D&D Ideas — Tropes
Welcome once again to the weekly Nerdarchy Newsletter. This week’s topic is tropes, which we discussed in our exclusive Patreon live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST with Patreon supporters and talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. 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. The last days for Out of the Box: Encounters for Fifth Edition Pledge Manager are nigh! We’re in the final push before sending everything off to the printing press. We just received a huge number of gorgeous illustrations from Kim Van Deun and evocative maps from Darryl T. Jones, and we gave the text an additional level of editing from Matt Click. Speaking of tropes, in Girl with the Dragon SNAFU adventurers might meet in a tavern but it’s anything but just another night at the bar! Check out the Pledge Manager here.
Hooked on Adventure — Cultivating Chaos
Hello! We are introducing a new series here on the website. Nerdarchist Ted takes inspiration from our 3D printed terrain and miniatures to create encounters for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons you can drop right into your game. For his first foray into this territory Ted takes a closer look at our Rural Chicken Coop and designs a fun low level 5E D&D encounter. It’s not uncommon for starting adventurers to take on work clearing out giant spiders or rescuing kidnapped townsfolk from goblins. For this encounter Ted spices things up with Abyssal forces terrorizing a rural homestead and sowing chaos. To enhance the encounter we used Dungeonfog, an online map maker and authoring tool designed for Game Masters, to create a map image for the Rural Chicken Coop. Check out Dungeonfog and use the promo code NERDARCHY to get 10% discount on your first annual and annual-CL (Commercial-License) order here.
Learning the Secret History of Merfolk
As promised in The Secret History of Giants I’m following up with The Secret History of Mermaids and Creatures of the Deep, by Ari Berk. Along with The Secret History of Hobgoblins this series’ compelling cover art and design caught my attention and as a folklore and kitschy monster stuff fan I ordered them. Along with being enjoyable reads these interactive children’s mythology books are filled with fun ideas for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Let’s dive into The Secret History of Mermaids and Creatures of the Deep bring some fresh ideas to the surface for our 5E D&D games.
Adventurers of Adventure Guild Wants You! Creating a Guild for 5E D&D, Step 1
I can’t tell you how many times our discussions about fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons around Nerdarchy HQ include talk of organizations. Character build guides, adventure hooks, character stories, Dungeon Master or player tips and a whole lot more often raise a point about creating some kind of group. There’s a multitude of benefits to coming up with this kind of content, not the least of which is providing context in a campaign setting. Organized groups of people tell players something about the world their characters exist within. Whatever cause or goal brings an organization together illustrates something important, at least to the members. Organizations represent a useful resource in a DM’s toolbox whether it’s one a player came up with as part of their character’s backstory or one already established in a campaign setting. In my 5E D&D games there’s an organization all players become familiar with from the start. New characters begin their careers as new recruits of Adventurers of Adventure, and they’re always looking for more.
D&D Ideas — Plants
Welcome once again to the weekly Nerdarchy Newsletter. This week’s topic is plants, which we discussed in our exclusive Patreon live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST with Patreon supporters and talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. 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. The Pledge Manager for Out of the Box: Encounters for Fifth Edition remains open, but not for much longer. Production on the book has been in full swing, with almost all the incredible art from Kim Van Deun and maps from Darryl T. Jones received. We’re giving everything an additional level of quality control to put our best foot forward when we deliver these products. Speaking of plants, in Menagerie a very powerful plant creates an unusual scenario within a deep forest glade that isn’t even close to what it looks like! Check out the Pledge Manager here.
D&D Ideas — Media
Welcome once again to the Nerdarchy Newsletter. This week’s topic is media, which we discussed in the exclusive Patreon live chat we do every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST with Patreon supporters to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. 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.
Learning the Secret History of Giants
Browsing around Amazon recently I saw a recommendation for The Secret History of Giants, by Ari Berk. The compelling cover art and design caught my attention and I'm a sucker for folklore and kitschy monster stuff so I ordered a copy. Turns out the book...
