DriveThruRPG Sponsors Nerdarchy and Saves You Money on RPG Stuff
Nerdarchy is proud to announce a terrific sponsorship from DriveThruRPG – the largest RPG download store! Since 2001, DriveThruRPG has been a premiere online marketplace for digital and print-on-demand roleplaying games. Even more, the expanded family of sites makes comic books, card games, fiction and more available with ease. With DriveThruRPG as a sponsor, we can now pass along great deals to the Nerdarchy community.
Are Tabletop Games Destined To Go Digital?
I know, I know – the very title is blasphemy. Tabletop games in digital form have been tried before, and while they can be perfectly enjoyable, they kind of miss the point. These games are about gathering together, enjoying a tangible game board (with pieces and/or cards), having a few drinks together, or even dressing up for the event. It’s about community and friendship as much as the game itself, and there’s a depth of experience there. For crying out loud, it’s even become the foundation for Stranger Things, which is one of the most popular shows on the planet right now!
Map Your Combat with an RPG Battle Game Mat
Maps.
Many Dungeons & Dragons players begin their journey into fantastic adventures through the allure of maps. Carefully constructing dungeon complexes on trusty graph paper, building them with digital tools like Pyromancer’s Dungeon Painter Studio or drawing them with a Wacom tablet like ENnie Award winner Elven Tower remains a vital part of the hobby for countless players.
Want More 5E D&D Monsters? How About Limitless Monsters?
Limitless Monsters Kickstarter from Limitless Adventures Unleashes 100 D&D Monsters!
Do you like monsters? Of course you do. Whether you’re a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master on the lookout for exciting new creatures to challenge adventurers or a player whose character seeks fame, glory, gold and heroic deeds, monsters are one of the most amazing parts of the game.
Fortunately for you, there’s still time to head over to Kickstarter and back Limitless Monsters – the latest campaign from Limitless Adventures. (Campaign ends on Oct. 28). With two other successful Kickstarters to their credit already, this campaign is already funded with content written in advance to ensure delivery of high-quality material on time.
Matt Mercer & Friends Prove Every Roll Matters in Gen Con GM Improv Showdown
Gen Con 50 was a records-shattering celebration of gaming culture with countless seminars, panels, events and of course games! Nerdarchy made the pilgrimage to Indianapolis, where Nerdarchist Dave and Web editor Doug met fans and colleagues, met awesome industry influencers and forged new friendships with gamers of every stripe.
Nerdarchy also had the honor of livestreaming a very special event, immediately following the live Maze Arcana game that Nerdarchist Dave played in with DM Ruty Rutenberg and players Satine Phoenix, Amy Vorpahl, Amy Dallen and Andrew Armstrong.
ThinkGeek Week-to-Week: Geek Gifts and Nerdy Swag 8.13.17
ThinkGeek creates unique products to stimulate the imagination. Everything from apparel, home and office accessories, gadgets, collectibles and more are curated and shared to help fuel your geek core. (Nerds are also more than welcome to shop with ThinkGeek.)
The wondrous and cool nerdy swag from ThinkGeek lets you express your passions, connect with fellow enthusiasts or find the perfect geek gifts for the geeks in your life.
The Nerdarchy staff and our friends from Save or Dice would like to share items from ThinkGeek with our awesome fans and community.
Using D&D 5E Unearthed Arcana Class Options for Worldbuilding
Limited Edition cover for Xanathar’s Guide to Everything from Wizards of the Coast.
Due to the recent announcement D&D Beyond will fully launch on August 15, my mind has turned back to Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (or perhaps forward, since as of the writing of this article it’s still four months away from its release).
I’m really excited to see the new character options that are going to be available. Obviously we have a strong idea of some of it thanks in so small part to Wizards of the Coast’s Unearthed Arcana. There are some good ones out there. And there are some failures, too.
But no matter how good or bad, I’m not a fan of letting my D&D players use the class archetypes. The reason is very simple. Unearthed Arcana is subject to change because it’s test material.
The designers knew going into it what they had needed work. Partially because a lot of them did some really cool things, and really cool can either be largely ineffective or overpowered.
A D&D Player Needs All the Stuff, a D&D DM Needs Even More Stuff!
