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Nerdarchy > Games (Page 3)

Games Within Games — Skill Challenges and Minigames in D&D

We’ve been talking a lot about tools in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons around the Nerdarchy HQ lately. The topic was the focus for a recent weekly live chat and newsletter, and came up again during a later live chat too. One set of D&D tools in particular — the gaming set — inspired our upcoming monthly Patreon rewards too. Rolling Bones is all about games within the games of our D&D campaign settings and adventure worlds. Our talk and writing about tools and gaming sets got me thinking about minigames in D&D in different ways. So let’s get into it.

Board Games in Review – Smash Up World Tour: International Incident

If you want to check out any of the other articles I have written on this amazing game please feel free to check them out here. Smash Up is a fantastic game from published Alderac Entertainment Group pitting rival factions against one another as players try to take over the universe by capturing bases. But one faction cannot do it alone. They must team up. So you smash up two factions together to make your play deck.

Banner Saga Needs a Tabletop Version Pronto

There are hundreds of fantasy novels, games, and movies that would make for amazing tabletop experiences, but few of them have the potential that Banner Saga has. With its balanced, yet varied gameplay mechanics and rich mythology, its perfectly suited to adaptation. Banner Saga has only recently come to my attention, and this is how it happened. I was playing 5E D&D this past Saturday with my usual group, and during a break we got to talking about video games. This in itself is not interesting, as it happens whenever you get our group together, but my friends were shocked when they asked me if I had played Banner Saga and I said No. I have since rectified this mistake.

Dice Games in Review — The Return of Dragon Dice

For you readers who are aware of my normal interests, feel free to jump down a paragraph. If you are new to Nerdarchy or Nerdarchist Ted then you may not be aware of my obsession with plastic. Be it dice or minis I never feel I have enough. I love board games and dice games and I am always looking for new ones to add to the collection. While I was attending GenCon, there was a booth from a company called SFR. There was always a decent crowd around the tables, which is a good and a bad thing all at once for the typical convention attendee. Seeing my aformentioned obsession with dice, I had noticed there was a large punch bowl filled with dice and I was intrigued. I know some vendors give out free swag at cons and free dice are cool. So I took a closer look.

Complacent Corner – Let’s talk about Blood Bowl

I like to think of myself as an eclectic hobbyist. At least when it comes to the tabletop hobby as a whole, I tend to have a wide array of favorites throughout. While I’m quite mad about Dungeons & Dragons, either playing or writing about it every day, I started as a miniatures game enthusiast. One of my favorite games that I still love is Blood Bowl. There has been a fairly recent resurgence in the popularity of Blood Bowl so I figured what better time than now to talk about the strengths of the game and why you might find something to love in it.

Celebrate Nerd Culture at Gen Con 2018 — the Best Four Days in Gaming

Hello! The Nerdarchy crew is back home from Indianapolis and back to work on all our nerdy projects. Gen Con 2018 was an incredible experience for Nerdarchists Dave and Ted, Nerditor Doug and Intern Jake, and we wanted to share some of the highlights from our excursion to the Best Four Days in Gaming. Our favorite thing about conventions is meeting up with and hanging out with friends from all over the place; seeing all the awesome roleplaying games, art and other swag; and the incredible costumes and cosplay. But more than anything, the best part is hanging out with thousands of fantastic folks from around the world to celebrate nerd culture. Down below you’ll find links to a lot of the stuff mentioned in this recap, in case you’re interested, plus a photo gallery of our adventures at Gen Con 2018.

Put Your Gaming Set Proficiency to Work with Games within Games in D&D

The Nerdarchists brought up some interesting set pieces in their games within games in D&D video. I’ve had players really gravitate towards gambling at the tavern in between adventures, but just merely rolling skill checks can get a little dull. There are a many options out there for bringing gambling games into your sessions, but I thought I’d share one method I used to take a simple gaming set proficiency and gambling downtime activity of my local rogue and turned it into a recurring scene with an enjoyable NPC and a great way to give weird magic items to the party.

