A boy needs a home… (How to find people to game with in a new town or city)
“At fourteen, in 1985 a boy woke up in a new town, in a new apartment. That day he met another boy living in the next-door building who had the same interests. The new boy introduced him to Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition and that’s all she wrote. Sense then I’ve moved quite a few times and each time I found myself looking for new friends and people to game with.”
The times have changed and over the years finding like-minded people to game with became both easier and harder to find in some aspects. I’m writing this article to hopefully make things a little easier rather than harder for us nerds.
Recently I just moved from Houston Texas back to a different side of town in Phoenix Arizona. After the move I got things in order and sat down to looks for a place to go be nerdy. Fortunately in this day and age we have FaceBook and Google so things are just at our fingertips and we don’t have to listen in on people’s conversations at school or join clubs to find places to express our hobby.
The first thing I want to let everyone in on is the FaceBook search engine, and how it helped me. For starters Wizards of the Coast has been kind enough to help people put together FaceBook pages for most major cities for the Dungeons & Dragons 5e Adventure’s League. This format of D&D 5e lets players play pre-constructed campaigns and sends their results in to WotC to be posted for all to see. On the WotC website is also a “Store Finder” that shows stores how have WotC recognition and host those events on a regular basis. This is a good way to find gamers or at least to find people who play RPGs in general.
WotC Store Finder: http://locator.wizards.com/
FaceBook: D&D Adventure’s League (Phoenix)
In gaming as in literature, the villains make the heroes
Can you name this villain? Here’s a hint: He’s a certain Canadian mounty’s worst nightmare.
What is a hero without a villain? Not much, I’d say. Oh, a character can still be the main actor of a tale, the protagonist of a story, but without that villain, the hero can’t really be heroic.
Some might argue there are tales of heroes without a villain, such as survival stories in which the hero bests the elements to save the day, or maybe a romantic tale in which there is only a misunderstanding between love interests though eventually one or both of them proves their heroism by overcoming that misunderstanding. To that I say the villain is still there, but is not so readily seen. In the survival story, the elements themselves can be the villain. In the love story, if there is not an out-and-out villain, the misunderstanding that brings about conflict can be the villain. Sometimes the villain is the hero’s own inner struggle.
Game Master Tips – Using Long Rest, Short Rest and Random Encounters
Nerdarchist Ted here and Nubz had an emergency and I am here to fill in. If you missed his article on the World of Darkness, you can check it out here.
In Dungeons and Dragons the mechanics have built in the use of Long Rest and Short rest as a way of getting back hit points as well as abilities. Some classes are built on needing these while others function just off of their hit point pool.
So because of this need to get abilities back the party is going to want to take a breather now and again. If you have marched, exercised or fought hard for any length of time you know how important it is to actually sit down and try to catch your breath.
Game Master Tips – Random Encounters
South Jersey Geek Fest Discussion, Gaming Announcement, and Weekly Wrap 3-27-2016
Hello and well met travelers of the internet,
Nerdarchist Dave here with another week of Nerdarchy and we are kicking it off with a fan pic. What’s not to love about cats and RPGs? Be warned send us your pics and we might just share them with the rest of the community. To be fair this one was shared publicly on Facebook so that makes this one open season for sure.
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Ranger
Last week I delved into adding more class to your class with the paladin. You can read about it here. Today however we are going deep into the forest with the Ranger. The ranger is one of my favorite class as I am an outdoors kind of guy. Perhaps Because Strider was so powerful that D&D in early editions made it hard to be one but what ever it was the fact that in 2nd Edition you could not just play a ranger made it an impactful class.
With the last several iterations of Dungeons and Dragons they did away with stat requirements to qualify for a class and 5th Edition too away all restrictions. So now those choice classes are ripe for the picking.
So ranger, the class that typically is more at home in the wilderness than in a city. So when making a ranger character there are questions you need to ask. What does it mean to be a ranger? Did you grow up in the wilderness? Did you leave civilization because the people there lied to you and harmed you a deep way? Do you have a connection with nature you do not understand? How did you get started along this career path?
Will There Ever Be 6th Edition Dungeons and Dragons
I’m nerd and I like to speculate over nerdy stuff like what imaginary character can kick what other imaginary character’s ass. Recently we did just one such speculation video. But this time it was about if a sixth edition Dungeons & Dragons will come out to kick the current edition of D&D’s ass? Sorry 5E D&D. To be honest we probably never would have done the video but our friend and guest Scott requested it. Being D&D nerds it wasn’t very difficult to get us talking about our favorite tabletop roleplaying game. That is not quite an accurate description of the video. It was more about if we think they’ll put out a new edition of D&D and how long before it happens.
Blast from the Past: Revolt on Antares, a TSR minigame
Cover of the Revolt on Antares rules book, a minigame by TSR, original publishers of D&D.
TSR will always be remembered as the company that created Dungeons & Dragons and kicked off role playing games, but it’s sometimes forgotten as the publisher of other types of games besides D&D, such as Revolt on Antares.
For a period in the early 1980s, microgames (also known as minigames) were all the rage, no doubt started by the success of Steve Jackson Games’ Car Wars and Ogre. What were microgames? Smaller, relatively simple games that usually came packaged with all necessaries, such as dice and maps. Usually these games were not role playing games, but war games or some other tabletop board game.
Jumping on the bandwagon, TSR released a number of its own microgames, such as Vampyre, They’ve Invaded Pleasantville!, Saga and more. Revolt on Antares is one of these games.
