New DM Handbook: In-Game Games
It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about fully theoretical implementations. There are some things that have been based on observations, general concepts, tropes, and other literary tools, but it’s been a long time since I’ve talked about something I’ve absolutely nothing to base my ideas on. That’s what I plan on doing. I’ve set up the groundwork for my players for the future, but I haven’t had a chance to implement it.
Today, I’m going to be talking about in-game games. I can’t be sure how often they get used in most campaigns, but being that the way the game’s solution for contests is to roll ability checks against each other (PHB 174), I can’t imagine that it happens all that much. The biggest problem with this, of course, is that players that have some form of gaming set as a tool proficiency are now being penalized against the other more useful ones, which is where my solution comes in.
E5- YR 1 Building Your Tabletop Role-Playing Game Campaign Game Master Tips Podcast
Nerdarchy the Podcast continues. From our Year One of Nerdarchy videos going up on YouTube and now being converted to a podcast. We continues delve into another game master tips. This before we really began talking about 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. Nerdrchy gaming discussions were...
Once upon a time, book stores were like treasure maps
In today's world, readers can find just about any book they want. If a particular book, fiction or non-fiction, is not available at one of your local book stores, you can always head online. The most obvious place online to find a book is Amazon, but...
E4- YR 1 DMing On The Fly And Rewarding Character Backstory Game Master Tips
Time another episode from year one of Nerdarchy on YouTube. In this podcast we once again merge several of our Game Master Tips episodes into one podcast show. https://soundcloud.com/david-friant-458990853/e4-yr-1-dming-on-the-fly-and-rewarding-character-backstory-game-master-tips Running A RPG Game On The Fly| Winging it,When Players Go Rogue| Game Master Tips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwKdHjaI61g A lot goes into...
How to Keep Players Invested in Your Tabletop Game
Dungeons & Dragons game in IV Getxo Comic Con. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Most of us come to the game to play it. Your players want to get involved in your world and your story, Game Masters, or they wouldn’t have come in the first place. Even so, though, you know the difference between a game people come to play out of habit and one they spend time away from the table thinking about. And let’s be honest, you really want that latter one, don’t you?
Of course, it takes more than just a couple of tips and tricks to run a great game, but having some of the right tools can’t hurt you. So let’s talk about a few ways to keep your players wanting more.
Secrets From The Dungeon: Roll Playing The Ego With Dungeons & Dragons
My last week’s article covered a brief character creation ideal, which was to create your Dungeons & Dragons character based entirely off your own ego. I think for most people, most characters are made this way, or at least partly. You might add features or traits that you have, eg. your character suffers from an untamed shaking in one hand that won’t stop due to real life PTSD that you struggle with. Or perhaps your character wears a certain handkerchief in one pocket as a symbol of a past event that changed him, and he wears it to remember. While these small details are mostly forgotten along the character creation path, to really explore those details can add a lot of fun and/or humor to your game play style.
Are fewer people reading today?
Print is dead, right? Maybe, maybe not, but either way, that doesn’t mean reading has died.
Is reading dying or dead? It would seem so. Every few months there’s an article online or in the newspapers or magazines about how people don’t read nearly as much as they used to, or that fewer and fewer people pick up a book. But I’d argue otherwise. I think more people are reading than ever before.
E3 YR 1 Game Master Tips- Setting Player Expectations And Player Choices
Nerdarchy Year 1 is our way of dipping our toes in the podcast waters. There have been many fans requesting audio files from us. So here are Monday thru Friday we are releasing our longer YouTube videos or several shorter videos pieced together as gamer...
The C Team innovates live streaming roleplaying games
As promised last week, I’ll be taking a closer look at the myriad online roleplaying game programs that I enjoy to offer some reviews and analysis as well as any tips or pitfalls therein. The criteria for me as a gamer, fan, audience member and for the purposes of this series are the entertainment value and the takeaways I can bring back to my own game group.
Most of these shows (okay, all of them on my initial list) are Dungeons & Dragons games. In keeping with that spirit, I’ll rate where each program has a Success or Failure along with where it scores a Critical Hit or a Critical Fail, and wrap up with a Perception Check for miscellaneous observations and standouts as a viewer.
ThunderCats Ho! Sword of Omens D&D-ized
As a follow-up to Nerdarchists Dave and Ted’s video where they D&D-ized the legendary Sword of Omens from the ThunderCats cartoon, I’ve been tasked with taking a shot at the crunch for this incredibly powerful artifact. You won’t need Sight Beyond Sight to watch that...
Alignment In Dungeons & Dragons Discussion Nerdarchy Podcast YR 1
Our next offering from Nerdarchy the Podcast consists of four videos from a little alignment series Ted and I did. Huh What Is It Good For? Part 1| The Dungeons & Dragons Character Alignment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94yjxfYwISM Useless Crutch Or Badass Tool? Part 2| Character Alignment For Dungeons & Dragons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr_IjxLkU-U&t=1s Can...
Great Tabletop: RPGs It’s All About Having Great Players At The Table Nerdarchy Podcast YR 1
What is the Nerdarchy podcast?
We are taking all or most of our videos from year one of Nerdarchy on YouTube and converting them to a Podcast.
Many fans of Nerdarchy have requested just audio versions of our videos.
So slowly but surely we will turning those videos into audio files and placing them here along with the original video.
Avatars in your Game
I’m not a huge fan of the murder hobo; I don’t know too many people who are. Every so often you have the option to really stick it to the murder hobo by saying the peasant he just killed was the arch priest of the Beggar God. That’s one of my personal favorites. And the next peasant that’s killed is the arch priest of the rival church of the Beggar God. That’s my second favorite.
New DM Handbook: My Bag of Holding
D&D Beyond has been on my mind as much as I can afford, as any English major in his senior year can. I recently had a conversation with Scott Garibay about it, too. I can’t afford to do a lot, because I have so much on my plate right now, but I’m really excited by what it’s going to mean. Don’t get me wrong, I think what they’re doing already is good. It’s a useful tool that’s a very efficient version of a lot of things already out there. I know we’re only at the first stage of the beta, and there’s a lot more to come, but that’s the part I’m looking forward to. As it stands, there aren’t really any solutions out there that I like.
“Pay to Play” – Out of the Box D&D Encounters #46
Sometimes you just need to lighten up and have fun. A series of high-tension encounters filled with danger and worry can certainly establish the right tone, but sometimes you just need to laugh or have fun. It is my hope the following encounter will combine...
