The Game Master’s Book of Traps, Puzzles, and Dungeons – A Review with Bonus Content
Every great dungeon is more than just a collection of monsters and loot—it’s filled with deadly traps, devious puzzles, and chambers designed to test the wits and resilience of any adventuring party. The Game Master’s Book of Traps, Puzzles, and Dungeons is a fantastic resource...
The Game Master’s Book of Non-Player Characters – A Review with Bonus Content
In any great RPG, the world is more than just the main characters—it’s filled with shopkeepers, mercenaries, nobles, rogues, and all the colorful individuals who give the setting its depth. The Game Master’s Book of Non-Player Characters provides over 500 fully realized NPCs, each with...
The Game Master’s Book of Villains, Minions, and Their Tactics – A Review with Bonus Content
Every great story needs a great villain, and The Game Master’s Book of Villains, Minions, and Their Tactics delivers 25 of them, each with their own nefarious schemes, signature tactics, and a [caption id="attachment_33212" align="alignright" width="216"] Empusia, Curator of Souls is a legendary fiend whose Museum...
The Game Master’s Book of Legendary Dragons: A Review and Creative Expansion
If dragons are at the heart of your tabletop RPG adventures, The Game Master’s Book of Legendary Dragons is an invaluable resource. This book offers detailed lore, stat blocks, and creative storytelling hooks for a variety of unique dragons, each with distinct personalities and roles...
The Game Master’s Book of Astonishing Random Tables: A Review and Creative Expansion
If you’re a Game Master (GM) looking to spice up your tabletop adventures with the unexpected, then The Game Master’s Book of Astonishing Random Tables is a must-have. This book is packed [caption id="attachment_51220" align="alignright" width="244"] A water weird as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons...
While You Wait for Digimon Survive and Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Check Out Fantastic Adventures for Animon Story
If you vibe with my flavor of nerddom then you follow video games — especially monster taming video games like Pokemon and Digimon Story. With the recent announcements of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet as well as Digimon Survive I’m more than eager to jump back into these science fantasy worlds! Sadly, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet won’t release until late this year and Digimon Survive has no firm release date at present. However, I need something to scratch the monster taming itch and if you’ve read my post on Animon Story then you know there is a certain tabletop roleplaying game that gives me my fix.
Legend of Vox Machina Brings D&D to Your Living Room
I’d be lying if I didn’t open this post by disclosing I’m a massive Critter (fan of Critical Role) and I just got finished with the first three episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon Prime. I think The Legend of Vox Machina isn’t what anyone expected. It’s topping critical reviews and it’s delighted many fans including me. Before we dive into things too much we need some context.
Nerdarchy’s Top 10 of 2021
Another year comes to a close and we start a year Harvey Dent would be beside himself about with 2022. In a few days we’re putting the Nerdarchymobile in high gear with the launch of our second Kickstarter for Mage Forge — Magic Items for 5th Edition but right now we’re looking back at the year that was through the Top Ten most engaging content across the various platforms.
Claim the Sky to Become a Superhero with this Cypher System Expansion
Claim the Sky is the newest expansion for Monte Cook Games’ Cypher System – and everyone is sleeping on it. Now, I’m not talking about literally napping on the hardcover book, which would be uncomfortable. But why is nobody talking about this book? Claim the Sky offers a streamlined, user friendly superhero RPG experience. In fact I’d go so far as saying Claim the Sky offers the most user friendly superhero RPG in any system, Cypher System or otherwise.
Classical Style and Impactful 5E D&D Adventure Meet in Tartarus | Journey Into the Underworld
Salutations, nerds! We’ve got something particularly interesting to chew on today as Elise Cretel brings us Tartarus | Journey into the Underworld! I don’t have any real complaints about this fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Those of you who haven’t died of shock, please read on.
