Discover Your 5E D&D Character’s Horror Background with Van Richten’s Guide Backgrounds
Salutations, nerds! Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft sets up backgrounds a little bit differently from other fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books. There are two in particular with suggested characteristics but as far as background features go there’s a list of those you can use for pretty much any other set. I like this. As someone who generally uses custom backgrounds anyway simply having the background feature to choose from is cutting out the middle man so to speak. Let’s take a look at what Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft reveals about backgrounds in this 5E D&D horror campaign setting.
Running Horror with Atmosphere and Accessibility in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is Wizards of the Coast’s newest setting book for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and it’s arguably the best release we’ve had so far. Much how Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything officially sanctioned many flavor customizations Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft contains several sections empowering Dungeon Masters and players to make 5E D&D their own. Among these options chapter 4’s Running Horror Games section provides guidance for preparation, during the session and afterward. This horror guide was phenomenal and easily makes the book worth picking up. I loved this section so much I made a whole video about how Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft completely changed how I run D&D forever.
Horror Pacing in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons is probably my favorite setting book to date from Wizards of the Coast. It has so many great resources for 5E D&D players and Dungeon Masters alike. Among my favorites is the section walking the DM through a step-by-step guide to running a horror game.
Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Hermit
Salutations, nerds! I’m rolling on over to yet another background and focusing on the Hermit background in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The background options in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook offer suggested characteristics to help define a character and spark your imagination for roleplaying. Seclusion, contemplation and keeping away from the rest of the world in what is at the very least isolation represents the formative part of life for these 5E D&D characters. As with every background there’s a lot to chew on here so let’s get started.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Holy Paragon
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel the community never lets Nerdarchists Dave and Ted down, sharing suggestions and requests for all sorts of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons characters and for this one a player digs the idea of the holiest character around. Divine power permeates 5E D&D so the options are many but our prayers are answered. The Holy Paragon character combines divine lineage and personal conviction, eager to learn more about divinity and strengthen their faith through study and devoted practice. Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Armor
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is armor, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Magical armor is one of the best treasures an adventurer can discover during their perilous quests. Armor equals protection at the very least and mythical abilities at the pinnacle of armor power. Armor of Fallen Leaves harkens back to earlier days of D&D and turned a shade of Nerdarchy in more recent times from one of our earliest modules. Now it’s the May Magic Item Card. While wearing this mystical armor you can transform into a swirling cloud of leaves! Find out more about it here.
Top 10 5E D&D Homebrew Sorcerous Origins by a Factor of Three
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take a look at the top rated fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons homebrew Bard Colleges from D&D Beyond. We have a lot of fun checking out the 5E D&D content folks come up with and sharing their homebrew creations. (There’s lots of these posts whether for homebrew subclasses, magic items, spells, feats and more floating around for the curious.) I’m not choosing sorcery for a closer look this week — the power chose me to check out the most magical class in 5E D&D — the sorcerer — and checking out the Top 10 homebrew Sorcerous Origins. There’s currently over 1,720 homebrew of them so let’s get into it.
Domains of Ravenloft Cover All the Horror for 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Way back in 1983 I6: Ravenloft was but one of over 200 modules published by TSR for first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The plot of the now legendary module introduced one of the most iconic villains in D&D history with the vampire Strahd von Zarovich. The module proved so popular it spawned a sequel and later an entire campaign setting for second edition AD&D encompassing an entire pocket dimension called the Demiplane of Dread and the collection of domains ruled by mystical Darklords bound together by the Dark Powers. Fast forward to today where Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft re-introduces the Domains of Dread for the fifth edition D&D community. Let’s get into it.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as an Adopted Trash Panda
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted put their own unique spin on a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character build guide request. One of our most longtime Nerdarchy community members asked for our take on a forest gnome Circle of the Shepherd druid. With so many components already laid out the only wiggle room came from this character’s background, ability scores and certain choices made along the way. Once we decided this 5E D&D character was raised by raccoons in an urban environment everything else for the Adopted Trash Panda character fell into place. Let’s get into it.
Wrap Your 5E D&D Games in the Dark Embrace of Horror with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons looks to be one of the best D&D books to date. With its horror elements steeped in a dark fantasy setting — the Domains of Dread — this book fills a whole new genre of fantasy for your 5E D&D group.
Create an RPG Character Backstory Your Game Master Will Actually Read
Salutations, nerds! I’m writing about backstory when it comes to tabletop roleplaying game characters. Generally you see a lot of backstory elements going one of two ways, or at least this is what memes would have you believe — 10 pages of detailed history your Game Master probably isn’t going to read. (If you have one who does never let them go.) On the flip side there’s players who show up to the table with absolutely no idea who their character was before the game begins.
Expanding 5E D&D Background Characteristics — Guild Artisan
Salutations, nerds! I’m rolling back in with another expanded set of suggested characteristics for fifth edition character background with a visit to the Guild Artisan. The background options in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook offer suggested characteristics to help define a character and spark your imagination for roleplaying. Guild Artisans make wonderful characters because you can imagine them casually existing in the world. They have some big layfolk energy in many ways. As a writer this makes the Guild Artisan background feel a lot more relatable to me than most of the others and I know a lot of people who feel the same way. So let’s have some fun creating some additional personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws for this one.
Preparing for 5E D&D Horror with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft brings us a swarm of new ideas for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and among those are tips for running horror games. As an avid fan of horror and incorporating horror elements into my RPG sessions I felt like I probably had a fairly good grasp on what this book had to say. However some of the things I found in this section of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft took me completely by surprise. Not only does this book give you a guide for how to run horror in 5E D&D it also offers step-by-step instructions to ensure you and your group have the most fun possible with a horror game. Before you can run a horror game there are some important steps to set up your 5E D&D horror campaign so it can be the most enjoyable for you and your gaming group.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as Hell’s Enemy
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted plunge into the depths of the Lower Planes to combat evil where it lives with a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character build. This was back when we created these 5E D&D guides using Adventurer’s League rules and for this Hell’s Enemy character we used Xanathar’s Guide to Everything as our plus one. Let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Hell
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is hell, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. We’ve got one hell of an announcement to make this week. We dealt 10d4 slashing damage to the price of our Nerdarchy Metal DND Dice Set! As part of the wildly successful Out of the Box Kickstarter we goofed and ordered a lot of extra sets. And they’ve got to go! There’s a limited supply left so if you want to add an awesome set of exclusive dice to your collection now is the time. The awesome Patreon community can take advantage of even more savings! We created a special discount code for our fantastic supporters to receive an additional $25 off. That’s a total savings of $50! Find out more about it here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
