Free Fifth Edition Gift for Awesome RPG Community
Over five years ago we sent out the very first Nerdarchy the Newsletter on Aug. 23, 2015. The inaugural message was delivered to 14 people who received a special message from Nerdarchist Dave along with an invitation to what would become the Company of the NAG and the platform for our monthly community one shot games still taking place to this day.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Has, Well… Everything for 5E D&D
The follow up to 2017’s Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, on Nov. 17, 2020 fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons upcoming Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything must indeed possess powerful magic to contain so much stuff in 192 pages — the exact page count of its predecessor according to Jeremy Crawford, principal rules designer of the game. The product of 18 months work the book includes material for Dungeons Masters and players of 5E D&D alike. I had an opportunity to join the press briefing with Crawford and Greg Tito, communications and press relations director for D&D and let me tell you, sitting on this was really exciting. Reading and hearing what players speculated on and wanting to say, “You’re all right! It’s all in the book. All the character options and new stuff you’re guessing about are inside!” So let’s get into Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
Wizards of the Coast Announces Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden for 5E D&D
DND Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage is live and in the tradition of Wizards of the Coast’s annual announcement celebrations, the next campaign storyline was announced during this year’s event, which live streams from remote locations while participants continue to stay safe by staying home during the COVID-19 outbreak. For this year’s community celebration D&D teamed up with big personalities in the entertainment world to create a star studded event for the most worthy of quests. DND Live 2020’s live play games, announcements and panels taking place throughout the event raise money for Red Nose Day to help children affected by the global pandemic.
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).
Watch the Latest D&D Storyline Come to Life at D&D Live 2020: Roll with Advantage!
Are you excited to learn about the latest Dungeons & Dragons storyline? The tradition of exciting spectacle events from the D&D team continues this year with D&D Live 2020: Roll w/ Advantage. While people across the globe continue to stay safe by staying home, the adventures roll on through this virtual event welcoming all gamers to celebrate the D&D community and support Red Nose Day with the most star studded D&D event ever assembled.
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.
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.
Help Dungeon Masters Guild and DriveThruRPG Fight Fire with Games
Since late July 2019 devastating bushfires have ravaged large swaths of Australia, the worst the country has experienced in decades. Persistent heat and drought make the problem even worse. Entire towns have been consumed by wildfires, thousands of homes destroyed or damaged and over 7.3 million hectares have burned across Australia — an area larger than Belgium and Denmark together. Because the D&D community includes people from all over the world, we have some personal touchstones to the terrible situation going on in Australia through the creators and people living there who we become friends and fellow gamers with online and at conventions. So it is incredibly wonderful to see the RPG community doing what it can to help. When I saw just now there is a Fight Fire with Games campaign going on at Dungeon Masters Guild and DriveThruRPG I knew right away we had to share this news here on the site.
Heroic Literature and Rogue Blades Foundation
When the dice come out for a tabletop roleplaying game, many of us like to play a hero. Often we gamers think of our characters as heroes and we like to have them perform heroic actions. Sure, sometimes it can be fun to play the bad guy, but at its heart of hearts, tabletop RPGs were originally based around the notion of heroes working together to overcome evil and obstacles. If one looks back at the roots of RPGs, the original Dungeons & Dragons was much based upon epic fantasy, a genre of literature teeming with heroes of one stripe or another.
Today, Rogue Blades Foundation (RBF) seeks to promote heroes and all things heroic within literature. What is RBF? A literary publisher of heroic fiction and heroic-related nonfiction.
Wendy’s Feast of Legend RPG brings the beef!
A while back, Old Spice dipped a toe into the tabletop roleplaying game community with their Gentleman class. But today, Wendy’s was like, “hold my Frosty.” The fast food giant dropped an RPG bomb today with Feast of Legends: Rise from the Deep Freeze, a 97-page game rulebook and campaign setting. The brand’s sassy social media strategy upped its hip quotient, tapping into the enormous popularity of RPGs with the game.
WotC Products and New D&D Stuff on the Way in 2018
New products for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons have rolled out relatively slowly. Compared to previous editions of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game, it’s been at a flail snail’s pace. (Speed 10 ft. for a large creature? That’s pretty slow.) The pace certainly picked up now in 2018, starting at the Stream of Many Eyes when Wizards of the Coast announced two new story adventures set for release later in the year, followed by Nathan Stewart’s cryptic tease of new campaign settings. And then we got two of those! Of course, there’s always new third party content rolling out, but we’ll get our hands and bookshelves full from all the new stuff on the way from WotC itself. A handy post over on the D&D subreddit compiled the list, so let’s check it out.
Khorvaire, Sharn and More D&D Campaign Setting Just a Wayfinders Guide to Eberron Away
Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players have been clamoring for it for years. Diehard fans have homebrewed content for it. Popular streamers like Maze Arcana have embraced it wholeheartedly. And now it’s here. Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron dropped at both the Dungeon Master’s Guild and D&D Beyond, opening the door to a whole new world of adventure. The book provides an overview of the core themes of the D&D campaign setting and rules to connect Eberron to current campaigns. The continent of Khorvaire and the great city of Sharn are covered inside, along with races like kalashtar, shifters and the megapopular warforged, dragonmarks, magic items, and a guide to further reading to learn more about Eberron.
New D&D Campaign Setting Leaked a Day Early
If you were waiting with great anticipation for Monday, July 23 for the announcement and news of a new D&D campaign setting, today is your lucky day. An Amazon product page that went live early this morning looks like it lets the surprise out of the bag a day early. The D&D Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica shows what looks to be the announcement we’ve all been waiting for.
New D&D Stuff! Limited Edition Covers for the Core Books, New Setting and D&D Adventures Outlined
On Twitch and Twitter, the D&D team continues to spoil us with teases and announcements about new products and projects left and right. At the Stream of Many Eyes we learned that not one, but two new storylines are dropping later in 2018. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage are separate but interconnected spawling adventures taking place in the City of Splendors. We also got some cryptic teasers from Dungeons & Dragons Senior Director Nathan Stewart about new settings coming to 5E this year. And just recently, another batch of spoilers and announcements came our way. We’re getting another new book, cool new covers for our old books and a big ol’ confirmation on what our first new 5E setting will be. Excited yet?
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.
