Blast from the Past: Spaceward Ho!
This screen shot of a game of Spaceward Ho! looks rather busy, but don’t let that fool you. This is a relatively simple game.
Imagine you are in charge of an alien race that must expand across the galaxy. You send out spaceships to find new planets, then you have to rework those planets so they can support your species. Along the way you strive to increase population levels and to raise funds to keep expansion rolling. Then the worst happens and you run smack into another alien race doing the same as you. It’s war! And intergalactic war at that. All with ships that look like flying sharks, planets that wear cowboy hats, and special events that happen on holidays.
I’m talking about Spaceward Ho!, a computer video game that was first released in 1990 by Delta Tao Software. Originally created for Macintosh computers, this strategy game has earned its fair share of praise and a number of awards, and it was inducted into the MacWorld Game Hall of Fame. The game proved so popular it was reviewed not once, but twice in Dragon magazine, in issues 196 and 202. Even Wil Wheaton back in 2013 tweeted about his excitement when Spaceward Ho! became available for Android through GooglePlay.
Spaceward Ho! alive and kicking
Cyber Punk with Shadow Run, Steam Punk, and Dungeons & Dragons Another Weekly Wrap 4-24-2016
Hello and well met traveler of the internet, Nerdarchist Dave here with another weekly wrap. I’m excited to announce that we’ve conducted our first social contract this past weekend. Of course we recorded it. We also did our session zero for that game.
Scott Garibay will be the GM using the Cypher System to run a Shadow Run campaign. You can start looking for those videos this week.
Both sessions the social contract and session zero went well. They were Scott’s first foray into either. He came super prepared for the session zero which made for a great intro into Shadow Run and the campaign Scott plans on running. Most likely I’ll split the session zero into several videos since the whole video is over two hours in length.
Here is one of our 1st vids on this upcoming game-
Shadow Run Cypher System Smash-UP
Player Tips – Adding More Class to Your Class – Wizard
And with this we have a wrap. Last week I covered the warlock with the Player tips adding more class to your class. Today I finish the series with the last class in the players handbook: the Wizard.
Wizards come in all shapes and sizes. They wield the power to change the world. You will find many great heroes across the worlds of D&D that are wizards but you can probably find just as many if not more so as Villains. You see because they get to have all that power it takes a strong moral character to wield it properly.
So beyond the idea of power what is a wizard. A wizard is one who possesses a mind capable of memorizing many facts and symbols. They have spent hours and hours studying strange things that make normal people bored or sick. Some of their simple spells might not be too hard to memorize but as a Wizard unlocks new levels or power or spells those spells could be pages and pages worth of material that they need to commit to memory.
Board Games in Review – Pyramid Arcade, Looney Pyramids – Kickstarter
I know what you are thinking, It is not Monday what is up with that. Last week I went over the books you may want to buy for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Today however I am going to revisit one of my favorite board game options. Looney Pyramids.
If you have been reading a lot on our website, particularly the board games in review, you will have seen some of my articles on Looney Pyramids, Martian Coasters. Well if you were slightly enticed by these reviews here is your chance to go and grab an all inclusive box with 22 games to play with those awesome pieces.
It is available on Kickstarter right now with under a week to go. It is already back with two stretch goals left.
Some of the games have had the rules out for a while, while others are unreleased games only play tested with devoted fans.
In Role Play, Description isn’t Always a Good Thing
These are dice. They decide things in RPG combat, but they don’t describe the combat. Maybe we could learn from this.
The most dreaded words I can hear from a game master are, “Describe your attack.”
I’m not talking about describing complex character actions. That I understand. If the game master needs explanation on how one of my characters is trying to perform a certain act, especially an unusual one, that makes perfect sense.
No, I’m talking about the rather mundane, usually involving combat.
My character steps into a fight, swings his or her weapon. I roll dice. The weapon hits. I go to roll damage and …
Easy Roller Dice Company KickStarter Shout Out and Weekly Wrap 4-17-2016
Hello and well met traveler of the Internet,
Nerdarchist Dave here with another Weekly Wrap. First off I wanna give a quick shout out to our secret Facebook group The Company of the N.A.G. They held their first game in there, awesome! I hope to see more games going on in the N.A.G. Not only that, but great conversations about RPGs specifically 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons are happening daily.
We’ve got the game with fans coming up tonight 4-24-2016 @ 7PM Eastern Time.
Croak Hollow 5E D&D Play Through Live
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Warlock
Well my friends you have made it to successfully to another Friday. It is time for some more player tips, Adding more class to your class and this time I am going to tackle, arguably the crowd favorite class, Warlock. Last week we talked on the Sorcerer, and you can read about it here.
The warlock has the ability to do things all because a Faustian bargain made with a ‘dark’ power. Well that is stretching it a little. There is nothing that says it has to be a dark power and in fact with the Unearthed Arcana the pact of Light warlock looks like it is designed for good guys.
The sorcerer is born with power and the warlock makes bargain to get it so in that they are the same that they do not have a lot of time spent in there back story where they are trapped in some kind of training mode. So because of this they too have a lot of time free to enter a lot of story into it.
Buyers Guide- 5E D&D for Dungeons and Dragons for Beginners
Nerdarchy has been asked many times what do I need to play Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Before I get into that last week we covered non combat encounters.
Dungeons and Dragons RPG has been around for a long time. For as long as it has been around to be a player all you need is a players handbook and a set of polyhedral dice. You can grab the products here.
