Workout Recap - Week of September 12, 2021
This week was a hard course-correction in favor of doing more timed workouts. I went slightly on the light side with the individual workouts to check how my body would respond to them, and while there was certainly some DOMS to deal with, I was mostly satisfied with how it went. Pending any surprises, I expect next week to settle where I want things to be going forward. Monday Type: As Fast As Possible 5 sets of: 5 Pull Ups 5 Burpees 5 Bridges 20 Mountain Climbers (each sid

Looking Over Book of Challenges: Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty
Premise A magical cat that had been the guardian of a gnome village has been seduced by a feral mate, and the villagers want the PCs to convince it to come back. Good As with A Familiar Situation, I’m a fan of challenges where just rolling dice until someone runs out of HP isn’t a good approach. The basic idea of an adopted guardian animal being drawn off by its natural urges is a neat dilemma, and it can inspire players to use a similar approach for getting around beasts tha

Looking Over Book of Challenges: Close Quarters
Premise A small dragon uses tight terrain to its advantage. Good I’m always a fan of considering the tactical impacts of terrain. Having some consideration for the odor left behind by the dragon’s breath attack is a nice touch. As far as 3E Dungeons & Dragons rules go, the sidebar on fighting in small spaces is relatively simple and streamlined. The “Tactics” part gives a simple flowchart for hit-and-run behavior. The treasure is split between a couple of locations, avoiding

Looking Over Book of Challenges: A Familiar Situation
Premise An absent wizard has ordered a shipment of potential familiars, the incompetent courier broke their cages, and now it’s up to the PCs to wrangle them back. Good This is an encounter that doesn’t lend itself to simple combat or skill checks, particularly at the intended encounter level. Depending on how the PCs respond, it could lead to some interesting moral developments that influence play well after it’s over. The NPC present is written in such a way that he can pr

Looking Over Book of Challenges and Dungeon Delve: General Index
Book of Challenges and Dungeon Delve are both collections of several mini-modules; packages of one to four encounters that aren’t really long enough to be a full adventure but are modular enough to fit into a larger framework without much trouble. However, they’re both also written rather terribly for actual play (as is common with both TSR and WotC products for Dungeons & Dragons), and as with any such collection, the quality can be inconsistent. Still, there is enough usef
Workout Recap - Week of September 5, 2021
I'm trying to get back to the workout pattern that I used to have, so this week and the next will be a transition period. I'm not expecting the change to take longer than that, but we shall see when the time comes. It's not that there was anything particularly special about my previous format, but I'd prefer the balance to tip in favor of doing more work against a clock. Monday Type: Pass/Fail Uneven Pull Ups - 1 set of 6, each side (pass) Stand-to-stand Bridges, one wall t
Workout Recap - Week of August 29, 2021
As seems to be my pattern of late, I'm back down to four workouts for this week. There were some legitimate reasons behind it, but those details are unimportant. Keeping on the grind, until it's done. Monday Type: Pass/Fail Uneven Pull Ups - 2 sets of 5, each side (pass) Stand-to-stand Bridges, one wall touch on the way up - 2 sets of 6 (pass) Bonus: 10 breath isometric one-arm plank (each side) I hadn't thought of it in advance, but this workout had quite some work on tors