All About Bags!
One of the most essential pieces of equipment you just have to have for adventuring gear is a bag! Where, oh where are you going to put things if you do not have the bag space? Do you have special treasures or items you need to conceal and keep close? What type of bag do you have it in? There are so many different types so let’s dive right in.
New Possibilities Abound with 5E D&D Alternate Ability Scores
Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons has taken the world by storm and it makes a lot of sense. The creation of the Open Game License (lovingly referred to as the OGL) opened the floodgates for creators to use a core set of rules for developing everything from supplementary materials for the tabletop to video games. This popularized many core aspects of the system and created genre staples and today I want to challenge one of those 5E D&D staples and offer my own take.
Adding the Eldritch Foundry to your D&D Game
I wanted to create a cool location to add to your Dungeons & Dragons game and the fine people over at Eldritch Foundry asked us to share how awesome their minis are so here is a great way to do both. Eldritch Foundry makes great miniatures. I first met them at Gen Con and they were already fans of Nerdarchy. Eldritch Foundry is a web based program allowing you to design and print 3D miniatures for your tabletop roleplaying games. There are loads of ever expanding options for use in creating fantastic miniatures of your own design.
TTRPG Stock Sessions — The Time Loop
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going focusing in on Groundhog Day. Not the movie but the concept of being stuck in a time loop as a tabletop roleplaying game stock session. This episode comes up in a lot of places. The first one coming to mind right now being the Supernatural episode where the brothers Winchester die repeatedly and have to live the day over. The time loop TTRPG stock session comes with a warning label — It’s frustrating to deal with. The time loop is a concept you want to make sure players are okay with before bringing it to the table. All the advice you see about how parties need clear goals is really hard to pull off in a situation like this so proceed with caution. After you’ve cleared it with your TTRPG group here are the things you have to hammer out.
When Fight Club meets Cobra Kai Your RPG Character has to Fight
I take a lot of inspiration from everywhere both as a player and Game Master for my tabletop roleplaying game experiences. Reading novels, watching movies and TV present so many elements that have already been done so well — why not copy some elements to improve your own RPG experiences? I binged all three seasons of Cobra Kai over the weekend and man, what a show. It got me thinking about all the elements about fighting in a typical fantasy RPG. With so many urban adventures to play with it is no wonder fights can break out in the middle of the streets. If you plan to incorporate these kinds of groups, clubs or organizations focused around fighting in your games you could very much take inspiration from Cobra Kai and the movie Fight Club and make up rules and a place where these fights can go down.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Artificer Brings Arcanapunk to 5E D&D
Several iterations of the artificer have appeared in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. There’s been three Unearthed Arcana versions, Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron, Eberron: Rising from the Last War and now Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. The artificer was introduced during 3.5 D&D with the Eberron campaign setting. Eberron brought what we at Nerdarchy like to refer to as arcanapunk to the D&D game. If you are a fantasy purist the artificer and arcanapunk might not be for you. Maybe you are like me and have gotten kind of bored with vanilla fantasy and want to spice it up a bit.
Unleash 5E D&D Horror with Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Creatures of the night can rejoice (in a dark and brooding way) when Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft releases on May 18. Arguably fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons’ most popular adventure Curse of Strahd pulls adventurers into the Mists of Ravenloft where they contend with supernatural horror in Barovia. The campaign reimagines one of D&D’s most beloved settings and Wizards of the Coast revisits the dark realm along with many others in the newly announced 5E D&D book.
Changing the Theme of Your TTRPG Campaign Midstride
Salutations, nerds! I’m taking a brief break from the Stock Sessions series to write about consent in tabletop roleplaying games. I don’t mean tricky things like gore and sexual content, which gets addressed a lot and is super important. But another side of the issue gets overshadowed quite a bit — content and expectations. Consent means everyone is on the same page about generally what’s going to happen in the campaign. Put simply if you’re playing a pirate game it’s reasonable for players to assume it’s going to stay a pirate game and not suddenly become a knightly crusade.
