Crafting your 5E D&D Gelatinous Cubes Encounter
Hello and greetings. I apologize if I tricked you into thinking this was about fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons table preparation. Nope! this is another crafting idea from the mind of Nerdarchist Ted. I was at the store looking for a new cat tree. Despite not seeing the tree made of carpet for my cats to destroy in the clearance aisle I saw a game that looked like it used tiny plastic cubes. I instantly thought of gelatinous cubes. It was worth investigating as a potential new fun crafting project for my 5E D&D games.
Learning from Fourth Edition’s Brazen Overhaul for the Future of 5E D&D
Dungeons & Dragons needs an overhaul akin to the brash changes made in fourth edition D&D. Got your attention, yet? Good. My introduction into the world of D&D proper came when I began playing midway into 4E D&D. As such, I fully admit it might be my nostalgia talking but I pride myself a bit on being able to look at things I remember fondly with a critical lens and reassess my own enjoyment. (Looking at you, Pokemon anime.) While by no means perfect in its own right, 4E D&D streamlined many extremely complex and wordy concepts from third edition (grappling rules being a prime example). It also dared to reskin much of how the system was worded and refine its emphasis on elements that had fallen by the wayside a bit, most notably combat.
Some might say the renaming and rearranging were core components of why 4E D&D was so poorly received, and well… fair. I think there’s something to be said for overhauling a familiar system with the goal of making it better. The very fact they did such innovative things with the system should be lauded in itself even if it wasn’t ideal, because growth is achieved through failure and the failures of the MMO style combat-focused 4E D&D ushered in the more roleplay-heavy 5E D&D. So let’s talk about some ideas for renaming and retheming that might make the world’s greatest roleplaying game even better!
Foot in the Door
One of the reasons I’m writing for Nerdarchy is bribes… I mean, because I worked within the gaming industry for 13 years — at Chessex Game Distributors, TSR Hobbies and Games Workshop US. I’ve had people on Facebook groups ask me about my time at various employers. Today I’m putting pen to paper (I write out everything longhand before typing) to write about my time at Chessex Game Distributors (CGD). My facts about this are from online resources and my own memories. Any errors are my own — after all, it’s been almost thirty years — and no harm is meant by any mistakes, which I’d happily correct if informed.
Tabletop Roleplaying Games Help Us in Trying Times
Tabletop roleplaying games are absolutely amazing. Not only do they allow us to bond with others on the fundamentally human levels of storytelling and cooperation but they also provide safe spaces to explore problem solving, social situations and identity. In a tabletop roleplaying game you take control of your character, allowing for a degree of agency you simply don’t find in other avenues like video games and that’s part of what makes them absolutely magical! Who doesn’t love thinking of a character to participate in an epic story, where you can choose to be a mighty hero or an imposing villain? Roleplaying games are for everyone.
Miniatures: The Mini-Mes of Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Miniatures have been part of Dungeons & Dragons since before it began. In fact, D&D started as a miniatures game! It’s true! Originally it was a fantasy miniature wargame written by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson called Chainmail. Eventually spells and heroes were added and a way for those heroes to improve and it became the basic D&D of the mid 1970s, which has evolved into the game we all know today. Miniature war gaming goes back to at least 1913 when H.G. Wells published a book called Little Wars. They were his rules for playing miniature wargames. This post is going to be about miniatures, but not a history per se and not a how to or anything. This column is about what it was like for a preteen to discover miniatures via D&D and how the tabletop roleplaying game, miniatures and kid grew up together. There will be a bit of history in this piece so my primary sources are DnD Lead (a great resource for the early stuff) and Lost Minis Wiki, which has a lot more pictures and not as much history. Those sources are listed at the end. Yes, grad school has made me paranoid about citations.
Playing D&D in the World of Avatar: The Last Airbender
I just blew though the Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix in about four days and really enjoyed this television series. If you are looking for a great TV show to binge I cannot recommend this strongly enough. To me it is clear the creator of this is a fan of Dungeons & Dragons with all the hybrid animals, which has always been a classic D&D staple originating with the owlbear. The challenge in running a D&D game in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is a heavy on unarmed martial combat. This is easily fixed with characters either taking a level in monk or taking the feat Tavern Brawler. (The name of the feat does not mean you are limited to bar fights.) We should not get attached to how things are named unless it take us down a hole we cannot escape from. So let’s get into it further.
Nerdarchy Live is Alive! …But What Is It?
We’ve created a second YouTube channel! There’s no sense in burying the lead and we’re proud to announce the launch of Nerdarchy Live, the new home of our longform video content. Nerdarchy the YouTube channel remains our flagship source of news, views and homebrews where we share new videos three times each week about fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons (and sometimes we talk about other tabletop roleplaying games too).
