Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos Expands What 5E D&D Can Be
A press briefing early this week gave Wizards of the Coast an opportunity to share details about the three new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books slated for release in fall 2021. Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos gives 5E D&D adventurers a chance to play students at an incredible magical school and the five unique colleges comprising Strixhaven University, drawn from the multiverse of Magic: The Gathering. Characters explore the setting over the course of four adventures, which can be played together or on their own. The book also includes a poster map showing Strixhaven’s campuses on one side and location maps on the other. Let’s get into it.
Wild Beyond the Witchlight Whisks 5E D&D Adventurers to the Domain of Delight
During a press briefing earlier this week Wizards of the Coast shared lots of details about one of the three new fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons books slated for release in fall 2021. Wild Beyond the Witchlight takes adventurers from the Witchlight Carnival to the Feywild and is designed for 1st-8th level characters. This book comes with a poster map showing the carnival on one side and the Domain of Delight Prismeer on the other. Chris Perkins, senior story designer for Dungeons & Dragons, revealed some whimsical secrets about the first official 5E D&D Feywild adventure so let’s get into it.
A Mysterious Message Brings Adventurers Through the Mists to the House of Lament from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! We’ve got one more bit of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft to cover before moving on to other fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons things and that is the House of Lament. For most of the rest of this book, the name of the game has been picking through each individual section for a detailed preview. Since House of Lament is an adventure it’s not possible to do this without huge spoilers so instead I’ll deep dive without being too explicit.
Adapting Dreams of Fire for 5E D&D Plus a New Feat for Sorcerers
Council of Geeks is a nerdy YouTube channel where Author Nathaniel Wayne discusses everything from Doctor Who to the Marvel multiverses, Netflix series, movies and general nerd-dom. But Nathaniel just couldn’t stop at talking about their favorite geeky stories — they needed to write their own! Enter the new electropunk fantasy novel with a fey twist: Dreams of Fire. Having shared my review of the book I feel it’s fairly apparent I enjoyed Dreams of Fire thoroughly. As such, of course my mind began swirling around how to adapt Dreams of Fire into fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons play.
Myriad Entities Become Travelers in the Mists in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! I’m delving back into the Mists to talk about some of the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons individuals who willfully brave them. These residents of the Domains of Dread aren’t stuck inside individual domains. Rather they’re the ones who wander between. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft talks about how other travelers in the Mist should be otherwise remarkable to keep the fact of the players’ characters crossing between domains feeling special. There is even information presented for playing a 5E D&D character who belongs to one of these groups. Let’s dive into the options for travelers the Mists, shall we?
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as an Azorius Templar
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted hoof it through a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons centaur character build. Centaur player characters in 5E D&D are fey creatures, and monstrosities in their Monster Manual version. In the source material Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica centaurs typically associate with the Gruul Clans and Selesnya Conclave. But we wanted to make a centaur knight because frankly it sounds cool. The Azorius Templar character build draws on other aspects of the source material for inspiration. Let’s get into it.
Curses Come With Dramatic Significance in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
We’ve been delving deep into Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft since this fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons book released and at this point not only read it cover to cover but spent a great deal of time thinking about the content to share useful insights on all the material inside. The book devotes significant space to guidance for running horror adventures for 5E D&D and does a terrific job doing so for Dungeon Masters and the rest of the players in any given game. One of those areas of guidance deals with curses so let’s get into it.
Adventuring Is All Business for 5E D&D with Acquisitions Incorporated
The other writers and I enjoyed covering Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft in deep detail so much we decided to do it again. The campaign setting books for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons do a masterful job providing all the tools and resources players need to create unique experiences within each particular environment including tremendous inspiration, encouragement and guidance for developing your own ideas. Now we’re turning our attention to my favorite book of the bunch — Acquisitions Incorporated. Let’s get into it.
Life Sucks By It’s Very Nature in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for 5E D&D
Ravenloft sucks! Or rather, I suppose I should say life in Ravenloft would suck. Now that I’ve got your attention let me explain myself. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is the official guide for twisting your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games with horror. When I say life in Ravenloft sucks, I’m specifically talking about how it sucks for the townspeople, the nobodies, the people with whom the main characters interact.
Creating Domains of Dread for 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Wizards of the Coast really hit their stride when it comes to campaign setting guides for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is the latest in line to provide resources along a wide spectrum for players to engage with the material as it best matches their play style. I like to think the arrangement of content in these sorts of books holds as much meaning as the information itself and when it comes to creating domains of dread the book cleverly places the material just a page flip away from the juicy new 5E D&D character options. Let’s get into it.
Fear and Horror Emanate from Haunted Traps in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going to be taking a closer look at the Haunted Traps section of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Long story short, normal traps were put in place on purpose by a person for a reason. Haunted traps by contrast aren’t set with purpose and instead manifest like a stain. This is a recurrent theme in a lot of horror works, it turns out, and now it’s represented in 5E D&D too.
Experience the Horror Firsthand with Survivors in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers a menagerie of tools to help Dungeon Masters and players of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons sink their teeth into genres of horror. We’ve already written about preparing horror games, running horror games with atmosphere and pacing to enhance the experience of your 5E D&D group. However, if you really want to sell the horror flavor and show players how grim and unforgiving the world can be then Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft suggests the use of survivors.
Dark Gifts Await 5E D&D’s Haunted Heroes with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
The Mists of Ravenloft swallow adventurers from across the multiverse to pit them against whatever horrors the Dark Powers conjure. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft describes these Domains of Dread and the Darklords who both rule them and remain imprisoned by their own nightmare realms. The fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Haunted Heroes facing such horrors can gain an edge though. Whether their origins lie in the same tales of terror or the Dark Powers of Ravenloft grant a Dark Gift these 5E D&D characters forge ties to the grim and haunted domains and gain a double-edged connection to these genres of horror. Let’s get into it.
Transform your 5E D&D Characters Through Lineages from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m looking at the Lineages for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons found in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. I’ve got a player in a weekly game I’m in who went with one of these lineages for their character. They didn’t tell any of us up front so we played several sessions assuming the character was human until he opened his entire head and bit a minion’s face off. I can already tell this is going to be a fun one.
Manage Fear and Stress in 5E D&D with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft brings the trappings of horror to your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons games. To aid Dungeon Masters with running horror with their own groups the book offers a step-by-step walkthrough of how to run a 5E D&D horror game. Thus far, we’ve talked about preparing for a horror game and running a horror game with atmosphere and skillful pacing using the steps in Van Ricthen’s Guide to Ravenloft as a framework. But what about after the horror is over? Fear and stress are staples of the horror genre. They’re the proverbial nuts and bolts of how it works. Experiencing fear and stress can leave players… well, stressed and fearful. Thankfully, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft offers some advice for this as well.
