D&D Barbarian 5E — Path of the Frost Wyrm
Nerdarchy has teamed up with Pacesetter Games & Simulations as well as Vallejo Paints to put together something special in our opinion, but we might be a bit biased. For one, both companies are sponsoring this article, video, and contest. So, disclaimer out of the way if you care about such things. Inspired by the Frost Wyrm miniature by Pacesetters Games & Simulations we came up with the concept of the Frost Wyrm barbarian tribe. As well as a brand new D&D barbarian primal path for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. For some extra inspiration we had our former intern Jake Kosman work his magic with Vallejo Paints.
Become a Legend in a 5E D&D Spell Duelist Campaign
One of the most recent videos on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel is the Ultimate Spell Duelist 5E D&D character build. From the initial planning discussion all the way through the comments on the video, my imagination was firing on all cylinders. And based on the video comments, a lot of other people were too. Like all the recent 5E D&D character builds, we set out to create a character legal for Adventurers League play. This of course limits our character options, but that makes it a fun extra little challenge, plus it’s really rewarding to consider not just mechanical benefits but roleplaying opportunities for these characters as well. Outside of Adventurers League play is where this character really got our creative juices flowing, from chances for personal character moments and growth to campaign implications. So let’s get into it.
Monstrous Humanoids in 5E D&D
Over the years Dungeons & Dragons has offered many different races for players to choose from. I know that some Dungeon Masters are very much against anything that does not look normal. Let’s forget the dragonborn and tielfing and play with humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes and halflings. With those races there are plenty of options even without all the subrace choices. But if you are like me you enjoy all the choices and you want to play the things that are bizarre and interesting. If you happen to look around this site you will see many different monstrous humanoids I statted out for 5E D&D and even made up some of my own, so feel free to poke around. I’ve had a fondness for monstrous humanoid races from the beginning of my roleplaying days. The Complete Book of Humanoids was always my favorite, with races like the wemic, the ogre mage and of course the dino people — saurials. I used this book over and over again playing second edition AD&D. And now Deck of Many has an free PDF designed for anyone who enjoys anthropomorphic characters for 5E D&D.
New D&D Campaign Setting — Guildmaster’s Guide To Ravnica
We got our hands on the new D&D campaign setting — Ravnica from Wizards of the Coast, aptly named Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica. It is a great resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike. It’s full of D&D monsters, subclasses, spells, backgrounds, and more. Ravnica is a fantastic setting. Different from any other D&D campaign setting. It’s a whole planet that is a city — a city run by guilds and full fantastical creatures and beings. Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica is Wizards of the Coast’s first official Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons mash-up.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power as a 5E D&D Campaign Setting
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power dropped on Netflix today and although I’m only a few episodes into season one’s 13 episode run I am hooked. Big time. It’s got awesome characters, a terrific fantasy setting, great villains and a wonderful story of heroism. So naturally, my first thoughts are how to turn this into a 5E D&D campaign setting and adventures. Let’s get into it and see what comes about on the fly.
The North Seat 5E D&D Campaign Setting from Ethan Hudgens
Often, I find myself wandering around different Discords and Twitch channels wondering what other gamers are up too. Recently I’ve been watching something on the UnMadeGaming channel and found Mike in a game being run by Ethan Hudgens, and I watched in fascination as they tried to kill a bear. As usual Mike had a rough night, but I found myself more and more curious about campaign setting. After the game I was chatting with the folks in the Discord channel and found out Ethan has his work up on DriveThruRPG presented by Encounter Roleplay (another great channel I strongly recommend you check out). After buying The North Seat primer and book one titled Hostadd, Our Home, I am completely intrigued by the story and I think you should be too. Today, we’re going to take a look at the primer and do a review of the books. Hostadd is a 5E D&D alternate campaign setting and style. After reading book one and the primer, I think you’ll really enjoy it so let’s take a jump in and start looking at things.
D&D Campaign Settings — Eberron has Come to Adventurers League and 5E
While at GenCon 2018 we got to sit down with Keith Baker creator of the Eberron — one of the official D&D campaign settings. Eberron was launched via a contest during third Edition Dungeons & Dragons. It was then updated to fourth edition D&D. Now on the DM’s Guild you can pick up the Wayfarer’s Guide to Eberron the 5E D&D conversion. On Sept, 21, 2018, Adventurers League started offering an Eberron Campaign. Normally Adventurers League is PHB +1. For the Eberron campaign it will be Player’s Handbook, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and bugbears, goblins, and hobgoblins from Volo’s Guide to Monsters.