Worlds Collide When 5E D&D Meets The Office
Over on Twitter we received a request to imagine the characters from The Office as fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons characters. As banner waving 5E D&D enthusiasts and (in my case anyway) a proud Dunderhead how can we refuse? I’ve already tipped my hand indicating this exercise focuses on the US version of the television series. Since realistically the employees of Dunder Mifflin would more than likely be commoners and other generic NPCs instead we’ll assume the day to day operations of the Scranton branch are an epic campaign and give them class and subclass options from 5E D&D.
Help! My RPG Group is Falling Apart! | Handling Conflict at the Table
You’ve done it! You finally have a few sessions of tabletop roleplaying games under your belt and everyone had a good time. Sure, there were hiccups along the way but you did it! You actually got through the first major arc of the campaign you wrote and everything is going swimmingly. Then, it happens. It’s not your fault. It might not be anybody’s fault. Or worse yet: maybe it is someone’s fault. Sooner or later every gaming group will fall into conflict. Whether it’s an argument about the rules, a character’s actions or any number of other things, players are human and conflict is bound to happen both at the table and away from it. Dungeons & Dragons is fundamentally a social activity. This means there will be growing pains like there are with any other social group. If you’re the Dungeon Master, your players may even look to you to referee their bout. Stay calm. Breathe. Let’s talk about this.
Wizards of the Coast Offers Free Content for Educators and Librarians Plus Celebrates D&D’s Best Year Ever
In a press release April 24 Wizards of the Coast announced it’s distributing 2,000 free digital enrichment kits with Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering resources to educators and librarians. Each of the kits includes a Legendary Bundle from D&D Beyond, a incredible deal that unlocks all the current official fifth edition D&D material plus 30 digital codes for Magic: the Gathering Arena. The codes are redeemable for three booster packs of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, a treacherous world of gargantuan beasts fighting for survival while humans hide in fear.
Crafting New Randomized Beholders for D&D
Over two years ago we had one of our writers make a fun way to look at beholders in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons in a different way. What if their eye rays and central eye were different spell options than what is listed in the book? It is a great post and I have played around with it for sure. You can check out the original D&D Beholder — Randomized! post here. With the world in a state of pandemic I have been doing a lot more crafting and I have gone in many directions. However, today I found inspiration to make a D&D beholder even though I had actually just finished a pretty kick ass beholder last weekend. But who am I to argue with inspiration?
Stepping from your Friendly Local Gaming Store into the Friendly Global Online Community of Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
Greetings, fellow nerds! With current events limiting social interaction and preventing in person play there has never been a better time to try playing your favorite tabletop games online. There are many options available but I am here today to inform you of a particular free community that is growing on Discord. The Ghostsong Guild is a West Marches and Adventurers League inspired gaming group that specializes in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and we are looking for additional players and Dungeon Masters to join us. We do not limit the amount of characters that you can have. That way you are always free to try new things and have more fun. Characters persist and progress through various challenges presented by multiple DMs — making each character’s journey a unique story intertwined with the stories of other players!
5 Resources to Make Your Online Tabletop Roleplaying Game Epic
Stuck at home? Wallet feeling a little parched? Need a distraction to whittle the time? Then why not try playing a tabletop roleplaying game like Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy AGE or something else online? Following up our previous article on online gaming let’s talk some more about resources that can bring your online TTRPG to the next level.
5 Amazing RPG YouTube Channels to Binge while You’re Stuck at Home
With everyone staying at home of late we’re all sure to binge through many of our watchlists, and some of us might even (finally) catch up on Critical Role! However, what should you watch once you’ve burned through our backlog of Nerdarchy videos? Well, lucky for you that’s exactly what we’re discussing today! There’s a wealth of amazing content creators in the RPG YouTube community, and today we’re shouting out five of them we think deserve more love! The RPG community is full of people with a wide array of tastes, from discussions on mechanics and running the game, to art, deep dive lore and livestreaming games. Our list is purposely diverse in these areas, so no matter what your taste you’re sure to find something in our list you enjoy!
8D6 San Diego Gaming Convention Focusing on Eight Disciplines of Gaming
2020 marks the first year of an epic new gaming experience for the Southern California gamer and geek community with 8d6, San Diego’s newest gaming convention, to be held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, April 24-26. Created by gaming and event management veterans 8d6 is designed to spotlight eight principles of gaming. PC games, console games, VR/AR/MR games, board games, card games, roleplaying games, miniatures games, and arts and education of games take the forefront at the 32,000 sq ft. space over 48 hours to deliver as much gaming as possible. And these event organizers mean it — 8D6 will remain open and active for 48 hours of continuous play to allow gamers to capture the nostalgia of old school LAN parties, all night game design jam sessions, miniatures battles and marathon RPG sessions, all in one place.
