Keep an Eye of the Deep on Aquatic Adventures in D&D
Sometimes, adventures in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons take you away from dry land and the comfort of familiar tropes. When ancient evil threatens the world from the ocean floor, when rumors of a sunken city offer the prospects of rewards untouched by man, or simply when a transport ship sinks, then its time to dive below the waves. Aquatic adventures in D&D can offer a fresh new experience for players and give the Dungeon Master an opportunity to play with some creatures and locations that tend to go untouched. So, strap on your swim cap as we dive into running an adventure underwater.
Elven Tower Maps a Course Through D&D Content Creation
2017 Ennie Award nominee Elven Tower creates maps and original content for D&D and other RPGs
Derek Ruiz – or Derek von Zarovich as he’s widely known to fans on the internet – is an 2017 Ennie Award nominee for best website. A year ago he was an English teacher. With the flip of a coin, he launched Elven Tower and now “maps” his way forward to continued success as a content creator for D&D and other RPGs. In August, Elven Tower celebrates its one year anniversary. Along with his Ennie Award nomination, Ruiz won the One Page Dungeon contest earlier in 2017 with his entry “Where are the Villagers?”
“I had this idea. I’m going to do something with the internet – start a website or something. I had two options, because this is going to be out of love. This is going to be something that I enjoy. Either it was going to be something about D&D, or it was going to be about science. Believe it or not I just flipped a coin, and I said okay, this is going to be about D&D.” – Derek Ruiz
5E D&D in space with Spelljammer is back!
Spelljammer thrusts your D&D adventures into space
Concordance of Arcane Space is one of the books included with the original Spelljammer Campaign Setting boxed set. Art by Jim Holloway
In last week’s column I shared a cobbled-together homebrew system for handling ship-to-ship combat from the homebrew 5E D&D Spelljammer campaign that I run for my friends. With the Memorial Day weekend keeping my players busy we did not gather around the gaming table this week, which means playtesting those rules will have to wait.
Spoilers for any of my players reading this before our next session – they will encounter a potential ship-to-ship combat situation. Or did they think commandeering that mercenary ship was going to be easy?
Fausthaven a City on Fire- Adding a Little Hell to Your Dungeons and Dragons Game
What do you get when you introduce steam punk, aristocrats, and infernal powers into your Dungeons and Dragons game? Fausthaven is such a place. It’s located in a northern region nestled within a valley referred to as the Cauldron.
Quite sometime ago myself along with the rest of Nerdarchy did a video inspired by real life events in Centralia P.A. Where coal mines have been burning for decades.
Instead of coal fires burning under Fausthaven we have our own source of fire and heat. Long ago a trans-dimensional accident transposed sections of a lower plane a in a portion of our version of the Underdark that we refer to as the Beneath.
Dungeons and Dragons – Dungeons & What they Mean to Me – Part 2
Nelson of Infinite RolePlay here to bring you part 2.
Now when I design a dungeon those are the 2 rules that keep it on track for me. As long as I can stay true to those 2 things, then I have made a dungeon. Easy enough right? I mean with that sort of curriculum just about anything can be a dungeon! Well, yes and no
Take this launching station & space elevator for example. It has quite a large a number of large spaces. You definitely wouldn’t feel that a 60 foot wide room would make for much of a dungeon & you would be totally right. The reason, or rather the narrative behind the creation of this particular dungeon map, is that the large open spaces are primarily for freight.
Having a large area filled with stacks upon stack of crates, pallets, barrels etc. get that large space feeling claustrophobic really quickly. The varying levels of height and possible straightaways in there begin instilling the essence of a dungeon. . . . FEAR!
How Scary is your Dungeon in your Dungeons and Dragons Game
Dungeons and Dragons – Dungeons & What they Mean to Me – Part 1
Nelson of Infinite RolePlay here.
Spiked pit traps to impale the wreck-less adventurer, sharp steel saw blades spinning out from a wall waist high to cut you an half and acid, bubbly bubbly acid . . . . poor Aeofel.
Those and much more can be found in one place and one place only. The dungeon! Dungeons across the scope or RPG’s everywhere & so are the plentiful pitfalls and traps that fill them. It may just be me but I’ve been feeling that dungeons are so much more than just a place to put simple “run of the mill” traps.
Even the more elaborate traps that fill dungeons are something that I just don’t connect with. To me it’s always fealt that the approach to dungeons was simply to have a place to put these pit traps, flying blades, giant rolling stone sphere’s and whatnot. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy those traps, to a degree but they are overused & often, at least to me, the focus of the dungeon.
O.k., lets take a step back and look at some of the actual definitions for the word “dungeon”.
How do You Use Dungeons in Your Dungeons and Dragons Game
Build a Better Adventure with Terrible Terrain in Your RPG
Nerdarchist Dave here and it’s time to talk about some RPG encounter building. I’m going to make this a miniseries article containing four parts. On Nov. 15, 2014 Nerdarchy took part in the online convention called Brigade Con. Brigade Con is dedicated to tabletop roleplaying games. There was a ton of online games and discussion panels going on for just over 24 hours. Terrible Terrain was the name of the discussion panel we ran. Later in this article you can check out the video. In the meantime I’m going to elaborate on our discussion and break down the encounters more in depth.
Dungeons and Dragons — The Dastardly Dungeon Crawl
Hello fellow gamers out there. Nerdarchist Ted here to talk about that necessary component of tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon World and Dungeon Crawl Classics. That’s right: laser guns. No, of course not laser guns it’s the dungeon crawl.
Tricky Dungeons & Dragons Terrain — Goo-Blythe’s Guide to Surviving the Underdark
” Uses sure about this tall one? Underdark very dangerous place.” whines Goo-Blythe.
“I’m sorry Goo-Blythe time is of the essence if we are going to reach the Lady Lureanna in time to save her.” said Sir Gregory.
“Yes yes I understand, but must you bring those lights with us?” quietly whines the goblin Goo-Blythe some more.
Dungeons and Dragons Terrain- The Underdark presents many natural challenges
Tricky Dungeons & Dragons Terrain — Watch Where You Wander in Foreboding Forests
Hello fellow gamers out there. It is I Ted, your Nerdarchist for this article and today we get to talk about the Forest.
Whether you are playing Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder RPG, or any other Fantasy Role Playing Game, the forest will almost always come up in your game.
If you think back to when you were little the world was a large and terrible place. When things are so much bigger than you it is imposing.
Tricky Dungeons & Dragons Terrain — The Insidiousness Of A Swamp
Hello gamers out there. I have the first in a new series of posts for you — Tricky Dungeons & Dragons Terrain. Here we get to examine the elements of nature so you can use them against your players and maybe make them think twice about stepping outside next time. Today we will focus solely on the swamp terrain with other terrains coming later. Feel free to mix up elements if you think it would work in other areas as well.
