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roleplaying Dungeon World bonds

Bonding in Your Roleplaying Games

Expanding your horizons is a tried and true method to spark inspiration, fight burnout, and generally become a better-rounded creator. There are some game mechanics you’ll encounter whether you’re playing or running a roleplaying game that, with a little tweaking, can become useful tools in many different roleplaying scenarios. I like to call them pocket mechanics. Little game mechanics to keep in your pocket for any occasion. One example of these are bonds from Dungeon World by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel. Bonds are a useful roleplaying tool and a mechanical way to reward players for engaging in character interaction.

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.

D&D Ideas — Aquatic Adventures

Welcome once again to the weekly Nerdarchy Newsletter. This week we are feeling a little inspired by the new Wizards of the Coast adventure Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Also, Frog God Games currently has a live Kickstarter for Sea King’s Malice: a 5E Adventure in the Deadly Depths. It’s designed to take adventurers on a sweeping quest across the ocean, to previously uncharted lands, and finally down under the waves to the very depths of the sea.

Campfires Aren’t Just for Character Intros Anymore!

Campfire Writing Software is a tool for writers. It’s phenomenal for tracking everything from characters, to major plot lines, to world building, and more! I was provided a free copy to review, and boy, do I have thoughts. Spoiler alert (in case the article’s title didn’t give it away), I loved it! If you want to watch me go through it initially and get my raw thoughts, you can watch this week’s RPGtube video on my channel!

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.

Bad RPG Stories are Only the Beginning!

Writers and Game Masters have a ton of things in common. A writer’s main goal is to tell a good story to entertain their target audience and sell a profitable amount of their work. A GM’s goal is to facilitate fun through a good story and entertain their own target audience — the players. Because of these similarities, GMs can learn a lot from studying good storytelling tactics. In this week’s RPGtube video, I discuss my top five tips for GMs, as coming from the perspective of a writer.

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?

D&D Ideas — Nightmares

Welcome once again to the weekly Nerdarchy Newsletter. This newsletter was super late. My apologies, fellow Nerdarchists. It’s been a bit tough readjusting to the new Nerdarchy schedule. We’ve front loaded most of what we do here Monday-Wednesday. We’ll do our best to get on track so you fine nerds will know when to expect the newsletter. You can always find these newsletters here on the website every Sunday too. This week’s topic is nightmares.