Jon Heder’s lesson in design elements for role play
Barbarian duck. Art by Stephen Prescott (deviantart user stephenartist)
Episode 99 of Critical Role may have irrecoverably changed my perspective of role playing games forever. Well, that’s not 100 percent sure. Jon Heder, who is coincidentally from my home town, made my favorite D&D move I’ve ever seen. He took Path of the Duck Totem Warrior. That’s right, instead of Bear, Wolf, or any other standard Totem, he went with Duck, which I assume he worked with Matt Mercer to custom make. My mom and I talked about it, and we kinda figured that being from Oregon played a role in him wanting to be a Duck, because there are tons of other ridiculous animals that he could’ve gone with. But the point is that he chose to do something ridiculous, and ridiculous it was. Not only was it ridiculous, but he used the opportunities to largely squander them. One of his skills was Commune with Ducks, which he used to get completely useless information.
A TTRPG GM is like a Swiss Army knife
GM tools for adventure – you only need a few
My TTRPG group keeps me on my toes as a GM. Comprised of adults, all of whom have varying degrees of adulting to do, our get-togethers are infrequent. It averages out to about twice a month on Sunday evenings. Within that group, everyone has varying schedules for work, family responsibilities and so forth. This results in a flexible group makeup on top of everything else. That last part usually isn’t a problem, as PCs can fade into the background or remain on their spelljammer ship while the present players form an away team.
But what happens when a particular character is important to the story for that session? Maybe the previous session ended on a cliffhanger or dramatic moment and a character’s absence would be awkward Or you as the GM simply aren’t prepared to continue your usual campaign?
Postmodernism in Dungeons & Dragons
Recently, Megan posted an article about how to reconsider evil characters the same day a video with Nate, Scott, and Kyle talking about whether the alignment system was still viable was uploaded. Along with a conversation I had with the Nerdarchy staff writers about postmodernism, I was inspired to write an article about applying postmodern principles into Dungeons & Dragons.
Evil is a Spectrum
There is oh, so much talk floating around about evil characters and good characters in tabletop RPGs and how you should or shouldn’t mix them in parties. Every time you get people together talking about Dungeons & Dragons, this is something that’s going to come...
What you can learn from your RPG characters
Tabletop roleplaying games afford players amazing opportunities. Through the characters and worlds we imagine at the gaming table, we create adventures and stories filled with heroism, villainy, danger, humor, drama, action and intrigue. Through game play we surprise ourselves through improvisation and collaboration, letting our shared stories twist and turn and carry us along. Through our characters’ actions, we affect the imaginary world and have an impact.
We invest something of ourselves into our characters. Players might portray characters who are exaggerated or ideal versions of themselves, or one aspect of themselves. Conversely, they can explore personalities, philosophies or lifestyles vastly different than their own. In a similar way, GMs create and run adventures that satisfy (sometimes intangible) goals and interests, populating the game environment with people, places and things – and monsters! – that appeal to those goals.
Top 10 Things I Hate As A Gamer
Alright, it is personal gripe time as I have a a few things that are on my grey matter in light of a few friends of mine complaining to me. Here is my top 10 things I hate as a tabletop RPG gamer. This may be things the players do, or just things I hate to do in general. This is not to say this list (done in no particular order) won’t work for another table, or that they are inherently wrong, but that they get my goat when I see them. I highly encourage constructive advice and learning of your gripes in the comment section below. Let’s jump in, shall we?
‘Dice, Camera, Action’ never waffles on D&D fun
How can your game go wrong when the lead story designer for the team behind creating Dungeons & Dragons runs the campaign? In “Dice, Camera, Action,” Wizards of the Coast’s Chris Perkins leads a core party of adventurers along with several guest players through a live streaming season of the official published campaign Curse of Strahd in season one. The second season continues the party’s adventures with Storm King’s Thunder.
Covering Each Other with Teamwork in RPGs
So, I happen to be blessed and burdened with glorious purpose, and a great team of writers that work alongside me here at Nerdarchy. The fun part is, sometimes we need to live our lives. That is what inspires this article here. See, I am filling in for the intractable Joshua Brickley, and this fits the theme of how teams need to be able to cover each other in times of need. Like the USMC and SEAL teams who train each other in the basics of other necessary jobs, a gaming group needs to be able to do more then fill a single role. Let me go over a few things that may help in such an endeavors.
