Annabelle's Nerdy D&D Blog — Blog

  For those of you who don’t know me ... Hi! I’m Annabelle. I’m a huge nerd, and Modular Realms is my business! 😀   Today is a very unusual blog post - I'm going a bit meta!   Today I want to tell you about Modular Realms, what it means to me, and why I love it so much. Call it a love letter if you will - it is Valentine’s Day after all!     Why I started Modular Realms   I never really intended to start a business. In fact, I had to be persuaded to start selling my...

There are a lot of rules around in Dungeons and Dragons. If you have new players who want to play spellcasters, then they’re going to have even more learning to do! As their Dungeon Master, you’ll probably want to check in regularly with them, and to tailor your DMing to reduce some of the overwhelm that so many players face when first playing a spellcaster. We want our players to feel like epic badasses striding into battle, not unprepared students dragging their feet into an exam! ;)  If you haven't already, I also highly recommend you check out my post explaining how spell...

Hey hey! Today I'm going to show you how to make an awesome interactive trap / puzzle for your players! The idea of this puzzle is that it is fun and interactive, and adaptable enough for you to pop it into a dungeon or game you're already running.   I love crossing the 4th wall and bringing parts of my games into real life - I think it makes everything feel more tangible and real for both my players and myself. To make this trap I use 16 1x1 tiles with the "plain" surface, and decorate them with decals. The tiles...

Whether you use dungeon tiles or not in your games, I highly recommend bringing 3D elements into combat!   Bringing 3D elements into your scenery makes a huge difference to your battles. Not only does it bring visual clarity, it also makes for more exciting and immersive gameplay.    I also find combat runs quicker and more smoothly when everyone can see what the environment they're in looks like! Another joy of using 3D battle maps is the opportunities it opens up for tactical gameplay. Suddenly your players begin to make more use of higher ground, cover and other obstacles. ...

Spell slots are how Dungeons and Dragons represent the energy needed to cast a spell. They are a resource used to cast magic, a measurement of magical stamina if you will.   Smaller spells take less energy to cast so use lower level spell slots. Larger spells take a bit more oomph, and so need a proportionately higher level spell slot. When a character casts a spell in D&D, a spell slot of the appropriate level is then used up to show that energy is spent.   Spellcasters can only channel so much magic before they need a rest to recuperate so...