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.
Friend time: Does your group get together outside of game night?
This is one of those topics most of us would like to claim we do and, while there are a majority of us who play with close friends/family members, there are still those of us who only participate in the game and not in the after-game relationships to the people we game with. There is a certain level of trust and mutual respect that arises when we play with someone. It’s very difficult to role play when we aren’t willing to bond somewhat with the players we spend those many hours of play with. On the contrary, when we do invest even a little bit of time, we find we have much more than just another acquaintance; we have a friend, which is awesome! Who doesn’t want awesome friends who are open to playing, getting real and having fun?
Five Questions for Your RPG Character: Secrets, Fears and Memories
It’s probably safe to say most of us have been in that moment where you go around the table at the beginning of the game and introduce your character. You talk about what they look like. Some people go into detail about what their character is wearing, their mannerisms, some might grab sensory details like how the smell of smoke clings to her when she passes by. Others leave it at “I’m an elven rogue”, and that’s okay, too. Regardless, the party still sees how they generally conduct themselves after a few hours of game time.
RPGs and Comic Books: The Recurring Villain
You know what I don’t like about superhero movies? The “big bad” is always getting whacked. I mean, how do you kill Doctor Doom or the Red Skull? The cool thing is that, just like in the comics, they can always come back.
Are You Out There? D&D Face to Face Online
The other day I saw a post from someone in one of my online gaming groups, and he said something that really touched my heart because it was also something I have thought about many times myself.
He said, “I think it so odd that we all comment so much on posts from each other in this group of only about 400 people, yet I don’t know any of you and we have never played, I would love to actually play with you all sometime.” He went on to say he felt sad realizing we all look at each other’s comments, like similar posts, hold conversations through the feed, yet never talk or play at the end of the day.
Learn How to Play Dungeons & Dragons for Beginners | Brought to you by Easy Roller Dice
What a typical adventuring party might look like … well, actually there is no “typical” adventuring party!
At Nerdarchy we’re excited to announce we’ve recently joined an adventuring party with Easy Roller Dice to do a series focused on teaching new players how to play Dungeons & Dragons. The problem of learning how to play D&D has often been that you need someone to teach you how to play it, an older brother, cousin, or friend of the family who already knew how to play the game! Learning how to play D&D correctly is almost something of a hybrid between written and oral traditions as the complexity of the rules can make it difficult for new players to come into the hobby. That’s how I learned to play — when I was 11 years old, my eldest brother Dave began showing me how to play Dungeons & Dragons in the 2nd edition of the game (and believe me, there were some really awkward, wonky rules — just look up THACO!). Fortunately, we now have the ability to easily share information in written, audio, and visual forms — twenty years ago you needed that mentor player, but now, we can direct you to this series of videos that we’re making for you, apprentice D&D adventurer.
One Journey: Escape of the Prisoner, or Flight of the Deserter?
es·cap·ism
əˈskāpˌizəm/
noun; the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy.
Why We Game: D&D, online gaming and real life
It’s crazy how many people I know who would be so freaking fun and amazing at playing D&D and they don’t even know it. There is always the usual self-doubt about not knowing or fully understanding a game, and there is the matter of time and space away from everything, ie. phones, family, work, chores, etc. Most of the people I know who would be great at it and don’t even know are usually self-doubters much like I was before I started playing. The idea of starting a new game can be quite an uncomfortable situation and one that often leads many to fleeing the hobby altogether.
It’s time for a 5th Edition D&D Unearthed Arcana book
[caption id="attachment_14051" align="alignright" width="430"] The original Unearthed Arcana book by Gary Gygax for First Edition Dungeons & Dragons.[/caption] Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons has been around for more than a couple of years now. Since its inception, it has been obvious the game’s publisher Wizards of...
In defense of Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons and its streamlined approach
Several Dungeons & Dragons miniature figures. The grid mat underneath uses one-inch squares. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Considering for decades Dungeons & Dragons has been the most recognizable name of all tabletop role-playing games, and considering the popularity of Fifth Edition D&D, it might seem the game itself needs no defending. However, from time to time I have noticed online forums with various concerns or complaints raised against the game.
The most common complaint I’ve read is that in Fifth Edition a player cannot make the type of character he or she wants, that more rules are needed in order for there to be more character diversity, that currently only similar, cookie-cutter characters can be created because of the limited number of classes and rules.
I understand. I disagree, but I understand.
“Jailbreak” – Out of the Box #27 D&D Encounters
You Can Have Story and Rules in an RPG
There is a long standing argument between which is more important in a roleplaying game, and for the record I always side with the story if I must choose. That being said, I just wanted to chyme in with a few tidbits of advice on...
Four Reasons We Think You’ll Love Open Legend
Four Reasons We Think You’ll Love Open Legend
Written by: Ish Stabsoz
We know that RPGs are a dime a dozen, and that you can find a system out there for almost any type of game you want to play – and that’s exactly why we are so honored to have a chance here on Nerdarchy to talk to you about why we think you’ll love Open Legend. In this post, we’ll explore the reasons we created Open Legend and talk about why we’re so excited to share our game with the roleplaying community.
It plays like D&D but with more creative freedom
Open Legend was born out of a frustration with a game that we grew up with, a game that we loved (and still do), but, ultimately, a game that held us back from achieving the stories we wanted to tell. It was in the midst of 4th edition D&D that we began experimenting with the home brewed system that eventually became Open Legend. Our experience with 4e was the same as a lot of hardcore D&D fans: it felt too restrictive.
Obviously, we aren’t trying to bash D&D. It’s a great game for players and GMs who want to tell fantasy stories with recognizable tropes and archetypes. And with the strides that fifth edition has taken, D&D is perhaps the best game to achieve that goal in the industry.
But Open Legend was born out of a desire to let players tell any story at the gaming table that they had read in a book or seen in a movie. We didn’t want restrictions like pre-determined class abilities to prevent players from creating the character they’d always dreamed of seeing in action.
We think you’ll love Open Legend because even though it isn’t D&D, it still plays a lot like the roleplaying game that introduced most of us to the hobby. We love what games like Dungeon World, FATE, and Cypher have done to challenge the expectations of how a roleplaying game feels, but we also realize that not everyone is looking for that sort of paradigm shift. A game of Open Legend still feels a lot like D&D. You still roll for initiative, combat is still conducted turn-by-turn and blow-by-blow, and hit points are still the primary indicator of your character’s health.
“Watchdog” – Out of The Box #23 D&D Encounters
Out of the Box Encounters Using Daern’s Instant Fortress Introduction:
Another popular cliche or trope that seems to endlessly occur in every D&D game is this: Defeat monster, check it’s pockets, take it’s stuff. Here’s a way to rethink that. What if the magic item is part of the encounter. What if that magic item defined the encounter such that it makes it very difficult to acquire without damaging it. What if that self-same magic item was also highly desirable?
Now, let’s add something to that concept. Let’s apply a template to that encounter that takes a common everyday monster (zombie) and applies it to a monster less common…say, one that makes it harder to just take the magic item?
