Blood Hunter Class by Matt Mercer comes to D&D Beyond
A bit over 2 years ago the Nerdarchy crew got together and playtested the blood hunter class for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. We had a blast playing high-level D&D characters while checking out this third party character class by Matt Mercer of Critical Role.
For those of you who are not familiar with him, Matt Mercer has done a few nerdy thing recently.
He is the Dungeon Master in the Geek & Sundry web series Critical Role, along with several other voice actors. The show’s first campaign went on for over 100 episodes until its epic conclusion, with numerous one-shots and special events on the way there. Critical Role’s new campaign just started last night, Jan. 11, 2018. New episodes are live streamed Thursday night at 7 p.m. pacific on Twitch and Project Alpha. He has a campaign book called Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting. He also does voice acting, among other things.
Tomb of Annihilation Companion a Guide for All Dungeon Masters
Guest poster Brian McGee started playing fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons with my home group earlier this year, quickly discovering enthusiastic enjoyment from the world’s greatest roleplaying game. After a few sessions playing in my Spelljammer campaign, a one-shot as a tribe of grung and a pickup session of Sunless Citadel he went all-in as a Dungeon Master. We all had a terrific time playing in his iteration of Matt Colville’s Delian Tomb, and when his turn behind the screen came back around Brian wanted to run Tomb of Annihilation. We decided to use the same party we started his game with and took them on the journey to Chult. When the Tomb of Annihilation Companion landed on my desk, we’d just played our first session. Since Brian expressed an interest in doing some writing for Nerdarchy I passed the guide along to him as both a resource for our game and his first writing assignment. – Nerditor Doug
Stuff Your Digital Stocking and Help a Charity with Frog God Games and Kobold Press Humble Bundle
Is it Dec. 6, 2017 at 11 a.m. PST already? You’re in luck, roleplaying gamer! While you’re getting ready to stuff your stockings this holiday season you can stuff your digital bookshelf full of a dragon’s hoard worth of awesome books – and help out a charity for doing it!
Bill Webb, co-founder of Frog God Games partnered up with Wolfgang Baur and Kobold Press to create the first ever fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Humble RPG Book Bundle. The offering is live for two weeks and the clock is already ticking.
Gazing Into Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons
Whether you started playing Dungeons & Dragons out of the original woodgrain-colored box and the three little brown booklets inside or you’re new to the hobby and go completely digital with D&D Beyond, before you make a single die roll, you’re drawn in by art. From Greg Bell’s Doctor Strange “inspired” mounted warrior on the original 1974 box cover to Tyler Jacobson’s depiction of an adventurer battling King Snurre on the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, fantasy art’s history and influence on D&D is woven into the fabric of the game.
The stories behind the art, helping to create the worlds we play in, are the focus of the new documentary Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons from the team of X-Ray Films and Cavegirl Productions. The film profiles artists who contributed to the rich world of fantasy D&D art and features insiders, designers, writers and fans sharing the impact of art on their games and lives.
Hyperlanes Classes: Sci-Fi for D&D
Following up a live chat and offline interview with Hyperlanes creator Ryan Chaddock and a look at species from the cinematic sci-fi ruleset fueled by the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons engine, we’re continuing on through the Hyperlanes corebook with Chapter 3: Class.
One of the best things about D&D 5E is the modular design philosophy. Stripping away all the class features, slots and so forth, D&D character classes are great framework to hang homebrew elements onto. I’ve had a lot of fun creating and playing with things like the barbarian Path of the Azure Primal Path and warlock Void Pact. There are six core classes in Hyperlanes, each with their own archetypes just like D&D. In fact, the class options in Hyperlanes are each built using one of the core D&D classes as a chassis. I’ve read through them all several times, ran a couple of sessions for players using them and certainly imagined more than one character I’d like to play.
Curious as to which ones?
Map Your Combat with an RPG Battle Game Mat
Maps.
Many Dungeons & Dragons players begin their journey into fantastic adventures through the allure of maps. Carefully constructing dungeon complexes on trusty graph paper, building them with digital tools like Pyromancer’s Dungeon Painter Studio or drawing them with a Wacom tablet like ENnie Award winner Elven Tower remains a vital part of the hobby for countless players.
Mists of Ravenloft Engulf D&D Online
Mark your calendar for Dec. 5, 2017 and stock up on garlic and wooden stakes – Dungeons & Dragons Online delves into darkness with the Mists of Ravenloft expansion release! Featuring 12 new quests, a new raid, new wilderness area, two new public areas, a brand new saga and more, Mists of Ravenloft has been a long-rumored addition to DDO players will finally be able to enjoy…if they dare.
Count Strahd von Zarovich casts his shadow over the lands of Barovia from Castle Ravenloft. Are you brave enough to face him?
Product Overview: Star Trek Adventures Copy
Star Trek Adventures, by Modiphius Entertainment
The reason why I’m calling this a product overview, as oppossed to a preview or review, is because my intent isn’t really to do either. I haven’t had a chance to play a single session of it so far, although Nerdarchy Staff Editor Doug Vehovec, and Staff Writers Asa Kinney (who recently wrote an excellent article on paid GMs), Drew Murray, and I had an excellent Session 0, and we’re going to run a test game on September 24 (absolutely coincidentally the same day as the premier of Star Trek: Discovery).