TTRPG Stock Sessions — The Heist
Salutations, nerds! I’m back with another tabletop roleplaying game stock session to dissect and analyze. Today I’m taking a closer look at one of my personal favorites — the heist. There’s something valuable held behind closed doors in a secure facility. Something TTRPG characters need, want very badly or have been hired to retrieve. This archetype is part of the reason why I love Shadowrun so much as a setting. The game is 80% heist jobs, which by the way are great because they leave plenty of opportunity to tackle the adventure from whatever direction the players approach. A heist can be done via a lot of roleplaying, lying to people to get into position or purely through stealth. Characters can go loud and blast their way in or save this option for a last resort.
Wanderhome RPG Warms Your Heart with Charming Whimsy
A deep and abiding affection for tabletop roleplaying games and they experiences they facilitate dwells deep in my heart. So when I recently read an article about RPG releases in 2021 I didn’t make it further than the second one on a list of ten. Described as a game where players “live a peaceful life as gentle woodland creatures in an upcoming fantasy RPG about pastoral lifestyles” Wanderhome captured my whimsy right away. The Kickstarter for Wanderhome launched in August 2020 and funded in three hours and continued on to spectacular success. The game’s creator Jay Dragon shared some time and insights about the game and I’m excited to pass them along with my own enthusiasm for this terrific RPG.
RPG Elements Abound in Disney’s Frozen 2
Nerdarchy talks about always seeking inspiration from everything but I was not expecting so much fuel for my imagination in Disney’s Frozen 2. I have always loved Disney’s animated movies and I might be behind the times on this one but as a father I can enjoy watching these movies with my kids. We just finished watching Frozen 2 and even for a movie about an ice enchantress set in a fantasy world there are loads of things I am ready to incorporate right into my own tabletop roleplaying games and my own personal magical RPG setting.
WizKids Warlock Tiles Inspire TTRPG Encounters in the Marketplace
Tabletop roleplaying game adventures in town can emerge from many places. How much fun can you have in the marketplace? Given all the possibilities of events to unfold in an outdoor marketplace it is the perfect set up for fun and imaginative game play. Outdoor stalls make for ideal places for hit and run tactics by assassins or basic street thugs. Many marketplace features distract the eyes and block line of sight. A marketplace also incorporates elements for characters and creatures to interact with. Look at all the remarkable segments of chase scenes in movies and TV shows. It can all happen in a marketplace.
Discover Incredible Magic Items Inside Vault of Magic from Kobold Press
The industrious kobolds of Kobold Press launched a new Kickstarter and not surprisingly they’re knocking it out of the park once again. This time our friends over at Kobold Press crack open the Vault of Magic for 5th Edition to uncover over 800 new magic items created by leading tabletop roleplaying game designers and Kobold Press veterans bringing wild surprises to your games.
TTRPG Stock Sessions — Fancy Party
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going to take a look at another stock session for tabletop roleplaying games in which we’ve got the biggest balls of them all! This series is going to be doing some party crashing. Or possibly attending legitimately with an invitation depending on what flavor you prefer. A stock session for a TTRPG is reusable scenario a Game Master can plug into campaigns that still feels different because of the specific characters involved and this one can be a good form break for parties who tend to do a lot of combat and traveling around and who tend to be excellent roleplay fodder. Most fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons parties spend a lot of their time in dungeons and on the road so seeing them all dressed up can be interesting. As before I’ll cover some of the decisions to make before running the Fancy Party TTRPG stock session.
TTRPG Stock Sessions — Flashback and Memory
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going to examine the concept of stock sessions for tabletop roleplaying games. In particular I’m thinking about the idea of delving into a character’s memories and exploring their backstory a little bit in a flashback! A stock session for a TTRPG is reusable scenario a Game master can plug into campaigns that still feels different because of the specific characters involved. Think of it kind of like how a good chunk of anime have a beach episode. That’s what I mean.
