Out of the Box D&D Encounters, series 2, #31 – “Beardtoberfest”
Out of the Box introduction
Critter Corner: Highlights from Critical Role Episode 2
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.
The D&D Chimera – Randomized!
Chimera – the spawn of powerful beast of legend, a creation of a mad wizard or poor fool’s curse by a demonic prince. However a chimera comes into existence we can all agree the three-headed Dungeons & Dragons creature with the tenacity of a dragon, stubbornness of a ram and ferocity of a lion is pretty freaking cool. What could be better right? What about the petrifying gaze of a basilisk, the strong back of a mule and the rust monsters ability to corrode the tools of the enemy?
This article brings you another randomized fifth edition D&D monster.
Flavour Shots: D&D 5e Paladin Shrines That Use Lay On Hands
Flavour Shots are short descriptions of game artefacts and phenomena for use by Dungeon Masters, Game Masters and Storytellers in their games. Feel free to drag and drop these into your own games, and modify to suit. Let us know if you end up using them. Some will be portals to other realms, some will be magic items, others will be monster encounters. This time, it’s fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons paladins, what it means to Lay on Hands and different ways to use this iconic class feature.
Lord Soth Isn’t a D&D Death Knight, He’s THE Death Knight
Hello nerds! Nerditor Doug here with a bit of content to share from the Nerdarchy community. Viewers of our Nerdarchy live chats, RPG Crate-sponsored Adventures on the Open Road, Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying Game live plays and more are familiar with Fraginator. This fan and friend of Nerdarchy games with us and remains a great part of our community. Always on the lookout for cool content, when Frags mentioned a homebrew version of the death knight Lord Soth from his home game I asked him to send it in so we can share it with you.
Critter Corner: Discussing Critical Role Episode 1
“Welcome to Wildemount. The year is 835 PD, or Post Divergence.” – Matt Mercer
Hello, Critter darlings. Have you wandered my way because you haven’t yet caught the first episode of the Critical Role new campaign? Or were you perhaps one of the 100K+ plus live viewers, but now you’re out amongst the interwebs looking for analysis, fan theories, and/or gossip? In any case, I hope you’ll find something interesting here. Fair warning, this isn’t really a ‘highlights’ kind of article. I do give some character overviews and a session summary, but my main purpose is trying to build a case for a theory I have about the overall story arc we might see as the new season unfolds.
*mild spoilers for Critical Role, Campaign 2 Episode 1 ahead
Welcome to the Dark Side of D&D with the Warlock Class
Hello everyone, and welcome to the darker side of fifth edition Dungeons &Dragons. Today we’re going to be going over the warlock class, through some of the best builds, invocations, and overall playstyles for this class. One of the more interesting things about the warlock is not only how its spell slots work – you always cast at your highest level available via Pact Magic – but what is arguably more interesting than that is the Eldritch Invocations feature that you get at 2nd level.
Worldbuilding: Customizing the D&D Elf and Elven Culture
Whats is an elf?
If you’re familiar with my post about dwarves you know from my perspective the issue with integrating them into my game world was a lack of information. I spent a huge amount of time trying to understand what a dwarf was (really) and how I could answer some of the often unaddressed questions about them. It turned out to be a lengthy project and addressing all the quandaries I found, as well as creating a vision I felt comfortable with, took some time and a good bit of reading. The elf was completely contrary to any experience I may have had with the dwarf. I felt not just overwhelmed but dizzy with all the varied concepts.
Flavour Shots: Skill Contests for Fighters in D&D
Flavour Shots are short descriptions of game artefacts and phenomena for use by Dungeon Masters, Game Masters and Storytellers in their games. Feel free to drag and drop these into your own games, and modify to suit. Let us know if you end up using them. Some will be portals to other realms, some will be magic items, others will be monster encounters. This time, it’s fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons fighters and the techniques they can use to overcome opponents. A D&D skill contest can be used by everyone, but fighters benefit the most.
D&D Welcomes Kate Welch as Game Designer
Way back in November 2017, Wizards of the Coast announced their search for a game designer to join the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons team. Countless hopeful candidates the world over threw their hats, resumes and CVs in the ring for this nerdy dream job. And on Jan. 18, 2018 we found out who earned this incredible position.
A D&D Puppet Master Bard from this College has the World on a String
Hello! Nerditor Doug to introduce a second guest post from Kyle Ellis. Kyle hit me up with another fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character option and the concept brings to mind one of my favorite MMO games – Final Fantasy XI. If this College of Strings bard is what I think it is, it would make a fine companion for a Path of the Azure barbarian. Just saying. I’m just as excited as you to learn more about this puppeteer.
D&D Character Delve: Aarakocra Grave Domain Cleric for Adventures on the Open Road
Once a month, Nerdarchist Ted runs an RPG Crate-sponsored game of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. In one of these sessions, Adventures on the Open Road: From the Sky, I played as Kek, a 5th-level aarakocra Grave Domain cleric. The next Adventures from the Open Road D&D session is set for Jan. 26, 2018, so be sure to follow subscribe, follow Nerdarchy on social media or visit us on our Discord so you don’t miss it. You can always sign up for our newsletter too, and find out how you can game with Nerdarchy.
But for now, let’s delve into this D&D character.
D&D Beyond Gets Unearthed Arcana Content
Hello! Nerditor Doug here with Nerdy News.
Unearthed Arcana playtest material for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is now available on D&D Beyond.
Invoking Emirikol’s Guide To Devils for 5E D&D
Here we are again, doing another Homebrew Review. This time we are tackling Emirikol’s Guide To Devils from Sean McGovern. Like the last review, we aim to be honest for good or ill, and this one really took a good long time to review. Why you may ask? Because Emirikol’s Guide To Devils is a mighty big book of baddies for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons (240 pages!), available through the Dungeon Masters Guild. Anywho, we will be using the same scale as last time, and will be measuring it with the same school grading system. Let’s delve in and see how this one rolls out.
Live Stream D&D is a Playstyle All its Own
Back in 2010 the notion of Dungeons & Dragons, or any roleplaying game, as a spectator event would draw incredulous looks – even from dyed-in-the-wool players. There were a few videos floating around from Wizards of the Coast to show examples of D&D being played, and some podcasts of people playing or talking about the gaming hobby. Fast forward to 2017, and live stream roleplaying games have grown into a viable form of entertainment. The big dog in the room, Critical Role, generally draws audiences in the 30,000 viewer range for their live games on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. pacific. The VOD on the Geek & Sundry YouTube channel dwarfs these numbers; the first episode is sitting at 6.1 million views. The new campaign just started too – were your #silhouettewatch predictions correct?
