Making a Low Magic Campaign for 5E D&D Work
Hail, and well met! Today I’ll be exploring something I’ve recently been asked about an awful lot lately through Discord — the concept of a low magic campaign in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The idea of a low magic campaign has been around for a while. It’s talked about enough in the D&D community for the creators of 5E D&D to discuss it from time to time. It’s mentioned in the 5E Dungeon Master’s Guide and was even mentioned as a possibility for 5E, back when it was still D&D Next, and the creators could only speculate on what 5E D&D was going to look and feel like even with the tremendous amount of playtesting for the new edition.
Dreams and Nightmares for the Lord of Dead Dreams in 5E D&D
When we revamped the Nerdarchy Patreon in early 2018, one of the biggest changes we implemented was our Patreon rewards structure. Previously there were individual support levels giving access to more of our monthly rewards. We had Mage Forge, Monster Menagerie, Friend or Foe, Terrible Terrain and Lost Lore rewards. These digital packages included new magic items, monsters, NPCs, encounters and player options like spells, backgrounds, races and subclass options respectively. We took a big step and combined everything into a single product, giving supporters at the $2 level and above early access to our new Fifth Edition products before they get added to Nerdarchy the Store. We launched this new initiative with Empusia, Curator of Souls. And in celebration of International Tabletop Day we put it in the store for free. (It’s still there!) We’ve continued to create full color digital products every month since. And while our design skills have improved since then — both in terms of game design and layout — one of my favorites remains the Lord of Dead Dreams. This was our followup to the free launch title. Since it’s been about a year and a half since creating it I thought it would be fun to look back and see what new ideas come to mind.
Playing an Anti-Hero Like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
With The Mandalorian Chapter 4: Sanctuary streaming now on Disney+ we are halfway through the first season of this amazing series. Thankfully season 2 is already ordered. Between chapters of the show here on the website we’ve been exploring and developing ideas for a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons bounty hunter campaign. For each installment we’re taking inspiration from various books created by Nord Games. In my home game group I’ve been putting these ideas into practice along with players in our 5E D&D bounty hunter campaign and so far we’re all loving it and having a fantastic time. After watching Chapter 4: Sanctuary I knew immediately which Nord Games product would help next. Ultimate Bestiary: Revenge of the Horde feels like the perfect fit. So let’s get into it and see how the book will help ramp up the action, tension and drama of our bounty hunter campaign for 5E D&D. (Still no spoilers.)
Conquistadors Take to the Field from Hero Forge!
You know me as the guy who loves miniatures. If you have been here before then you know having options with your minis is the best way to go. Hero Forge is a custom miniature creation company where you can design a mini to your own specifications. You can then have your custom miniature printed in the material of your choice or purchase the STL file and print as much as you like on your own 3D printer. And with the holidays in full swing, Hero Forge offers the perfect way to share the joy of creating custom miniatures with all the adventurers in your life.
Orcs Invade Hero Forge!
Hero Forge offer loads of options for use in creating miniatures for your favorite tabletop roleplaying games like fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. Whether you use it to make your player characters, your special NPCs or your mighty villains, no other miniature service out there is able to give you the variety or flexibility as Hero Forge. With their newest release we are seeing a direction offeing players some cool options and giving Game Masters out there supreme customization with humanoids. They now have orcs available on the site. So if you want a killer Orc Headhunter as a player character or a mighty chieftain for the adventurers to fight or take down, we now have the capability to craft and print this amazing staple in tabletop gaming.
Dangerous Combat Like the Mandalorian in 5E D&D
When season one of The Mandalorian ends following chapter 8, I’ll be a sad Disney+ viewer. I subscribed to the new streaming service only to watch this show. Incidentally The World According to Jeff Goldblum keeps me coming back, too. Even though I’ve got to wait one long week between chapters of The Mandalorian, I’ve been keeping the bounty hunt going at the gaming table. Right around the time the show premiered I’d gotten a copy of Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery from Nord Games. Never a greater wretched hive of scum and villainy had I come across for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. A 5E D&D campaign immediately formed. The players loved it, I loved running it and we’re keeping it going. Nord Games helped created the seedy underworld with Skulduggery and engage the players through interesting encounters with Wandering Monsters. After Chapter 3: The Sin, I think Critical Hit Tables for Players and Critical Fail Tables fit the tone for this dangerous and complicated, Mandalorian inspired bounty hunter campaign. (Still no spoilers.)
Are You Ready to Assimilate the Vargarian Collective in 5E D&D?
Eberron: Rising from the Last War released! For those who aren’t familiar, Eberron is an arcanepunk setting with a brand new book for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Arcanepunk as a genre focuses on magic with a twist. In the case of Eberron, the twist is magical technology, AKA magitech! Magitech is an amazing way to inspire fantastical wonder and alien mystery into your world. By assimilating (no pun intended) elements of science fiction into our fantasy we build something new, something… more intense that hits the grandiosity of fantasy while still amping up the science fiction suspense. However, there’s something else I want to talk about when it comes to 5E D&D narrative, but rather than introduce it in the traditional sense, indulge me while I make a point through narration.
