Board Games in Review – Smash Up World Tour: International Incident
If you want to check out any of the other articles I have written on this amazing game please feel free to check them out here. Smash Up is a fantastic game from published Alderac Entertainment Group pitting rival factions against one another as players try to take over the universe by capturing bases. But one faction cannot do it alone. They must team up. So you smash up two factions together to make your play deck.
Kit Bashing a Nightmarish Miniature for Dungeons & Dragons
There are many awesome crafters out there on YouTube. You can watch tutorials on how they make great stuff. I was inspired by a miniature I saw someone else make on the internet so I figured I would share with all of you the process I took to make this awesome mini.
Interpreting Dungeons and Dragons Dice Rolls
When it comes to Dungeons and Dragons dice here at Nerdarchy I have to say I’m the collector on the team. When it comes to rolling and interpreting them there are a lot of random possibilities that can come out. I will admit, in the early days of being a Dungeon Master, I rolled behind a screen and cared much more about the lives of my NPCs and monsters. I fudged rolls and gave extra hit points to make the monsters more challenging.
I have grown as a Dungeon Master over the years, and since starting Nerdarchy I have learned an awful lot over the last 5 years. I learned that sometimes in the heat of combat as a DM you want to preserve the level of the challenge. You want the players to feel threatened. I understand this. It is something I struggle with every time I run a combat. Now, when I roll I almost always roll out where the players can see and if I don’t I still leave the dice as they lie.
I am not here to convince you that Dungeon and Dragons dice rolls need to held on a pedestal but to show how even the bad rolls can be something great.
Dungeon Craft: Build your own battle maps! now on Kickstarter
Do you like using a battle mat and terrain but you are not all that crafty? Perhaps you just do not have a lot of room to store all the cool things you would like to have. If either of these sound like you, you want to check out the Kickstarter for Dungeon Craft by 1985 Games.
World of Revilo on Kickstarter: 5th Edition Campaign Setting and Monster Manual
Are you ready for a new campaign setting for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons? How about getting a book full of new and imaginative monsters to add to your game? Let me introduce you to the World of Revilo. In this Kickstarter you will get access to a campaign setting unlike any other setting D&D has had before.
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.
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 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.
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.
