Game Masters and Players Need to Know What to Do in RPGs
I’ve been playing and running a lot more games recently and reflecting on them made an observation that might be useful for players and Game Masters alike. Maybe I’m late to the dance here or perhaps I’ll find there’s not much substance to it after all but nevertheless here we are introducing a topic. In broad strokes the idea is using the point of a game to anticipate and prepare for what comes next. When it comes to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons or any tabletop roleplaying game it’s important for me to know what players are supposed to do during play. For more on this perspective check out What You Do and How You Do It Are Two Different Things in RPGs. When you know the point of a game your games run smoother from both sides of the table. This may stray into metagame territory so let’s get into it find out.
D&D Ideas — Petrification
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is petrification, which we discussed in our live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST and talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of petrification, coming up in May we’ll be rocking the Patreon rewards in a trip to the Garden of Statuary with a mix of Fifth Edition content for Game Masters and players alike ready to drop right into your games. Check out more and see what $2 gets you over here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy, by signing up here. Visit us over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel here and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss these live chats on Mondays at 8 p.m. eastern, plus our regular three videos each week where we talk about D&D and other RPGs. While we are at home following health safety guidelines we’re continuing to film our videos remotely and Live Chat Revivified streams weekdays at noon eastern with creators joining Nerdarchist Dave to talk nerdy and take questions from the live audience. With the COVID-19 pandemic situation we want to assure everyone we’re following all the guidelines and regulations, and practicing safety and preventative measures like social distancing, and we strongly urge everyone to do the same. Our partners and employees health is our No. 1 priority. Visit Coronavirus.gov for the latest news, updates and developments.
Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Magic Items for Warlocks by a Factor of Three*
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take a look at magic items in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons with an eye towards the ones particularly beneficial for a warlock. Like the discussion on top magic items for rogues this is an unusual topic because it’s rare for a character to choose magic items. However there’s a few opportunities I can think of off the top of my head. In Adventurers League play items can be traded on a one-for-one basis for items with the same rarity at a cost of 15 downtime days unless they’re playing at the same table. Games beginning beyond 1st level often allow for players to choose magic items too, like in our own monthly fan one shots. And in the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign I’m currently running, one of the NPCs in town acts as a magic item broker who takes requests, and I imagine other 5E D&D adventures contain similar opportunities. But this is Top 10 by a Factor of Three! All the official content gets thrown out the window as we browse homebrew magic items at D&D Beyond looking for the best ones for warlock characters. So let’s get into it.
Worlds Collide When 5E D&D Meets The Office
Over on Twitter we received a request to imagine the characters from The Office as fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons characters. As banner waving 5E D&D enthusiasts and (in my case anyway) a proud Dunderhead how can we refuse? I’ve already tipped my hand indicating this exercise focuses on the US version of the television series. Since realistically the employees of Dunder Mifflin would more than likely be commoners and other generic NPCs instead we’ll assume the day to day operations of the Scranton branch are an epic campaign and give them class and subclass options from 5E D&D.
RPG Rule of Cool Maybe Not So Cool After All
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted read between the lines of tabletop roleplaying game rulebooks and discuss the unwritten rule, at least insofar as fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is concerned — the Rule of Cool. While it may be implied in text and encouraged in practice there is really no codified passage on how to implement this concept. I vacillated on my perspective with this notion, especially since it comes on the heels of a recent video about Rule Zero. On the one hand when it comes to storytelling games like 5E D&D I rather enjoy both aspects — the storytelling and the game parts. On the other, the distinction between the two best I figure is one relies on a game’s rules from which to make a ruling and the other essentially ignores the rules completely.
Hairable Terrain — A Beardomantic Encounter for 5E D&D
For our April Patreon rewards we released Hairable Ideas, a follow up to last year’s Beardomancy. This proved one of our most popular products ever! Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players and Dungeon Masters alike enjoyed adding beardomancy magic to their campaigns and player wizards following this new Arcane Tradition. One of the players in Nerdarchist Ted’s D&D In A Castle 2019 campaign played a School of Beardomancy wizard as a matter of fact. So when April rolled around this year we knew we wanted to take another trip to the Beard Dimension and came up with lots of new spells and subclasses drawing on beardomantic energy. Of course there’s monsters and magic items too, but one of the snippets left on the cutting room floor was Hairable Terrain, an encounter based on the content and a play on our classic Terrible Terrain material. Since Hairable Ideas is now over at Nerdarchy the Store we thought it would be fun to include this encounter here on the website in a post. So let’s get into it.
What’s the Point of Tool Proficiency in Dungeons & Dragons?
If you read the title then you already know the quintessential question: what’s the point of tool proficiencies in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons? Let’s not beat around the bush with this one, because this take is so hot the bush is libel to catch fire!
Plot Progress in D&D — The Cheese and the Pill
Salutations, nerds! Today we’re going to talk about plot and the differences between what plot progress looks like in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons from the point of view of a Dungeon Master contrasted by the point of view of a player. Contrary to popular belief these are not the same thing. It can be easy to lose sight of from behind the DM’s screen, but we are privy to things our players are not. And as players this goes the same way — things that can seem like frustrating stalling out can actually be movement. So let’s talk about that for a minute.
This New 5E D&D Monster Reveals the Secrets of Homebrew Content
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted explore the basics of homebrew content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Creating homebrew content for 5E D&D ranges from something like a simply house rule to a massive project preparing material for release like our very own Out of the Box: Encounters for 5th Edition. Between our YouTube channel, newsletter, Patreon and right here on the website we create homebrew content essentially every day so we’re no strangers to the process on a small or large scale. To go along with the video discussion I thought it would be fun to share a peek behind the curtain at one of the homebrew monsters in our upcoming monthly Patreon rewards.
Think Outside the Box and Turn Spoilers into Benefits in 5E D&D
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted answer a question from the RPG community. This time around a player looking to play fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons for the first time followed the most classic advice for finding a game — offer to run one yourself! This first time Game Master comes in with a concern almost as old as D&D itself, explaining how a player in their campaign reads ahead in the official adventures they’re playing through and comes to each session with intimate knowledge of what lies ahead. Puzzles are solved with ease, hidden elements lay bare before them and crucial decision points fall in their favor far too often for the player’s claim of getting lucky. In the video Dave and Ted offer several suggestions for handling these situations but I’m curious if there’s any opportunity to make this work in the GM’s favor. Call it metagaming or cheating, can we find a way to turn spoilers into assistors? Let’s get into it and find out.
