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5E D&D Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft backgrounds

Discover Your 5E D&D Character’s Horror Background with Van Richten’s Guide Backgrounds

Salutations, nerds! Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft sets up backgrounds a little bit differently from other fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books. There are two in particular with suggested characteristics but as far as background features go there’s a list of those you can use for pretty much any other set. I like this. As someone who generally uses custom backgrounds anyway simply having the background feature to choose from is cutting out the middle man so to speak. Let’s take a look at what Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft reveals about backgrounds in this 5E D&D horror campaign setting.

5E D&D college of spirits bard van richten's guide to ravenloft

Channel Tales from Beyond as a College of Spirits Bard from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted enter the Domains of Dread and explore the College of Spirits from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. This Bard College for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons uses occult trappings to conjure spirits straight from the legends and spooky stories they collect during their adventures. Let’s get into it.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Preparing for Horror 5E D&D

Running Horror with Atmosphere and Accessibility in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is Wizards of the Coast’s newest setting book for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and it’s arguably the best release we’ve had so far. Much how Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything officially sanctioned many flavor customizations Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft contains several sections empowering Dungeon Masters and players to make 5E D&D their own. Among these options chapter 4’s Running Horror Games section provides guidance for preparation, during the session and afterward. This horror guide was phenomenal and easily makes the book worth picking up. I loved this section so much I made a whole video about how Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft completely changed how I run D&D forever.

Explore Weird Wastelands and Play Great 5E Games in Places Adversely Affected by Magical Forces

Worlds of Web DM: Weird Wastelands launched this morning on Kickstarter and 16 minutes later our YouTube colleagues’ supplement for 5e D&D that gives you everything you need to play great games in places adversely affected by magical forces became funded. Of course the first exclamation to make is congratulations! We know exactly how excited the Web DM team feels after bringing their vision to the crowdfunding world and receiving the support to make it a reality. The heart of the project is Web DM’s passion for exploration, a pillar of 5E play we strongly support ourselves. Let’s get into it.

Newest 5E D&D Unearthed Arcana Teases Curriculum of Chaos with Mages of Strixhaven

You won’t have to wait until Nov. 16, 2021 to study Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The latest Unearthed Arcana 2021 — Mages of Strixhaven gives a peek at the syllabus of the wondrous magic university Strixhaven. The just announced book is a new 5E D&D crossover with Magic: The Gathering via the very popular expansion set from earlier this year. The opening to the Mages of Strixhaven Unearthed Arcana makes no illusions this playtest material is something special and they ain’t kidding. Let’s get into it.

Inspire 5E D&D Adventure by Reading the Tarokka Deck and Spirit Board from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Salutations, nerds! It’s time to get down with some mystical woohoo stuff for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. By this I mean fortune telling and communion with the spirit world courtesy of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. I know you can’t see me but imagine me wiggling my fingers at you. This particular topic is near and dear to my heart because I myself am an avid collector of tarot cards, which the Tarokka Deck is based on for 5E D&D, and use them frequently. I’ve been reading for about 17 years now and whether you believe there’s any real magic in them or not there’s something really fun about turning over a card and seeing what the reading has to say for you. In Ravenloft this is doubly true. A draw of a card from the Tarokka Deck or contacting spirits or other mysterious forces via a Spirit Board can greatly change the shape of your 5E D&D adventure and this is really cool. So let’s get to it, shall we?

Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with Pride as a Rainbow Domain Cleric

Happy Pride Month! As a proud member of the Queer+ community and a Nerdarchy staff writer I really wanted to do something special for Pride Month this year — something that screams “I love Dungeons & Dragons and rainbows and all of that!” I kept wracking my brain of what we could do to offer some Pride positivity into the 5E D&D sphere. Chromatic spells are an obvious hook but they’re not quite potent enough for what I wanted to create. The more I thought the more the notion of a subclass surfaced in my mind.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Preparing for Horror 5E D&D

Horror Pacing in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is probably my favorite setting book to date from Wizards of the Coast. It has so many great resources for 5E D&D players and Dungeon Masters alike. Among my favorites is the section walking the DM through a step-by-step guide to running a horror game.

MTG hermit druid 5E D&D hermit background

Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Hermit

Salutations, nerds! I’m rolling on over to yet another background and focusing on the Hermit background in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The background options in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook offer suggested characteristics to help define a character and spark your imagination for roleplaying. Seclusion, contemplation and keeping away from the rest of the world in what is at the very least isolation represents the formative part of life for these 5E D&D characters. As with every background there’s a lot to chew on here so let’s get started.

MTG twinblade paladin 5E D&D holy paragon character

Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Holy Paragon

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel the community never lets Nerdarchists Dave and Ted down, sharing suggestions and requests for all sorts of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons characters and for this one a player digs the idea of the holiest character around. Divine power permeates 5E D&D so the options are many but our prayers are answered. The Holy Paragon character combines divine lineage and personal conviction, eager to learn more about divinity and strengthen their faith through study and devoted practice. Let’s get into it.