Book of Ebon Tides Holds a Dark Mirror Up to Your D&D World
The concept of other dimensions overlapping the real world captured my imagination decades ago with an RPG called Wraith: The Oblivion and in my D&D setting this holds true. Like the Dungeon Master’s Guide describes the Feywild and Shadowfell exist in parallel to the Material Plane, occupying the same cosmological space but distorted and exaggerated (in my setting they’re combined into a singular Dreaming World to mirror the Waking World or Material Plane). Despite presenting a compelling dynamic with very little exception neither the DMG nor any other official material really explores any of this space. Book of Ebon Tides from Kobold Press, like so many other titles in their library, represents a terrific grab bag of ideas to help make your shadowy fey realm exciting, engaging and unforgettable. Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Plants Revisited
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is plants, which we revisited for discussion 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 plants there’s no shortage of different ways your characters can interact with the plants in your games with the power contained inside magic items from the Mage Forge! We’ve got the digital versions done and production on the physical card decks begins very soon. There’s still time to preorder — but not too much! Learn more 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.
Make an Unexpected Alliance in the Battle Against Mind Flayers
In D&D the neothelid monster is a remnant of a destroyed mind flayer colony. Neothelids are vicious creatures lacking the intelligence of the society from which they spawn. Typically roaming the underground passages in the wake of the destroyed colony they seek only to sate their ever growing hunger.
Create an Immersive RPG Campaign Using These Two Principles Just Like Those Bastards!
For years now Nerdarchists Dave and Ted, Nerditor Doug, Robin Miller and I have been gaming on YouTube. It all started with a simple concept story: all of us were half-siblings with a human father. We needed to find him. Why? We didn’t know but we did have destiny on our side! This plot was a fantastic setup and just one of the many elements of what makes this game great.
Brains vs. Brawn when Faerie Dragons Square off With Ogres in D&D
Sometimes an idea hits you and you have to do something with it for fear of losing something interesting. Such an idea hit me like this and who better to share it with than all of you out there? I found a pair of D&D monsters that are as opposite as you can get but are on almost the same power level exactly as one can be. An ogre and a faerie dragon (older) are both a challenge ratting 2 monster, though I would have to say it would be a different fight going against one than the other.
Make NPCs Essential in Your D&D Games
In my games I have seen characters develop long lasting relationships with NPCs. Nerdarchist Dave’s dwarven wizard Uthen-Gar crafted a magic item as a gift for the elven librarian who initially looked down on him for being a dwarf. I felt it was a rich relationship built over years of game play. That same dwarven character found a wife, even though we did not play out a romance, and became wed before the campaign was over. While romance can happen we developed that dwarves often wed as political arrangements to strengthen the clan. It was not originally planned that way but that’s how it panned out and it was awesome! I have had non-player characters on my mind and I’m interested in exploring concepts surrounding them from both the Dungeon Master and player perspectives.
D&D Ideas — On the Fly
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is on the fly, 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 on the fly some unexpected circumstances kept us away from the usual weekly live chat so this week it’s anything goes! 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.
Feel the Fallout of All-Out Dragon War in D&D
With Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen on the horizon for D&D, I have dragons on the brain. I only read the first three books in the Dragonlance novel series. Sadly, I felt Raistlin was so over-hyped that the draw to read other books was greater to me than to continue. But as awesome as Dragonlance is this is not the focus of today’s musings. Instead I want to explore more broadly the concept of using a war of dragons as a backdrop for a campaign.
Conflict Constructs is the Battle Bots of D&D
I keep looking for way to add more magic and more non-standard fantasy into my D&D games. I feel the way the game is going is to keep increasing the magic in the world and I am on board for this. We have the normalization of the construct-like race in the warforged (and now true construct with the autognome). Baldur’s Gate: Decent into Avernus gave us magical hell vehicles usable by individuals or the whole party. Nerdarchist Dave even began a campaign with some minor conversions to use them in a post apocalyptic setting. I am sure there are other examples as well if you look at other third party stuff. But why stop there?
Explore the Darkest Shadows of D&D at Your Peril
The other day I was lying in bed before falling asleep and an idea jumped into my brain. It is a weird concept but nothing groundbreaking — a dark elf riding a displacer beast. If you know me you know displacer beasts are my favorite D&D monster, so much so I think it will be my next tattoo. My imagination cascaded from there. I I jumped from a dark elf on a displacer beast to what can I do with shadows? Focusing on the “dark” in dark elf lead me to think about shadow powers, which lead to the shadow monster and the terror they can elicit.
Zombies Ate My Brains And I Like It
For the past couple of months I’ve been on a major zombie binge. It started with rewatching The Walking Dead before catching up on the most recent season. In the midst of binge watching I wondered about any cool zombie videos games out there and of course tabletop roleplaying games. I found both. I’ve been thinking a lot about the zombie survival genre lately, making my brains a tasty treat for the shambling undead. Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Games Within Games
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is games within games, 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 the games within games our own Taking Chances module is a collection of games of skill and chance for Fifth Edition with new and different games for both characters and players to engage with, using their in-game skills and proficiencies for some and relying on the luck of the dice for others. 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.
Follow the Rule of Chaos as Agents of Hell in Your D&D Game
Are we the baddies? You’ll have to determine this for yourself and you’ll have to weigh the odds when your Dungeons & Dragons adventurers follow the Rule of Chaos. This 5E compatible game plunges players into the role of demons compelled to do the bidding of those who summon them. But there’s always loopholes to exploit, providing windows of opportunity for clever demons to enact their own designs. Stealing artifacts, haggling for mortal souls, starting a cult — who knows what an enterprising demon might accomplish?
D&D Ideas — Sight
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is sight, 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 the sight point your peepers over to the Mage Forge where you’ll see quite a few of the 250 magic items provide unusual ways to affect an adventurers’ vision. 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.
Top 5 Things I Wish For in One D&D
One D&D is “the start of a new adventure for Dungeons & Dragons” according to Jeremy Crawford, game design architect for D&D. The announcement of this new step into D&D’s history begins with several different people explaining why D&D is special. Upon seeing these first few moments you might suspect this is the next edition of D&D, the next generation, and you’d be half right. This next step in the evolution of Dungeons & Dragons is called One D&D and unlike you might first expect it’s not changing the rules of fifth edition D&D — it’s adding to them. Wizards of the Coast says they like where the game is and they want to continue building a robust RPG system with the 5E mechanics.