The players handbook has all the rules you need to play the game with loads of race and class options. With the many different races and a dozen classes there are more options then a person can play over the years.
So lets actually talk some numbers. If you count subraces you can technically play 24 different races. That is a ton of options. While there are 12 different classes in 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons they have options within each class giving you even more options and flavor. If you count all the archetypes available you actually have 40 choices in classes. So if you want to count alignment out of the equation that is potentially 960 mechanically different race class combinations. If you do add alignment into it is over 8500 possible combinations.
Blast from the Past: The Micronauts
[caption id="attachment_10572" align="alignright" width="434"] Space Glider, one of the original Micronauts, came with a removable helmet and a jet pack with wings that sprang open.[/caption] In 1976, just in time for the science fiction craze which would be kicked off by Star Wars, the Mego toy...
April Dungeon Crate Unboxing and Weekly Wrap 4-10-2016
Welcome and well met internet traveler,
Nerdarchist Dave here with another week in Nerdarchy. As always hoping you got your game on this week. Nothing like spending time with friends and family playing make believe whilst rolling funny shaped dice. This weekend was our 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game run by me. The game play should go up on YouTube next weekend.
Speaking of next weekend that is when you can expect to check out Nerdarchist Ryan’s live game play with the fans Sunday 7 PM eastern time 4-24-2016.
The following weekend we’ll be recording our session zero and a social contract for Scott’s Shadow Run game that will be powered by the Cypher System.
It’s that time of month when we get our monthly box of Dungeon Crate by we I mean Ted. So in our weekly wrap vid we unboxed this April’s Dungeon Crate.
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Sorcerer
Greetings and Happy Friday. Today we will delve deep into the Sorcerer class. Last week we did a player tips, adding more class to your class with the Rogue. If you missed it you can read that article here.
So first we look at the sorcerer and see what it really means to be one. A sorcerer is one who is blessed with magical power. It is something they are born with. A warlock makes a pact with a being of significant power. A wizard studies and learn with a tedious amount or work and memorization. A sorcerer just is magic.
That statement means several things. One we have to look at the origination of that power. As of now we only have chaos and dragons in the Players handbook and the storm from an unearthed arcana as sources of where this power comes from.
“It’s a TRAP!”… In Dungeons and Dragons 5e
“The party steps inside the cavern as their rogue gives the “all clear”. Suddenly they realize that the shadows on the edge of the room begin to move and out of the darkness they hear the sounds of blades being drawn! The party’s rogue steps forward and says, “Sorry guys. I’m just in it for the gold!” Outnumbered they are taken prisoner!”
“It’s a TRAP!” The oldest line in the book, and in my opinion one of the best ways to add drama to a story. Today I want to cover a few ways to catch your players off guard and force them to use their wits and skill to solve their conundrum instead of their brute force or magic items.
How Do You Capture Your Players?
Rethinking Finesse in 5th Edition D&D
A brief history of Finesse
A brief history of FinesseThe idea of using Dexterity to influence melee attacks in Dungeons & Dragons officially came about in Third Edition D&D with the Weapon Finesse Feat. Before that, all melee attacks were based upon Strength unless one’s DM came up with a house rule. For the first time, this allowed lighter combatants to stand toe to toe against heavier opponents, at least if wielding a rapier, dagger or a handful of other weapons.
Along comes Fifth Edition, and instead of making Finesse a Feat, it becomes a property of particular weapons (All in all, I personally consider this an improvement, though I have a quibble or two I’ll mention later). However, there is a subtle difference between how Finesse works in Fifth Edition than in earlier editions.
In Fifth Edition D&D, Finesse weapons use not only Dexterity, but can also use Strength. This might seem a minor difference, but it can be an important one.
The Fifth Edition Difference
The notion of Finesse as a Dexterity modifier for attacks seems to continue to hold, at least in my experience. Most wielders of Finesse weapons tend to be of the lighter sort, your Fighters with rapiers, Rogues with shortswords and daggers, etc. This makes a certain amount of sense because the majority of Finesse weapons are of the lighter sort and more fitting to agile combatants.
Nerdarchy the Adventurer’s Guild, The N.A.G, and Our Weekly Wrap 4-3-2016
Well met traveler of the internet,
Nerdarchist Dave here with another weekly wrap blog post. This past week we’ve finally launch The Company of the N.A.G. It’s an idea we came up awhile ago.
Since December we’ve been running monthly games with the fans. The Krinch that Stole Father’s Winters Day, Night Terrors, Maze of Mandoon, Enter the Crawl Wood, and we’ve got our next game coming the end of this month April 24th.
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Rogue
Today we are going to get sneaky and talk about rogues. If you missed last weeks article where we added more class to your class Ranger you can check it out here.
So how do you add more to class to your class rogue? Well other than cleric I find that it is entirely possible that rogues off the next in diverse possibilities. If you have been playing a while you might see it but you also might not. Most classes do not have the ability to offer so many possibilities across the alignments other than a difference in personality.
So let me offer up this player tips. Rogues exist on every side of the law and are your specialist within the D&D worlds. Now since they all get sneak attack it does not always make sense but you can play these concepts with ease. You want to exist as law enforcement? Sure you can go warrior but where are you going to get all you skills from? You want to go as an explorer, say an Indiana Jones? He is a perfect fit into the rogue class.
So the next time you are feeling like playing a sneak there is no need to look solely at the petty thief with his only goals being that of wealth. Look to the broader spectrum. You can play a character who at the surface looks boring and blends in with society but when it is time to put on the hat and whip fits in there just as perfectly.
