Exploring Eberron through the Circle of the Forged Druid for 5E D&D
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted ride the lightning rail and continue Exploring Eberron through the character options included in the Dungeon Master’s Guild book produced by Keith Baker, the megapopular Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting’s original creator. Eberron is an extremely rich and detailed setting beloved by D&D players from its very beginning. Exploring Eberron illustrates wonderfully how curating character options creates a tremendous opportunity to show, rather than tell, what is special about your world. Exploring Eberron includes several subclasses for 5E D&D characters to choose from specially tailored to the setting, and Nerdarchy plans to explore them all like we do. In the case of the Circle of the Forged druid I’m going through the book to find the connection points between the Druid Circle and the larger world it comes from. So let’s get into it.
Fall in Love with Quest by The Adventure Guild for Your Next RPG Campaign
The quest to discover new and exciting approaches to tabletop roleplaying games never ends and to this point a few months ago I came across Quest from The Adventure Guild. Presented as the roleplaying adventure game for everyone Quest enjoyed a successful Kickstarter in 2018 and is now available for digital and (while supplies last) physical purchase. Quest sold me on the simplicity — the RPG system uses only a single d20 — and if I’m honest the art that evokes fun adventure. The team behind Quest, including creator and designer T.C Sottek who is also managing editor at The Verge, freelance comic artist and illustrator Celia Lowenthal and editor Chris Plante who is also a writer, reporter, critic and the executive editor and co-founder of Polygon put together a wonderful RPG. Reading the book was a joy and understanding Quest’s game system couldn’t be easier.
D&D Ideas — Campaign Finales
Meet the Deep Diver in Moon Rises Cypher System Live Play
Moon Rises is Nerdarchy’s brand new live play series of Monte Cook Games’ Cypher System! Set in the science fantasy post apocalypse of our own Earth, the heroes must help the charismatic leader Unic Hopebringer in reclaiming Manhattan to rebuild it as New Manhattan. We interviewed the cast of Moon Rises to get some insights into their characters, the world and the TTRPG system breathing mechanical life into this alien yet familiar world. Today, we’re sitting down with the player behind the ancient astronaut with a psychic twist! Today we’re talking about the tanky deep sea diver with an alien wetsuit!
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Mysterious Hypnotist
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted mysteriously mystify minds while coming up with a Character Build Guide for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. During one of our weekly live chats one of the viewers made the suggestion for a snake charmer CBG we felt inspired to oblige. Certainly there’s enough spells in 5E D&D for any sort of spellcasting character to beguile others with magic but what really intrigued us are the numerous class features capable of clouding minds. This Hypnotist CBG aims to incorporate our favorites into a single character focused exclusively on mucking with minds. Along with the player guide detailing the journey from character creation to 20th level we create special NPCs and creatures inspired by the character build for Dungeon Masters ready to drop right into your game. So let’s get into it.
Fall in Love with Cypher System by Monte Cook Games for Your Next RPG Campaign
Nerdarchy’s new live play RPG Moon Rises is a post apocalyptic science fantasy game inspired by action cartoons from the 1980s. This premise is pretty high concept and while most tabletop roleplaying games accommodate fantasy elements the sci-fi and post apocalyptic elements are a bit neglected in many mainstream systems, and devising mechanics (while rewarding at times) is a heavy commitment. But our Game Master for this season of Nerdarchy Live game play, Nerdarchist Dave, had something up his sleeve. He introduced us to Cypher System. When Dave told us intended to use Cypher System by Monte Cook Games my response wasn’t exactly enthusiastic. I’d only heard of the RPG system in passing and when I learned Cypher was the genre agnostic version of Numenera my curiosity was piqued, though I remained skeptical. What I’d heard of Numenera was it was a fun game but had a stigma of being overly simple. So far, not a great setup to the system, huh? I try to keep things positive in my articles, though never at the expense of honesty. That probably has you wondering why I chose to do an article on Cypher System. The reason I’m writing is to say I was wrong. I was very wrong. What’s more I’d bet if I had heard such things about the system at my FLGS, I likely wasn’t alone and I wanted to set the record straight.
Deal Magical and Martial Might With This 5E D&D Magic Item Card
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted fired up the ol’ mage forge to brainstorm ideas for a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons magic item. One of Ted’s very favorite things about D&D are magic items. Rewarding adventurers with cool magic items and discovering them when he’s not behind the Dungeon Master screen brings him a lot of joy. But Ted’s never been content with the plethora of 5E D&D magic items in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, other official sources or even the endless vault of creations others share in books, blogs or elsehwere. Creating his own magic items is the juice for Ted so we set him loose at the magic item creation forge and along with Dave came up with a legendary weapon for spellcasters looking to mix it up in the thick of melee.
Adventure Down a 5E D&D Dark Path of Frozen Terror
Winter Lord’s Throne debuted as a new product in Nerdarchy the Store this week. Every month we create new products for our Patreon supporters who get early access to all of these products, which are then released on our store the following month. Each product offers new things for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players and Dungeon Masters alike. Winter Lord’s Throne is an adventure I ran, though it is written by the wonderful author and staff writer Megan R. Miller. They are a fantastic writer and Game Master as you can see from Those Bastards! on the Nerdarchy Live channel where we just finished up a 12 session story arc. The adventure is designed for 9th level 5E D&D characters and certainly offers up a nice challenge complete with new monsters and new rules for a condition called frostbite.
Meet the Psychedelic Astronaut in Moon Rises Cypher System Live Play
Moon Rises is Nerdarchy’s brand new live play series of Monte Cook Games’ Cypher System! Set in the science fantasy post apocalypse of our own Earth, the heroes must help the charismatic leader Unic Hopebringer in reclaiming Manhattan to rebuild it as New Manhattan. We interviewed the cast of Moon Rises to get some insights into their characters, the world and the TTRPG system breathing mechanical life into this alien yet familiar world. Today, we’re sitting down with the player behind the ancient astronaut with a psychic twist!
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as an Indomitable Defender
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted don the heaviest armor they can find for a new Character Build Guide for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. People seem to really love any topic touching on Armor Class for 5E D&D and a whole bunch of comments on an older video discussing AC asked for a bonafide CBG. New character options and changes to some things since the original video came together for the Indomitable Defender combining fighter and wizard for a character with supreme focus on protecting themselves and their allies behind an unstoppable AC. Along with the player guide detailing the journey from character creation to 20th level we create special NPCs and creatures inspired by the character build for Dungeon Masters ready to drop right into your game. So let’s get into it.
