Our 7 Most Popular Articles of 2019, which Incidentally were All D&D Articles

Nerds on Earth exists to highlight the best of a Friendly Local Game Shop (FLGS). That means lots of board game reviews, tips and ideas on roleplaying games, comic book coverage, and other nerdy stuff that’s adjacent to game shops or is beloved by nerds, like the MCU or Star Wars.

We’re proud of the success of Nerds on Earth. Our traffic for 2019 was 1.98 MILLION, so we were a measly 20K short of two million nerds, meaning I just short of showing my dad that I’m not a failure.

With that much traffic, it’s understandable that it was driven by a few topics/articles. Incidentally, the top 7 were all D&D adjacent, which tells you all need to know about the resurgence of tabletop roleplaying games today.

Honestly, that’s enough from me. Thank you. Truly. We’re thrilled you’ve found Nerds on Earth, even if this is your first time.

Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

Descent Into Avernus took D&D players into hell on a Mad Max style death machine. Needless to say, it was popular.

Here: A Review Of Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, The Newest D&D Adventure

Saltmarsh

Saltmarsh was the hardcover just before Avernus. It has a grim pirate theme and–surprisingly–doesn’t take adventures onto the high sea as much as you’d imagine.

Here: Review Of Ghosts Of Saltmarsh, The Latest Book For D&D 5e

Pathfinder 2nd Edition

I was intentional in the lede to say D&D adjacent, because our biggest article of 2019 wasn’t actually D&D, it was our review of Pathfinder 2nd Edition, a roleplaying game in the vein of D&D.

Here: A Review Of Pathfinder 2nd Edition: Fast, Flexible, And Fun

How to Create Great Pathfinder Characters

In that vein, we did a big article series that stepped readers through how to make great Pathfinder characters from each of the 12 classes of Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

Here: How To Create Great Pathfinder 2nd Edition Characters

Use HASTE

I don’t understand these people, but there are actually some people who think D&D combat is uninteresting. Well, we thought we’d remedy that and our article on the HASTE system proved to be very popular.

Here: How Do You Make D&D Combat More Interesting? Use The HASTE Method.

Writing Character Backstories

D&D isn’t just combat, it’s strong characterization as well. But a lot of readers told us that new players can get overwhelmed at the idea of coming up with a character backstory. So we shared our simple step-by-step plan inspired by Tommy Boy.

Here: A Simple Guide For Writing A GREAT Character Backstory

Lost Omens

Besides flexible character creation, another reason role-players love Pathfinder is the incredible lore of the Pathfinder setting of Golarion. When Pathfinder 2nd Edition launched there was a line of setting lore books that released as well, the Lost Omens books. We took a look.

Here: Lost Omens World Guide For Pathfinder 2E Review