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.
Random Tables are a New Game Master’s Best Friend
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted along with me hosted our final live chat of 2019. It was the end of the year and for now, an end of the Quests & Adventures live chat. Nerdarchy has kept up with this weekly chat for nearly three years, but it is going on hiatus heading into 2020 while we focus on creating better products and making sure Nerdarchy the Convention exceeds all expectations. Our exclusive Patreon chat continues every Monday evening at 8 p.m. eastern, and anyone is welcome to email nerdarchy@gmail.com with GM 911 in the subject so when we tackle your question we’ll send you an invite to the private chat. All this aside, there were two questions from our year end Quests & Adventures chat I enjoyed quite a bit. One came from a new Game Master, which we always make a point to address. The other question was about using random tables in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. From my perspective the answer to the second question covered both, so let’s get into it.
A Ragtag Crew in a World of Scum and Villainy like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
I ate up The Mandalorian every week until the final episode of season one dropped this past Friday. The Disney+ show hooked me immediately and the series takes the top spot for Star Wars productions in my book. I enjoy the show so much I started running a bounty hunter campaign for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons inspired by the show after the first episode. I know there’s a Star Wars RPG, several of them in fact but 5E D&D suits my needs just fine. The final episode of The Mandalorian takes the series protagonist full circle from where his most important job began, so it’s only fair to wrap up this bounty hunter campaign walkthrough the same way. Bounty hunting is a complicated profession, no need to further complicate things. When I prepped for the first session of our 5E D&D bounty hunter campaign I took a lot of inspiration from Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery from Nord Games. Here at the end of the journey it’s got plenty of juice to help finish off the campaign. Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Alliances
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is alliances, and we’ve got a promo code to go along with this week’s Product Spotlight from Nerdarchy the Store, plus an update on our end of the year mega giveaway and changes coming to our 2020 schedule. 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. Speaking of alliances the image below is from our wildly successful Out of the Box: Encounters for 5th Edition Kickstarter. In Dinner Party, alliances between adventurers themselves get put to the test. The Out of the Box Pledge Manager reamins 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.
Deck of Many Shares Free Big Bad Booklet for Your Holiday Adventure Boss Monster
Whether you are running a one shot, a small campaign or a long story arc for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, coming up with a compelling, interesting and unique story end villain or boss monster can be trouble sometimes. Well, what would you say if I told you I have a solution for you? Have you heard of the Big Bad Booklet by our friends over at the Deck of Many?
3 Christmas and Holiday Adventure Ideas from Folklore for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! And happy holidays. Today we’re going to be taking a second to talk about holiday adventures for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. We’re always mining folklore for monster ideas, and ideas for things to happen in a 5E D&D campaign setting, and there’s a lot of folklore surrounding the winter solstice. It’s the longest night of the year, and that’s always been something fascinating and mysterious to people. Ergo, naturally, it’s collected a lot of stories and folklore we can use to inspire a holiday adventure.
Following Leads and Finding Jobs like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
If you’ve been following along with this series on creating a bounty hunter campaign inspired by The Mandalorian for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons you’ll notice I’ve mentioned a book called Remarkable Inns several times. This nearly 90 page resource details 8 distinct taverns and inns with wonderful detail along with tips and options for developing your own memorable establishments and everything that goes on within. When I prepped for the first session of our 5E D&D bounty hunter campaign, Remarkable Inns became an important tool for worldbuilding and providing an avenue to two very different paths the bounty hunting characters could take to begin their first contract. Let’s get into it.
Animate Objects for Fun and Harvesting Poison for Profit in 5E D&D
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discussed a killer combo for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Using poison coated daggers and the animate objects spell a character could drop some serious damage (and serious coin) with the right kind of poison. In the video they mention several varieties of poison from the 5E D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide and brainstorm a few ideas how to inject a little poison into the storytelling adventure of your game. Like most of our talks about games the fun part is imagining how these things play out at the gaming table and make the story of the adventuring party more interactive. On one hand, a player interested in trying out this killer combo could explain their intention to the Dungeon Master and hash it all out during downtime. On the other, the quest for poison could become a central theme for a campaign. Either way the players initiate the course of action, and with the DM guiding them towards telling the story of their characters the games become more memorable experiences.
