D&D Ideas — 2023 is Here!

January 22, 2023

Dungeons & Dragons/ Editorial/ Free Nerdy Things/ Game Master Tips

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is random, because the live chat would of been on the holiday and we took off for the holiday. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up.

Spotlight

Out of the Maw is a supplementary book made by Coven Games for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

It contains:

Over 100 pages
Full of creepy creatures
Magnificent magic items
A slew of spells
1 Warlock subclass
2 adventures
Random encounter tables
Twisted tables
Amazing artwork
and more!

All designed around an entity from beyond the stars known as The Hungering Maw.

The book is still growing with one of the adventures still being worked on. The lead writer of the book, Chris will be hosting playtest sessions for 5 generous backers that will run along the Kickstarter itself before the adventure is added into the book.

Back the Kickstarter – Here

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

2023 is here and D&D life is uncertain as more and more leaks spring forth from the ship that is WotC. For now Nerdarchist Ted and I are playing 5e D&D. We’ll continue to talk about One D&D into the near future until we know exactly what is going on with D&D and OGL. We are talking and discussing what comes next for Nerdarchy if Wizards of the Coast completely loses their damn minds. If you are displeased with the direction D&D is going the best way to let them know is to cancel your D&D Beyond subscriptions. Money is the love language of corporations and if you want them to hear you, you’ll need to speak in their language.

We aren’t 100% sure what comes next. What we do know is WotC can take the OGL from us with One D&D, but they can never take D&D from us. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson gave those to the world and it’s out there for all of time in its various incarnations. So even if we don’t continue to create for D&D we will still probably use the resources we have at hand.

I am getting ready to prep some 5e D&D for this weekend. My Under the Dome game is coming up. We haven’t played since November, because our group takes December off from gaming. Scheduling is just too hard at that time of the year. Last session they rescued a thri-kreen merchant from a group of grimlocks and their umber hulk leader. Now I’ve got to figure out what to do with them next and also I think I’ll be down two players from the normal five. So far in this game we’ve done devil’s ride drag racing, a prison break, gladiatorial combat, chaos crystal scavenging, and even have made a deal with hag that resulted in one of the players giving birth to a psychic brain baby. With this current game I’ve been working really hard to have the goal of making each session a different kind of play experience and bounce between the three pillars of D&D; combat, exploration, and social interaction as much as possible.

Does anyone else set goals for themselves as GMs or Players? I love exploring the craft of gaming and trying to improve and get better at it even though I’ve been playing TTRPGs for over 30 yrs. I still learn from newer players and players with a fraction of my experience. I find often they have fresh takes and different lived experiences that allow me to grow as a player and DM.

One of my greatest epiphanies came from a new player, DM, and YouTuber at the time SR2Joker. Don’t even know if they still create content or not. But in a GM Tip video about getting the party together I heard the life changing advice of don’t. Let the players tell you the DM how they know each other and why they are together. That is just one example of being open to learning from someone with less experience than myself.

Back to goals in the current campaign as I mentioned I set goals for myself with every arc of the campaign if not every session run using a different theme.

My next goal for the year is to run Zoo Mafia Once a week for players I haven’t ran it for. You can sign up for the newsletter at zoomafiarpg.com and get the quickstart rules for free.

So what are your RPG goals for 2023?

From Ted’s Head

As we move solidly into 2023 there are lots of new things going on. I am not making any official New Year’s resolutions but I am trying to be better. Be a better person, make some changes in my life and always try to be a better player at the table, regardless of which side of the screen I am on.

With lots of people in Chaos over the OGL, there have been some changes and decisions being made. Instead of running Season 2 of Dungeons and Delving as originally planned, we are going to play another round of Zoo Mafia. This time with myself as the Game master or Zoo Keeper. Last time we were in Big City Zoo USA, but I think we need to change locations and start with a fresh start. So we will be gathering at Central City Zoo. I have begun to build out some ideas for this story arc, but it is going to be rough, or should I say Ruff. Going to bring in a Hound Dog Chief of police to be able to hound the mob, Will the players be able to evade the Hound dog or will they be locked up for their crimes?

Right now we are playing some Vast Grimm on our Tuesday night game, with the amazing Brian Colin of Creature Curation and Vast Grim CO-Creator as the Game Master. We are having an absolute blast with it, but it is not all Not -D&D. We are back with another Episode of Untraditionally Arcane on Jan 13th. After a 2 month hiatus we return with the players returning to their player characters with the familiars successful in their mission. Will they be able to crack the tablet code? What has happened while they were away? Watch Live on the YouTube channel Friday Jan 13th 8pm ESt or catch the VOD anytime thereafter. I am excited to rejoin this game and the cast of amazing people.

If you happen to be in the Cincinnati area or are going to be Next weekend, Jan 20th-22nd and you want to meet or even game with me, I will be at the Ice & Dice Convention. I plan on running some Zoo Mafia and some D&D as well as being on a panel. I hope you can come join me and have a great time playing some games and hanging out.

Be on the lookout for our Dungeon 23 video, which should be coming soon. As I have no interest in making a mega dungeon, nothing wrong with those, but I am making my way into my city: Swamp Gate. I am filling the place with some great organizations; rival adventuring parties, thieves guilds as well as threats to the city. At the time I am writing this, we are only 12 days in and already I am quite happy with the progress I am making on making my city a bigger and better place.

Zoo Mafia RPG

Go Wild, Do Crime
— and Don’t Let the Humans Catch You!

Join the Zoo Mafia RPG Family! We finished up the FREE Quick Start Rules this week and our Patreon supporters already sunk their teeth into them. If you want to get your paws on your own copy right now you can check it out here and to Zoo Mafia Newsletter subscribers. Find out more here.

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