Product Overview: Star Trek Adventures
Star Trek Adventures, by Modiphius Entertainment
The reason why I’m calling this a product overview, as opposed to a preview or review, is because my intent isn’t really to do either. I haven’t had a chance to play a single session of it so far, although Nerdarchy Staff Editor Doug Vehovec, and Staff Writers Asa Kinney (who recently wrote an excellent article on paid GMs), Drew Murray, and I had an excellent Session 0, and we’re going to run a test game on September 24 (absolutely coincidentally the same day as the premier of Star Trek: Discovery).
Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is Free to Play Dungeons and Dragons in Early Access on Steam and it’s Awesome
Salutations, nerds! And good news for fans of idle games like Cookie Clicker and AdventureQuest Dragons. Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is a Dungeons and Dragons game in early access on Steam right now, free to play, and I have to say it’s exactly what I needed.
It’s an idle game, and if you’re not already aware of what that means I’ll give you the run down: you don’t have to do a whole lot for the game to do what it does. You click a couple of times and get it started and then watch the numbers go up and get ridiculously high as the story progresses and in this case, as your heroes do more damage.
Making a Pact with Warlock Patreon from Kobold Press
Since 2012, the Kobold Press imprint has produced some of the best-received third-party content for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Their biggest release – both in terms of sheer size and tabletop roleplaying game culture penetration – is the Tome of Beasts. The 433-page book of monsters is a staple on the shelf of countless D&D players, as iconic and indispensable as the Monster Manual for many Dungeon Masters (myself included).
The material produced by Kobold Press runs the gamut and truly includes something for everyone who plays D&D. Everything from a complete campaign setting to new schools of magic, Game Master guides, the 2017 Ennie Award-winning Kobold Guide to Plots and Campaigns and the recently released Prepared 2: A Dozen One-shot Adventures for 5th Edition offer valuable resources for D&D DMs and players.
But if even all of that isn’t enough, esteemed game designer Wolfgang Baur and the team at Kobold Press launched a new project designed to give even more cool material on a regular, ongoing basis. The Warlock is a Patreon-fueled project in the form of a booklet containing new maps, monsters, character options and more. You can find out all about it and pledge your support here.
Gen Con 50: Live Stream Your Game with Maze Arcana’s Expert Help
Rolling dice? Roll that camera!
Gen Con 50 celebrates gaming history with a milestone for North America’s largest tabletop game convention.
“How to Live Stream At Home: the Hands-on Approach with Maze Arcana & Blackmagic Design” gives gamers the tools and knowledge to become part of that rich history and share their own unique experiences with the vibrant, growing tabletop game community.
A seminar and two workshops are open for registration. The events from some of the most popular and professional live streaming tabletop gamers partnered with leaders in the professional studio equipment industry aim to empower others to reach out and connect with the greater community.
Participants have chances to win thousands of dollars in giveaways including video cameras, technical studio equipment and applications over the course of the events, too. Check the links ahead and at the bottom to preregister and make sure you have a spot in these events.
Q&A: Starfinder RPG from Paizo Inc.
The cover for the Starfinder Core Rulebook, from Paizo Publishing
2017 is a huge year for tabletop roleplaying games. Rich and rapid growth of the industry has ushered in a new golden age for what we all know is the greatest hobby in the world.
Or perhaps it’s a space age. With all the space fantasy and science fiction themed RPGs entering the marketplace, it might be more accurate to say tabletop RPGs are the greatest hobby in the universe.
Leading the fleet of these myriad cosmic game enterprises, Starfinder is set for launch on Aug. 17 at Gen Con 50 where the hardcover version drops, with the PDF version of following in September. Preorders are open now, so you can head over to Amazon here and get your copy of Starfinder reserved.
Nerdarchist Ted had an opportunity to playtest the game in a live stream event run by Owen K.C. Stephens, game designer and developer for Paizo. If you missed that event, you can still watch the VOD on WebDM’s YouTube channel. And in the video above Nerdarchist Dave welcomed Stephens to the live chat to talk about Starfinder as well.
Here on the website, we had a chance to pose some questions to Rob McCreary, a senior developer at Paizo Inc. and founding member of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game development team. McCreary also holds the distinction of being the first author in the Starfinder Adventure Path line (among many other distinctions in his career!). Incident at Absalom Station kicks off the Dead Suns adventure path and is available for preorder now, with a scheduled release date of Sept. 5.
D&D Adventure Awaits with Tomb of Annihilation and More
Along with announcing the next storyline in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons family at June’s “Stream of Annihilation” live stream event, Wizards of the Coast revealed several new products set for release in Q3-4 2017 along with the Tomb of Annihilation adventure. Whether your bookshelf could use a few things to fill the space, you’re a D&D completionist or looking ahead to the holidays at gift ideas for the nerds in your life, here’s a rundown of D&D books and accessories headed your way.
