RPG Player Tip: Great Stories Don’t Need Great People
Getting back on the regular track this week after Origins 2017 – con fatigue is a thing that is real, folks – there were two RPG player experiences I’ve had recently that taught me a valuable lesson. One is from the time-stamped video above that happened during Nerdarchy’s Open Legend RPG-sponsored live game Fridays at noon EST. The other is from my home group’s fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game. Both situations illustrated a poignant paradigm. As you’ve undoubtedly guessed from this article’s title, the lesson is that great stories emerge from less-than-great people.
Great examples of not so great people in RPG campaigns who drive the narrative forward and create great stories are everywhere. Critical Role’s Vox Machina will be the first to admit they’re often terrible people. Dice, Camera, Action’s Waffle Crew barely get along. Acquisitions Inc.’s The C Team aren’t exactly shining examples of heroism. And Titansgrave’s cast of adventurers were built from the beginning with inherent flaws. Yet all of them tell compelling RPG stories full of action, excitement, humor and drama driven by characters who are far from perfect. I’m sure anyone’s home game has plenty of examples, too.
D&D Adventure Awaits with Tomb of Annihilation and More
Along with announcing the next storyline in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons family at June’s “Stream of Annihilation” live stream event, Wizards of the Coast revealed several new products set for release in Q3-4 2017 along with the Tomb of Annihilation adventure. Whether your bookshelf could use a few things to fill the space, you’re a D&D completionist or looking ahead to the holidays at gift ideas for the nerds in your life, here’s a rundown of D&D books and accessories headed your way.
Gaming Superstitions
In an effort to combine the Nerdarchy YouTube channel and the website articles, I am drawing inspiration directly from this ArmorClass10.com-sponsored video. The subject at hand is gaming superstitions. To begin with let’s define the concept, shall we? Superstition is defined as “a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or practice based on such belief.” With that in mind, let’s delve into a few I have seen, heard of, or been told about.
Blast from the Past: Signs you’re an Atari 2600 geek
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="350" class="zemanta-img"] An Atari 2600 four-switch "wood veneer" version, dating from 1980-1982. Shown with standard joystick. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] You still have your very first, original Atari 2600. And play it often. You know how to make games for the Atari 2600. ...
Using Tabletop RPGs for Social Empathy
I’m not really going to go about proving that science fiction sometimes gets used as a tool to pursue social issues. It’s well documented, and I don’t feel like I need to prove it. Star Trek is practically built on it. Fantasy novels aren’t immune from it, either. Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series bleeds social issues, perhaps even to its own detriment.
Tabletop RPGs aren’t exclusively fantasy and science fiction, but it’s hard to avoid their significant presence in the hobby. After all, we already live in a world of Houses & Humans.
Why would we want to spend four hours a week (way more than that for GMs) steeped in daily chores and making sure you include the TPS report cover sheet? It’s far more fun to enjoy something far outside of ourselves, usually with at least some fantasy elements, be it a western, superhero, or a horror game.
There’s actually another reason for that. As children, steeping ourselves in extraordinary worlds helps us learn about the real world around us. We’re able to experiment in a safe environment. As adults, that still holds true. In fact, I would argue that it’s more important for adults.
Open Legend RPG character build – Roz Rakheta
Open Legend character build from concept to gameplay
As a relatively new staff writer for Nerdarchy.com the opportunity to join my colleagues William C. (aka Professor Bill from Comic Book University), Megan R. Miller, Nerdarchy.com editor-in-chief Ty Johnston and Nerdarchist Ted in a weekly live stream game run by Nerdarchist Dave is phenomenal.
Not without trepidation I quickly agreed. The game is a wholly new system for me, for one, and for another I’d never played a tabletop roleplaying game online before – let alone live streaming!
Top Ten Best Shinies in Pokemon
Let me open with a confession: I spent hours last night on my Nintendo 3DS running a little animated version of myself back and forth from a girl standing next to a bipedal cow in a hood, to a little fence enclosed area, and running in aimless circles on a three-tailed bull so some pixelated eggs would hatch on the off chance I’d find a fire larva of a slightly different color than the other fire larva.
