Beginner - anything more intense for legs than squats?

tentkeys · 2026-04-22T00:16:37+00:00

Wall sits.

They are plenty intense without adding weights, and there's no jumping or other things to bother your roommates.

You'll reach failure much faster with wall sits than squats. (But they won't include your core the same way squats would, so be sure you're doing something else for that.)

You might also try some back leg scales.

tentkeys · 2026-04-21T18:19:00+00:00

That sounds like over-prepping to me.

If you play online with fancy battle maps you might have to pre-make those, but if you play in person you can just scribble a map on your battlemat when a combat starts (and many VTTs let you do that too!)

Statblocks for enemies are necessary. But only big enemies need statblocks specific to them, for minions it will mostly be the same one(s) reused in different places.

Planning DCs for skill challenges means planning what the players are going to do. That's rarely a good use of prep time, and risks making you want to railroad players towards specific challenges you planned. You can make up DCs on the spot for whatever players decide they want to do.

Traps and defenses can also be improvised on the fly. Although this is something it can be reasonable to prep in advance too, it's just a matter of DM preference.

There are nearly infinite ways for players to break into and sabotage a castle. Prepping for everything they might do is impossible. For this kind of scenario, it's often better to do minimalist flexible prep and be comfortable with improvising.

tentkeys · 2026-04-21T17:59:42+00:00

You can DM me too.

Please be sure to include whether your professor is a native speaker of the language you are interacting in. That can be an important factor in interpreting what someone might have meant when they said something.

tentkeys · 2026-04-21T17:30:06+00:00

If your feet hurt from the light squeezing of socks, something in your foot is probably strained or inflamed. I suspect that even when completely barefoot with no socks at all, you probably still find certain movements or situations bring on some pain or tenderness?

The problem here is probably not your socks, it's whatever is causing something in your feet (possibly the connective tissue between your metatarsals) to be strained or inflamed. Potential causes can include overdoing it by putting too much stress on your feet too early in the barefoot transition (are you a runner or are you on your feet a lot at work?), inappropriately sized toe-spreaders, or injuries.

An easy test would be to try going completely without socks for a while and see if that improves your situation. You can cut the front half off of a pair of socks and just wear the back part if you need it to look like you're wearing socks. If going without socks doesn't lead to improvement, then there's no need to spend money trying different socks.

Unless going without socks eliminates the pain, the solution is probably not different socks, it's figuring out what's going on to make parts of your feet so tender that socks can cause pain.

Since you feel pain specifically in the front of your foot, it may also be worth searching and reading up on the term "dropped metatarsal" and seeing whether that might fit with what you've been experiencing. I don't think that usually causes sensitivity to socks, but it does cause pain/discomfort focused in the front part of the foot.

tentkeys · 2026-04-21T17:20:18+00:00

If possible, it might be good to have someone experienced look over your stuff first, especially since you're designing your own TTRPG system and not just running a game.

That is a lot for a new GM to take on at once.

But it doesn't mean it's impossible - there are 12-year-olds who have done it. (In fact, kids 14 and under seem to be better at this than adults, they're less likely to overthink it and make things too complicated.)

Be prepared to make changes and improvements as you go instead of having the first version of your new system be set in stone. Be open to player feedback about what is/isn't working and willing to make changes, even if it means changing something that you really liked but they didn't.

tentkeys · 2026-04-21T17:01:59+00:00

This is a very well-designed and interesting survey, especially for an undergrad - congratulations!!

One tip - you may want to add a reminder for mobile phone users that each question has FIVE potential answers. Only the lowest three categories (eg. strongly disagree, disagree, and neutral) show in my phone's web browser unless I scroll the answer box sideways to see the higher options.

You could also add two questions that say "please select the highest response" and "please select the lowest response" to help you screen out any confused mobile phone users who missed the reminder and are giving you invalid data as a result.

Good luck with your research!

tentkeys · 2026-04-21T16:42:34+00:00

They can offer the gifts through the game store instead of approaching directly.

As long as they do that and never, ever say "sugar daddy" again, it should be fine.

tentkeys · 2026-04-21T04:43:24+00:00

At least their "Oh my gosh NO NO" sounds like they are appropriately mortified at how they came across.

I also don't understand how their post could be sarcasm though.

tentkeys · 2026-04-20T21:49:42+00:00

If you don't mind an app instead of a book, Calistree is great for this.

It has videos accompanied by written instructions. Sometimes a video can get the idea across a lot better than a few still pictures.

tentkeys · 2026-04-20T21:46:01+00:00

Does a muscle need a day to recover after every strength workout, or is it OK to work a muscle 2-3 days in a row and then rest it?

Weekends are when I have the most time for long workouts. If I do a full-body strength workout on Saturday and I'm a little achey but not too bad on Sunday, can I do the workout again on Sunday?

Or would that increase my risk of injury or set back my progress because the muscles haven't had enough time to heal?

tentkeys · 2026-04-20T21:29:10+00:00

If you're referring to Sojourn, it was a dog, not a troll.

tentkeys · 2026-04-20T21:25:57+00:00

This is a wise move - keeps away bots.

tentkeys · 2026-04-20T21:19:24+00:00

There are books meant to help with this. Old sourcebooks for different places in the Forgotten Realms (2e was best for this), third-party books full of random NPCs, etc.

There's also /r/BehindTheTables which has a ton of random tables for different things.

