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Interviews

Nerdarchy > Interviews (Page 3)
Fantasy Grounds College

Keep Your Campaign On Track: Missing Players

Hello nerds! Nerditor Doug here, welcoming back guest poster Elyunn who shared a great story along with tips and advice for getting started with Fantasy Grounds. She is back with us again, and this time around she adds to the Keep Your Campaign on Track series.

Elyunn spoke with some folks over at Fantasy Grounds College to glean their insights on a situation all roleplaying game groups experience at some point or another…

D&D customized content

D&D Customized Content Creation: From Modules to Modular

I’ve been ruminating a lot lately about the evolution of Dungeons & Dragons. From early days playing through adventures like The Keep on the Borderlands and Palace of the Silver Princess to running fifth edition D&D quests like Curse of Strahd or careening through a slapdash Spelljammer campaign the game – and the people who play it – have changed a lot.

One of the ways D&D cleaves to current day sensibilities is through individualized customized content. This isn’t to say D&D wasn’t personalized for all the groups out there rolling funny-shaped dice back in the day, but the way folks play and the content we use to make the magic happen at the table has undergone a sea change.

Nerdarchy Dice roller app

Nerdarchy Dice App Dev Shares Insights Into Our Dice Roller App

Hello Nerdarchy community!
Did you catch our Quests & Adventures live chat #50 on Dec. 2, 2017? During the chat, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch announced a new, exciting venture – the Nerdarchy Dice app. This playtested calculator is currently in available in the itunes store for iOS, ready to handle all the math and modifiers for your RPG rolling needs.

Kobold Press Grants Wishes with Genies Great And Small

Once in a while a really great product is introduced to us, and it is my great pleasure to be the digital town crier for this particular occasion. You, my beautiful friends, have the pleasure of living in an age when many great minds are out there creating every possibility the world can think of.
Dan Dillon, who some may know for his prominent presence on Facebook’s Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition group as well as other products for Dungeons & Dragons, has joined the illustrious banner of Kobold Press to bring Genies Great and Small: 21 New Genies of Zakhara exclusively to the Dungeon Master’s Guild. To me, this is a step closer to bringing Sandstorm back to fifth edition D&D, and is a very welcome item to any game. To make this rebirth of older editions more visual Karl Waller, of Al-Qadim fame, has provided illustrations for this supplement. (Nerdarchy’s promo code DTRPG-Nerdarchy works at the DM’s Guild and all the One Book Shelf sites for a one-time 10 percent discount on orders of $10 or more) [This coupon code is applicable to digital products only.]
Eye of the Beholder Dungeons & Dragons art

Gazing Into Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons

Whether you started playing Dungeons & Dragons out of the original woodgrain-colored box and the three little brown booklets inside or you’re new to the hobby and go completely digital with D&D Beyond, before you make a single die roll, you’re drawn in by art. From Greg Bell’s Doctor Strange “inspired” mounted warrior on the original 1974 box cover to Tyler Jacobson’s depiction of an adventurer battling King Snurre on the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, fantasy art’s history and influence on D&D is woven into the fabric of the game.

The stories behind the art, helping to create the worlds we play in, are the focus of the new documentary Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons from the team of X-Ray Films and Cavegirl Productions. The film profiles artists who contributed to the rich world of fantasy D&D art and features insiders, designers, writers and fans sharing the impact of art on their games and lives.

D&D Spelljammer

D&D Goes Sci-Fi with Hyperlanes

Since making the transition to full-time writer, Ryan Chaddock shows no signs of slowing down. Already a prolific writer with a sizable selection of material for Cypher System-powered games Numenera and The Strange, Chaddock elevated his efforts when he launched his first Kickstarter for Swans of Black. More recently, creating content under the Scrivened LLC brand, Chaddock and colleagues enjoyed an incredibly successful Kickstarter for Hyperlanes, following up with Hellscapes.

RollPlay roundtable

RollPlay Roundtable Digs Deep into D&D with Matt Mercer, Adam Koebel, Mike Mearls and Matt Colville

In case you missed it, a very thought-provoking event took place on Oct. 9, 2017 for anyone in the Dungeons & Dragons or tabletop roleplaying game community.

Hosted on the itmeJP YouTube channel. Adam Koebel moderated a roundtable discussion including fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons co-creator and creative lead Mike Mearls, Critical Role Dungeon Master and voice actor Matt Mercer and video game writer and author Matt Colville, whose popular YouTube channel and presence in the D&D community has had a powerful impact on the hobby.

RollPlay Presents: A 5E Roundtable Discussion began with a deceptively complex question.

GM Tips Geek and Sundry Satine Phoenix

Geek and Sundry GM Tips with Satine Phoenix…and Nerdarchy!

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztH7NtxVl2M[/embed] Thanks to so many awesome Nerdarchy fans and supporters, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted were able to make it out to Los Angeles earlier this year to appear on GM Tips with Satine Phoenix. The Geek and Sundry program features different Game Masters each week tackling...

Kobold Press Holds All The Cards in Deck of Beasts

Kobold Press deals a winning hand with Deck of Beasts

Kobold Press Deck of BeastsGreetings Nerdarchy readers! Has anyone told you that you are awesome today? Well you are, and I believe that awesome people deserve equally awesome things. That being said, I have had the immense pleasure to speak to Kobold Press’s Wolfgang Baur and Inkwell Ideas’ Joe Wetzel about a product they created that has not only amazed me but impressed me. Their creative minds have shuffled together to deal us the amazing, the stupendous, the inspiring Deck of Beasts and Sidequest Decks!