WizKids 4D Settings: Homestead and Medieval Farmer Spin Adventure from Humble Beginnings
When creating low level games for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons there are tropes for where the adventure is going to go. Down on the farm there is something happening with the animals. Or down on the farm things are going missing. Yeah there are a lot of them, but the things happening on the farm is common among early quest goals. If you want to wow your players from session one you can pick up the awesome WizKids 4D Settings: Medieval Farmer and WizKids 4D Settings: Homestead sets of scatter or terrain for your 5E D&D or favorite tabletop roleplaying game put out by our friends over at WizKids.
D&D Ideas — Patrons
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week's topic is patrons, which we discussed in our exclusive Patreon live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST with Patreon supporters and talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes...
Medicine 101 — 5E D&D Skills and Skill Checks
Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons revolves around the ideas of ability checks and the proficiency bonus. When it comes to skill checks as ability checks, the check is written like this (for example): Wisdom (Medicine). The reason for this is Wisdom is the applicable ability score and the Medicine proficiency allows further modification of the ability check. Quick Disclaimer: a 5E D&D Dungeon Master can allow or require any ability check or skill proficiency, even outside this purview. This article is meant to act as a guide for new players and DMs to explain how skill checks work and what they look like narratively.
Dungeon Master’s Guide Appendix A Shows 5E D&D isn’t All About Combat
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted shared a great conversation about a topic near and dear to my heart — the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s Guide. More often than not whenever I’m looking for an answer, guidance or a little inspiration I find it within the 5E D&D DMG. Like Dave and Ted mention in the video, DMs who’ve been playing for a long time across several editions might feel like they’ve seen one DMG they’ve seen them all. To some extent this may carry some water but only in broad strokes. There’s a great thread on Twitter from Neal Powell going through the DMG page by page to share takeaways DMs might have overlooked. You can follow along #DMGC2C to track his findings. As a big time DMG advocate myself I’m happy to share my perspective on what the DMG tells us about 5E D&D and how useful it is for understanding what the game is all about. So let’s get into it and take a look specifically at Appendix A: Random Dungeons in the 5E D&D DMG.
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount for 5E D&D Revealed
A mysterious new title from Wizard of the Coast showed up on Amazon last week and now we know it’s the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount! The D&D Team at WotC teams up with Critical Role’s Matt Mercer for an official collaboration on a new book detailing the continent of Wildemount where the second campaign of Critical Role takes place. Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount includes player options such as subclasses, magic items and more along with detailed information about the campaign setting, resources for Dungeon Masters and some really cool sounding new material for 5E D&D.
D&D Ideas — Endings
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is endings, to go along with our last live chat of 2019. Speaking of endings the image below is from our wildly successful Out of the Box: Encounters for 5th Edition Kickstarter. In Shadow of Your Former Self, the ending of this encounter brings adventurers face to face with unexpected adversaries. The Out of the Box Pledge Manager remains open for late pledges. You can get your hands on the book and all the add-ons including presale badges for Nerdarchy the Convention, or upgrade your badge to Legendary or Artifact level. There’s also a FREE encounter Seizing the Means you can download for a sneak peek at the sort of content you’ll find in the book. Check it out 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.
D&D Ideas — Holiday Adventures
Real World Adventure Hooks for D&D — Hiding in Plain Sight
A big part of what appeals to me about fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons lies in taking the world I know and considering how fantasy elements affect the people, places and things of a campaign setting. Our real world operates scientifically, with our knowledge and understanding based on things like mathematics and academic observation. We understand or seek to understand stuff like how plants grow, how to predict natural phenomena, the way our brains operate and so on through testable explanations and predictions about the universe. When I see something amazing or visually engaging from our own real world, my imagination tends to wonder — what would something like this represent in a world where magic is the foremost power in the universe? I’ve got a whole heck of a lot of bookmarks for things that pique my interest to help create real world adventure hooks for D&D, so let’s get into it.
