Stealing MMO Mechanics for Your Tabletop — Blackfathom Deeps
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m sharing ideas for stealing mechanics from MMORPGs, how to make them work and an example my players enjoyed. Suffice it to say your mileage may vary. I’m going to be dissecting Blackfathom Deeps from World of Warcraft. On top of being an extremely long dungeon there some really good concepts to steal from this dungeon and a couple of things that just wouldn’t translate well.
Pocket Full of NPCs for 5E D&D — The Reclusive Researcher
Salutations, nerds! Did your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons party forget to take identify? Got no wizard? Need a nerd who they can go to for the cleansing of cursed items or simply require a plot hook to motivate the party delve into the ruins of an exploded wizard lab? I’ve got a character for you.
Recognizing How 5E D&D Characters are Not Regular People
Salutations, nerds! I’m having a debate right now with one of my friend groups about why everyone in a Dungeons & Dragons world isn’t a wizard if wizards are so powerful. If people in your world can blow up a quarter of a city all at once with giant balls of fire and wipe out whole armies ten why does everyone not do this? Because the barrier of entry for being a high level spellcaster is prohibitively high for most people. Then why are so many D&D player characters spellcasters? Because D&D player characters are not regular people.
How Did Your RPG Character Learn Their Skills?
Salutations, nerds! Your character sheet has a list of things you can do and after you’ve been playing your character for a while you have a pretty good idea of the skills they’re good at and the ones you really don’t want the Game Master to ask for checks. Something that might never come up at the table but will absolutely inform getting into your character’s head space and roleplaying is how you learned those skills in the first place.
Pocket Full of NPCs for 5E D&D — The Way Guardian
Salutations, nerds! Do you ever need to make a quick jaunt through the deep dark woods more interesting and yet still go smoothly enough to get to your destination in the same session? The last pocket NPC for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons I presented was the Lingering Spirit and today I’ve got a new one for you.
Exploring RPG Character Strengths and Flaws as Two Sides of the Same Coin
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m writing about your tabletop roleplaying game character’s greatest strengths and biggest flaws and how sometimes it helps to have them come from the same place. I don’t mean where you put your highest and lowest stats but instead your character’s personality.
5 Persuasion Skill Challenges for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! This series touches on each of the skills on the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character sheet and lists off five flash encounters for each of them. The idea is you can drop these into your game at any point without them taking up too much time or serving as longer plot hooks. These are single scene skill challenges, beginning to middle to end, right there. They exist if you need to stretch the action for a moment or give spotlight to a 5E D&D skill heavy character. Right now we’re talking about getting people to do what you want them to through Persuasion.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Undead Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going to be taking a look beyond the grave into the realm of necromancy and necrotic damage in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Undead creatures are the bad guys you can reach for when you don’t want your heroes to have to think too hard about the monsters they’re killing.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Plant Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! Everybody who plays fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons has probably adventured in the forest at one point or another. It’s a staple fantasy backdrop. And what does a forest have in abundance? Plants. Trees, underbrush, bushes, briars — all sorts of things that grow. Even if you’re not in the forest there’s still farmland with crops and that one dandelion poking through the sidewalk in the city yelling, “Yeah, cobblestone!” But sometimes the plants turn around and want to kill you, and today’s post is about those 5E D&D plant creature types.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Ooze Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! I’ve been waiting to donk around with this fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type because while I’ve already covered my favorite creature type — fey — this one is my spouse’s favorite. I’m referring to oozes of course. Slimy, lurchy, squishy and rolly, there are not a lot of these available in 5E D&D (there is really only so much you can do with them) but they are unique enough to merit their own creature type.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Monstrosity Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m turning my attention to the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type crossing the line from ordinary to extraordinary and stops druids from Wild Shaping into owlbears — the monstrosity! These 5E D&D creatures are monstrous, hence the title, and are massively varied so this should be a fun one.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Humanoid Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m examining what makes a man. And by this I do not mean what makes an adult or what makes a male and more like what makes a sapient biped. I’m taking a closer look at humanoids as a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Giant Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! The fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type I’m covering today is a pretty big deal if I do say so myself. No? Well, I can’t see myself out so I’ll just have to write this one while I’m sitting in pun jail. Grab your magic beans and say Fee Fi Fo Fum with me because I smell something and I don’t think it’s the blood of an Englishman. That’s right, I’m looking at 5E D&D giants! From the big stompy boys who appear in your standard fairy tale fair to the jotun from Norse mythology, giants figure in a lot of fantasy’s source material so it’s no small wonder they also figure prominently in D&D.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Fiend Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! I’m back with the next fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type by unassailable right of alphabetical order. Fiends! Do you want to make some fiends? I want to make some fiends. Well, at the very least analyze these 5E D&D creatures. I’m focusing on devils, demons and the lesser known but no less cool yugoloths.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Fey Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! I know I express a special love of each fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type every time I tackle a new one but listen. The fair folk are a whole thing with me. I really love them in folklore and they’re super fun in 5E D&D as well. Fey are tricky but not always nice as well as prideful and vain but not always easily buttered up. If you know your fairy tales then you know fey can be easy enough to navigate around but do not lose sight of how the fey don’t see morality the same way as most humans.