Revolt on Antares, the game
Released in 1981, Revolt on Antares is a simple war game for two to four players that takes place on Imirrhos (also known as Antares 9), the ninth planet of the Antares solar system. Three scenarios are available for play, the main one allowing a player to act as leader of a rebel force against another player who is the leader of the Terran empire. The other two scenarios involve fighting back against an alien invasion, or a war between multiple royal houses of Imirrhos.
Player Tips – Adding more Class to your Class – Paladin
I am back on track with the series. Last week I drifted away talking about The Conan RPG you can read about it here. And the last article in adding more class to your class was the Monk. You can read that article here.
Adding More Class to Your Class – Paladin!
So today’s’ player tip on adding more class to your class is the mighty Paladin. Of all the classes that Dungeons and Dragons have offered over the years I feel that there is something special about the paladin. In Second edition you needed ridiculous stats just to take a level of paladin. Back then I had many dreams of playing one but rarely if ever had the stats to make the requirements.
Junk Goblins and The Inspiration Train
How do you make the old seem new again in your Dungeons and Dragons game? This can be a huge struggle for a Dungeon Master. Any and every Dungeons and Dragons player worth his D20 knows a goblin or kobold when the DM starts describing them.
How often as the Dungeon Master have you gotten half way through your monster description when your players are calling out the monster name and maybe even the page number of it’s Monster Manual entry?
So how do we fix this in our games to avoid it? One things is to shake up your game a bit and let yourself be inspired from unlikely sources. Come with me my friend along this inspiration train of thought that has lead us to the Junk Goblin.
Blast from the Past: Board games of my youth, from Monopoly to JAWS
For some while I’ve been kicking around the idea of writing a Nerdarchy series about games and toys from my childhood and early teens years, which were the 1970s and early ’80s. Board games, action figures, early role playing games, and other of my youthful pastimes would be the subject matter, hopefully raising some nostalgia for older readers and maybe a few chuckles from younger ones who get to see our old-fashioned playthings.
This is the first of the series, which will be fore-titled “Blast from the Past.” Not every Nerdarchy article I write will be part of this series, but enough will that it makes some sense to note the difference. Also, these “Blast from the Past” articles might delve into different subjects, possibly movies and other nerdy things from my younger days, but the focus will be upon games and toys.
This week I take a look at the board games I played the most. I hope you enjoy.
Guinness Game of World Records
March Dungeon Crate Opening, Gaming with Nerdarchy Details, and Weekly Wrap-Up 3-13-2016
Hello and well met travelers of the internet.
Nerdarchist Dave here with another weekly wrap-up post. We’ve got two gaming sessions in the can from this weekend and our Star Wars gaming session is planned for next weekend. This means we should be putting up three weekends worth gaming up back to back for you fine nerds.
This upcoming Thursday the 24th of March Nerdarchist Ted will be running his adventure for the fans. You’ll be able to check that out later in the week.
This will also be our fourth 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons game with the fans. There will be more fan games coming up one every month.
This week in our weekly wrap up video we did an unboxing of the March Dungeon Crate.
Conan RPG on Kickstarter – Role Playing Game with d20 version
Nerdarchist Ted here and I am taking a small break with my Adding more class to your class series to bring you some last minute information. If you missed last weeks article about the monk you can check it out here.
Today I want you to look at the kickstarter for an amazing RPG that is coming to life. Conan. It is a household name, everyone, even those not into fantasy know this name brought to use by Robert E. Howard. Now you to can play the table top RPG and there is an amazing deal over on Kickstarter ending very soon.
Conan RPG as brought to us by Robert E. Howard
5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons Feat Trees- Do We Dare Go There
Prestige classes, feat trees, and endless multi-classing are things that got quite out of hand in previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Do we dare bring them back? Recently a fellow Nerdarchist and myself had a discussion pertaining to creating feat trees and the possible ramifications.
Our specific discussion was about adding an Improved Ritual Caster Feat to the game. Check out the discussion in the video below.
Dating Sites for Nerds: Because We’re Lookin’ for Love, Too
Romeo and Juliet, painting by Frank Dicksee
Card games, tabletop games, role playing games, they’re all group activities. Even video games often nowadays are played with others, either online or on the couch. Still, for some, gaming of all sorts can be a lonely business if they don’t have that special someone to share it with.
You hear about those online dating sites, but they don’t seem right for you. You check them out and they’re full of beautiful people. Or creeps. And everyone seems to enjoy the same things. Walking on the beach. Walking in the park. Walking the dog. There’s usually lots of walking. And then there are the people who have their who life planned out, or the people who have a laundry list a mile long of all the things their prospective significant other absolutely must have.
Codex Alera – Awesome Fantasy Setting – Great Source of Inspiration
Nerdarchist Ted here and today I am going to share one of my favorite book series with you. Last week I opened up the Star Wars Beginner Box Force and Destiny. You can read that one here.
Many of you may not be into novels, but I strongly recommend it. Not only do you get to see a whole new world but you typically get to see plot and character development. Whether you are a player or a DM it can help your role playing as well as keep you in the fantasy setting when you can’t get the group together. It is also a great source of inspiration.
In case you are planning on reading this there will not be any major spoilers here but I will talk a little bit about the series and some of the minor things that happen over the course of the series so you can just go get your copy and stop reading or continue with this little warning.
