Loader image
Loader image
Back to Top

Author: Ted Adams

Nerdarchy > Articles posted by Ted Adams (Page 10)
D&D character rogue

D&D Quest Starters by Character Class — Rangers and Rogues

Looks like people are enjoying this D&D Quest Starters series so far and we are now more than half way through. The thought behind these ideas is to give simple little scenes for roleplaying, skill challenges or both, for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons characters based on their character class. These could take five minutes and can be great to give a player whose character does not normally step a chance to shine, or at least encourage them to roleplay their character. The advice here is designed to be generic but these ideas can hopefully inspire you to encourage your players. If a player latches onto the NPC you provide, then feel free to build on that scene over time to have it mean more and the character might keep coming back to the NPC or vice versa. That is why it is a quest starter — it can easily lead to some fun long term quests over time. Use the navigation bar at the top under the title to check out quest starters for other classes like barbarian and bard, and cleric and druid, and fighter and monk.

Roleplaying Spell Effects 2.0 — Cheaper and Pre-Cut on Kickstarter

Dealing with combat in roleplaying games offers a number of challenges. Once you pull out the battle grid and miniatures some of the issues go away, but whether you are playing theater of the mind or using a grid there will always be arguments about how spells effect the area. When you do so playing theater of the mind, that will have to be between you and your Game Master. But if you are using a battle grid I have the perfect solution — the Roleplaying Spell Effects 2.0 Kickstarter from Arcknight.

class to your class

D&D Quest Starters by Character Class — Fighter and Monk

Welcome back. Or welcome, if this is your first foray into D&D Quest Starters. The thought behind these ideas is to give simple little scenes that offer roleplaying, a skill challenge or both, for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons characters based on their character class. These things can take five minutes and can be great to give a player whose character does not normally step into the limelight and allow them to shine, or at least encourage them to roleplay their character. Only you know what each of the players in your game are capable of as well as what is going to interest their characters. The advice here is designed to be generic but these ideas can hopefully inspire you to encourage your players.

Kickstarter RPG

Kickstarter Korner — May 2019

If you are looking for RPG related Kickstarters you can invest in, look no further than the sampling of recommendations below. You might find the idea of “investing in” a Kickstarter amusing but that is what Kickstarter is really about. You invest in the company and the product so it can become a thing. There are many companies out there that know if a product kicks, then it is a viable product. I also know there are many people who are hesitant to back Kickstarters with too many “What if?” questions.

D&D Quest Starters by Character Class — Cleric and Druid

If you happened to have missed part one, D&D quest starters are designed as small scenes or quick skill challenges meant to get some roleplaying in. Maybe you use these when you feel a character needs to be put in the spotlight. Maybe you wrote story plot about one of the characters and you do not want to leave the others out. Bring in some quest starters and allow the roleplaying to begin. These can develop into larger stories if all involved like where the story is going but they can also be a simple one and done conversation. This series is organized by character class, and last time I did a large intro and knocked out bard and barbarian. So today we are going to look at a couple more. Do you have faith?

Curse of Hollow Hills – Undead Miniatures on Kickstarter

From the people of Crippled God Foundry, allow me to present the Curse of Hollow Hills. Dungeons & Dragons, or let’s face it any fantasy roleplaying game, would not be the same without hordes of undead. It is that fear of a fate worse than death that can scare the normal mortal into staying in town. It takes a brave adventurer — or a foolish one — to brave the trials and tribulations of the monsters out there. And the undead are one of those. Curse of Hollow Hills is a miniatures project of fantasy heroes & undead monsters. If funded, it will include a collection of up to 50 original sculpts (including future stretch goals), inspired by the most iconic undead creatures of fantasy novels, RPGs & tabletop board games.

RPG player character

D&D Quest Starters by Character Class — Barbarian and Bard

As a Dungeon Master I try to incorporate specific D&D quest starters and roleplaying opportunities in for characters in my games. But some players like to make generic characters or not give enough material to inspire me. Other times what they give me is not appropriate at all times or where the campaign currently is. This has led me to make D&D quest starters by character class. These are jumping off points and ideas for generic character classes. These D&D quest starters might not be applicable to all characters of a chosen class and some of another class might be useful instead. These are designed to be a short one scene idea that should be complete in 5 or 10 minutes, but have the potential for much more based on how the roleplaying goes or how it is handled. Just because the encounter is overlooked does not mean the story needs to end there.

