Top 12 Holiday Movies Every D&D Nerd Should Watch This Holiday Season
The holidays are in full swing, nerds! This time of year is steeped in fantasy and magic. With themes of good will toward men, cosmic evils facing the peril of true hope and whatnot the season feels ripe for nerds and fans of Dungeons & Dragons everywhere. For me the holidays entail gathering with family and friends to watch our favorite holiday movies while bingeing junk food. I’m sure many of you readers do something similar but maybe you’re not sure what to recommend to your family, or maybe you just want to find something new or unusual.
‘Tis the Season for 5E D&D Holiday Adventures
Thanksgiving has come and gone again, Charlie Brown, and this means the holidays are officially upon us. With the season comes an urge to run holiday themed adventures and one shots. Whether you want to do a one night session with all new characters or you want to incorporate a holiday session or two into your holiday season I’ve got thoughts on how to run a great holiday adventure for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons this year!
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with the Break System from Octopath Traveler
Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons has seen a boom in success like never before. So many people are playing and talking about 5E D&D and a robust community of homebrew and indie content has flooded the community with enough ways to tell and play so many types of stories with the system. Even when 5E D&D can’t accommodate a certain type of game or story there are a wealth of other systems to choose from. Much like the golden age of JRPGs this is the golden age of TTRPGs and as such I’ve had both on the brain lately.
Simplifying Distances for Theater of the Mind in 5E D&D
We love some fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons here at Nerdarchy, and we love streaming over on Nerdarchy Live. Part and parcel with streaming comes a need to adjust things and make them more cinematic for an audience. While minis are great they kind of bog down a stream if you’re not really skilled at multitasking or have a huge production team like Critical Role. As such we use theater of the mind, which comes with its own challenges.
Expand Your Roleplaying Through Heritage and Culture in 5E D&D
If you want to stir the pot with the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons fandom then bring up the topic of race and watch the opinions flow. Race is a core mechanic of 5E D&D and while some prefer the term lineage (see Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything) the two terms are used interchangeably within the community. The way I like to run D&D games, I view any mechanic as having a direct influence on the story and likewise I believe every mechanic’s existence ought to be justified by a story element. Race is just one of these areas so let’s break down character race, what it means, and how to use it more effectively in your 5E D&D games.
Wayward Masquerade Expands the Dragon Bagons Hoard with LGBTQ+ Pride Dragon Dice Bags
Watching the trailer on Kickstarter for the new Dragon Bagons series I couldn’t tell at first if I was watching a witty wordless indie film with a comical twist or if it was actually the advertisement it’s designed to be. Watching our main character travel across the fantasy landscape to find new dragons made me smile many times, seeing where each of these little LGBTQ+ Pride dragons were found. When I say the new Dragon Bagons on Kickstarter are fierce, BEAR in mind that’s coming from a proud Queer man (wink, wink). Wayward Masquerade has already delivered on a number of delightful dice bags and the new Dragon Bagons series looks to be every bit as amazing.
Alignment in D&D is NOT Dead! But It’s Not What You Think
Alignment is not dead. There, I said it. Stone me if you will. However, alignment goes beyond fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons in my opinion, though not in the way you might think. I’m not talking about our conventional alignment system of law vs. chaos and good vs. evil. As the system stands it really only works in the contexts of certain moods and genres as I’ll explain in a bit. I do believe there is a sort of alignment to story genres that can help us compartmentalize and define our games, stories and even the media we consume.
Discover Critical Role Campaign 3’s Wild New Party of D&D Adventurers
Critical Role just began Campaign 3 of its fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game. The continent where the campaign takes place this time is Marquet and the southern accents, which we were previously introduced to via Fjord of Campaign 2, are in full swing . Before we delve into this post please know there might be some spoilers ahead for the first session of Critical Role Campaign 3 as well as spoilers for all episodes leading up to this point. If you’re not into those maybe come back and read this after catching up.
Level Up Your 5E D&D Game with Evocative Descriptions
I play Dungeons & Dragons three times a week. On Tuesdays I play with the gang on Nerdarchy Live. On Wednesdays I play in my home game with my chosen family and every other Thursday I play with my author friends on Quill & Sword. Having played so much 5E D&D I’ve learned that descriptions are utterly vital. Dungeons & Dragons is a type of theater of the mind. You and your friends share a story experience much like a play or a movie except the experience is different for each person because there are no screens or stages — only your imagination. As such, Dungeon Masters must take a role similar to an author. They craft stories with descriptions to help their audience (in this case the players at the table) to envision what’s happening.
Halloween RPG Adventure Hooks Sure to Get Your Gaming Group Screaming
Nerdarchy is doing a Halloween one shot special with our monstrous friends from the McDonner Manor! Whether you’re running Quest, fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons or another tabletop roleplaying game we’ve got you covered with some ideas for you guys and ghouls! With the most spooktacular time of year in full swing it should come as no surprise many Game Masters are looking for ideas to run a quick and easy one shot for Halloween, Day of the Dead or a number of other holidays to incorporate into their campaign settings. To assist, I thought it would be fun to come up with a few prompts to help springboard your twisted imagination!
Wild Beyond the Witchlight Begins with a Perfect 5E D&D Halloween Opening
Wild Beyond the Witchlight is the newest book for fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons and it has the most Studio Ghibli vibes I’ve seen in any book from Wizards of the Coast. Think Spirited Away for this one. Wild Beyond the Witchlight comes at the perfect time as it offers some major creepy carnival vibes. This 5E D&D adventure absolutely embraces everything witchy and spooky about the Feywild. When I tell you one of the best parts of the book is in the beginning, it’s no trick — this section is a treat.
Slake Your Dark Fantasy Magic Hunger with the 5E D&D Path of the Spelleater Barbarian
If you’re not watching Nerdarchy’s new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons live play on Nerdarchy Live, now’s the perfect time to catch up! In this dark fantasy 5E D&D campaign I take the reins in my homebrew setting of Aulmn, the same setting for Quill & Sword. The rest of Team Nerdarchy are playing Nerdarchy original subclasses.
Top 5 Official Campaign Settings for 5E D&D
Here at Nerdarchy we love our fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The system is fluid and elegant, allowing for play in a variety of different settings. But maybe you’re new to the RPG hobby and you’re just not sure where to start when it comes to a campaign setting. While we tend to like our own homebrew settings, building an entire world can be a daunting task — especially for someone who’s just picked up a book and a set of dice for the first time. But don’t let your knickers get in knots; we’re here to help.
How the Cruella Movie Made Me Rethink Fashion in 5E D&D
You’re probably going to get the wrong impression when I tell you this entire article was inspired by the Cruella movie. It’s not readily apparent how exactly fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons meshes with this zany, beautiful disaster of a movie. Much like the Cruella movie, which doesn’t quite know what it wants to be at any given moment, so too this post may seem haphazard at first. Let’s hone in on the thing — fashion — something underrated by a great many 5E D&D players.
Character Death in 5E D&D is Boring!
Character death is a staple of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons lore. In dark fantasy settings like Wildemount, Dark Sun and Ravenloft, character death is an ever-present looming danger. But sometimes character death is lame, or worse — boring. Today I’m sharing some thoughts and ideas on how we can mix up death in our 5E D&D games to keep things new and fresh (no pun intended).
