D&D Ideas — Adventuring Company
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is Adventuring Company, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of Adventuring Company our monthly fan games take place under the auspices of the Company of the NAG where your characters plunge into adventure straight from our library. Discerning newsletter subscribers can use their store credit and discover the next unforgettable adventure for your adventuring company’s next get together right here. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Creatures and Characters in Your 5E D&D Games Need More Limbs!
I love when something really stands out in a fantasy world. When you watch the Avatar movie your eyes can go wild seeing all the glorious plants and animals distinct to the world of Pandora. I feel such details and features makes a setting more real. In a typical Dungeons & Dragons plenty of creatures possessed of loads of limbs or extra limbs might make you question why this came to be. The behir seems to be lizard like but has legs like a centipede for example. This distinction makes a creature a little more unique in a world of strange and interesting creatures.
Add Sci-Fi Elements to Your 5E D&D Games
The more I see artificers in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons the more I feel it is possible to add a lot of extra elements to my games. For years Eberron has shown us mixing fantasy and science fiction can be a lot of fun. Magic trains and fantasy sentient robots easily mix into our 5E D&D games and offer us some new options for games and stories. I have lots of new thoughts and ideas not typically explored as fantasy quests. I want to share some of those with you.
Githyanki are Such a Cool D&D Monster
I recently did an encounter in our Out of the Box Encounters style for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons in our weekly newsletter. I thought it would be fun to expand on the encounter in its own post. The concept for the encounter is a small scouting party’s unsuccessful search and retrieval mission for a larger force to which they’re attached. Their orders are simple — scout and report back — but they take the opportunity for a little personal gain. The githyanki command doesn’t want their presence known until they are ready to strike so these scouts are in hot water if they can’t clean up their mess quick.
D&D Ideas — Spelljammer Academy: Orientation
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is Spelljammer Academy: Orientation, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of Spelljammer one of the most dangerous threats in the Nerdarchyverse are the Vargarians, interdimensional arcanocybernetic conquerers who’d fit right in as ongoing antagonists for fantasy spacefaring adventurers. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Excavating Unearthed Arcana that Didn’t Make the Cut, Part 5
Courtesy of the Dungeons & Dragons design team’s plethora of Unearthed Arcana playtest documents over the years we’ve seen a ton of new character options evolve from initial concepts into their final versions in official published products. Each Unearthed Arcana follows up with a survey for players to weigh in with their thoughts and impressions, which the team uses to guide further development. Some remain largely the same, some change drastically and many don’t pass this playtest stage. At this point quite a few subclasses, feats and other 5E D&D character options fall into the latter category. Curious what didn’t make the cut? Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Maps
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is maps, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of maps each of our 55 Out of the Box encounters includes AT LEAST one map illustrating the surroundings for where the action takes place. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Excavating Unearthed Arcana that Didn’t Make the Cut, Part 4
Courtesy of the Dungeons & Dragons design team’s plethora of Unearthed Arcana playtest documents over the years we’ve seen a ton of new character options evolve from initial concepts into their final versions in official published products. Each Unearthed Arcana follows up with a survey for players to weigh in with their thoughts and impressions, which the team uses to guide further development. Some remain largely the same, some change drastically and many don’t pass this playtest stage. At this point quite a few subclasses, feats and other 5E D&D character options fall into the latter category. Curious what didn’t make the cut? Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of radiant we’re positively beaming after a huge surge forward on preproduction for Mage Forge. We’re incredibly excited to deliver these deluxe collections of 250 magic item Tarot cards. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Take a Break from the Routine with a 5E D&D Vacation Adventure
Summer is upon us and this means beaches, cookouts and of course vacations! This got me thinking about vacations in our D&D parties. Downtime in any RPG often evokes things like the notorious beach episodes of anime to me. With the turbulence of the times it feels weirdly analogous to me with how our D&D characters perpetually fight for their own causes. Even fictional characters need a getaway now and again and hopefully this post offers a reprieve for you as well as some inspiration for your own relaxing hobbies. Let’s talk about vacation ideas for your D&D party.
D&D Ideas — Rescue
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is rescue, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of rescue in Crones and Their Cravings heroes hope to rescue a group of baby dragons from a grisly feast in a cottage of hags and their mephit chef. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Excavating Unearthed Arcana that Didn’t Make the Cut, Part 3
Courtesy of the Dungeons & Dragons design team’s plethora of Unearthed Arcana playtest documents over the years we’ve seen a ton of new character options evolve from initial concepts into their final versions in official published products. Each Unearthed Arcana follows up with a survey for players to weigh in with their thoughts and impressions, which the team uses to guide further development. Some remain largely the same, some change drastically and many don’t pass this playtest stage. At this point quite a few subclasses, feats and other 5E D&D character options fall into the latter category. Curious what didn’t make the cut? Let’s get into it.
Tome of Heroes from Kobold Press is My Kind of Campaign Resource
Later this very evening Nerdarchist Dave and I plan to focus on Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel for this week’s Monday Live Chat. For a very brief preview during our meeting this morning I expressed how campaign settings hold very little interest for me. In contrast I’ve been pouring over Tome of Heroes from Kobold Press the last couple of weeks and I’m pointing at books like this as exactly the kind of resource I cherish when it comes to my own fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Vecna
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is Vecna, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of Vecna the artifacts associated with this D&D villain are perhaps more iconic than the archlich himself. And speaking of artifacts we’ve got several of our own sequestered within the Mage Forge. Unlock the secrets of the Mage Forge! Elevate your games with intriguing and engaging magic items from the most common to the mightiest artifacts! Preorder your collection of 250 magic items before it’s too late here! You can find a ton of creatures for your game in Nerdarchy the Website’s Monster Category. You can get Nerdarchy the Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Make Your 5E D&D Magic and Magic Items More Mysterious
It is not unheard of to hear me talking about fifth edition being my favorite of all the editions of Dungeons & Dragons but in some cases I think they got it wrong. One of these examples is the ability to know the properties of magic items simply by spending a short rest or one hour essentially communing with said object. This means the character who dumped Intelligence and Wisdom and has no proficiency in History, Arcana, Investigation or heck, maybe even Nature can tell you exactly what an incredibly powerful magic item is after spending only 60 minutes considering the object.