Your Custom Card Deck Helps Dungeon Draw Build a Creator Community and Marketplace
I’ve been watching the promotional video and pouring over the details for the Dungeon Draw | RPG Cards Kickstarter. My mind reels with the possibilities. Cards have long been my favorite kind of accessory for tabletop roleplaying games. Many of my favorite types of games are card based in general. Curating a deck of cards to enhance your own RPG campaigns sounded pretty cool. Custom cards, even better. Creating your own RPG cards whole cloth, now we’re getting somewhere. Becoming part of a creator community and marketplace for designing and sharing your custom cards, decks and artwork for others? You really are cooking up a little scheme here, aren’t you Dungeon Draw?
Please Allow Me…
Hail and well met! I’m Sophie, and I’ve been invited to contribute to this esteemed community. I know — big deal. So, let me tell you my qualifications. Well, to start with, I’ve been playing hobby and tabletop roleplaying games since 1977. I started Dungeons & Dragons with the basic “blue box” edition back in 1978. That means I have dice older than some of you. Probably most. However, it’s not just that I’m older than the Nerdarchy guys, I also spent 13 years working in the gaming community.
Random Encounters like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
When it comes to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons I tend to run a lot of one shots and shorter campaigns. I like this scenario just fine because I’m always finding inspiration for new campaigns and gaming with new friends. After watching chapter one of The Mandalorian last week my first thought was wow! This Disney+ show is incredible. And my second thought was this would make an awesome 5E D&D campaign. A party of bounty hunters navigating the underbelly of scum and villainy sounds like tremendous fun to me. I found a lot of inspiration from Nord Games Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery for a bounty hunter campaign. Now with two chapters of The Mandalorian available for viewing, we’ll match it with a second chapter developing this idea. So let’s get into it. (And don’t worry — still no spoilers!)
Nerdarchy the Convention is the Ultimate Way to Stay Nerdy
Have you been keeping up with Out of the Box: Encounters for 5th Edition? We experienced phenomenal success with our first Kickstarter, and because of that we were able to grow as an entity in so many ways. Not the least of these is hiring me as a full-time Nerdarchy content director, at least in my opinion! We’re incredibly excited about the book we’re putting together. Seeing all the extraordinary art being created to bring all 55 encounters to vivid life on the pages, the evocative maps and all the bells and whistles like custom Nerdarchy dice really make us proud of this project and we cannot wait to get these things into your hands and on your gaming tables. But we’d be lying if we didn’t say we’re overjoyed about our ultimate stretch goal — Nerdarchy the Convention!
DMs Guild has Eberron Covered for the D&D Community
In just a few days Eberron: Rising from the Last War releases and we’ve been abuzz around Nerdarchy HQ. We’re all excited for the unique, compelling campaign setting to get official fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons support. But there’s a whole lot of content out there already for the Eberron campaign setting, and thankfully the Dungeon Master’s Guild collects it all for the D&D community. A lot of players today might not have discovered the hobby back then, so there’s literally a whole world for them to explore. Adventures and resources from Eberron’s past offers a tremendous resource to inspire 5E D&D games. And at the moment, the DMs Guild is offering Eberron titles for 20% off. They’ve also curated bundles of classics and other select titles for 70% off!
5E D&D Worldbuilding for a Revolution Plot: Part 2
Salutations, nerds! Last week we talked about setting up for a revolution plot. We explored reasons your power hasn’t been overthrown by revolutions already, and if all that is true, how to motivate your PCs to go ahead and overthrow them in the first place. Today, we’re going to talk more about 5E D&D worldbuilding and what you have to knock out from under your ruler’s legs to disrupt their power base. In other words, the stuff likely to actually happen in the campaign, at the table.
Bounty Hunting like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
If you’re like me and what I suspect are tens of thousands of other nerds, you fired up Disney+ today and watched episode one of The Mandalorian. And since you’re here I’m going to assume you’re also a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons player. Taking those two things into account, it can’t be far from the truth that a lot of us were not only blown away by the premiere of this new streaming show and our first thought was “this would make an awesome bounty hunter 5E D&D campaign!” And I just got a copy of Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery from Nord Games so I’m going to use this Game Master’s Toolbox book to help. If this sounds cool to you, I’ll give you a promo code for 20% off the book and everything else in your cart from Nord Games when we’re done. So let’s get into it. (And don’t worry — no spoilers!)
Add Your Voice (and 5E D&D Content!) to the D&D Community
Every single day the Dungeon Masters Guild adds new titles. At the time I’m writing this 14,184 titles stock the DMs Guild digital shelves and for every adventure, player option or Dungeon Master resource, somewhere along the line the author published their first one. This past week one of my favorite people in the D&D community to game with, Dylan Ramsey, published their first title. Dance of the Deathless Frost expands on Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus with a whole new way to approach the 5E D&D adventure with new locales, NPCs and magic items, including vehicle stats for the Baba Yaga’s hut plus a chance to tame the demon lord Kostchtchie. If you’re a Dungeon Master, chances are you’ve created your own content along the way too, right? Maybe you adapted adventures from earlier editions, created new subclasses for your campaign setting, focused on an element of the game to expand on or a million other things. Consider taking the opportunity to add your creations to the DMs Guild! Players and DMs are always on the lookout for new stuff to add to our games, and maybe yours inspire someone else.