Nerdarchy’s Top 10 of 2020
The turbulent year of 2020 draws to a close. As the year ends Nerdarchists Dave and Ted reflect on the high points from 2020. All things considered this past year was a good one for Nerdarchy with growth across the board from our YouTube channel (we’ve got two now!) to right here on the website and more. New friends were made and new games were played. Our creativity and curiosity led us to try lots of new things with our own content and we’re proud of the continued positive growth we’ve experienced.
How Hogfather and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Offer Hope for 2021 and Beyond
Recently on our second channel Nerdarchy Live Nerdarchist Dave and Nerditor Doug talked about comedy in tabletop roleplaying games. Since I’ve written my own comedic fantasy book and the genre niche is my jam I simply had to talk about it. Talking about comedic fantasy reminds me of one of my favorite movies of all time, which also happens to be a holiday favorite, Hogfather. Or as I like to call this movie — How Death Saved Fantasy Christmas.
5 Tabletop RPGs You Should Play
So, you wanna get into the big bold world of tabletop roleplaying games, huh? Maybe you’ve decided to spend more time with friends and you think game night is a great way to do this or perhaps you’ve got inspiration for a sprawling world and you just really want to evolve it by telling stories in it. Suppose you don’t know where to start, like what RPG system you should use. You could go with Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a classic for a reason and fifth edition D&D definitely strikes a delicate balance between crunchy and simple. Maybe you’ve recently been watching Nerdarchy’s most recent live play Moon Rises and you want to try your hand with Cypher System. Maybe there’s another game you’ve wanted to try but you’re just not sure on the matter or maybe you don’t even know where to start when you want to branch out with RPGs. Don’t worry. If you want a brief rundown of what different systems high and low points are you’ve come to the right place. Today we’re talking about five different RPG systems — what they do well, what they could do better and general pros and cons. Before we delve even that far feel free to check out the video I did over on my own YouTube channel where I break down the strengths and weaknesses of different types of RPG systems.
Fall in Love with Quest by The Adventure Guild for Your Next RPG Campaign
The quest to discover new and exciting approaches to tabletop roleplaying games never ends and to this point a few months ago I came across Quest from The Adventure Guild. Presented as the roleplaying adventure game for everyone Quest enjoyed a successful Kickstarter in 2018 and is now available for digital and (while supplies last) physical purchase. Quest sold me on the simplicity — the RPG system uses only a single d20 — and if I’m honest the art that evokes fun adventure. The team behind Quest, including creator and designer T.C Sottek who is also managing editor at The Verge, freelance comic artist and illustrator Celia Lowenthal and editor Chris Plante who is also a writer, reporter, critic and the executive editor and co-founder of Polygon put together a wonderful RPG. Reading the book was a joy and understanding Quest’s game system couldn’t be easier.
Fall in Love with Cypher System by Monte Cook Games for Your Next RPG Campaign
Nerdarchy’s new live play RPG Moon Rises is a post apocalyptic science fantasy game inspired by action cartoons from the 1980s. This premise is pretty high concept and while most tabletop roleplaying games accommodate fantasy elements the sci-fi and post apocalyptic elements are a bit neglected in many mainstream systems, and devising mechanics (while rewarding at times) is a heavy commitment. But our Game Master for this season of Nerdarchy Live game play, Nerdarchist Dave, had something up his sleeve. He introduced us to Cypher System. When Dave told us intended to use Cypher System by Monte Cook Games my response wasn’t exactly enthusiastic. I’d only heard of the RPG system in passing and when I learned Cypher was the genre agnostic version of Numenera my curiosity was piqued, though I remained skeptical. What I’d heard of Numenera was it was a fun game but had a stigma of being overly simple. So far, not a great setup to the system, huh? I try to keep things positive in my articles, though never at the expense of honesty. That probably has you wondering why I chose to do an article on Cypher System. The reason I’m writing is to say I was wrong. I was very wrong. What’s more I’d bet if I had heard such things about the system at my FLGS, I likely wasn’t alone and I wanted to set the record straight.
