Blog

I’ve been kicking around ideas for a while about the sort of questions I’d like to ask myself at the end of each day, or at least days where I have a bit of extra time before bed that I’d otherwise squander, and I’m going to answer a few of them here. I may cycle some questions in and out day-to-day depending on how interesting the answers are.

What did I do to improve myself as a game designer today?

1. Listened to the first half of Dragon Talk from 04/27/2017  on stealth mechanics in DND5e. Jeremy Crawford stated that the DM is the authority on how effective stealth is in a given situation, but that players should be encouraged to do things to increase the likelihood of success, such as a creating distractions. I need to think of opportunities for players to mess with folks they need to distract.
2. Spent a few hours driving while thinking about ways to a friendlier way to invite a novice group of DND5e player characters into Barovia to kick off a session of Death House, the introductory adventure included as an appendix to Curse of Strahd.
   The provided premise is that two unchaperoned children crying outside their house at night beg the players to go help their baby sibling trapped inside with with a monster. I felt this opening seemed kind of way too much like a trap.
   My angle is to have the players receive a letter with a job offer from the parents inviting them to meet at their home to discuss the removal of some pesty witches who’ve established a residence in one of the family’s most profitable grain mills. The players would still arrive and find the children crying outside the house, but would be more likely to rush inside to help the rest of the family on the basis of the extended (though not yet enacted) job offer. I’m hoping to try this out next weekend, and if I do, I’ll let you know how it turns out.
3. Read through the DND5e magical artifacts in the Dungeon Master’s Guide to see if any of them would seem like a reasonable down payment the party could receive as a token of goodwill when accepting a job from a new, unknown employer. It gave me the idea that there should be more Deck artifacts than just the Deck of Many Things or Deck of Illusions, but I haven’t gotten further than wanting to be able to give the players weird cards that do things. Maybe have a “Hellodeck” that lets them ask famous dead heroes or historical figures from within the setting for advice?

What did I do for my fans today?

1. Added/edited a few pages of this website.
2. Purchased an actual box fan for my recording studio so I can record through the hot months. Between this and the dustbuster I purchased last week to vacuum the studio, I’m pretty committed financially at this point—above and beyond the long-term lease, anyway. It’s been a big month for engines that propel air.
3. Brainstormed a few ideas for tomorrow’s Hermitcraft recording. I’m thinking the storage buildings should be constructed of or with whatever they store.

What did I do to improve my health and fitness today?

Not every answer will be a list… especially when it comes to trying to be healthier.

This was a travel day back from the beach, so I loaded and unloaded the car, but otherwise was pretty sedentary. Having decided that I should force myself to answer this question, I’m going to go get the scale and weigh myself for the first time in months, and I’m 167, which would be fine if it were more muscle.

I’ve been tempted to have a question in here like “How many push-ups did I do today?” because I know that will make me go do more than the 0 I have done each day for the last few years. So, Be right back on that. I’m just going to see how many I can do in a row with proper form. Don’t get your expectations up. Okay, 14, so that is about 6 better than I expected.

All this passive toddler carrying I’ve been doing must count as exercise somehow.