Designing 4ever: Stealing the Combat Roles of D&D 4e
Even if you aren't familiar with the exact terms 4e uses, you’ve probably heard similar descriptions of these roles in the genre of video games, particularly MMO’s like World of Warcraft. It's true that the designers if 4e did look to video games for inspiration, but that's hardly the insult that some of 4e’s critics accuse.
Designing 4ever: Stealing the Power Sources of D&D 4e
Today we’re going to dig into the heart of 4e and pull out one of its core elements: power sources. We’ll discuss what they are and what their purpose was, and then focus on the five main ones: Arcane, Divine, Martial, Primal, and Psionic.
The State of the Archives
So, long time no blog! The truth is that each of us here at Unraveled Archives struggle with mental illness in our own way, and in my own personal case, I was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder a couple of years ago. I struggle with schedules! And so trying to approach the blog in an orderly manner is difficult, and for a while I thought it wasn’t worth doing if I couldn’t do it ‘right.’ But what is ‘right’ anyway? What is ‘normal’?
Options Unraveled: Debt Domain
We struggled for a while before settling on our first cleric subclass. Most ideas we came up with had already been done, and we wanted to release something unique to us. Being a fan of Magic: The Gathering, particularly the Ravnica setting and the Orzhov Syndicate, I finally had the idea of a cleric domain that encourages healing your allies—for a price!
Why You Should Back Jungles of Kuauhtla
I haven’t made a habit of writing articles about other creators’ things, and truth be told, I haven’t proved consistent even with writing about everything Unraveled Archives is doing. But sometime something comes along that really speaks to me. Jungles of Kuauhtla: The Campaign Guide is just that special.
Here’s why!
Why You Should Steal From Icewind Dale For Your D&D Campaign
I recently put out an article about how to take inspiration from video games and use it at your tabletop game. It laid out some broad concepts and strategies, but now we’re going to delve a little deeper into a specific video game’s pockets and nab us some valuable content.
Our target? If you’ve kept up with this blog, you can probably guess. We’re going to steal from one of my all-time favorite games: Black Isle Studios’ Icewind Dale.
Why Your Next D&D Campaign Should Be Stolen From a Video Game
The spark of imagination is a precious seed that can grow into your next epic Dungeons & Dragons campaign. This spark might come from anywhere; a book, a movie, a song, even a photo—anything that speaks to you and gets your creative juices flowing! Our topic today could cover any of those stimuli, but we’re going to focus on one in particular…
Video games!
Options Unraveled: Slaad Symbiote
Today we’re revisiting the most popular subclass we’ve put out up to this point. Of the three free options you get for signing up for the Unraveled Archives newsletter, this one’s the most radical in its design.
Options Unraveled: Path of the Dragonheart Barbarian
So who has seen the classic fantasy adventure film Dragonheart? Starring Dennis Quade as Bowen the Dragon Hunter and Sean Connery as Draco the Last Dragon, this was one of the formative movies of my childhood. Plus the soundtrack is just beautiful.
Anyway, this barbarian subclass—the first Primal Path that Caleb Willden and I ever worked on together—is directly inspired by that awesome film.
Options Unraveled: The Ruffian Rogue
Welcome to the first article of Options Unraveled! In this series we’re going to discuss stuff we’ve published and talk a bit about our design process.
First up is the Ruffian Roguish Archetype! If you don’t already own this subclass, you can pick up a free copy by signing up for our newsletter!
This subclass goes way back to before Unraveled Archives officially existed, the days of just Caleb Willden and myself. It’s one of the very first things we collaborated on.
Character Origins: Rules Glossary
Here it is, the final post of this series on the “Character Origins” Unearthed Arcana article. After covering the Races, and then the Backgrounds and Feats, it’s time to dive into all those juicy new rules slipped into the Rules Glossary! Follow along to see what changes have been made, so that you’re ready to give informed feedback in Wizards of the Coast’s playtest survey when it comes out next week.
Character Origins: Backgrounds and Feats
Today we’re continuing our analysis of the Unearthed Arcana article “Character Origins”. Last time, we delved into the Races section. This time, it’s Character Backgrounds and the 1st-level Feats that go with them.
Character Origins: Race Analysis
With all the recent excitement over Wizards of the Coast’s announcement of One D&D and the slew of Unearthed Arcana articles to come, we here at Unraveled Archives have decided to give our take on the playtest options as they arrive. First up is the article on Character Origins, specifically the section on new Race options…
6 Ways to Speed Up Your Play-by-Post Game
When a play-by-post game slows down, it risks getting stuck and stagnant, which most often leads to the death of the game. Today we’re going to talk about how to keep that from happening!
Why You Should Love Play-by-Post
Play-by-post (PbP) campaigns are games where all participants interact via text instead of meeting in real time. This is usually done through a forum or instant-messaging service. It provides great flexibility, allowing those who can’t set aside large blocks of time on a regular basis to still have a way to play Dungeons & Dragons or their roleplaying game of choice.