D&D Ideas — Tropes Revisited
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is tropes revisited, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of tropes we’re leaning into them hard while developing our very first original roleplaying game — Zoo Mafia! In this game you’ll Go Wild and Do Crime as a resident of a city zoo by day and organized crime syndicate by night. 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.
5E D&D World of Monsters — Beasts
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted picked up a video series called Nerdarchy’s Guide to D&D Monsters. We launched this series a few years ago with aberrations but one thing led to another and yadda yadda yadda we’re revisiting the topic now. These video guides cover tips for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players on what to expect and how to manage things when a particular creature type shows up in your campaign setting and adventures. I dig this series personally because a theme like this makes a great jumping off point. Here on the website I take the topic in a different direction and ask what if beasts are the only type of monsters in your 5E D&D world?
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Lizard Wizard
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel when Nerdarchists Dave and Ted started with the environment of a swamp to create a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character who combines harnessing the darker elements and power of the swamp with a lizard wizard. Next step was to decide who would be in this swamp. This Lizard Wizard 5E D&D Character Build Guide leans into the idea of decay and the fetid nature of the swamp a bit more than our original lizard wizard concept. Let’s get into it.
Activate Beast Mode for Your 5E D&D Games
Penny Dragon Games invites fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players to live on the wild side with Bergin’s Book of Beasts, a 5E D&D supplement featuring over 200 new beasts plus beast themed subclasses for all your adventurers. This fully funded project already unlocked a bunch of beastly stretch goals and shows no signs of slowing down. An awesome resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike Bergin’s Book of Beasts is packed with tons of great material to unleash your inner beast. Let’s get into it.
Scaling Up Your D&D Game to Giant Proportions
Giants have been a part of Dungeons & Dragons since the beginning of the game. I have always struggled with giants. They did not come up a lot early in my game play and when I watched the old ’80s D&D cartoon giants were much more massive than they are listed as now. But whether giants are just over 10 feet tall or over 100 feet tall they are still ginormous and difficult to interact with in D&D.
How Often Should Dragons Show Up in Dungeons & Dragons?
I have been playing tabletop roleplaying games for over 30 years at this point. I can honestly say there have been long stretches of time and numerous games played with no dragon encounters. Today I ask the dreaded question, “How often should you face a dragon?”
Plunge Into the Wilds and Discover Warlock Lairs from Kobold Press
Our awesome friends from Kobold Press surprised me with an advance copy of their new Warlock Lairs: Into the Wilds book releasing March 20, 2022. This will absolutely find a place on my shelf within easy reach because it’s my favorite kind of material and Kobold Press crushes it every time. Warlock Lairs: Into the Wilds contains 19 (wow!) short quests featuring discrete locations with strong themes, unique challenges and engaging story elements you can drop right into your Fifth Edition campaigns. Let’s get into it.
Pocket Full of NPCs for 5E D&D — The Way Guardian
Salutations, nerds! Do you ever need to make a quick jaunt through the deep dark woods more interesting and yet still go smoothly enough to get to your destination in the same session? The last pocket NPC for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons I presented was the Lingering Spirit and today I’ve got a new one for you.
Ember Roc and Other Monsters of Tal’Dorei Inspire New Characters and Adventures
Tal’Dorei Reborn recently released and if you managed to get your hands on a copy from the wonderful people over at Critical Role’s Darrington Press you’ve seen a bunch of new monsters and their respective stat blocks for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. But enough of the book for now — you can hear more on this from us over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel.
Survive the Underdark against Mushrooms and Dangerous Water
Adventures in the Underdark are usually considered more dangerous than adventures above the surface. The typical denizens are bad enough without all the random dangerous creatures. If this was not enough the natural hazards can be even more deadly. Pits, drops and hazardous terrain can be a horrible way to go. When you explore the Underdark you might want some awesome terrain to put on your tabletop.
Invoke Dreams and Nightmares through 5E D&D Monsters of the Multiverse’s Fey Goblins
Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is by far its most popular iteration of the game to date. With this edition’s lifespan nearing the time many editions transitioned to the next, we’re getting an update in the form of Monsters of the Multiverse, which presents new insights into various D&D monsters and races including goblinoids. While some settings use these races as shorthand for villains or simple monsters, Monsters of the Multiverse reveals these creatures to be fey in origin. As part of that new revelation we’re getting updates to these races.
5 Persuasion Skill Challenges for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! This series touches on each of the skills on the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character sheet and lists off five flash encounters for each of them. The idea is you can drop these into your game at any point without them taking up too much time or serving as longer plot hooks. These are single scene skill challenges, beginning to middle to end, right there. They exist if you need to stretch the action for a moment or give spotlight to a 5E D&D skill heavy character. Right now we’re talking about getting people to do what you want them to through Persuasion.
Mage Forge Mastery for 5E D&D — Bloodstained Crown
One of the awesome Mage Forge backers suggested we share some ideas for introducing new magic items into campaigns so we developed the free Spirit of the Forge encounter. We like the suggestion so much we decided to expand on it through this new Mage Forge Mastery series where we go much further presenting plot hooks along with formulae and recipes for crafting magic items to a deeper degree than the system in the free encounter. Let’s get into it.
Make Your Game More Interesting with Unusual Races in D&D
Race has always been a core part of Dungeons & Dragons and fifth edition D&D is no exception. I’ve often heard arguments go both ways about whether or not a Dungeon Master should limit the racial options players can choose from. On the one hand players argue anything in an officially published source should be usable in any setting. They contend limits aren’t fun, they want to use the mechanics listed in their favorite sourcebook for a given race or even how limiting what race players choose from is a manifestation of racism (harsh!). On the flip side DMs who argue for limiting race options often have ideas for vibrant and specific worlds they’ve built. In these situations DMs often contend the limit of race options gives the game world more believability and immersion.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Undead Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going to be taking a look beyond the grave into the realm of necromancy and necrotic damage in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Undead creatures are the bad guys you can reach for when you don’t want your heroes to have to think too hard about the monsters they’re killing.