What are these items I speak of you ask? Well let me tell you dear Nerdarchy reader about a dark age in gaming where one would have to lug around entire books just to include one monster. These days, the dark ages if you will, your Dungeon Master would have to turn and reference things which could take up valuable time. As a Dungeon Master, I always wanted to show the amazing artwork detailing the monster they were facing.

Despite my illustrious ability to spout adjectives with prolific prose, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. Well this is where the Deck of Beasts comes in.

character class

Making a Pact with Warlock Patreon from Kobold Press

Since 2012, the Kobold Press imprint has produced some of the best-received third-party content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Their biggest release – both in terms of sheer size and tabletop roleplaying game culture penetration – is the Tome of Beasts. The 433-page book of monsters is a staple on the shelf of countless D&D players, as iconic and indispensable as the Monster Manual for many Dungeon Masters (myself included).

The material produced by Kobold Press runs the gamut and truly includes something for everyone who plays D&D. Everything from a complete campaign setting to new schools of magic, Game Master guides, the 2017 Ennie Award-winning Kobold Guide to Plots and Campaigns and the recently released Prepared 2: A Dozen One-shot Adventures for 5th Edition offer valuable resources for D&D DMs and players.

But if even all of that isn’t enough, esteemed game designer Wolfgang Baur and the team at Kobold Press launched a new project designed to give even more cool material on a regular, ongoing basis. The Warlock is a Patreon-fueled project in the form of a booklet containing new maps, monsters, character options and more. You can find out all about it and pledge your support here.

Gen Con 50: Live Stream Your Game with Maze Arcana’s Expert Help

Rolling dice? Roll that camera!

Gen Con 50 celebrates gaming history with a milestone for North America’s largest tabletop game convention.

“How to Live Stream At Home: the Hands-on Approach with Maze Arcana & Blackmagic Design” gives gamers the tools and knowledge to become part of that rich history and share their own unique experiences with the vibrant, growing tabletop game community.

A seminar and two workshops are open for registration. The events from some of the most popular and professional live streaming tabletop gamers partnered with leaders in the professional studio equipment industry aim to empower others to reach out and connect with the greater community.

Participants have chances to win thousands of dollars in giveaways including video cameras, technical studio equipment and applications over the course of the events, too. Check the links ahead and at the bottom to preregister and make sure you have a spot in these events.

Starfinder

Q&A: Starfinder RPG from Paizo Inc.

Starfinder RPG Paizo

The cover for the Starfinder Core Rulebook, from Paizo Publishing

2017 is a huge year for tabletop roleplaying games. Rich and rapid growth of the industry has ushered in a new golden age for what we all know is the greatest hobby in the world.

Or perhaps it’s a space age. With all the space fantasy and science fiction themed RPGs entering the marketplace, it might be more accurate to say tabletop RPGs are the greatest hobby in the universe.

Leading the fleet of these myriad cosmic game enterprises, Starfinder is set for launch on Aug. 17 at Gen Con 50 where the hardcover version drops, with the PDF version of following in September. Preorders are open now, so you can head over to Amazon here and get your copy of Starfinder reserved.

Nerdarchist Ted had an opportunity to playtest the game in a live stream event run by Owen K.C. Stephens, game designer and developer for Paizo. If you missed that event, you can still watch the VOD on WebDM’s YouTube channel. And in the video above Nerdarchist Dave welcomed Stephens to the live chat to talk about Starfinder as well.

Here on the website, we had a chance to pose some questions to Rob McCreary, a senior developer at Paizo Inc. and founding member of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game development team. McCreary also holds the distinction of being the first author in the Starfinder Adventure Path line (among many other distinctions in his career!). Incident at Absalom Station kicks off the Dead Suns adventure path and is available for preorder now, with a scheduled release date of Sept. 5.

Elven Tower Maps a Course Through D&D Content Creation

Elven Tower maps

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

Web DM D&D

Web DM Talking D&D and RPG Gaming (What Else?!)

Web DM D&D

Nerdarchist Dave made a pact with patron of the internet and welcomed Jim Davis and Jonathan Pruitt from Web DM to the Nerdarchy live chat. Braving the possibly haunted wing of the hospital where he works, Pruitt joined his friend and co-host Davis to talk nerdy about D&D.

As content creators, Pruitt and Davis got started by seeking to fulfill a need they felt was missing. They dive into the history of Web DM, what inspired them to create their YouTube channel and how it all came together. The Web DM guys and Nerdachist Dave connected over their mutual astonishment when they learned there was an internet audience hungry for D&D discussion.

D&D Adventurers League Community Manager in the house

Nerdarchist Dave and Assistant Web Editor Doug, coming off of Origins Game Fair, welcomed D&D Adventurers League Community Manager Robert Adducci for a live chat. The Nerdarchy team at Origins met Adducci and many other great people there, and were happy to have him join us to talk nerdy for an afternoon.

D&D Adventurers League communityAdventurers League is the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons organized play program. It offers a way for people to get involved in a larger campaign and community. Previously limited to in-store play, the program has widened to include conventions and even home games – as long as the DM abides by Adventurers League rules.

These rules are essentially the standard D&D rules. There are a few elements specific to Adventurers League play designed to maintain a consistent experience across the board. That way, Adventurers League players know what to expect no matter where they take their characters and log sheets for Adventurers League games.