Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with a Quintessential Gnoll Playable Race and Racial Feats
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted bite into creating a new character option for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons with the gnoll. Gnolls occupy an unusual space among humanoid races of the Material Plane. Their demonic origins as mutated hyenas transformed in the wake of the demon lord Yeenoghu’s rampages puts them closer to fiends than humanoids and indeed the 5E D&D team expressed as much not too long ago. But it’s not difficult at all to reimagine these classic creatures whether as regular humanoids with traces of demonic blood in a fraction of their population like in Eberron or simply as hyenalike humanoids without any connection to demonic influence. At any rate you can check out Dave and Ted’s discussion and find their take on gnolls as a playable race for 5E D&D and for a bonus a couple of gnoll racial feats if you want to play the quintessential gnoll character in your next game.
D&D Ideas — Dragons
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is dragons, which we discussed in our live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST and talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of dragons, in Wooden Dragon adventurers encounter a very unusual and strangely chatty dragon blocking the road. This and 54 other dynamic encounters ready to drop right into your game come straight Out of the Box here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates, info on how to game with Nerdarchy and ways to save money on RPG stuff by signing up here.
5 Arcana Skill Challenges for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! It’s Arcana day. I’ve been doing this for a couple of posts now as part of the D&D Skills 101 series but let me rehash for those of you just joining us. The idea is you can take any of these five skill challenges and drop them right into your fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game to give a character who leans heavily on any particular skill a chance to shine and solve a smaller problem. Or to eat some time if your adventure is going by a little bit faster than you expected. Because we all like extra stumbling stones. Today we’re going to be focusing on Arcana in 5E D&D, so put on your wizard’s hats and lets get to work.
5E D&D Worldbuilding Insights from Mythic Odysseys of Theros Mythic Monsters
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted release the kraken and talk about regular ol’ monsters and mythic monsters from Mythic Odysseys of Theros for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Mythic monsters represent unique and extremely powerful creatures whose undeniable influence on the campaign setting catapult them into new dimensions of peril for adventurers. Along with these special new threats MOoT presents a collection of existing classic monsters whose presence in the setting shapes the stories and myths of the land. Extrapolating from this material gives Dungeon Masters and players a useful perspective for worldbuilding and how specific monsters — and how they’re viewed by people living in the world — can be a great resource to inspire storytelling and adventures in your own 5E D&D games. So let’s get into it.
Enhance Your 5E D&D Experience the Noisy, Lively Way Through Carousing in Your Downtime
Over at Nerdarchy the Discord a discussion came up about downtime activities in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The brief conversation made me think of my experience playing through Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and how the Dungeon Master incorporated downtime into the campaign. Near the end of our first session the DM asked what each character did on their own following the session events and since everyone grew heavily invested into the theme and vibe of the adventure we all agreed on the ideal downtime activity — carousing. Described in chapter 6 of the 5E D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide carousing, along with several other activities, offer things for characters to do between adventures. Carousing became a staple of our campaign and I thought I’d share how it made an impression for my group and added to the overall storytelling experience. So let’s get into it.
The Power of Words | Adjusting Vernacular for Immersion in Your RPG
Words have power. Just ask Ursula Le Guin. Plus, language is so much a staple of stories and storytelling we’ve even codified it in tabletop roleplaying games into a proper mechanic. When it comes to the words our RPG characters use perhaps the question isn’t, “What words should I say?” but rather, “What words would I say?” This brings us to today’s topic — vernacular. Okay, I know it’s a big word but vernacular is the everyday language used by ordinary people. Speaking of, now’s probably as good a time as any to forewarn this article contains cursing and a dissertation on cursing and racial slurs. So if you’re not comfortable with either of those topics or reading some everyday curses then maybe seek out another of many articles.
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with Flair in This New Wizard Arcane Tradition
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted spread their wings and come up with a new Arcane Tradition for wizards in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Order of the Peacock began with a funny meme and Dave came to our video planning meeting pitch in hand for a new subclass. Nerdarchy’s experience at D&D In A Castle 2019 already gave us a head start with all the research we did for our triple connected epic campaign, so let’s get into it and show off the plumage of this Order of the Peacock wizard subclass for 5E D&D.
Exploring Science Fiction Genre and Storytelling through The Expanse RPG
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted share their first impressions of The Expanse RPG, a Modern AGE rules set game from Green Ronin. I didn’t know anything about The Expanse — roleplaying game or otherwise — before video planning. Afterwards further reading of the rule book and binge watching the series on Amazon Prime brought a fresh perspective on genre and fandom inspired RPGs. The Expanse RPG provides a window into several themes and elements including more than one science fiction subgenre, shipboard life stories, travel and tension. Can you guess I’ve become a fan? Nowhere near a Screaming Firehawk certainly, but then again it’s only been a few days. So let’s get into it.
