D&D Ideas — Knights
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is knights, 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 knights in Feeling Buggy if adventurers help a beleaguered bug person defeat a frightening figment of the imagination the grateful insectoid pledges themselves as a knight in service to the mighty heroes. Battle and best a fearsome imaginary beast to win the loyalty of an insectoid knight along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. Find out more about it here. You can get the Nerdarchy 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.
4 Components of Crafting NPCs for your RPG Experiences
Salutations, nerds. Let’s sit down and talk a little bit about how to craft a good NPC for tabletop roleplaying games like fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. We’ve talked about how to get characters and players to like an NPC and today we’re going to get down to the base designs for 5E D&D or any RPG of choice.
Expanding Frost King’s Arctic Hobgoblin Frost Raiders for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! We’re taking a powder to revisit Frost King’s arctic environment for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve been thinking a lot about colder places lately and if you remember our vikinglike hobgoblin frost raiders I have new features and traits for you to slot onto these creatures to make your 5E D&D adventurers’ excursion to the frozen tundra more memorable and challenging. Along with these new components you’ll find a couple of other goodies to pair nicely with the myth and magic waiting to be discovered on the frozen tundra. So let’s get cracking.
Supernatural Regions Bubble Forth from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Dungeon Master’s Tools found in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything certainly delivers a wonderful variety of resources to help Dungeon Masters and players alike build fantastic fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. All the new subclasses and character options get creative juices flowing no doubt about it but the real juice is the juicy tools in chapter 4 of the new 5E D&D book. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything brands one of my absolute favorite components of a memorable moment inspiring circumstances with the term Supernatural Regions. So let’s get into it.
Behind Every Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Sidekicks Stands a Great Adventurer
Adventurers in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games I’ve run are no strangers to sidekicks whether they’re hired help, apprentices, spelljamming vessel crew or something else. I dug sidekicks when they were introduced through Unearthed Arcana, made their official debut in Dragon of Icespire Peak and most certainly in their expansion found in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. The sidekicks material in the book provides wonderful guidelines for incorporating these helpful creatures into your 5E D&D games. So let’s get into it.
D&D Party Composition — Playing an All Ranger Party
Over on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take to the wilds for an exploration of the idea of an all ranger party for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Here on the website we take a different approach to this popular video series and continue my take on the concept of single party composition. Rangers in 5E D&D blend combat focused Ranger Archetype features with wilderness survival from the base class. But we’re focusing on a different kind of class here in our D&D academia campaign setting, the conceptual frame for this series. Courses at Ranger Conclaves offer correspondence learning for burgeoning rangers to provide practical instruction in the field. So let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Ruins
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is ruins, 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 ruins in Gone But Not Forgotten cursed plant life guards the ruins of a burial mound and awards resourceful heroes with a long abandoned tomb’s plunder. Even when others forget, the dead remember in this mysterious encounter along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. Find out more about it 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.
Cyborgs and Robots Take Over 5E D&D through Clockwork Soul Sorcerer
I want to talk about cyborgs, robots and machines in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons (oh my)! The new Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything has everything! Well, it has a lot. Reading through the new 5E D&D subclasses I had some initial thoughts I shared on my YouTube channel and I promised to talk more about them.
Anyone Can Be Psionic with New 5E D&D Feats in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Psionics have finally made their canonical fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons debut in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. And when I say now anyone can be psionic I mean anyone. Courtesy of two new 5E D&D psionic feats any character or creature can manifest at least a base level of psionic power!
Improve Your 5E D&D Experiences with Session Zero in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Between bursts of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character creations, revisions and reimaginings brought on by the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything I find myself most captivated by Dungeon Master’s Tools in chapter 4 of the new book. While these sections aren’t exactly breaking new ground in the tabletop roleplaying game hobby they do achieve one super important thing — creating official support. Right now I’m focusing on the lead in to the chapter outlining session zero, which I believe is the most critical part of any 5E D&D campaign. So let’s get into it.
Parleying with Monsters in 5E D&D Reveals the Power of Social Interaction
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is officially released! Like countless others around the world I poured through the new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons book oohing and ahhing over the fun new character options, my imagination awhirl with possibilities. (We’re already talking about twists and turns for our characters when we revisit Those Bastards!) In the coming weeks we’ll surely create plenty of videos and posts right here exploring what’s inside but there’s one section of the book I absolutely love above all others and I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into Parleying with Monsters. So let’s get into it.
Social Interaction in 5E D&D is All About Attitude
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted interact socially for a discussion on fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons adversaries whose weapons lean more towards a sharp tongue than a sharp sword. You might be surprised to learn there’s a section in the 5E D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide covering social interaction both narratively and mechanically. So let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Runes
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is runes, 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 runes in Devil’s Hospitality unwitting adventurers entangle themselves in a fiendish contract marked by deceptive runes and the race begins to find a loophole and void the binding circumstances. This guest creator encounter from Don’t Stop Thinking’s CJ Leung ensnares heroes in a devilish plot along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. Find out more about it 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.
10 Tiny Terrors of 5E D&D
Not too long ago I took a look at the chonkiest bois in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. It turns out 5E D&D’s most massive monsters when it comes to hit points also stand at the top of the size chart with ten out of 13 boasting Gargantuan size. But big threats don’t always come in equally big packages. While there aren’t a whole lot of deadly creatures on the Tiny side of things there’s plenty to put adventurers in peril. So let’s get into it.
Write the RPG You’ve Always Wanted During GamoWriMo — the NaoNoWriMo Spinoff for TTRPG Nerds
It’s November, which means National Novel Writing Month — also lovingly referred to as NaNoWriMo. Last year, Dael Kingsmill proposed a twist on our classic NaNoWriMo called GamoWriMo. The premise of NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write at least 50,000 words of a novel in a single month. GamoWriMo’s challenge was similar: take the niggling idea for an RPG campaign that just won’t leave you alone and get it to a playtest worthy state before the end of the month. Both challenges emphasize getting words on a page as opposed to immaculate quality.
