Tabletop Takeaways from World of Warcraft’s Torghast, Tower of the Damned
Salutations, nerds! I’m going to take a break from our usual tabletop roleplaying game related content to talk to you for a moment about a massive multiplayer online RPG — World of Warcraft’s new procedurally generated dungeon Torghast, Tower of the Damned. Over the past couple of weeks I have been in there almost every day. Mind you it’s incredibly difficult and hard content is usually anathema to a person like me. I don’t even want to do the regular dungeons because it takes me a while to get the mechanics down. There’s just something different about this one.
Nerdarchy’s Top 10 of 2020
The turbulent year of 2020 draws to a close. As the year ends Nerdarchists Dave and Ted reflect on the high points from 2020. All things considered this past year was a good one for Nerdarchy with growth across the board from our YouTube channel (we’ve got two now!) to right here on the website and more. New friends were made and new games were played. Our creativity and curiosity led us to try lots of new things with our own content and we’re proud of the continued positive growth we’ve experienced.
How Hogfather and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Offer Hope for 2021 and Beyond
Recently on our second channel Nerdarchy Live Nerdarchist Dave and Nerditor Doug talked about comedy in tabletop roleplaying games. Since I’ve written my own comedic fantasy book and the genre niche is my jam I simply had to talk about it. Talking about comedic fantasy reminds me of one of my favorite movies of all time, which also happens to be a holiday favorite, Hogfather. Or as I like to call this movie — How Death Saved Fantasy Christmas.
Tabletop Roleplaying Game Expectations in 2021
The year winds to a close and reflecting on time passed naturally comes to mind. Later this week you’ll see Nerdarchists Dave and Ted’s thoughts on 2020 and Nerdarchy’s highlights from the year. I’m also looking ahead to 2021. For a lifelong nerd and now full time nerdy content director focused on tabletop roleplaying games I spend a lot of time thinking about the hobby professionally and personally. When I look ahead to the future of the TTRPG industry what I see is tinted with shades of what I hope emerges along with what I can assume is a reasonably informed view. So let’s get into it.
Taking Stingy Jack from 5E D&D Warlock to Patron to Creature and Beyond
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take inspiration from an old Irish story for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Stingy Jack — sometimes called Jack o’ the Lantern — is a mythical character associated with All Hallows Eve and in fact the Jack-o’-lantern may be derived from this story. In the video they discuss the legend and come up with several different ways to incorporate this figure of folklore into 5E D&D games. I came up with another one too. In this scenario Stingy Jack is neither a creature to fight nor an NPC to engage with. Not exactly anyway. So let’s get into it.
Managing Unexpected Sidekicks in 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! Today we’re going to talk about what happens when your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons party decides to adopt an NPC you didn’t expect them to like. (AKA the thing I do that is the bane of every Dungeon Master I have ever had!) If it makes you feel any better though I’ve had my share of players doing this to me as well. I have some wisdom to share on how to keep track of these 5E D&D character and creature sidekicks and make sure to keep things straight as you go.
In Defense of Chaotic Neutral Alignment in 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! Today we’re going to take a moment to talk about alignment in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons because let’s be honest, it’s just one of those bottomless topics there are a thousand things to say about. No, really. I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about alignment, what it means and how people play it in 5E D&D. this conversation like so many other conversations about alignment started with the words chaotic neutral.
Implementing Fashion Style into Tabletop Roleplaying Games
An element often under reported within tabletop roleplaying game character creation is fashion. I know you are going out to save fair maidens, rid the country of treasure stealing fire breathing dragons and stop evil liches from raising armies of undead. Mighty fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons adventurers are busy and may think they have no time for fashion but this is another element of roleplaying that can bring your game to the next level. When you think about 5E D&D character design a character’s fashion style should be taken into consideration. Fashion can illuminate so much more about your character without spoken words leaving an impact on other players, NPCs and the Dungeon Master.
D&D Ideas — Shops
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is shops, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of shops in Fibble’s Fantastic Familiars a comical fellow seeks to sell a chaotic Oculider, which threatens to destroy his shop. All kinds of other creatures are here too. An innocuous visit to an exotic pet store reveals creatures with mysterious and mystical stories or fantastic fibs along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. Find out more about it here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.
Taking Advantage of Metaphorical Ruins for 5E D&D Characters
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted excavate ideas and concepts about ruins in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. If I’m honest after our recent live chat on the subject and accompanying newsletter I’m tapped on fresh ideas about ruins in 5E D&D at the moment. Fortunately I recently binge watched a terrific series and came up with a sideways approach to the topic I think can be useful for players and Dungeon Masters alike. So let’s get into it and see what we can takeaway from Marvelous Mrs. Maisel when it comes to ruins for our 5E D&D characters and campaigns.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Dagger Master
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted sharpen their blades and dissect a dagger master character build for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The Quick Toss maneuver and Thrown Weapon Fighting options available through Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything create a new opportunity for a 5E D&D character equally deadly in close quarters combat and at range with daggers and other throwing weapons. The Dagger Master Character Build Guide cuts to the quick with a narrative thread and mechanical progression from 1st to 20th level making it useful for any tier of play. Plus as always we created an NPC creature version for Dungeon Masters too. So let’s get into it.
Minions of San-Tac-Laus to Help Deliver 5E D&D Holiday Cheer
About this time last year I made a holiday beholder for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons based on the chubby bearded man who is a symbol of the holiday season. But I knew the story would not end there. After all if the jolly man in the red has his staff of elves who really look and act like really short gnomes then San-Tac-Laus should have his own set of 5E D&D minions to work with as well.
Transforming Worldbuilding Lore into a New 5E D&D Paladin Sacred Oath
Over the past several days I’ve been doing a challenge for 30 days of worldbuilding and one of my viewers shared how she is building two worlds at once with this challenge. This inspired me to do the same. So while I have been building a comedic fantasy world through YouTube videos and exercises I’ve also been building a dark fantasy world called Aulmn for my second project. Part of worldbuilding is developing your own lore surrounding… well, everything. My launch point for this dark fantasy was a history of oppressive spellcasters leading to magical revilement. Then I started thinking about how spellcasting classes fit into the world and everything just snowballed from there. Recently Nerdarchists Dave and Ted talked about using Dungeons & Dragons lore and making up your own. This video hugely inspired many aspects of my worldbuilding. Today we’re covering one aspect of this lore and how it led me to develop a new paladin Sacred Oath for fifth edition D&D.
The Nightmare Before Critmas Part 2
All things considered 2020 wasn’t too shabby for the Nerdarchy crew. We continued to grow across the board from Nerdarchy the YouTube channel to right here on the website where the quality and quantity of content increased dramatically. We started a second YouTube channel for our longform and live video content at Nerdarchy Live. Our Patreon got a needed refresh with more benefits for supporters and we’re super excited about the refined game content we produce every month and Nerdarchy the Newsletter evolved into a vibrant weekly dispatch with a huge subscriber list. Nerditor Doug (me) celebrated a one year anniversary as a full time employee while staff writers Robin and Steven became more involved in creating new content. Later this week we’ll be publishing our year end retrospective so keep an eye out for it but for now we’ll continue a tradition started last holiday season. So I’ll give you back over to Steven for the Nightmare Before Critmas Part 2. — Nerditor Doug
Opting for 5E D&D Character Options from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Hey folks! With the release of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players and Dungeon Masters alike have been given a number of exciting new character options for Customizing Your Origin and creating a Custom Lineage. Strangely these new options seem to be met with mixed responses but like any optional rules they are merely a source of inspiration and variation to be adopted or not as individual groups of players see fit.
