Improve Your Writing by Forgetting About It
You’ve just finished writing your book or article or poem or what-have-you. You’re ready to plunge into editing and rewriting.
But hold on a second. Unless you’re on a tight deadline, it’s probably best to set aside your recent writing project for a while. Why? So you can come to the words on the page or screen with fresh eyes.
E12- Yr 1 Fear For Your Immortal Soul With Demons and Devils Dungeons and Dragons Monsters Podcast
For this episode of our podcast we will be visiting the lower planes. Demons and Devils have been a staple of Dungeons and Dragons since the very beginning of the game. They've created this interesting back drop called the Blood War where the Abyss and...
E 11- YR 1 Hunted By The Ultimate Apex Predator The Bulette Dungeons And Dragons Monsters Podcast
Welcome to another episode of Nerdarchy Year One Podcast. This time it's an all monster episode. We delve into one of my favorite Dungeons and Dragons Monsters the Bulette. These guys are so fearsome and terrifying creatures that have been in all the editions of...
Open Legend kobold character concept
Hey, guys, Professor Bill here, and I’m playing in the Nerdarchy “Open Legend” game on Friday’s at noon Eastern Standard Time. Actually, I’m the auxiliary player, so when someone else can’t make the game, then I show up last minute. Nonetheless, I want my character to be on point and I figured I’d share my concepts with you. And, of course, I made him with superheroes in mind.
Villains are the RPG Gift That Keeps on Giving
Greetings and salutations, Nerdarchy readers!

Jim Carrey as Count Olaf in the 2004 film, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.”(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I was watching a show on Netflix while I was deathly ill (or so it felt to me) and could not help but be inspired to write on a subject I seem to be gathering a reputation for. Namely, villains who inspire the protagonist to excel into feats of legend. You see, like the villainous Count Olaf, a good villain will be a thorn in the protagonist’s side for a long time and alter their lives on every level. The thing is, in gaming it is too easy to create a villain who is a one trick pony or is killed in a single fight. For this reason, I am going to list a few things to keep in mind and a few things to avoid all together. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
New DM Handbook: Rethinking Firearms
No, this isn’t a conversation about gun control. This is about introducing and including modern firearms into your Dungeons & Dragons campaign from the Dungeon Master’s Guide (264). With some help from Ty Johnston, who graciously aided me in my implementation for this article with his thoughtful insights and suggestions, I have something I think can be integrated into any campaign that wouldn’t explicitly forbid it by the nature of the world. I’ll go into further detail later when I’m going to be talking about ammunition, but gunpowder doesn’t even need to be introduced into your world to make it work. Artificers could infuse a cantrip-level spell of thunderwave, which we’ll call thunderblast, that can be activated by a mechanic in the firearm itself, which would then propel the ammunition without the need of gunpowder.
E 10- YR 1 Part DM Tip Part Favorite Character Class All Podcast
Year One Nerdarchy the podcast continues with episode #10. It's another mash up of two shorter videos to make a longer podcast. https://soundcloud.com/david-friant-458990853/e-10-yr-1-part-dm-tip-part-favorite-character-class-all-podcast Mastering Media for Inspiration In Your Tabletop Role Playing Game| Game Master Tips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOPoy6F2F44 Game Master Tips Mastering Media for Inspiration In Your Tabletop Role Playing...
“Shadow of Your Former Self” – Out of The Box D&D Encounters #47
Ask any Dungeon Master what the most dangerous thing in a Dungeons & Dragons game is, and I’ll bet the majority will come back to you with “the players.” Players can range in power and abilities more than any monster and will always find the cracks in any system and crawl through. Players will think outside the box more often than not and will work around problems you might think they need to face head on. I can remember playing “Zelda: The Ocarina of Time” forever ago, and the most frustrating encounter was fighting a shadow mirror image of yourself.
Sourcebook Review: Recovery Dice Options
In Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons, healing works a little bit differently. Each class, as usual, has a certain type of hit die that you can roll to get more hit points at higher levels. What isn’t quite so usual is the idea that you have a pool of these dice you can use to heal yourself during short rests. The reason for this is to allow parties to keep moving longer without having to camp inside dungeons. Spend some hit dice, recover your health, and keep moving.
Recovery Dice Options ([amazon_link asins=’1545236488′ template=’PriceLink’ store=’nerdarchy-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’d4c37b80-209b-11e7-8ec2-75f53789e3bc’] from Amazon) is about alternative ways to use these dice. Conceptually, the idea of being able to use your recovery dice for things other than recovering hit points is intriguing. After all, you are quite literally using your own life force to fuel some of what you can do with this, and it is taking a resource that is, otherwise, very limited, and giving it more purpose.
E9- Yr 1 The Basics Of Building And Running Interesting Encounters Game Master Tips Podcast
Year 1 of Nerdarchy the podcast continues with episode number 9. This time we go through encounter design for fantasy style RPGs like Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons. We are about half way through Year 1 at this point perhaps a little less. Our YouTube...
RPG Character Creation: Unveiling the Psyche through D&D
The first thing we do when playing Dungeons & Dragons is character creation. Without the characters, there is no story; we know this. In order to create a character we must first decide which character to make, why that character, and then the details. In order to do this we have a great opportunity to take clay and make a mold out of our own ideas and desires. You may have heard that the way a person views life, people and situations is based off his or hers own experiences? Well, this is one of those times where we get to use all the tools life has given us and make something with it. Once we take hold of this art form, the opportunities for character building and world building take off. Each character creation has its own unique flare and destiny that drives the adventure to its perfect and final crescendo.
The Name Game, Part III: Last Names, Titles and Sobriquets
I’ve talked about naming characters before in a previous article (the second one was about places, in case you were wondering), but I neglected to cover last names, so that’s what we’re going to talk about right now. Mind you, my advice before regarding making up names still applies if you want something super fantasy sounding like “Arthainas” or “Cerdoth,” but this one is all for the more naturally occurring names.
E8- YR 1 Nerdarchy Presents Alex Augunas From Everyman Gaming A Third Party RPG Publisher Podcast
Welcome once a gain to Nerdarchy the Podcast Yr1. This our earliest gaming content from YouTube ported to sound cloud as an audio podcast for your listening enjoyment. Nerdarchy Presents Alex Augunas From Everyman Gaming A Third Party RPG Publisher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llSNfVxIEng Nerdarchy the News Letter- http://nerdarchynewsletter.gr8.com/ Before hanging with...
The TitansGrave role-playing game show is a top-notch production
Returning readers might make me eat crow for the RPG encounter planned for this session. D&D is hiding in shadows and moving silently this week while the Fantasy Adventure Game Engine sets the stage for Geek & Sundry’s TitansGrave: The Ashes of Valkana. There is a huge variety of live streamed and recorded RPG play sessions out there. The merits, value and impact are debatable among many, but not me – I enjoy them as entertainment and believe they add value to the hobby. For those reasons, I’m taking a closer look at my favorite programs and sharing not only what makes each program fun to watch, but what gamers can take away and bring back to their gaming tables.
With tabletop RPGs, sometimes you just want to play the damn game
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="456" class="zemanta-img"] Role-playing gamers at the Burg-Con in Berlin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] Here at Nerdarchy, you could say our bread and butter is talking about tabletop role-playing games, most commonly Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. We have videos and articles and a forum...