RPG Perspective and Scene Framing: How to Tell Your Narrative Story
Whether you’re a budding Game Master or you’ve been playing roleplaying games on a regular schedule with a group of people for years, there’s one common thread underpinning the entire tabletop RPG hobby: narrative. Even if your game is centered around murder-hacking your way through dungeons and grabbing loot, there’s still a story in some form or another being told.
Era of Digital D&D Homebrew and Worldbuilding
Over the last few years Dungeons & Dragons has started to evolve into the digital landscape. It started briefly with fourth edition D&D with the hope people could game over farther distances but the project was never completed. Games can now be played online with people across the globe thanks to programs like Fantasy Grounds and websites like Roll20. Today I want to look some of the tools that have come to us for worldbuilding and designing homebrew games. Since Critical Role has become a flagship for geekdom, homebrew games have become more and more popular. Here are a few sites and programs that can really help ease most burdens in the world building process.
Alternatives to Identify for D&D Magic Items
If a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons spell could be considered a public enemy, identify would probably be No. 2 on the list for anybody trying to tell captivating stories. It’s no secret there are some spells in D&D that kill storytelling opportunities without really providing necessary and interesting mechanical solutions. More often than not, these are divinations. These spells reveal information, usually in a simple, straightforward fashion. This kind of convenience is great for some (if not most) D&D games, but sometimes a Dungeon Master wants a little more flavor in revelation. When this kind of sentiment arises, identify is one of the main problem spells making a DM get frustrated. If you’re that kind of DM and are looking for a way out, this is the piece for you. If you haven’t really thought about identify that much (like most normal people), here’s the gist.
Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #33 – “Shatterfell”
Out of the Box introduction
This series has used items as the centerpiece to encounters previously, but the vast majority have been utilized in an external and obvious way – as things to be held and used. Only one such item (Series 1, Jailbreak) featured an item that could be used as an internal or pocket-dimensional manner.
What I would like to explore is the concept of an item one could both wield, as well as have a para-dimensional experience within. As if one could enter into a weapon with the life stealing property without having to die in the process, so to speak. This weapon may, itself, come with its own tale, or even be sentient. In the latter case, one would have to enter into the item somehow to converse with the intelligence within – a dangerous proposition given any extenuating circumstances.
Critter Corner: Discussing Critical Role Episode 4
Hello! Nerditor Doug here to welcome you to the second installment of Gin’s musings and thoughts on the new campaign of Critical Role, Geek and Sundry’s mega-popular live stream gameplay starring Matt Mercer as Dungeon Master with a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors playing D&D. New episodes stream every Thursday at 10 p.m. eastern. Viewers can watch through Alpha Project, Twitch and recently YouTube live as well.
All Aboard Izzy’s Slightly Used Airships for 5E D&D
Izzy’s Slightly Used Airships got put on my pile by a very eager creator, BrightShield on the Dungeon Master’s Guild. This may not seem like an important detail but it is. BrightShield has shown a propensity toward being his own biggest critic time and time again. Before I even got the product, he had been through several rewrites and several more occurred after I got it. BrightShield has accepted and even eagerly welcomed all criticism with grace.
This observation is not normally part of my review but this becomes a factor when it means the product is only getting better as time goes on. I was given version 1.3 to review. So be aware the product you can get is even better. In fact, while writing this I had found a typo, pointed it out to BrightShield, and was told it had already been seen to in 1.4. Izzy’s Slightly Used Airships for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is available at the Dungeon Master’s Guild.
Old Spice Gentleman Class Revised for Pathfinder
In case you didn’t know, Old Spice released a class for the Pathfinder RPG called Old Spice Gentleman, and while I wasn’t going to cry Hail Corporate!, because I do really appreciate Old Spice attempting to actually construct a proper class as part of their relatively-pro-consumer marketing campaign instead of phoning in a pandering appeal to tabletop gamers with a GIF of a d20 being rolled next to their fast food (you know who you are, Arby’s), I did find some problems with Old Spice Gentleman class.
