The Ice Queen Cometh: Turning Disney’s Frozen Into a D&D Adventure
An unexpected castle, a cursed storm, and a world on the brink of being frozen solid… Okay, we know—it’s a little cheesy. But take off the mouse ears and squint a little, and Disney’s Frozen is one heck of a campaign hook. A sudden, supernatural winter....
Faction Wars: Integrating Gang Politics into TTRPG Gameplay
How Gang Rivalries Shape Player Choice, Storytelling, and the World of Crystalia In many tabletop RPG settings, factions act as power players in the world’s social, economic, and criminal ecosystems. Whether they’re noble houses, religious sects, corporate overlords, or underground crime syndicates, factions provide conflict, intrigue,...
The Game Master’s Book of Astonishing Random Tables: A Review and Creative Expansion
If you’re a Game Master (GM) looking to spice up your tabletop adventures with the unexpected, then The Game Master’s Book of Astonishing Random Tables is a must-have. This book is packed [caption id="attachment_51220" align="alignright" width="244"] A water weird as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons...
3 New Ways to Use Aarakocra in a D&D Campaign
Aarakocra, the birdfolk of Dungeons & Dragons, are often portrayed as aloof guardians of the skies or mysterious denizens of the Elemental Plane of Air. But what if we took this iconic race and gave it a fresh spin? Here are three innovative ways to...
Enhance Your Spellbook: 7 New Elemental Combo Spells for D&D 5e
In the ever-evolving world of Dungeons & Dragons, the urge to add fresh spells with dynamic effects is never-ending. One effective way to make spells memorable is by combining elemental forces, [caption id="attachment_4013" align="alignright" width="300"] If your adventures do lead you into Out of the Abyss,...
Necrotherians: The Twisted Hybrid of Lycanthrope and Undead
Alright, folks, let’s talk about something truly bizarre and terrifying: Necrotherians. These creatures are an unholy combination of lycanthropes and undead, the worst of both worlds wrapped up into one horrific package. Imagine the raw primal fury of a werewolf paired with the relentless endurance...
Does Dungeons and Dragons need Fireworks?
Since I was a kid, I have always loved Fireworks. The colors the sounds, the oohs and aahs of the crowd. They are even slightly celebrated in the Lord of the rings movies. Fireworks in Dungeons & Dragons bring an exciting and dynamic element to...
Tales from the Shadows Dares D&D Adventurers to Tread the Twisting Paths of Shadow
I’m just going to come right out and state Kobold Press is the best third party publisher of material for Dungeons & Dragons. Their brand of D&D fits right in with my own approach to the game and whenever I get my hands on a new title of theirs I always find lots of stuff for my games. Recently I shared my thoughts about their Book of Ebon Tides and in this post I’m looking at its companion title Tales from the Shadows. The former already had me feeling excited to explore the Shadow Realm (what I call the Dreaming World) in my own games and the latter makes it even easier with 14 adventures playable separately or in sequence. Let’s get into it.
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.
Tome of Heroes from Kobold Press is My Kind of Campaign Resource
Later this very evening Nerdarchist Dave and I plan to focus on Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel for this week’s Monday Live Chat. For a very brief preview during our meeting this morning I expressed how campaign settings hold very little interest for me. In contrast I’ve been pouring over Tome of Heroes from Kobold Press the last couple of weeks and I’m pointing at books like this as exactly the kind of resource I cherish when it comes to my own fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with Pride as a Circle of Manifestation Druid
Happy Pride Month to all! It’s June, which means it’s Pride month once again. If you remember last year I created the Rainbow Domain for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons clerics on Nerdarchy the Website right here. This year I thought it might be fun to transform it into a tradition. You heard right. I’m creating another 5E D&D subclass for Pride.
Defend the Forests of Your 5E D&D World with a Radiant Treant
A while back I wrote about Treants. These glorious creatures exist in the realms of Dungeons & Dragons but why do we not have a variety of options such noble creatures. Other creature types have martial versions and spellcaster options and ones with extraordinary abilities. Sure, it is easy to combine some monsters together but not everyone is ready to do this. For those folks and any Dungeon Masters interested in more treant variety I am making my first treant for fifth edition D&D.
Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Backgrounds by a Factor of Three
I know, it’s crazy. Nerditor Doug wrote so many of these but now I’ve taken over, at least for this one. Backgrounds in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons have so many criteria so we get to see how they all stack up. But like usual we are going to look at the backgrounds and evaluate them three different ways and see which of these fan created backgrounds you want to add to your 5E D&D game.
Retooling the Bladed Gauntlet for 5E D&D
We started a new video series over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel where we look at things from previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons that have not made it into fifth edition. In the first video we talk about the ridiculously powerful character builds you could make with the bladed gauntlet, a weapon from 3.5 D&D. As a follow up I am making a bladed gauntlet inspired weapon to fit the themes and tone of 5E D&D.
Nerdarchy on D&D Gnoll as Playable Race by Nord Games
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqT4FZ4bEgk In this 12-minute video on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted explore Dungeons & Dragons races to play in your game. Nord Games has a book called Ultimate Bestiary: Revenge of the Horde for fifth edition D&D. In there are stats to play...