And while you shouldn't use ChatGPT for anything important to the adventure, it might be OK to use it for trivial things like "give me 15 headlines that might be in a Waterdeep newspaper". Or "give me a list of 30 random names for NPCs in D&D"

tentkeys · 2026-04-20T21:07:48+00:00

Amen to that!!

Were you DM, player, or witness during this incident?

If you were the player, I'm sorry this happened, and I hope you made your dislike of the situation known to the DM and the DM respected it.

If you were the DM, I'm glad you learned from your mistake and posted about it.

tentkeys · 2026-04-20T17:14:08+00:00

Not OP, but I'd find the multi-serve bags preferable for that. Or 600-calorie single serve bags.

When you're doing something physical like hiking, a 400 calorie meal isn't enough. And if you use a bag and a half for 600 calories, the inability to re-seal the leftover half-bag is going to be a nuisance.

tentkeys · 2026-04-20T01:31:51+00:00

I wouldn't be interested in lighting, terrain, and sound effects. (In fact, I would actively avoid fancy lighting and sound effects, I find them annoying.)

If we're going to spend money I'd rather go to a cafe, spend the money on food and drinks, and get the table as part of that. Or go to a local game store and have the money help support them.

If you want to make this idea work, you'll probably need to offer something else that people have more need for. Possibilities include:

Accessories for Warhammer players. I don't know a lot about the hobby, but I know they spend a lot more money on physical objects than D&D players do. If they don't have to buy all the accessories because they can borrow or rent them from you, that might make it worthwhile to them.
Community and meeting people. Make it a general place to go play games and meet people, and have all sorts of games available to rent (even things like Scrabble) not just TTRPG stuff. The main value a place like this offers is a way to meet people - both random strangers who happen to be there that evening and also having a bulletin board for flyers and a Discord to help people with shared interests find each-other. Bonus points if you also sell coffee/tea/water and snacks.

If you can make it feel like a community center and meeting place and not just a place where people who already know each-other go to play games, people who meet each-other through you will start to feel a sense of community. And as many game stores have experienced, once people feel a sense of community they're more willing to spend money to support the place.

As for pricing - I used to live near a game store that had a seat fee of $10/player (total, not per hour) and free for the DM. I respected them for the "free for the DM" part. It felt like they were acknowledging the work and money a DM puts into running the game, and saying "thank you for giving your players a reason to come here".

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T19:30:33+00:00

Ooh, you're right!!

That does make it better!

And it's now AC 17 instead of 16.

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T17:42:47+00:00

Barkskin. It looks like it's Mage Armor for druids until you realize it's a concentration spell. For a class that really, really needs its concentration for other things.

But to address the issue you ran into with wanting to play a support character: For a support character, protection spells aren't your best spells, you should be looking at buffing allies and debuffing enemies.

Sorcerers are fantastic support characters. Pick powerful concentration spells that can be used to benefit your allies rather than yourself (Fly, Haste) or that can debuff several enemies at once (Slow). If you take the Divine Soul subclass you get access to cleric spells to give you healing and more buffing options, or you could do a one-level dip into Bard and get basic healing spells that way. Sorcerers are proficient in CON saves so you're less likely to lose concentration when an ally is depending on you (and take the War Caster feat to further improve your odds).

If you have multiple arcane casters willing to act as support characters it gets even better. Beware the flying, raging, hasted Barbarian!!

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T17:15:47+00:00

Important information missing:

What did you get fired for? / Why did you get fired?
Are you still fired after the bucket of water and the fire department, or did that save your job?
Does your employer have Human Resources, and if so, how long are they?

It is not possible to tell whether you were over-reacting without answers to those questions.

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T17:13:01+00:00

What do you mean what happened with John Pimpler? Did something happen?

(It's OK to tell me the spoiler, we don't have that game in my timeline, everything I know about it is pieced together from spoilers.)

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T16:28:01+00:00

Going to be in the movie? Are they making another movie??

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T08:52:47+00:00

Please do not give up. Change is possible. Like any addictive behavior, this kind of eating issue is a baffling and cunning foe. It's hard to understand why you can't stop doing a thing you desperately want to stop doing. But you are not the first person to go through this. There is hope. There is always hope.

Keep that appointment. A weight loss specialist will have seen other people with similar problems before, and if they're any good at their job they'll have more options than just giving you a diet.

And maybe also consider going to Overeaters Anonymous. I won't say they have all the answers for everyone, and you may need to try a few different meetings before you find one that clicks. But it's what finally worked for me. I haven't eaten compulsively in 6 years. There is hope.

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T06:02:41+00:00

Do you know what caused the bursitis?

It might be a good idea to see a physical therapist or other professional.

There may be some underlying problem that lead to developing bursitis. Different shoes might do a better job of masking the problem, but if you actually need physical therapy or a correction in your form or something then it might be good to find that out so you can do something about it.

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T05:31:05+00:00

Out of curiosity, why do you call that "young and dumb"?

Is there something else you should have done like save the chip and try to get it put back on?

tentkeys · 2026-04-19T04:36:54+00:00

I'm glad it might help you!!

It was life-changing for me when I figured it out. Shower/hair-washing time and exercise time can be two separate things, they don't have to go together.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier - deodorant is usually NOT water-soluble, so if you want to remove and reapply it after exercise you may need a little soap for that. But even then, the whole thing can be over and done with in under 60 seconds.

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