The RollPlay Roundtable Discussion: Part 2 with Matt Colville, Matt Mercer, Adam Koebel and Mike Mearls
In October of last year, itmeJP gathered together some of the best known names in the Dungeons & Dragons community and put them in a video call roundtable together to talk shop. Adam Koebel moderated the conversation between Matt Mercer, Mike Mearls, and Matt Colville. Topics ranged across many different aspects of the game: criticisms, advice for Dungeon Masters, why we play the game, and many more.
The Lost Kenku: A D&D Adventure Review
Today, we’ll take a look at The Lost Kenku. This is a short nine page adventure for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, which can be purchased for $4.99 on Dungeon Masters Guild. Both the writing and illustrations were done by Shawn Wood, in house concept artist for D&D who you may know from some of the illustrations in The Tortle Package, Encounters in the Jungles of Chult, and The Risen Mists, also available on Dungeon Masters Guild.
Strongholds & Streaming Kickstarter from Matt Colville Raises the Bar
Just over two years ago, John Wick’s 7th Sea: Second Edition Kickstarter smashed through the barriers of roleplaying game potential, becoming the first campaign of its kind to surpass the $1 million mark. Among contemporaries in the RPG space, consistent hits from Monte Cook Games and Richard Thomas, along with extraordinary successes from Evil Hat Productions, Modiphius, Kobold Press, Frog God Games and others illustrate the possibilities of crowdfunding. And with the meteoric launch of Strongholds & Streaming, the first Kickstarter project from Matt Colville, we will almost certainly see the bar raised even higher.
The Best Time to Be a Nerd: How Amazon and Twitch Make It Easy
With the Amazon purchase of Twitch in August of 2014, many eyebrows were raised in confusion and fear the mega-corporation would tarnish the platform. Many nerds, geeks, and gamers found Twitch to be a safe haven where they could watch their favorite streamers play video games, interact with communities, and engage in the sphere of geekdom in all its flavors and colors. And with the introduction of Amazon into the picture, people believed that safe haven would disappear into the aether to be replaced by profit margins and the ever-reaching hand of big business.
But now as we enter 2018, it’s clear over the past four years the platform has been bolstered, not bloodied, and the geek community has more opportunities to not just survive, but thrive, in the modern world.
Build vs. Create a D&D Character: What’s the Difference?
Hey guys, this is Kenneth Woody coming at you with another helpful bit of insight. Today I’d like to talk with you all about fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons as well as two concepts a lot of D&D players blur together. What are these concepts you may ask? Glad you asked, today we’re going to be talking about what it means to build a character versus creating a character. So, without further ado, let’s get into it eh?
Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #32 “Don’t Feed the…Flowers?”
Out of the Box introduction
The range of plant-based foes in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is small. Treants, awakened plants, blights, shambling mounds…and very little else. There should be more. A lot more. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: 33 in official sources. Thanks D&D Beyond!]
Carnivorous plants exist in our own world and come in a wide variety of colours and use many techniques to grab their prey. Ambulatory plants are a staple of fantasy (including those already listed), but are almost always magical or otherworldly in nature. If there existed actual mobile, carnivorous plants of such a size as to be a real threat, then they would be a true terror.
Critter Corner: Highlights from Episode 3
Hello! Nerditor Doug here to welcome you to the second installment of Gin’s musings and thoughts on the new campaign of Critical Role, Geek and Sundry’s mega-popular live stream gameplay starring Matt Mercer as Dungeon Master with a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors playing D&D. New episodes stream every Thursday at 10 p.m. eastern. Viewers can watch through Alpha Project, Twitch and recently YouTube live as well.
Worldbuilding: The Soul of D&D Cities
Hey nerds! Today I want to talk about a more ground-up, specific aspect of D&D worldbuilding. You get a lot of talk about cultures and countries, races and religions, but specific cities can be a wonderful way to set a particular session apart from others and that is where I want to turn your focus.
