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West Marches RPG campaign style

Delving into the West Marches RPG Campaign Style: Better, Faster, Stronger

We continue this archiving of my experience running a West Marches adventuring campaign style and if you haven’t read the first article and second article, you really should for context. My tabletop roleplaying game background is one that heavily focused on narrative and story. With that being said, this new RPG campaign style is a bit of a departure. This article will focus on the portions of the West Marches formula that I fell in love with, the major changes I made and the additions I constructed to bring the game closer to what I consider makes an enjoyable campaign style.

Beyond the Fantasy Setting: Converting for 5E D&D Steampunk

Cogs. Steam. Cogs and steam. Have the itch to get some steampunk in your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons life? You’re not alone. Steampunk, and other niche genres derived from it, is a great addition to any fantasy setting. You can start your D&D steampunk experience by simply reskinning equipment and environments with all manner of odd baubles and whirring mechanisms or as deep as to tinker and toil brand new home brew to bring your steamy thoughts into life.

Only Human: Reskin D&D Playable Races for All Human Campaign

Many campaign settings strive for a more human-focused style but this often turns away many players as they see the lack of fantastic races as limiting character options. This is mechanically true if you get rid of all these races and do nothing to compensate for their absence. Often this is done through having cultural archetypes become replacements for distinct D&D playable races. Another way to accomplish this is to simply reskin character races as human cultures from your all human campaign setting. In this way, the standard assortment of D&D playable races are still available but appear and play like variations of humans.

Pathfinder Paizo PaizoCon

Get Your Paizo On At PaizoCon — Live or Live Streamed

 Never a dull moment in the roleplaying game industry, between streaming games, tentpole events like the Stream of Many Eyes and conventions running all year long one place or another. This Friday, May 25-28 in Seattle, PaizoCon 2018 is a celebration of all things Paizo. Pathfinder and Starfinder are the stars of the show. Fans have a chance to gather and play games together, attend seminars and workshops, meet and interact with each other and Paizo staff. And for those who can’t attend in person, Paizo will be live streaming select events on Twitch.

Savage Worlds: Exploring RPG Options Past the D&D Gateway

As you play Dungeons & Dragons, several things will enter your thoughts. One of the more common among them is “I wonder if …” A lot of the time those if’s run along the lines of “can I play Star Wars with this?” or “can I do a sci-fi setting?” With any roleplaying game system you can put in some time, make some tweaks and you can do those things. That said, there are many generic RPG systems out there with a variety of source material. Savage Worlds from Pinnacle Entertainment Group is one such system

RPG game master player

Player Agency and Cooperative Stories Make a D&D Game Belong to Everyone

Its a very common phrase in the roleplaying circles that its “the Dungeon Master’s Game.” As with most aspects of this hobby, its not always so cut and dry. In your D&D game, you might find infusing some player agency through cooperative storytelling might get a you a new level of engagement from your players. This player agency can take many forms, to include working together with your players to collaboratively create the setting and world.

Esper Geneis Core Manual

A Complete 5E Sci-Fi RPG in Esper Genesis Core Manual

When I flipped through the recently released full core rulebook for Esper Genesis, the same immediate feeling of hell yeah I want to play this emerges as it did when I first heard about 5th Edition science fiction roleplaying game by Dungeon Master’s Guild Adept Rich Lescouflair and the folks at Alligator Alley Entertainment. I’ve loved playing every edition of Dungeons & Dragons since the classic red box, and enjoyed stretching the boundaries of 5E D&D in particular. I was already running a pretty outrageous Spelljammer campaign at home when I heard about Esper Genesis and the free basic rules of this 5E sci-fi RPG went right into the mix, adding awesome new vehicles, classes and esper powers like fushion beam and gravity sphere.

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

Win Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes for 5E D&D — First Look and Flipthrough

Friday, May 18, 2017 was the Wizards of the Coast release of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes to specific FLGS and digitally through D&D Beyond. This is the newest D&D book from The Wizards of the Coast team. Wide release for this 5E D&D book will be on May 29.

The folks over at the PR company for the WOTC team, 360 Public Relations, is always good about getting us early copies so we can show them off to the fans. We always give them away. It’s still nice to get the free 5E D&D swag even if we don’t keep it most of the time. Speaking of which you can get in on a give-away running to May 31 for one of five copies of Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.

Kickstarter Korner for May 2018, Week 3

Each week during the Quests & Adventures live chat, Saturday at 2 p.m. eastern, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch hang out live with fans from the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. It’s a chance to share announcements and news, answer questions from the live chat and generally just hang out and talk nerdy with the Nerdarchy community.