UNBRIDLED TRUTH

Well, things have sure gone crazy in certain parts of the world of late. I'm still in a peaceful situation, fortunately, but my best wishes go out to anyone who's struggling. If there's aught I can do to help, please don't hesitate to reach out. I worry that things are going to get much worse. Sunday Type: Pass/Fail One-arm Pull Up Negatives - 2 sets of 4, each side (pass) Fingertip Diamond Push Ups - 2 sets of 10, each side (pass) One-arm Bridges - 2 sets of 2, each side

Introduction I touched briefly on access to magic in the Power Variety post, but I had set aside writing about it at length for this post. For those who don't know, the term "Vancian magic" comes from the original mechanics of spellcasting in D&D having been inspired by Jack Vance, particularly his Dying Earth series. Spells are powered by complex formulae which effectively implant a packet of knowledge/energy into the caster’s mind when prepared and which is lost when the

Introduction The essence of a D&D game is its adventures, and the core of an adventure is its encounters. Encounters are what stand directly in the way of the PC accomplishing whatever it is they want to do. It's possible to have obstacles that aren't encounters (like the core revelation of a mystery story), but traditionally, encounters form the bulk of the obstacles in a D&D game. That doesn't need to change for DM+1 play, but the way that you think about how to set up e

Two steps forward, two steps back, or so the records look for this week. That said, I do feel like things are moving in the right direction overall. It's a matter of seeing the progress between the numbers. Sunday Type: Pass/Fail Uneven Pull Ups - 2 sets of 10, each side (pass) One-arm Push Ups, feet together - 2 sets of 10, each side (pass) One-arm Bridges - 2 sets of 2, each side (pass) One-leg Bridges - 2 sets of 3, each side (pass) Bonus: 2 sets of 6 Superman push ups I

I'm no expert on psychology, but I have been taking a course related to it. One interesting point from there is that the human mind's ability to develop feelings of happiness, contentedness, well-being, etc. is driven to a significant degree by comparison of their standing to other people. In other words, a person will tend to feel happier when they're doing better than the people around them and vice versa. It's possible to condition the mind out of that, but that's where

Introduction Whether split up into three separate books (as in most editions) or included as part of a single volume of rules (as in the Basic line and most OSR derivatives), monsters familiar and fantastical alike have always been a part of D&D. While I support an increased focus on roleplay, politics, and intellectual challenges (to be discussed in the upcoming post on encounter design) in DM+1 play, fighting monsters is undeniably a core piece of D&D, and the game wouldn’

In an effort to change things up a bit this week, I decided to focus on my breathing. Aside from its obvious applicability in a time of a respiratory/cardiovascular pandemic, focused breathing also helps to relieve stress. Thus, except for my weekend challenge, I did pass/fail workouts each day, with an increasing emphasis on isometric holds as I went along. When it came time to do my challenge today, I put my mental focus on breath control and minimizing delays during mov

Introduction Plenty of adventures modules suggest having a well-rounded party. It’s not uncommon for players to ask each other what character types they’re playing to limit if not avoid redundancy. Wizards of the Coast reworked D&D’s mechanics in 3rd edition to make rogues and clerics more fun because of common beliefs that every group had to have one of each even though nobody wanted to play them. I think that way of thinking is all wrong. Now, to be clear, it certainly t

Introduction Previously, I'd talked about how the DM+1 style brings changes in the distribution of attention, necessitates a roundabout approach to collaboration, and alters pacing. This time, I want to continue looking at the non-mechanical side of things by talking about the scope of the game. Similar to what I had said about pacing matters, this isn't something exclusive to DM+1 play, but I think it becomes more important when there's only a single player. To touch bac

Since the pandemic response has eliminated most of my commuting, I've been using my extra time to take some online courses (as touched on in last week's recap). There's a lot of legitimate concern about the mental health effects of having people minimize their in-person social contact with each other, and seeing as the spikes in infection cases that happened almost as soon as South Korea and Germany relaxed their controls implies that the pandemic will be around for a while