes to mind. Recently we shared a collection of Nerdarchy’s Top 10 of 2021 and for a companion piece I’m looking forward to 2022 like I did 12 months ago for the year that’s just ended. I’m a lifelong nerd and now partner in our company so I spend considerable time thinking about the hobby personally and professionally. From this perspective here’s my thoughts about the future of the tabletop RPG industry including what I hope emerges. Let’s get into it.
