Picking Up the Pieces in Aether skies (D&D campaign setting exploration)
How the Sky Cities Rebuild After the Long Winter Winter does not end in Aether Skies.It loosens its grip. There is no single dawn where the storms clear and the danger passes. Instead, spring reveals itself quietly—in cracked hull plating, exhausted aether engines, empty ration vaults, and...
Beyond the Carved Blade: D&D Multi-class Builds for the Rune Knight
Expanding the Power of Runes Through Multiclass Play The Rune Knight fighter introduced something special to D&D: martial characters who wield ancient, intentional magic without becoming traditional spellcasters. Runes aren’t spell slots. They’re promises etched into steel, stone, and flesh—power waiting to be unlocked. But what happens...
Arithromancer Wizard Subclass (D&D 5e Homebrew)
A Wizard Who Treats Magic Like Math Most wizards in Dungeons & Dragons learn spells as fixed formulas—reliable, repeatable, and safe. Arithromancers don’t. The Arithromancer is a homebrew wizard subclass for D&D 5e built around a simple idea: magic is a system. Every spell has variables. Every casting...
Beyond Melody: New D&D Monsters & Re-Flavors for the Plane of Song
The Plane of Song is a world shaped by melody and resonance. In my original exploration, I invited Dungeon Masters to imagine a realm where rhythm bends reality and music is the fabric of existence. Let’s build on that with exciting monsters — both homebrewed...
Under the Dome: Broken Promises & Unpaid Debts
The turn of the year doesn’t erase anything under the Dome.It just gives debts time to mature. When the lights come back up after winter rationing, when the markets reopen and the chaos storms recede just enough to breathe, something else begins to move through the...
The Good, the Evil, and the Fear of Magic
How Fantasy Worlds Judge Power Beyond the Sword Magic is one of the great contradictions of fantasy roleplaying games. It heals the wounded, saves kingdoms, and lights the way in the darkness—yet it also enslaves minds, raises the dead, and topples empires. Unlike a sword or...
Broken Promises & Unpaid Debts in Zoo Mafia
January Remembers What December Tried to Forget December is a month of gestures. Tributes are exchanged. Hands are shaken. Guns stay holstered just a little longer. Everyone pretends the books will balance themselves come spring. January knows better. When the cold settles in and the nights stretch long and...
Broken Promises & Unpaid Debts in Aether skies
Who Remembers Who tries to Forget The storms calm.The pyres cool.The sky grows quiet again. And then the messages arrive. In Aether Skies, the turning of the year doesn’t bring forgiveness. It brings accounting. January is when survival debts come due, when favors earned during the long nights...
Nerdarchy Heads to Page 3: Philly Area Gaming Expo!
Next week, Nerdarchy is hitting the road as Dave and Ted attend Page 3: Philly Area Gaming Expo in Pennsylvania, and we couldn’t be more excited to be part of this growing tabletop celebration. If you were at Page 2 last year, you already know the...
The Calculus of the Arcane: Interacting with Magic Through Science and Math
In most Dungeons & Dragons games, magic is treated as mystical: whispered incantations, ancient tomes, and inscrutable forces beyond mortal comprehension. But what if magic isn’t unknowable—just complex? What if magic behaves less like a miracle… and more like physics? By reframing magic as a system with...
Mutant: Year Zero — Late to the Zone, Still Eager to Explore
Some tabletop RPGs make a big splash when they release and then quietly settle into the background. Mutant: Year Zero is one of those games I somehow managed to miss at launch—but the more I read about it, the more convinced I am that it’s...
Under the Dome: Seasonal Superstitions & Omens
What people fear when the year turns cold. Under the Dome, winter doesn’t just strain resources.It strains belief. When the light dims, when chaos storms linger longer on the horizon, and when people spend more time listening to the city breathe around them, patterns begin to emerge....
Blood on the Dice: An Experimental System for Faster, Brutal Combat in D&D
One of the quiet truths about modern D&D is that combat, while tactical and cinematic, is often safe. Characters are resilient. Enemies are bags of hit points. Fights can stretch across an hour of real time without ever feeling truly lethal. That’s great for heroic...
Zoo Mafia: Seasonal Superstitions & Omens
Reading the Signs on the Longest Night In the Zoo Mafia world, the calendar doesn’t just mark time—it marks danger. As the year drags toward its darkest stretch, when the nights grow longest and the cold presses in close, the animal underworld becomes restless. Deals slow. Guns...
Seasonal Superstitions & Omens in Aether Skies
When the Sky Begins to Speak In Aether Skies, the changing season doesn’t bring comfort.It brings signs. As the year turns and the sun dips to its lowest angle, something strange happens above the floating cities. The clouds—normally chaotic, storm-torn, and formless—begin to align. Lines appear where...
