Waterdeep Dragon Heist Brings New Icons of the Realms from WizKids
Announced during the Stream of Many Eyes were the books Waterdeep Dragon Heist, and Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage. We get to look forward to a cool city-based adventure as well as an awesome megadungeon before the year is out. But this article is not here to talk to you about that.
Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #47 – “The Stray”
Out of the Box introduction
If there is one thing consistent with nearly every campaign I have played or Dungeon Mastered, at least one player will try to turn something (if not a lot of things) into either mounts or companions. There seems to be a little of “the collector” in all of us, but in these players the collection of creatures or things is king. It can be hard to either justify or facilitate such players, as their choices may be neither logical nor timely. Circumstance and choice often work against these players. Even worse, some groups always have the player who seeks to stir the pot and sabotages such efforts.
Powerful Potions and Mutated Trolls Await Within Wyestone Horror
Another month comes with it another wonderful Nerdarchy Patreon reward. For July 2018, Critical Hit Publishing brings us a wonderful supplement by the name of The Wyestone Horror. This document is packed with interesting items, new monsters, and a great adventure appropriate for a spooky one-shot. Let’s go into some of the aspects I really enjoyed about this Patreon reward and where it has legs beyond just the one-shot held within.
Defense of the Appeal of Drow Player Character
In the world of Dungeons & Dragons clichés, there is perhaps no more universally reviled archetype than the chaotic good drow ranger. Once upon a time, drow were the evil counterpart to elves, raiding surface cities and living in a matriarchal society that worshipped the Queen of Spiders. Then came RA Salvatore and his incredibly popular character Drizzt Do’Urden, the first drow in the Forgotten Realms to throw off the mantle of evil forced on the drow and attempt to redeem himself and his heritage. Drizzt’s popularity lead to a drow player character boom inspired by or modeled on Salvatore’s work and the increased appeal of drow overall. So called “Drizzt clones” have become so cliché as to be outright banned by many Dungeon Masters.
Underprepared D&D Players Miscast My Cantrips
The longer I spend wading through the waters of Dungeons & Dragons on social media, the more I find being a Dungeon Master who makes preparations is a little more rare than I initially thought. Everyone has their own means of having fun, but I can’t roleplay comfortably without ample notes, spreadsheets, and clear understanding of a rules system. Lots of psychology to unpack there… but now is not that time! Now I must explore my commitment to D&D as a lifestyle game. I spend sometimes 8 hours writing for a session. Underprepared D&D players who come to the table over the course of months and still don’t know basic functions of their character, commonly used core rules, or which die is 8-sided really miscast my cantrips.
MCU’s Failure Can Be Your Infinity War D&D Campaign Success
More Marvel Cinematic Universe talk within the honored halls of Nerdarchy. As I scribe away on scrolls and interdimensional glyphs, I ponder on the MCU films in D&D terms and how the limitations they had could easily be fixed at the gaming table. Let’s explore what I believe to be the largest weakness of the collective movies and how you can take advantage of the MCU’s failure to infuse a clever narrative arc and create your own Infinity War D&D campaign. Oh, fair warning, super minor Infinity War spoilers.
The Dungeons and the Dragons of Dungeons & Dragons: Black Dragon Lairs
There are two aspects of Dungeons & Dragons history that I love to include as often as I can in my campaigns. I find dungeons so important to D&D that it’s rare I will run even short arcs without them. The iconic nature or sheer power that comes with introducing a dragon into the narrative and the reaction you get from players when they find out there are rumors of a dragon… To me, these separate are wonderful, but together make for the set piece that brings D&D to firing on all cylinders. Let’s explore the different D&D dragons and the lairs they might make in a world where dungeons are reality. Let’s start out with one of my favorites: the Black Dragon.
Creating a Beholder Lair and Bringing Beholders to Life in D&D
Monster talks at Nerdarchy?! I’m there. Illithids and beholders in Dungeons & Dragons are super iconic and really weird foes for your players to be pitted against. Both of these creatures tend to be Underdark denizens, but its not unheard of for beholders to create lairs closer to the surface or in some instances, near or within cities. I have quite a bit of experience with beholders, so I’d like to walk you through my method for bringing D&D beholders to life and making their alien nature really shine through creating a beholder lair that its mere existence is a puzzle for the players to deal with.
