5 Acrobatics Skill Challenges for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! There are a lot of skills in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Some of them, it seems, people are more likely to choose proficiency in than others. Of course skill challenges are going to crop up over the course of a 5E D&D adventure — Arcana to figure out of the spell on the place you’re standing in is something ritual based or being actively cast, or Insight to see whether the shopkeeper you’re dealing with is trying to swindle you. Today we’re talking about Acrobatics. The idea is you could take any of these five Acrobatics skill challenges and drop them right into your game to give a character who leans heavily on this skill a moment to shine and solve a smaller problem.
What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’? | Tool Time with Cook’s Utensils in 5E D&D
Okay, I know I started out the last article mistakenly talking about the wrong type of cobbler but this time fruit cobbler applies! Desserts! Breakfast! Elevensies! Lunch! Afternoon tea! Dinner! Supper! Yep, we’re talking about food today so get cozy with your favorite snack as we dive into a conversation about cook’s utensils! Tool proficiencies are a staple in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and their relationship to skills is muddy, at best, as we’ve already discussed in a previous article. That being said, every Dungeon Master treats tool proficiencies a bit differently so if you’ve got questions, ask your DM how they treat tool proficiencies. All DMs are encouraged by the Dungeon Master’s Guide to adjust rules to suit their tables, so be flexible with your DM. With all the disclaimers out of the way, let’s talk about cook’s utensils in 5E D&D.
5E D&D Worldbuilding Insights from Mythic Odysseys of Theros Piety and the Gods
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted establish a link to the gods and discuss Piety in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Introduced in the 5E D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide right in chapter 1, Piety is a variation of the Renown system. When 5E D&D first launched, a prominent part of the marketing focused on Factions — important forces in a campaign world — and characters’ interactions with these organizations. Adventurers League players grew quite familiar with Harpers, Order of the Gauntlet, Emerald Enclave, Lords Alliance and Zhentarim through Renown and for me this was a particularly exciting part of the game. Later books like Acquisitions Incorporated and Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica expand on Renown through their franchise and guild ranks and advancement. Since curating playable races and subclasses for characters as a campaign creation and worldbuilding tool generated good ideas and conversations let’s see how Piety and Renown can be used. Lots of creators already laid strong foundations for using Renown in your 5E D&D games, so we’ll start with what we’ve already got and come up with some new ideas to add.
Tabletop Roleplaying Games Help Us in Trying Times
Tabletop roleplaying games are absolutely amazing. Not only do they allow us to bond with others on the fundamentally human levels of storytelling and cooperation but they also provide safe spaces to explore problem solving, social situations and identity. In a tabletop roleplaying game you take control of your character, allowing for a degree of agency you simply don’t find in other avenues like video games and that’s part of what makes them absolutely magical! Who doesn’t love thinking of a character to participate in an epic story, where you can choose to be a mighty hero or an imposing villain? Roleplaying games are for everyone.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with a Friendly Octopod New Playable Race and Feats
Hey folks! With my current fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign being an island hopping nautical adventure I got to thinking of new character options. I also love squid and octopus and all manner of cephalopods so naturally I decided to design a humanoid octopus playable race for 5E D&D. The oomquar present the opportunity to play a character with a very alien vibe and many built in roleplaying options. As one of these tentacled denizens of the deep your character faces the fear of aberrations and other strange monsters while having the opportunity to dispel these prejudices and preconceptions. Oomquar easily fit into any coastal or nautical campaign and can even venture further afield though they will be uncomfortable and cranky (roleplay!).
Step Aside, RPG Side Quests — We’re On an Important Campaign Mission!
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted veer from the main adventure to explore side quests in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Side quests in 5E D&D emerged as a discussion topic a while back during the old Saturday live chat and following newsletter. (If you’re interested in either of those, they found a home together on the website here.) When I look back at that now it becomes clear to me my approach to games changed considerably, as a player and Game Master. Side quests in tabletop roleplaying games present as good an opportunity as any to revisit some ideas. At one time RPG side quests formed the bulk of a campaign but if I’m honest now these adventures without direct bearing on the primary goal feel like distractions. Have I turned the corner from exalting side quests to avoiding them? Let’s get into it and find out.
Peering Into Shadows with One of Those Bastards 5E D&D Live Play
Over at our second YouTube channel Nerdarchy Live the crew brought our private game to the public. Every Tuesday 8-10 p.m. we stream our live play fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game. Currently we’re playing a campaign with Dungeon Master Megan R. Miller called Those Bastards. This campaign began several years ago as a convention one shot and when Megan’s turn to be the Game Master arose we decided to bring it back. To help you catch up and get familiar with the characters and setting we’ve been writing here on the website. This installment comes from Nerdarchist Ted and aims to shed some light on the Shadow Magic sorcerer and big brother to a gaggle of half siblings.