The TitansGrave role-playing game show is a top-notch production
Returning readers might make me eat crow for the RPG encounter planned for this session. D&D is hiding in shadows and moving silently this week while the Fantasy Adventure Game Engine sets the stage for Geek & Sundry’s TitansGrave: The Ashes of Valkana. There is a huge variety of live streamed and recorded RPG play sessions out there. The merits, value and impact are debatable among many, but not me – I enjoy them as entertainment and believe they add value to the hobby. For those reasons, I’m taking a closer look at my favorite programs and sharing not only what makes each program fun to watch, but what gamers can take away and bring back to their gaming tables.
The C Team innovates live streaming roleplaying games
As promised last week, I’ll be taking a closer look at the myriad online roleplaying game programs that I enjoy to offer some reviews and analysis as well as any tips or pitfalls therein. The criteria for me as a gamer, fan, audience member and for the purposes of this series are the entertainment value and the takeaways I can bring back to my own game group.
Most of these shows (okay, all of them on my initial list) are Dungeons & Dragons games. In keeping with that spirit, I’ll rate where each program has a Success or Failure along with where it scores a Critical Hit or a Critical Fail, and wrap up with a Perception Check for miscellaneous observations and standouts as a viewer.
The art of gaming without gaming! Trials and triumphs of a full-time nerd in a part-time world
There is no disputing that tabletop role-playing games, and Dungeons & Dragons in particular, are more popular than ever before. While still a niche hobby, that niche has grown considerably large, and the perception of it has shifted as well.
The moment when I realized how great a step forward the role-playing game hobby has taken occurred not too long ago. My gaming group musters at a coffee shop, hauling our books, dice, pencils and accouterments to a private room in the back. From 4-10 p.m., our group of middle-aged nerds leave jobs, families and other responsibilities aside to step into a fantastical world of make-believe. During one of our gatherings, I went to get a cup of coffee and the teen-aged girl barista asked me if I was with the group in the back, and if we were playing Dungeons & Dragons. I said yep, I’m the Dungeon Master.
“Super cool,” she said.
The Name Game Part I: Characters and Groups of People
Drizzt Do’Urden (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of the huge problems I see most often, both in players and Dungeon Masters, is naming things. Everything else comes easily, you’ve got a character or an idea and it all comes flooding out, and then you’re left staring at this blank space on the page labeled “name.”
So, I’m going to share some of what works for me when it comes to naming things, and hopefully it will find its way to the hands of someone for whom it will be useful.
New DM Handbook: The 10 Commandments of Tabletop RPGs
These are my 10 Commandments of Tabletop RPGs. Some of these are based on personal experience, where others are based on observation. I won’t always indicate which is which, but I feel confident in my assessment.
Why Spell Casters Are Sexy
When first being introduced to DnD you will find a variety of classes that are presented before you and at first what draws attention to you might be something that suits your sexual orientation, masculine or feminine if you will. Most women might be more drawn...
Resolving Conflict and Argument in an RPG
So I had total plan to move on to Vampire and maybe some other stuff too but some thing in my life
popped up that have inspired me to write for both my own benefit and yours. You see dear Nerdarchy reader, at the gamer table conflicts can arise from a variety of sources and as such there is a need for the tools to combat the evil known as inter party conflict. Well here is a few things I have learned, and a few things to look out for. I sincerely hope this comes to your aid.
When it becomes Player versus Player…
Sometimes you can have arguments at the table between players on how to interpret a rule. Maybe one learned an earlier version, maybe the rule was written vaguely. Whatever the reason, you can find yourself at the table arguing over the way imaginary heroes swing a sword or vault a horse. Seriously, I have seen it happen for stupider reasons than these but rules are the most common thing to argue about between players. Anyway, no matter the cause, the fact is it is a game. Calm down, and listen to the other side of the argument.No matter how ridiculous they are in your opinion, they deserve the same treatment you would desire.
When both sides are done, I suggest reading the rules as written and checking to see if there is any errata on the rule in question. Very often that can answer the question right then and there as we are only human and thus fallible. I will admit that there has been times I thought a rule read one way but I ended up being very off. What I am getting at is, be ready and willing to admit you are wrong. It happens, to everyone at one time or another. Finally, there is a certain someone who is at the table that has the job of mitigating and arbitrating these situations.
