Nerdarchy Arcana: D&D Rogue Archetype – Jester
Arcane Trickster
Ever since I picked up my copy of the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, I’ve been annoyed with the arcane trickster. I’ve always felt it was a waste of an opportunity, like they wanted to have an arcane rogue archetype, but they didn’t know what to do.
So they just slapped a limited stock of wizard spells in there because enchantment and illusion spells are rogue-ish. Perhaps they felt that because D&D rogues rely on Intelligence for investigation for looking for traps or identifying locks, they should just stick with the sole Intelligence spellcaster.
A D&D rogue archetype with chutzpah
However, rogues can also rely on Charisma. Using just the Player’s Handbook, the assassin’s Imposter ability uses Charisma, and that doesn’t even include the mastermind or the swashbuckler, two class archetypes that include Charisma skills, but not Intelligence ones.
D&D Spelljammer Warlock: Into the Void
In a past article I mentioned customized warlock pacts in my fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Spelljammer campaign.
It came up again during a live chat with Nate the Nerdarch.
With my feet now held to the eldritch fire by publicly mentioning it twice, I’d better put money where my pact-making mouth is and get into it.
This material is an evolving work in progress stemming from my home game.
Although it’s inspired by the Spelljammer setting, it can be adapted for any D&D campaign.
Campaign Rebirth: How to Keep Your Campaign Fresh
Campaign Rebirth
How to Keep Your Campaign Fresh
All campaigns experience highs and lows, even if you’re the party on the cover of the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. [Art by Tyler Jacobson]
This is something many groups fail to do in various roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, World of Darkness, and Pathfinder. Changing the focus, the goals, or the theme to spice things up. The problem is that not every group can do this, and some cannot even recognize when it is happening.
I hope that this little article will help you in both these regards and assist you in steering the proverbial horse away from the cliff. Let’s delve into campaign rebirth
Effects Of Age On A D&D Character Can Enhance the Experience
Effect of age in D&D
Opening phrase of Prince Hamlet’s soliloquy in William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” Act III, Scene I.
Age is a usually inescapable villain that hunts down any and all who walk this mortal coil.
That being said, there are ways to escape it. What we will deal with here are reactions left to those who don’t have the ability to visit the fountain of youth, become a lich or vampire, and have no chance to ascend to godhood.
The touch of age is something a lot of gamers forget but could do well to keep in mind. After all, the effect of it could very well enhance your gaming experience.
In previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons the effect of age was pretty easy to document.
“To be or not to be? Not to be.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater, playing Hamlet in the 1993 Columbia Pictures film “Last Action Hero”
In fact, your character could even use it as a form of min/maxing as your physical stats drop while your mental stats raise.
This could be a godsend to casters, especially the wizard and sorcerer who would want to push the DC of their spells as far as possible.
Conversely, a more physical type would run from the cold hand of time, as those physical abilities are their very bread and butter.
Using D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana Class Options for Worldbuilding
Limited Edition cover for Xanathar’s Guide to Everything from Wizards of the Coast.
Due to the recent announcement D&D Beyond will fully launch on August 15, my mind has turned back to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (or perhaps forward, since as of the writing of this article it’s still four months away from its release).
I’m really excited to see the new character options that are going to be available. Obviously we have a strong idea of some of it thanks in so small part to Wizards of the Coast’s Unearthed Arcana. There are some good ones out there. And there are some failures, too.
But no matter how good or bad, I’m not a fan of letting my D&D players use the class archetypes. The reason is very simple. Unearthed Arcana is subject to change because it’s test material.
The designers knew going into it what they had needed work. Partially because a lot of them did some really cool things, and really cool can either be largely ineffective or overpowered.
Run Each D&D Encounter Like it is Combat
Why don’t you run each encounter like a combat encounter? Combat is a Dungeons & Dragons staple. Most of the rules are based around it. The formula for combat has evolved through five editions and countless erratum. Each change made it faster and more efficient. Why then, aren’t you applying this finely tuned formula to your explorations and roleplay encounters?
A D&D Player Needs All the Stuff, a D&D DM Needs Even More Stuff!
In this ArmorClass10.com-sponsored video Nate the Nerdarch and Nerdarhchists Dave and Ted approach the idea of bookkeeping for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons or any tabletop roleplaying game from several avenues. Pregame preparation, character maintenance and efficiency during play are some of the topics discussed.
The standout aspect for me is preparing for a game session by making sure you have all the materials you need. My group meets to play D&D or whatever game we get into at a local coffeeshop. There’s a private room we reserve in the back to while away the evening rolling funny-shaped dice and speaking with funny-sounding voices. Every session requires a mental checklist before heading out the door to account for all the necessary stuff. And then a double-check. And then a quick assessment of more stuff that might be needed.
Improv is Critical in RPG Storytelling
Improvisational theatre in progress. [Image by Aude Vanlathem/www.audevan.com]
This process repeats for two to four hours, or until there’s a good stopping point. Even Game Masters who prefer a more structured style are going to improvise more dialogue than they’ll use their actual prepared material.
This does not even include all the improv for the inevitable unplanned encounters, or how the GM has to improvise describing the outcomes of rolls – especially in combat. Technically you can just say what you’re going to do and exchange numbers across the table to determine success, and not describe what’s being said or done, but what would be the fun in that?
RPGS: To Roll Dice, Or Not To Roll Dice, That Is The Question
Several schools of thought exist when it comes to RPGs and the rolling of the funny-shaped dice we all love. Whether ’tis nobler at the gaming table to roll the d10s and d20s of outrageous fortune, or to roleplay against a sea of troubles, and by narrating end them.
In the ArmorClass10.com-sponsored video above, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch reminisce on memorable dice rolls in their gaming experience, different ways to interpret roll outcomes and how a hot roll of the dice can have a big impact on the story.
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.
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.
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.
D&D grung and other monsters are people, too
Monsters as notable NPCs and player characters in D&D is something I’ve touched on in past columns, including last week’s exploration of the similarities between a TTRPG GM and a Swiss Army knife. Since then, I ran the “Grungle in the Jungle” adventure idea for my gaming group. Inspired by Stream of Annihilation’s One Grung Above from WotC Product Manager Christopher Lindsay this adventure puts the players in control of a band of grung from Volo’s Guide to Monsters.
Dealing with PTSD for RPG Characters
PTSD in gaming
Many Marines return to the states with vivid memories of their combat experiences, and the array of emotions they face internally may be hard to detect. While changes in behavior are more obvious, symptoms can also manifest in physical form. [Marines from Arlington, VA, United States/Wikimedia Commons]
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!