If you aren’t familiar with Eberron it’s a arcana punk setting. It takes place after a 100-year war between what is now the five nations of Khorvaire. The catalyst for the ending of the war is a apocalyptic event known as the Mourning. It wiped out Cyre, one of the warring nations, and no one knows what happened, leaving behind a haunted wasteland. Nothing like the threat of an apocalypse to bring people together.
Khorvaire, Sharn and More D&D Campaign Setting Just a Wayfinders Guide to Eberron Away
Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players have been clamoring for it for years. Diehard fans have homebrewed content for it. Popular streamers like Maze Arcana have embraced it wholeheartedly. And now it’s here. Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron dropped at both the Dungeon Master’s Guild and D&D Beyond, opening the door to a whole new world of adventure. The book provides an overview of the core themes of the D&D campaign setting and rules to connect Eberron to current campaigns. The continent of Khorvaire and the great city of Sharn are covered inside, along with races like kalashtar, shifters and the megapopular warforged, dragonmarks, magic items, and a guide to further reading to learn more about Eberron.
New D&D Campaign Settings Coming in 2018
The Stream of Many Eyes ended less than 24 hours ago and Wizards of the Coast dropped even more news for upcoming fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons products this morning. According to an exclusive from Comicbook.com, “Dungeons & Dragons plans to announce several additional publications in 2018 which will add new D&D campaign settings for players outside of the Forgotten Realms.” The website spoke with Nathan Stewart at the Stream of Many Eyes to ask what lay ahead in 2019 for D&D and the brand director and executive producer revealed there’s still more to come in 2018 aside from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage!
Delving into the West Marches RPG Campaign Style: Better, Faster, Stronger
We continue this archiving of my experience running a West Marches adventuring campaign style and if you haven’t read the first article and second article, you really should for context. My tabletop roleplaying game background is one that heavily focused on narrative and story. With that being said, this new RPG campaign style is a bit of a departure. This article will focus on the portions of the West Marches formula that I fell in love with, the major changes I made and the additions I constructed to bring the game closer to what I consider makes an enjoyable campaign style.
Beyond the Fantasy Setting: Converting for 5E D&D Steampunk
Cogs. Steam. Cogs and steam. Have the itch to get some steampunk in your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons life? You’re not alone. Steampunk, and other niche genres derived from it, is a great addition to any fantasy setting. You can start your D&D steampunk experience by simply reskinning equipment and environments with all manner of odd baubles and whirring mechanisms or as deep as to tinker and toil brand new home brew to bring your steamy thoughts into life.
Only Human: Reskin D&D Playable Races for All Human Campaign
Many campaign settings strive for a more human-focused style but this often turns away many players as they see the lack of fantastic races as limiting character options. This is mechanically true if you get rid of all these races and do nothing to compensate for their absence. Often this is done through having cultural archetypes become replacements for distinct D&D playable races. Another way to accomplish this is to simply reskin character races as human cultures from your all human campaign setting. In this way, the standard assortment of D&D playable races are still available but appear and play like variations of humans.
Delving into the West Marches RPG Campaign Style: First Adventuring Sessions
We continue this archiving of my experience running a West Marches style adventuring campaign and if you haven’t read the first article, you really should for context. In an effort to not only gather my thoughts, but help you decide if this is an RPG campaign style you want to toy with, we are going to dive deeper into this experiment. That’s really what the whole thing has been and what I’ve stressed to my players: this is an experiment. I started running this with strict adherence to what I saw as the core tenets of the RPG campaign style. That’s what we’ll be covering here, my and my players’ reactions to what I saw as core of the prescribed West Marches adventuring philosophy and the beginnings of us altering that vision to our needs.
Delving into the West Marches RPG Campaign Style
About a year ago there was a notable resurgence of an old RPG campaign style dubbed West Marches within the tabletop roleplaying game community, especially in the Dungeons & Dragons circles. This happened to be the first time I had heard about this method of play and decided to take a stab at it. In this article, and others to come, I will be opening up about my experience of building a play area within a sprawling campaign, my reactions to the dozens of sessions, and what I did to make this campaign style something more in-line with my taste as a Game Master.
D&D Gets Post Apocalyptic with Hellscapes
There’s a huge variety of tabletop roleplaying games out there on the market, providing infinite variety in settings, themes and mechanics. Everything from primitive worlds to vast universes, quickstart guides to 500-page rulebooks, and low-brow humor to high-brow drama. But if you’re like me, and can simply never get enough Dungeons & Dragons, testing the limits of fifth edition D&D keeps you plenty satisfied with your RPG obsession. In the weekly live stream game I run on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel, we cobbled together our own gonzo Spelljammer setting using material from Hyperlanes. And now with Hellscapes, the follow-up project from the same creators, a new avenue is open to explore – post apocalyptic adventures using the 5E engine!