Board Games in Review: Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time from Fun Forge

Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time is a game published by Fun Forge. They contacted me and asked if I wanted a review copy and since I am a sucker for board games I said why not. This is a cooperative game and that works out really well for our family. The major concept of the game is that Professor Evil has traveled throughout time and stolen major artifacts and it is the players’ job to sneak into his castle, or citadel, and steal them before they are locked in his super secret vault.

Monocle Society Weave Goblins Are Jerks

Monocle Society’s Kyle Kinkade talks Weave — Goblins Are Jerks and More

I’m hooked on Monocle Society’s Weave. A few weeks ago I started really looking into this innovative “half tarot, half roleplay, all story” game, reading up and watching/listening to some streamed games. And if you want to know why I’m so stoked about Weave, I’ve got you covered. I’ve since played several games and yowza! I also spoke with Kyle Kinkade about the amazing game he and his team put together. Let’s get into that and share what I learned about Weave from the man himself, including some details on the new Weave playset Goblins Are Jerks.

Congratulations to the Origins Game Fair 2018 Origins Award Winners

Origins Game Fair 2018 may be over, but the tabletop gaming fun continues onward and there’s plenty of awesome games to play before Origins 2019. A selection of those awesome games are winners of the 2018 Origins Award, presented June 16, 2018 at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. The Origins Awards are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design for outstanding games in the industry. Winners in each category are voted on by members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design and presented at the annual Origins Game Fair.

Ironrise board game Kickstarter

Ironrise – A Steampunk Adventure Board Game

 

Spires of heavy metal scrape the smog stretched skies. Below, the rabble of its citizens toil away, working in the seemingly countless factories to scratch out their existence under the thumb of the oppressive government, all the while under the shadow of the Obligation, a massive airship that patrols high above. Will you be the hero needed to wrest these people from their poverty and ill-fortune, or be the villain who puts the vision-less rabble back in their place? In Ironrise – A Steampunk Adventure Board Game, you are doing just that. Heroes attempting to deliver their people from endless servitude pitted against villains forced to hold the line and secure the way of life that they know. Let’s delve deeper into this new board game, currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, and its unique setting.

The Best Time to Be a Nerd: How Amazon and Twitch Make It Easy

With the Amazon purchase of Twitch in August of 2014, many eyebrows were raised in confusion and fear the mega-corporation would tarnish the platform. Many nerds, geeks, and gamers found Twitch to be a safe haven where they could watch their favorite streamers play video games, interact with communities, and engage in the sphere of geekdom in all its flavors and colors. And with the introduction of Amazon into the picture, people believed that safe haven would disappear into the aether to be replaced by profit margins and the ever-reaching hand of big business.

But now as we enter 2018, it’s clear over the past four years the platform has been bolstered, not bloodied, and the geek community has more opportunities to not just survive, but thrive, in the modern world.

RPG

Top RPGs, CRPGs and Anime of 2018

Hello fellow gamers! Allow me to introduce myself. Sham B. here reporting for duty. Avid collector of RPGs and CRPGs, full-time geek, proud waifu admirer, anime fan, self-proclaimed bastion of gaming knowledge. Also old… yeah getting old gotta love it. So excuse me if every once in a while I tell someone to get off my lawn. That is a habit that seems to just come with age. Otherwise I am 18 at heart. I might grow up, someday. Just not today. Hello and salutations my few and precious readers! I come to you tasked with a quest.

Blast from the Past: Point and Click Games Gaining a New Wind or Just Nostalgia?

point and click gamesSalutations, nerds!

I’ve been thinking a lot about games I used to play as a kid, in no small part thanks to some games I’ve been playing as an adult in similar styles.

The point and click genre is always going to have a special place in my heart. I can’t tell you how many hours I sunk into King’s Quest and Mixed Up Mother Goose, even after current Windows stopped supporting them and I had to resort to using DOSBox to get them to play.