Create an Immersive RPG Campaign Using These Two Principles Just Like Those Bastards!
For years now Nerdarchists Dave and Ted, Nerditor Doug, Robin Miller and I have been gaming on YouTube. It all started with a simple concept story: all of us were half-siblings with a human father. We needed to find him. Why? We didn’t know but we did have destiny on our side! This plot was a fantastic setup and just one of the many elements of what makes this game great.
Nerdarchy on Worst D&D Advice Don’t Split the Party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEA8QJKfwLM In this 18-minute video on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted challenge the age-old conventional wisdom of never splitting the party in a D&D game. The conversation begins with Dave and Ted posing the question, "How many times have you heard to never split...
Brains vs. Brawn when Faerie Dragons Square off With Ogres in D&D
Sometimes an idea hits you and you have to do something with it for fear of losing something interesting. Such an idea hit me like this and who better to share it with than all of you out there? I found a pair of D&D monsters that are as opposite as you can get but are on almost the same power level exactly as one can be. An ogre and a faerie dragon (older) are both a challenge ratting 2 monster, though I would have to say it would be a different fight going against one than the other.
Make NPCs Essential in Your D&D Games
In my games I have seen characters develop long lasting relationships with NPCs. Nerdarchist Dave’s dwarven wizard Uthen-Gar crafted a magic item as a gift for the elven librarian who initially looked down on him for being a dwarf. I felt it was a rich relationship built over years of game play. That same dwarven character found a wife, even though we did not play out a romance, and became wed before the campaign was over. While romance can happen we developed that dwarves often wed as political arrangements to strengthen the clan. It was not originally planned that way but that’s how it panned out and it was awesome! I have had non-player characters on my mind and I’m interested in exploring concepts surrounding them from both the Dungeon Master and player perspectives.
D&D Ideas — On the Fly
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is on the fly, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of on the fly some unexpected circumstances kept us away from the usual weekly live chat so this week it’s anything goes! You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Feel the Fallout of All-Out Dragon War in D&D
With Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen on the horizon for D&D, I have dragons on the brain. I only read the first three books in the Dragonlance novel series. Sadly, I felt Raistlin was so over-hyped that the draw to read other books was greater to me than to continue. But as awesome as Dragonlance is this is not the focus of today’s musings. Instead I want to explore more broadly the concept of using a war of dragons as a backdrop for a campaign.
Making D&D Memes and GIFs Round-Up Vol. 5
Another week of D&D and RPG memes is here. This week’s dose of D&D and RPG humor is a little late due to a nerdy vacation to hang out with friend and streamer Mike Hunt of UnMadeGaming on Twitch and YouTube. It was a fun mini-vacation where I got to run a Zoo Mafia RPG one shot. If you missed last week’s round up you can see it here. We managed to get a couple of non-Dungeons & Dragons memes into the mix time around. Also the round-up is a little light on the GIFs this time around. Unfortunately next week will be an all round light round up with me having been away for most of the week. Thent we’ll be back on track.
Conflict Constructs is the Battle Bots of D&D
I keep looking for way to add more magic and more non-standard fantasy into my D&D games. I feel the way the game is going is to keep increasing the magic in the world and I am on board for this. We have the normalization of the construct-like race in the warforged (and now true construct with the autognome). Baldur’s Gate: Decent into Avernus gave us magical hell vehicles usable by individuals or the whole party. Nerdarchist Dave even began a campaign with some minor conversions to use them in a post apocalyptic setting. I am sure there are other examples as well if you look at other third party stuff. But why stop there?
Your Imagination is the Only Limit of RPG Stories
One appreciation both RPG and technology enthusiasts share is for customization. We love options for helping us create the experiences we enjoy the most. Brave Alice Studios understands this and put their passion into creating a platform designed specifically with your stories in mind. RPG Stories is a 3D Virtual Tabletop containing a massive world builder with models and assets for medieval fantasy, modern horror and science fiction (so basically anything at all). For a non-savvy technological person like myself the most appealing option is Auto Mode for users who like to create content easily and fast, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Let’s get into it.
Explore the Darkest Shadows of D&D at Your Peril
The other day I was lying in bed before falling asleep and an idea jumped into my brain. It is a weird concept but nothing groundbreaking — a dark elf riding a displacer beast. If you know me you know displacer beasts are my favorite D&D monster, so much so I think it will be my next tattoo. My imagination cascaded from there. I I jumped from a dark elf on a displacer beast to what can I do with shadows? Focusing on the “dark” in dark elf lead me to think about shadow powers, which lead to the shadow monster and the terror they can elicit.