In this ArmorClass10.com-sponsored video Nate the Nerdarch and Nerdarhchists Dave and Ted approach the idea of bookkeeping for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons or any tabletop roleplaying game from several avenues. Pregame preparation, character maintenance and efficiency during play are some of the topics discussed.
The standout aspect for me is preparing for a game session by making sure you have all the materials you need. My group meets to play D&D or whatever game we get into at a local coffeeshop. There’s a private room we reserve in the back to while away the evening rolling funny-shaped dice and speaking with funny-sounding voices. Every session requires a mental checklist before heading out the door to account for all the necessary stuff. And then a double-check. And then a quick assessment of more stuff that might be needed.
Improv is Critical in RPG Storytelling
Improvisational theatre in progress. [Image by Aude Vanlathem/www.audevan.com]
This process repeats for two to four hours, or until there’s a good stopping point. Even Game Masters who prefer a more structured style are going to improvise more dialogue than they’ll use their actual prepared material.
This does not even include all the improv for the inevitable unplanned encounters, or how the GM has to improvise describing the outcomes of rolls – especially in combat. Technically you can just say what you’re going to do and exchange numbers across the table to determine success, and not describe what’s being said or done, but what would be the fun in that?
Open Legend RPG character build: Aetherficer Bunny
You might be familiar with our Open Legend game “Aether Skies – The Beginning of the End.” Doug, Professor Bill, Ty and Megan have already done character builds for the game, and those articles were fascinating reads, so now I’m finishing up the series by stepping back onto the website and showing what is behind the curtain with my character.
Open Legend RPG is an open source roleplaying game designed by Brian Feister, who sponsors our weekly live game that streams on Fridays at noon Eastern on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. The core rules for the game are available for free online here.
It feels weird writing an article again when I have not done so in so long. I might dive into stuff currently going on in the game or even stuff that has not been revealed yet so you have been warned.
Our live Open Legend game’s aether parasites invade!
This article comes to Nerdarchy from a fan of the Open Legend RPG-sponsored “Aether Skies – The Beginning of the End” live game that streams Fridays at noon EST. YouTuber AJ Kinney was inspired by an encounter in Session 6 of the game and sent in this in-depth look into one of the fantastic creatures Nerdarchist Dave challenged the party with during a long airship voyage – the aether parasite. AJ writes from the perspective of someone living in the world of Zanterra where the game takes place. A blend of fantasy, steam punk, eldritch horror and espionage, the populace lives on floating cities high in the sky. The surface is a desolate, dangerous place, if there even is a surface! Theories abound about what lies below, for no one in memory has traveled there. Or have they…?
Without further ado, let’s get to it and see what AJ, er, Professor Kalthzar Quin Terril has to say.
Gaming Superstitions
In an effort to combine the Nerdarchy YouTube channel and the website articles, I am drawing inspiration directly from this ArmorClass10.com-sponsored video. The subject at hand is gaming superstitions. To begin with let’s define the concept, shall we? Superstition is defined as “a widely held but unjustified belief in supernatural causation leading to certain consequences of an action or event, or practice based on such belief.” With that in mind, let’s delve into a few I have seen, heard of, or been told about.
Open Legend RPG character build – Kryzikk
A kobold from the fifth edtion Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual.
Hey, guys, Professor Bill of Comic Book University and I guess I’m up next to talk about my character for the Open Legend RPG game on Fridays at noon Eastern on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel. I think that, by now, it’s pretty obvious that I have an affinity for comic books, so I took my inspiration from the comics to get in my character’s head. Open Legend RPG is an open source roleplaying game designed by Brian Feister, who sponsors our weekly live game. The core rules for the game are available for free online here.
Open Legend RPG character build – Roz Rakheta
Open Legend character build from concept to gameplay
As a relatively new staff writer for Nerdarchy.com the opportunity to join my colleagues William C. (aka Professor Bill from Comic Book University), Megan R. Miller, Nerdarchy.com editor-in-chief Ty Johnston and Nerdarchist Ted in a weekly live stream game run by Nerdarchist Dave is phenomenal.
Not without trepidation I quickly agreed. The game is a wholly new system for me, for one, and for another I’d never played a tabletop roleplaying game online before – let alone live streaming!