I’ve already done this 300 times.
If that doesn’t sound crazy enough, I’m prepared to do it another 200 times before I start getting frustrated, and probably another 500 more before I give up for a while.
Cardboard Fortress lowers the drawbridge to Nerdarchy live chat
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWXDUlTHYuw&w=560&h=315]
Nerdarchy friend and regular gamer in Nerdarchist Dave’s Gryphongaff game, Anthony Amato from Cardboard Fortress Games joined the daily live chat to talk nerdy. Amato is a graphic designer, illustrator and game designer. Along with fiance and longtime business partner Nicole Kline, they’ve created several tabletop games like RESISTOR_. He’s also contributed work to other games like Grow, designed artwork for the Tabletop Cooperative and is a regular at the Philly Game Forge’s dev night.
Chartopia talks random tables and RPG charts with Nerdarchy
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBm_bmFBsUQ&w=560&h=315]
A hallmark of roleplaying games, charts and tables are woven into the fabric of Dungeons & Dragons and every other tabletop RPG. They’re a way to inject spontaneity and randomness into adventures. Thanks to diligent work by Scott Beccard and Glenn McCord in developing Chartopia, GMs have a quick and easy way to create and access charts for anything they can imagine.
Blast from the Past: Scarab of Ra video game for Macs
Scarab of Ra (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
1987. Ah, the good old days. Guns ‘N’ Roses was just hitting big. Nintendo was at the top of the video game market. Spider-Man hadn’t yet been cloned (at least not that we knew of).
A couple of other things happened in 1987.
For one, Apple released its Macintosh SE personal computer, which was a big improvement over earlier Macs and quite a popular computer for the next decade or so even though Apple stopped making the SE in 1990. Sure, the SE was a dull gray and had a bulky mouse, but it came with its own hard drive! Yeah, doesn’t sound like such a big deal now, but it was huge back then.
Another thing that happened in 1987 was a company known as Semicolon Software released a Mac game for shareware. That game? Scarab of Ra.
The C Team innovates live streaming roleplaying games
As promised last week, I’ll be taking a closer look at the myriad online roleplaying game programs that I enjoy to offer some reviews and analysis as well as any tips or pitfalls therein. The criteria for me as a gamer, fan, audience member and for the purposes of this series are the entertainment value and the takeaways I can bring back to my own game group.
Most of these shows (okay, all of them on my initial list) are Dungeons & Dragons games. In keeping with that spirit, I’ll rate where each program has a Success or Failure along with where it scores a Critical Hit or a Critical Fail, and wrap up with a Perception Check for miscellaneous observations and standouts as a viewer.
Blast from the Past: Rubies of Eventide MMORPG
Rubies of Eventide, the early days In June of 2003, a company known as CyberWarrior Inc. released a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) known as Rubies of Eventide. Unfortunately, things did not go well, and soon the company announced the new game would close down...
Ty’s Gaming Resolutions for the 2017 New Year
[caption id="attachment_8732" align="aligncenter" width="930"] The tools of the trade for gaming in 2017.[/caption] Despite all the political outrage, the celebrity deaths, and all the other hoopla that seems to have labeled 2016 as a year of horror, I have to admit I had a pretty good...
Blast from the Past: Atari 2600 video game system
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="598" class="zemanta-img"] Atari 2600 with joystick. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] I realize much of the focus of the Nerdarchy website is tabletop role playing games, but it is not all the site is about, and with Christmas fast approaching my thoughts always turn to...
Kickstarter – Deep Madness – Tabletop Miniature Board Game Inspired by Lovecraftian Design
"Deep Madness is a co-operative miniature board game for 1-6 players, with truly immersive horror experiences, highly intense and fast paced combat, and deeply strategical challenges." It all starts with a group of investigators deep on the ocean floor. Something goes horribly wrong and the...