Meet the Tiefling Druid/Monk with Secrets and a Sweet Tooth in Those Bastards 5E D&D Live Play
Nerdarchy has a new streamed game for you to watch! Those Bastards is a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign streaming live on Tuesdays 8-10 p.m. eastern on our second channel, Nerdarchy Live. A gaggle of half siblings, all with the same constellation birthmark, search for answers regarding their father, themselves and the mystery of disappearing constellations in the sky. As they venture into deep dungeons and face deadly monsters their destinies converge on more questions than answers. Even if they live to find the answers they seek, will they wish they never had?
Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with a Primal Draconic New Playable Race
Hey folks! The idea of a draconic playable race for Dungeons & Dragons has been favorite of mine since the days when Dragonlance introduced me to draconians (which we could not play). There were also weredragons, half dragons, and even a race of dragon centaurs my friends and I made. Comic books and science fiction also presented many concepts of the dragon man. Dragonborn finally codified this idea into a playable race for characters in fourth edition D&D and finally we had something in official rules to allow players to engage the fantasy of playing some sort of dragon. Two articles in Dragon #182 and #183 introduced young me to the concept of the primal, elemental, nasty linnorm, based not on the more fairy tale versions of dragons we see commonly in D&D but on the sorts of draconic beasts from Scandinavian tales. It is from these very different dragons I developed the wyrmkyne for 5E D&D.
D&D Ideas — Cortex Prime RPG
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is Cortex Prime RPG, which we discussed in our live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST and talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of Cortex Prime RPG, in Enemy at the Gate a mysterious enemy whose consciousness is shielded from detection causes terrible woe to befall adventurers. See what I did there? This and 54 other dynamic encounters ready to drop right into your game come straight Out of the Box here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates, info on how to game with Nerdarchy and ways to save money on RPG stuff by signing up here.
If You’ve Got a 5E D&D Mind Flayer Campaign, Flaunt It!
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted tackle a GM 911 from the community. In this fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master’s campaign mind flayers turned important NPCs into thralls. Volo’s Guide to Monsters goes into detail about these agents of the elder brains, and they’ve requested some insight. Specifically they’d like to know how to create encounters and adventures designed for characters to discover, identify and deal with the unique version of thralls described in VGtM. This is one of the rare cases where I’ve got a much different view than Dave and Ted on how to approach the situation and thankfully Nerdarchy the Website provides a perfect place where I can share my thoughts on the matter. So let’s get into it and take a different approach to using mind flayers and their thralls in 5E D&D.
5 Animal Handling Skill Challenges for 5E D&D
Salutations, nerds! Following up on the Acrobatics post from last week, this time we’re going to talk about Animal Handling in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Once again the idea is you could take any of these five skill challenges and drop them right into your game to give a 5E D&D character who leans heavily on that skill to shine and solve a smaller problem. Or, you know, eat some time if your adventure is going by a little bit faster than you expected. Not that that happens to any of us, right?
From Performers to Pickpockets | Tool Time with the Disguise Kit in 5E D&D
Tool proficiencies are a staple in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and their relationship to skills can seem concealed, at best, as we’ve discussed in previous posts. That being said, every Dungeon Master treats tool proficiencies a bit differently so if you’ve got questions, ask your DM how they treat tools and tool proficiencies. All DMs are encouraged by the Dungeon Master’s Guide to adjust rules to suit their tables, so be flexible with your DM. With all the disclaimers out of the way, let’s talk about the disguise kit in 5E D&D.
Designing Frontier Settings Like Icewind Dale for 5E D&D
Hey Folks! By now you’re likely aware Wizards of the Coast’s next big offering for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. Set in the titular Icewind Dale this new campaign adventure has been described by Chris Perkins as a horror story and various interviews and discussions of reveal it plays on themes of isolation, paranoia and an unforgiving environment. Inspirations for the book include movies such as Alien, The Thing and even Jaws. I don’t know about you all, but I’m on board. But I don’t play in the Forgotten Realms. Why am I so thrilled for this new book? The answer is simple. I have been working on my own cold weather setting for a while now and this promises to be an amazing tool box for my own personal campaign much in the same way that Tomb of Annihilation proved invaluable in my current nautical, island hopping campaign. I’m sure there will be a good amount of source material surrounding the adventures much like previous 5E D&D books. It has already been revealed there will be a whole lot of new monsters leaning toward cold climates.
