Screenwriting Broke My Writer’s Block
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Screenwriting saves the day
I began writing fiction about thirty years ago, unless you count a couple of short novels I wrote back in fourth and sixth grades; those novels would be called fan fiction today, one being about James Bond and the other about Don Pendleton’s character The Executioner, Mack Bolan. But other than those early novels, the first real fiction I wrote was a short story called “Entering Jupiter.” I wrote that story for an astronomy class in college; the professor allowed me to do so instead of writing a paper.
Origins 2017 – game convention from a new perspective
Attending a game convention is not new territory for me. Fresh off of Origins 2017 in Columbus, Ohio, the gaming juice runs at an all-time high and I’m pumped to plow forward with gusto on as a fan of tabletop roleplaying games as well as a savvy up-and-coming Nerdarchy aide-de-camp.
My first game convention was, coincidentally, Origins Game Fair back in the early 90s when civilization was at its peak. I’ll never forget inadvertently joining a world championship tournament of Diplomacy, having never played the game. For about an hour I had my opponents thinking I was some kind of savant, making bewildering moves they’d never seen. Then they realized my cluelessness and my stint as a global leader quickly ended.
Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #5 – Spider Mine
Inspiration for encounters can come from a number of sources. Common ones are books, movies and other literary or performance arts. This latest one comes from one you might not expect – an old game. Minesweeper. In this case, the field isn’t a logic exercise to reveal where a mine or other explosive device might be. Instead, we will use a natural creature – a spider.
Going Out In a Blaze of Glory: Thoughts on Character Death
Hey nerds! You may already know some of us met up this past weekend at Origins, and I’ve got to say it was a blast. I was so excited to get to meet Nerdarchist Dave and Staff Editors Ty and Doug in person. Getting to hang out together was really awesome, and one of the things we got to do was play in a one-shot together, DMed by Kobold Press’s Stephen Rowe (who was coincidentally just in a daily live chat).
Let me lead off by saying it was pretty amazing and I have legitimately never been that into a combat before. But something else happened. That was my little brother, Max, experienced his very first character death.
Origins Game Fair 2017: A Nerdarchy report
Like a lot of people, I recently attended the 2017 Origins Game Fair convention in Columbus, Ohio. Like a lot of people, I spent days upon days walking and milling about the multitudes of rooms and halls that made up the convention, from the Exhibit Hall to the Gaming Hall to the Mayfair Room, the Catan Room, the Wizards of the Coast Jungle room, etc. Unlike a lot of people, I did not play any games at this year’s Origins; it wasn’t that I wasn’t interested, but that I did not have the time as I had other goals in mind, though often those goals were related to gaming. Still, I got to see a lot and meet a lot of people, as well as purchase plenty of goodies, so I thought I’d share some of my experience.
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.
Speak With Dead #00: Raising Questions
Salutations nerds! I’ve got an idea I think we’re all going to have a lot of fun with, but I’m going to need your help to make it happen. The idea is to do an advice column like “Dear Abby,” but from the point of view of a necromancer, and more for entertainment than for actual advice.
Diversity in Dungeons & Dragons
Behind the scenes in the Nerdarchy writers’ chat group, there’s been some discussion about creating a repository of pre-generated character builds for our readers, new players, or maybe even for Dungeon Masters to have on hand to pass out for their games. One of the chief requirements we decided on (if we end up doing it) is to make sure that we’re “woke” about character options. While I’m not a fan of the actual term, I fully agree with the sentiment. I’m a strong proponent of diversity. People can easily turn their backs on something because they don’t feel they can identify with anything in it. Not having something they can connect to is very isolating. This is more than understandable. It’s very human for us to want to feel like what we do is reflective of who we are. As a society, I believe we don’t do as good of a job as we can to be inclusive, but I can’t control society. What we can do is to be more inclusive in our everyday lives, and including as much diversity as we can in Tabletop RPGs is one way we can do it.
D&D Was Never a Game, It Was a Hidden, Complex Tool
Greetings Nerds, Geeks, and Gamers of all kinds. Nate the Nerdarch here. This is my first time doing this so please bear with me. It has come to my attention that an article on Nerdarchy.com, the article that was previously in this link, did not meet Nerdarchy's...
Nord Games unleashes Revenge of the Horde on your D&D game
Ultimate Bestiary: Revenge of the Horde from Nord Games offers an awesome resource for incorporating a variety of monstrous races into your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game. At nearly 200 pages, the book presents creature options for bugbears, gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, ogres, orcs and more. The book is available through Nord Games in PDF and hardcover options, for $15-45. In addition to the D&D version, there is a Pathfinder edition, too.
Nerdarchists Dave and Ted and Nate the Nerdarch backed the Kickstarter campaign, and you can watch their Nord Games-sponsored flip-through video above. In addition to the hardcover book, they received the reference deck, all five encounter builder decks and 258 pawns featuring the new creatures from the D&D book.
Nerdarchy Talks Shop With TL Frasqueri-Molina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDHBR90gfu8 If you like Nerdarchy’s daily livechats (or even if you haven’t seen much of them and are curious), you absolutely do not want to miss out on watching Nerdarchist Dave’s interview with TL Frasqueri-Molina. She is the Senior Enterprise Project Manager at Legendary Digital Networks...
IDW D&D Comic Book – Frost Giant’s Fury
Hey, guys, Professor Bill of Comic Book University and by my name, you can probably tell that I kind of like comic books. I review a lot, and one of my current favorites is one that may appeal to every Nerdarchist. The comic in question...
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.
Out of the Box D&D Encounters, Series 2, #4: Calliope
I have personally looked through a Monster Manual and told myself that a particular monster could not be used to its potential without me being accused of being a “dick Dungeon Master.” One of those creatures is a Harpy. They may have a low intelligence, but they’re smart enough to use the Luring Song to cause grievous harm to a target and then fly away if things get too tough. If Harpies were ever paired with something to take advantage of a target incapacitated by the Harpies’ song, then things could get pretty rough in a very short while. This will lead to bad player-DM relations in a very short span of time, especially if the source of that Charm effect keeps leaving and flying away at range. Harpies need to fly away because they have a very soft AC and are not that formidable in combat. They rely on numbers and evasion.
Blast from the Past: Signs you’re an Atari 2600 geek
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="350" class="zemanta-img"] An Atari 2600 four-switch "wood veneer" version, dating from 1980-1982. Shown with standard joystick. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] You still have your very first, original Atari 2600. And play it often. You know how to make games for the Atari 2600. ...