D&D Ideas — Piety
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is piety, which we discussed in our live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST and talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of piety, in Deep Breaths adventurers encounter a procession of lizardfolk making a pilgrimage to honor the Drowned One and the party make convenient offerings to their elemental deity. This and 54 other dynamic encounters ready to drop right into your game come straight Out of the Box here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy, by signing up here. Our second channel continues to grow and evolve! Nerdarchy Live joins the flagship Nerdarchy the YouTube channel as the new home for our long form video content like Live Chat Revivified and live game plays. Learn more about Nerdarchy Live and how to make sure you don’t miss a thing right here.
Happy Father’s Day from the Tribe of Polywugs for 5E D&D
Inspired by the Father’s Day holiday celebrating dads across the world as well as my friend Brian Colin from Creature Curation and the World of Revilo I wanted to make something fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons related with my kids. The other day I was taking a walk with my eight year old daughter and I issued a challenge to her: come up with an idea of a race of creatures or a monster to be used in 5E D&D. She has been playing roleplaying games since she was four. Just a few months before her fifth birthday we played No Thank You Evil! by Monte Cook Games and quickly transitioned into 5E D&D. Now with several years of irregular gaming and quite the imagination I wanted to see what she would come up with on her own.
Monster Morale with Meaning for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! Today we’re going to talk about monsters and their tendency to fight to the death every single time in tabletop roleplaying games like fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Now, I’m not saying they should break and run every single time but morale is a real thing. Dungeon Masters have a tendency to get into the middle of a game and hit a point where we’re thinking about the things on the battlefield just as things on the battlefield for the adventurers to hit then vend treasure and experience points from. But it matters why the monsters are on the field and what they’re trying to accomplish. A group of goblins who got bullied into joining this fight by a much larger hobgoblin probably aren’t going to stick around, for example, after their hobgoblin bully gets decapitated. Consider what monsters are trying to take and what they’re trying to protect. What are the stakes for your 5E D&D antagonists and creatures and what happens if they lose? Is it going to be worse than dying?
How’s your Shoe Game? | Tool Time with Cobbler’s Tools in 5E D&D
A staple of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons, tool proficiencies seemingly conflict with the prevalence of skills, so where do they fit into the game? That’s exactly what we’re here to discuss in this new series of articles! Please note: tool proficiencies and how to use them are less defined in the 5E D&D rules than skills. As such the options and explanations presented here might differ from how your own Dungeon Master treats tools and tool proficiency. On top of that, any DM can adjust rules to fit their own table at their discretion, so check with your DM if you have specific questions about how they deal with tools in their own games. And with all the necessary caveats out of the way, let’s horn in on cobbler’s tools!
Monstrous Mutations and New Froggy Feats for 5E D&D
Looking for a creepy abomination or an ultimate big bad sure to strike horror into your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players? Then the swampy Muckwuggle is just what you need. While reading up on Muckwuggle, the Frog God from Nerdarchy the Store I got more eldritch horror vibes than my dark fantasy loving soul knew what to do with. While this content has everything to get you started on your dark fantasy trek into the swampy planar wastes, I’ve devised some feats I think compliment this beautifully. The best part of these 5E D&D feats is each also contains an optional detriment, called a bane, or perk called a boon. This allows them the versatility of being used as blessings for evil followers and servants to the frog god or wretched curses for its enemies.
Wizards of the Coast Announces Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden for 5E D&D
DND Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage is live and in the tradition of Wizards of the Coast’s annual announcement celebrations, the next campaign storyline was announced during this year’s event, which live streams from remote locations while participants continue to stay safe by staying home during the COVID-19 outbreak. For this year’s community celebration D&D teamed up with big personalities in the entertainment world to create a star studded event for the most worthy of quests. DND Live 2020’s live play games, announcements and panels taking place throughout the event raise money for Red Nose Day to help children affected by the global pandemic.
Miniatures: The Mini-Mes of Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Miniatures have been part of Dungeons & Dragons since before it began. In fact, D&D started as a miniatures game! It’s true! Originally it was a fantasy miniature wargame written by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson called Chainmail. Eventually spells and heroes were added and a way for those heroes to improve and it became the basic D&D of the mid 1970s, which has evolved into the game we all know today. Miniature war gaming goes back to at least 1913 when H.G. Wells published a book called Little Wars. They were his rules for playing miniature wargames. This post is going to be about miniatures, but not a history per se and not a how to or anything. This column is about what it was like for a preteen to discover miniatures via D&D and how the tabletop roleplaying game, miniatures and kid grew up together. There will be a bit of history in this piece so my primary sources are DnD Lead (a great resource for the early stuff) and Lost Minis Wiki, which has a lot more pictures and not as much history. Those sources are listed at the end. Yes, grad school has made me paranoid about citations.
Meet the Storm Herald Fire Genasi with a Destiny in Those Bastards 5E D&D Live Play
Nerdarchy has a new streamed game for you to watch! Those Bastards is a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign streaming live on Tuesdays 8-10 p.m. eastern on our second channel, Nerdarchy Live. A gaggle of half siblings, all with the same constellation birthmark, search for answers regarding their father, themselves and the mystery of disappearing constellations in the sky. As they venture into deep dungeons and face deadly monsters their destinies converge on more questions than answers. Even if they live to find the answers they seek, will they wish they never had?