Frog God Games and Friends Humble RPG Bundle Up Dungeons, Hordes & Horrors
I’m not one to use published adventures. Often preferring to write my own content, infrequently making minor exceptions. A new Humble RPG Bundle has been launched by the very generous Frog God Games and their creative friends at Kobold Press and Troll Lord Games. This one is all about 5E adventure modules and has a slight lean towards spooky going-ons and monsters. I’ve read through most of these modules in the bundle and they are up to the incredible quality standard Frog God Games has always shown. While I’ll probably never run one of these modules start to end, I will have so much content to comb through, pick out and repurpose that these products will likely give me hundreds of hours in enjoyment. Let’s hop into these Frog God Games adventures and I’ll pull out some of my favorites I think everyone will find useful.
Warlocks in D&D miscast my cantrips
I heard some rumblings here and there for awhile, but a recent video by Dawnforgedcast has forced me to sit down and contemplate on the weird class that is the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons warlock. In the video he presents the issue that the reliance many warlocks have on eldritch blast is repetitive and even boring, purposing a fix action to raise other warlock cantrips a little higher on the effectiveness scale, to give a bit more incentive to use them. After my viewing of the video, sitting in contemplation and paying special attention to warlocks at my table, I believe I’ve come to a conclusion. Eldritch blast did nothing wrong. Hear me out, maybe these one-hit wonders are working just as intended.
Is a Pacifist Character in D&D Fun or a Drag?
Nerdarchists Dave and Ted are talking about playing a pacifist character in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and if you know me, I’m not one to shut up during a divisive conversation. While they’re tackling the question of how to play a non-damage wizard head on, I’ll be going into why you would, should you and dabble a bit on what I believe can be an engaging way to be a less direct spellcaster. It’s not all fireballs after all.
Top 5 Reasons to Live Stream Your D&D Game
The Nerdarchy live stream fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Spelljammer game Ingest Quest campaign wrapped up the other day. Episode 12 “Something New” came to a close and we bid bon voyage to the culinary explorers traveling the crystal sphereverse in search of the most exotic cuisine. The characters were weird and met equally unusual entities along the way. They fought some monsters, visited some other dimensions and consumed — and prepared — heaping helpings of extraordinary food. It was my first time running a live stream game. I had some observations and thought I’d share my top 5 reasons you should live stream your D&D game. If you’re on the fence or considering your own live stream RPG show, maybe it’ll convince you to give it a shot.
Krafty Kobold Encounters in your D&D Games
The Nerdarchists are at it again but this time they’re talking about something that I truly love — kobolds in Dungeons & Dragons. Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take a mechanical bend, talking about negative effects and conditions you can place on your player characters to make fights tactically harder. I enjoyed that angle, but I want to talk about what D&D kobolds mean to me and how I use kobold encounters. In doing this, I hope to convert those who don’t see the joy of kobold dungeons and maybe inspire those that already do.
Delving Deep on D&D Dwarves with Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
The Nerdarchists are back into Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and we’re talking about those bearded cannonballs, dwarves of Dungeons & Dragons. If you read my elven article, you know I prefer my humanoids to be very alien compared to humans and dwarves are no exception. What do you get when you combine long-lived, stout, stubborn, and beardy? Well, I’m not sure about you, but let’s dive into D&D dwarves and see what I get.
5E Dungeons, Hordes & Horrors Humble RPG Bundle
Any funny-shaped dice enthusiast can’t get enough tabletop roleplaying game material on your bookshelves, right? And if those bookshelves are digital you don’t even need to worry about space. Although you miss out on those extra screws, nuts and bolts after assembling your new Ikea bookcase. Frog God Games has partnered up with Kobold Press and Troll Lord Games to expand your RPG collection with the 5E Dungeons, Hordes & Horrors Humble Bundle. Running until June 22, 2018, you can get over $381 of ebooks including adventures and campaign guides for as little a $1 and contribute to charity at the same time.
