D&D Ideas — Psionics
How to Have a Session Zero for Your Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Hail, and well met! In continuing one of my favorite pieces I’ve written for the site here. I’ll be elaborating more on the concept of starting a tabletop roleplaying game campaign once you’ve solidified your premise, which is a fun exercise in and of itself. Nerdarchy has mentioned this in several of their videos concerning Game Master advice, and I’ll be giving you guys my thoughts on the matter. That’s right! We’re talking session zero.
Why You Should Gift Adventure Modules This Holiday
It’s that time of year
For gifts, merriment, and cheer!
Suppose you have a nerd in your life?
What should you get them? Maybe a knife?
Realize Your World with Fantasy World Creator
Fantasy World Creator product line by Gamestart Edizioni
The “World Creator” product line dedicated to Fantasy RPGs, is designed for all players who want a “physical” setting on which to play but without having to spend too much on miniatures or expensive plastic scenarios. The Fantasy World Creator core box contains more than 500 elements including game tiles, character and monster tokens, fast environments and status tokens. The two expansions, proposed in the first reprint in March, add accessories for players (such as interactive equipment cards) and a rewritable book dedicated to masters, the Black Book, containing maps and tools to keep track of every aspect of adventures and characters. Any element is dry-erase rewritable, ensuring total customization.
An Invitation to the Winter Court
Salutations, nerds! They’re having a fancy party in Fairy and you the patrons have been cordially invited. Today I want to talk about the December Patreon content going out on the Dec. 5. Surprise! It’s a Christmas Party in the Winter Courts. Within you will find some cool party favors like masks of glamour to wear to the festive party and a dueling cane, a few fierce pixies and constructs, some fun denizens of the Winter Court and 7 new Winter Spells, as well as a map and small adventure at this Winter Court Soiree.
The Gingerbread Gang Joins the War in Christmas Village
Are you looking for holiday themed adventure? Would you love to send the Mouse King, Krampus or evil snowmen at your players but having a hard time finding just the right miniatures to use? Please allow me to introduce to you The Gingerbread Gang, part of an amazing assortment of awesome miniatures to add to your tabletop roleplaying games through the War in Christmas Village line.
Khorvaire Schmorvaire — This is the Coolest Thing About Eberron: Rising from the Last War
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discussed an overview of Eberron: Rising from the Last War for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The Eberron campaign setting remains hugely popular, since it was first introduced for third edition D&D. Everybody loves warforged, and artificers, and dragonmarks and elemental airships. But my favorite thing about Eberron only shows up in a few paragraphs at the end of Chapter 2: Khorvaire Gazetteer. Y’all can have Sharn, Breland, Droaam and the Mournlands. I’ll take Xen’drik.
Heroic Literature and Rogue Blades Foundation
When the dice come out for a tabletop roleplaying game, many of us like to play a hero. Often we gamers think of our characters as heroes and we like to have them perform heroic actions. Sure, sometimes it can be fun to play the bad guy, but at its heart of hearts, tabletop RPGs were originally based around the notion of heroes working together to overcome evil and obstacles. If one looks back at the roots of RPGs, the original Dungeons & Dragons was much based upon epic fantasy, a genre of literature teeming with heroes of one stripe or another.
Today, Rogue Blades Foundation (RBF) seeks to promote heroes and all things heroic within literature. What is RBF? A literary publisher of heroic fiction and heroic-related nonfiction.
Specialized Gear Like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted shared their insights on the best tier 1 spells for the brand new official artificer class for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The artificer in 5E D&D has undergone a lot of playtesting, with several versions presented through Unearthed Arcana. With the release of Eberron: Rising from the Last War the artificer firmly found a place as the first official new character class for 5E D&D outside of those found in the Basic Rules and Player’s Handbook. But it’s not only players who get to have all the fun with the new artificer class. One of the new creatures in the book gives me a great idea for an ongoing bounty hunter campaign inspired by The Mandalorian and there’s a Challenge 0 entry with a lot of potential. I’m looking at you, magewright.
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.
Tier 2 Sorcerer Spells and Unearthed Arcana Metamagic in 5E D&D
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted shared their insights on the 5 best 3rd-5th level sorcerer spells in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. These are the spell levels a tier 2 sorcerer gains in 5E D&D. This popular series breaks down the spell access spellcasters gain in each tier of play. For sorcerers, Dave and Ted focus on the Metamagic options available to the class and how they affect spell choices. Since Wizards of the Coast recently shared a playtest document with new sorcerer Metamagic options, I thought it might be useful to take a look at Unearthed Arcana — Class Feature Variants and see if any of the new stuff there has an effect on this discussion. So let’s get into it.
D&D Ideas — Bennies
Welcome once again to the weekly Nerdarchy Newsletter. This week we discuss using benefit systems in roleplaying games. But first a reminder that our Out of the Box: Encounters for 5th Edition Kickstarter Pledge Manager is open. You can claim your Kickstarter rewards, pledge late or buy your badge to Nerdarchy the Convention here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy, by signing up here.
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.)
Out of the Box Partner ArcKnight Hosting Free Game at PAX Unplugged
Hello gamers! Will you be attending PAX Unplugged this year? If you do you will have a chance to check out some amazing things. Nerdarchy will be in attendance walking around. You might catch us at a panel or two. And we’re guest hosts for the live Nolzur’s Marvelous Tutorials event with RealmSmithtv. We’re looking forward to meeting up with our Out of the Box partners like Norse Foundry and ArcKnight too. They’ll both have booths on the floor and it will be great to visit with them.
