5 Random Tables to Avoid Boring 5E D&D Characters
Too many times I’ve begun a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign with the phrase, “You meet in a tavern…” and given zero thought to what the player characters might be doing in the tavern in the first place. I never gave thought to why the druid who doesn’t drink would be in the tavern at all. Last night after our game of Ingest Quest 2, Nerditor Doug, Nerdarchist Ted and I had a conversation about gaming groups and how to make D&D characters more interesting.
Embracing the Core Principle of Quest RPG Makes a Guide’s Life Fun, Rewarding and Easy
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted share their experience and a general overview of playing Quest RPG. I fell in love with this whimsical RPG a while back and when my turn in the hot seat came around on our Tuesday night games at Nerdarchy Live I couldn’t wait to Guide the group through creating a story with Quest RPG. In the video the guys discuss their impression of the game from the player side of things and mention their curiosity about the nuance of being the Guide — Quest’s iteration of a Game Master. I’m the Guide for the group in which they play and as a follow up to the initial thoughts I shared after first discovering this wonderful RPG I aim to do so right now. Let’s get into it.
Advancing Your 5E D&D Franchise with Acquisitions Incorporated
Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons’ campaign setting books do a masterful job providing all the tools and resources players need to create unique experiences within each particular environment including inspiration, encouragement and guidance for developing your own ideas. My favorite book of the bunch — Acquisitions Incorporated — expands tremendously on the concept of running a business included in the 5E D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. Let’s get into it.
Enduring the Elements of Weather Adds to Immersion in Your RPG Experiences
Get your ponchos and snow boots ready because we are about to get wet as we brace for all sorts of inclement weather. The one aspect of roleplaying games that always keeps me coming back for more is the opportunity for creativity. The opportunity to create worlds, characters and entire universes is really awesome. With these opportunities the weather is a factor I personally do not see frequently in games. Attention Game Masters — this is the perfect way to lead to a TPK. Just kidding about that, but adding weather elements is a way to spice up your game. Match the weather to the environment and see what happens. Descriptive weather can add to the story and immersion of your game without any additional mechanics added.
Show, Don’t Tell, Your Tabletop Roleplaying Game Character’s Fear
Salutations, nerds! I’ve got ideas about roleplaying to share once again and this time I’m touching base on fear rather than anger. These two in particular popped out at me because they’re the ones I’ve noticed people hesitate most to get in there and play out. Of course it’s easy to say “I’m afraid” but roleplaying fear without being a ham about it is a whole other matter. How subtly you can get away with roleplaying fear depends on the length of your campaign and a party’s awareness of one another. Without farther ado let’s get into some basic tips and tricks for roleplaying fear.
Animon Story is an RPG Love Letter to Pokemon, Digimon and Beyond
Animon Story is a tabletop roleplaying game love letter to fans of Pokemon, Digimon, Temtem, Monster Rancher and dozens of other monster raising games. This game lets players create a Kid Character and a partner monster and it’s everything I wanted in a Mon RPG! In fact I’d argue Animon Story is the best tabletop RPG you’ve never heard of.
Show, Don’t Tell, Your Tabletop Roleplaying Game Character’s Anger
Salutations, nerds! The topic of this post is roleplaying emotion in tabletop roleplaying games. Like everything else the depth to which you go into your roleplaying depends a lot on your group and what your particular campaign is focuses on but I know a lot of players who have a rough time finding the middle ground between simply stating, “My character is angry” and decapitating someone. Mind you, decapitating someone is fine if the situation calls for it. But let’s get into a few of the ways you can show your character is starting to get a bit ticked off before we get there.
These Shoes Were Not Made for Adventuring
One component many adventures fail to take into consideration is the importance of proper footwear. It is generally assumed you have boots on, which sure, in a general adventuring setting could work. But where are the details, the creativity? Ah, yes, I see you are wearing boots to your adventure. Please excuse me while I cheer with joy at the creativity level. (Joking. I take fashion to an entirely different level in RPGs.)
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.
What is Gamefound and Why Haven’t I Heard of It?
If you’re only into RPGs and not into board games there’s a pretty big chance you might not be familiar with Gamefound. Sure, there have been a handful of RPG related projects who have used their Pledge Manager tool after their crowdfunding campaign but until today they have never had an RPG on their platform to crowdfund. Before we dive deeper into things let’s look at Gamefound as if it were a character in your favorite RPG and look into it’s Session Zero.
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.