Kickstarter Korner is Back — April Week 2

As the ever-changing wheel of this thing called Nerdarchy rolls around we have decided to bring back the weekly post about RPG Kickstarters that mean something to us and talk about them here. I am going to break it up into several categories. There will not always be something from every category. As I see it, we need to have one that talks about role-playing games.  Given what we do here at Nerdarchy I think this is a no-brainer. As long as people keep playing Dungeons & Dragons and others want to buy products hopefully this category will remain with new options each week.

Dungeons & Dragons Spell Effects: Arcane Fury and Divine Might by WizKids

As a visual person I frequently like to have the battlefield fully represent what is going on during a battle. I have used a variety of markers during my many years of playing Dungeons & Dragons. With WizKids releasing the Spell Effects I feel I can better represent the magical effects at my own table. Below is the list of all the great things that come in this prepainted non-blind purchase pack. This way you know exactly what you are getting.

Monstrous Humanoids in 5E D&D

Over the years Dungeons & Dragons has offered many different races for players to choose from. I know that some Dungeon Masters are very much against anything that does not look normal. Let’s forget the dragonborn and tielfing and play with humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes and halflings. With those races there are plenty of options even without all the subrace choices. But if you are like me you enjoy all the choices and you want to play the things that are bizarre and interesting. If you happen to look around this site you will see many different monstrous humanoids I statted out for 5E D&D and even made up some of my own, so feel free to poke around. I’ve had a fondness for monstrous humanoid races from the beginning of my roleplaying days. The Complete Book of Humanoids was always my favorite, with races like the wemic, the ogre mage and of course the dino people — saurials. I used this book over and over again playing second edition AD&D. And now Deck of Many has an free PDF designed for anyone who enjoys anthropomorphic characters for 5E D&D.

Dice Games in Review — The Return of Dragon Dice

For you readers who are aware of my normal interests, feel free to jump down a paragraph. If you are new to Nerdarchy or Nerdarchist Ted then you may not be aware of my obsession with plastic. Be it dice or minis I never feel I have enough. I love board games and dice games and I am always looking for new ones to add to the collection. While I was attending GenCon, there was a booth from a company called SFR. There was always a decent crowd around the tables, which is a good and a bad thing all at once for the typical convention attendee. Seeing my aformentioned obsession with dice, I had noticed there was a large punch bowl filled with dice and I was intrigued. I know some vendors give out free swag at cons and free dice are cool. So I took a closer look.

Pacesetter Games and Simulation with Unexpected Miniatures

I filled in for Nerdarchist Dave on one of our weekday live chats a while back when we were doing them regularly, and I got to sit down and have a great conversation with Ben Barsh from Pacesetter Games and Simulation. They have a range of products for a variety of different roleplaying games, but we talked about their Kickstarter and bringing Pasesetter into fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons adventures. You can check out their successful Rise of the Nefarious: A 5th Edition Campaign and and their other 5E adventures on the Pacesetter website.

Forest Kingdom Campaign Compendium for 5E D&D

When Nerdarchy went to GenCon 2018 I met some of the people over at Legendary Games and got a copy of their Forest Kingdom Campaign Compendium for 5E D&D to check out. I am a huge fan of fey and forest games out in the wilderness and away from normal civilization. If you want to pick up the book on Amazon you can do so here. You can also head over to the Legendary Games site and check out this or other amazing products they offer.

Dungeon in a Box Unboxing — August 2018

There are several subscription crate services out there that cater to us the gamer. The lovely folks over at Dungeon in a Box decided to send me a copy of what they do so I can share my unboxing with all of you who like these type of things. This being my first adventure into Dungeon in a Box I am not as familiar with them as I am with other monthly subscription boxes. If my information is correct Dungeon In a Box is supposed to offer everything you need to run the adventure within. So you open the box and you are prepared to play some games.