One bard's take on D&D and other things
These posts are just talk, not related to any particular campaign or adventure.
It’s time for more Unearthed Arcana!
We’ve got a slimy Sorcerer subclass, an aquatic Warlock subclass, and a spooky new cantrip! You can also now access the survey for the last Unearthed Arcana. This is a good way to let WotC know what you think of the new playtest content.
Let’s dive in to this week’s UA!
Continue readingA new D&D book was announced recently! Come November 19th, Eberron: Rising from the Last War will be available for purchase. This book will contain the official version of the Artificer and other Eberron content, including information relevant to running adventures in the Eberron setting.
In this post, I’m going to give a brief explanation of the Eberron setting, dig into what we already know about this book, and speculate on what else we might see!
Continue readingThis week, we got some juicy Unearthed Arcana introducing two new subclasses: one for the barbarian and one for the monk. Both of these subclasses bring some fresh flavor to these classes, enabling a player to take their character in some fun and different places than the existing class options.
I think my group is pretty excited about these options—even a few of us who don’t usually go for these classes!
In this post, I’m going to go over the content of this new UA article and discuss my impressions. I’d love to hear yours, too!
Continue readingThe nature of Dungeons & Dragons—and the nature of anything that includes improvisation—is that your ideas will not survive first contact with the game. That’s okay! That’s part of what makes the game unpredictable and exciting.
And as you play, you may find yourself needing to/wanting to change your character. What do you do then?
Continue readingIn February 2018, MCDM Productions had their first Kickstarter, Strongholds & Streaming. It was wildly successful, and now many backers (including me) have received their backer rewards!
I wrote a more in-depth review of the Strongholds & Followers content already, but let’s take a look at this shiny new hardcover!
Continue readingI’ve been reading through Ghosts of Saltmarsh this week! The book presents seven adventures, among them The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. You can run these adventures independent of one another, or you can string them all together in a campaign centering on the nautical town of Saltmarsh. To that end, the book offers information on how to work the Player’s Handbook backgrounds into the setting as well as four new backgrounds players can take.
This post presents four character sketches you can use for your Saltmarsh campaign. Each character has one of the four new backgrounds from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. You can use these as character inspiration or as NPCs.
Continue readingRoleplaying during a D&D session is a lot like group writing. Everyone is writing one protagonist, except for the Dungeon Master, who’s in charge of writing everything else. You use dice to resolve actions of uncertain outcome and respond to the consequences. Over time, you and your group will weave a story about your party of adventurers.
If roleplaying is like writing with a group of other writers, then writing advice surely would apply to playing Dungeons & Dragons as well, right?
Right?
Continue readingWizards of the Coast released an update to the Artificer class a few weeks ago! This update includes new subclasses, spell list changes, and an alteration to multiclassing. Let’s go over what’s new and what’s different!
Continue readingIf you follow D&D streams like Dice, Camera, Action, you’re probably familiar with the occasional guest player—a player not normally part of the group who comes in temporarily to play a character. In DCA, these guest players either play a character of their own creation or an NPC from the adventure Chris Perkins is running.
We can use this idea in our home games, too!
Continue readingSpring has arrived in the Northern Hemisphere, like it or not, so that means warmer, weirder weather and no small share of pollen. Do you do seasonal-themed events in your D&D game?
If your game needs some springtime flair, consider these four NPCs below!
Continue reading© 2024 The Friendly Bard's Companion to Various Things
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
