Maybe something you learned the hard way, or something you found out right before making a huge mistake.
E.g., for audiophiles: don’t buy subwoofers from speaker companies, and don’t buy speakers from subwoofer companies.
My niche hobby was late night coming home drunk pizza baking.
While resting the dough is a normal part of the process, falling asleep is not good.Don’t use thick lube for unresponsive yoyos and vice versa. Thick lube will make an unresponsive yoyo more responsive which you don’t want.
And don’t stress about playing a soulslike a certain way and don’t listen to gatekeeping haters. Play whatever way you want - it’s a game after all and you bought it for your pleasure
I was very concerned reading those first few words
Ancient coins (2000-1700 years old) are surprisingly common and can be had very cheaply unless you want a specifically rare or perfect one.
I went through most of my life believing that anything older than say 200 years was automatically a museum piece or equivalent. But most museums of ancient history who display ancient coins have multitudes of the displayed coins sitting in storage. The Romans alone minted BILLIONS of coins over the span of the Republic and the Empire (that’s over 1000 years of history!) and if even 1% of them survive today, that’s still many, many dozens of millions.
Also America’s definition of old and Europe definition of old are very different. My family in England live in a house that’s older than America and not by a little.
Where would someone start to look for affordable ancient coins and also are fakes common?
Yeah, Im curious about that too
I could use one to impress the ladies. Chics dig ancient roman coins right? Theyre gonna think im such a baller.
V-coins and ma-shops are reputable and you won’t easily come across fakes there. Just stay away from Ebay and the like. Also, if you go for the affordable types (common denari or late roman bronzes) these are almost never faked since it’s not worth the effort. They cost like 5 bucks for decent pieces, maybe just a bit more if you want a nicer specimen.
People are surprisingly easy to manipulate.
What niche hobby of yours does this rule apply?
It’s just a Town of Salem game, right? Right?
Observing groups is a very useful skill, in minutes you can tell who’s where in the hierarchy, what the cliques are, how well they coordinate, how information flows, and where influence springs from.
This let’s you not only insert yourself at the right moment, peg, and place for maximum efficacy, but also informs you of barriers, challenges to overcome, and next steps for the group to act better together.
Group dynamics for coaching, creating community, project organisation, and group coaching.
This does seem like a very niche hobby.
Being a DM is not about telling YOUR story, it’s about coming together with your players to create a story. So even if you are going off a pre-written campaign or story you created, you are incharge of the story. Let the rule of fun reign. If a battle is taking forever you can cut down the number of enemies or the enemy’s abilities. Your in charge and if done right your players don’t even know.
Thanks to the internet you also don’t even need much. Get your hands on a core book and a dice set used by all is all that you need to play. Sure maps and miniatures are fun but some systems don’t need them, some players are perfectly fine with the theatre of the mind play, or some small toys on a self drawn grid on sheet paper can work.
Sure maps and miniatures are fun but some systems don’t need them, some players are perfectly fine with the theatre of the mind play, or some small toys on a self drawn grid on sheet paper can work.
Some big streamers have done massive damage to she hobby by bringing the image that map and miniatures are necessary, and not at best a nice to have, at worst a distraction.
Sure I use sometimes a sketch on paper, but very rarely miniatures, and never accurate ones. Role-playing game isn’t about miniatures
In Magic the Gathering it’s usually correct to wait to play instant spells until your opponent’s turn, either on their upkeep or end step in most cases. Waiting as long as you can gives you more information to make the best play.
Servers: it doesn’t have to be built for the purpose. In a pinch, any PC will do.
Chess: Fried liver attack doesn’t work above 700 ELO and is easily countered with a possibility for a smothered mate.
Guitar: Playing 5 minutes every day is better than playing an hour once a week.
These are great and the guitar one is relevant to me right now. Thanks for answering!
I learned the hard way when jogging and meeting some friends at the bar that even if it’s plus 20 you should bring a sweater with you, because once you’re done jogging and it gets dark you will be cold from the sweat. I did this one time and everyone else in the bar was just fine with their T shirts and I was SHIVERING with my wife beater on. Kind of embarrassing.
For Rpg : let the player take the initiative and bring their plot to the table. If they preptge game for you, it’s les work as aGM (also no doodle scheduling, use fix dates)
For paragliding : if there is nobody on a flight site do not take off. Most likely you misunderstood something, and the site isn’t flyable. Sure if you re very experienced, do hike and fly or do fly on a week day on a small site, it may not apply, but you’re able to analyse by yourself
Trumpet playing: The room you’re playing in really affects the sound you hear. So does your position in that room. If you are having weird issues with pieces you know you can play, try playing in the corner of the rooms, so your playing into the largest physical space possible.
Similarly, when I tried to learn to play using a mute, it sounded like absolute dogshit because the mute changes a ton about how the instrument sounds and feels to play. You’re going to sound (and probably be) off key and the lung pressure feels different because you’re blocking part of the air flow out of the instrument. It requires a technique adjustment to sound right.
VX hobbyists- I’ve noticed a lot of people start off by configuring their encabulators with the original series of kleinhoffer cam ratios, trying to get maximum deltas with the least vacuum pressure possible. It’s really better to start with dylomatic induction coefficients even if it initially seems more complicated, you’ll have an easier time later with the more commonly available j-discs.
Nice try, Big VX
For indoor rock climbing (probably outdoor as well): you need, at least, two pairs of climbing shoes. One pair will be out for a re-sole and you can use the other. Though, don’t buy your own shoes until you are sure you’re going to stick with it for a while. No point ending up with used shoes you’ll never use again, because you finally decided the sport isn’t for you.
You don’t necessarily need to get two straight away, though. If you’ve been a couple times and used the hire shoes, sweet. You’re getting into it, you reckon you’ll probably keep going, time to buy some shoes. I’d actually advise against it. Climbing shoe rubber varies from soft to really bloody soft, and you dragging it all over the wall wears it through really quick.
So I’d suggest spending quite a few sessions in those hire shoes, really focusing on your footwork. When you can confidently stick your feet first go while climbing, and not have to adjust your feet constantly, you’re ready for your own shoes. Shred someone else’s until you are confident you can make yours last.
If you are dungeon mastering I would recommend avoiding the Quantum Ogre as much as possible. The idea here is to use the same encounter depending on whatever decision the party chooses. This is tempting because this reduces prep work and can reuse information. However, if the decision doesn’t have any consequence why make the players make this decision? TTRPG are about collaborative story telling so decisions so matter and if they don’t why am I even playing. If you want to reduce your prep maybe have the same monsters but at least change the terrain or starting criteria.
If there is decision lead clues about what might be different between the options if it is important decision. These clues might not be obvious but that is what skills checks are for. Make decisions worthwhile so players feel engaged
Man, this one is loaded. I use variants on the quantum.ogre all the time, and am widely considered to be an excellent dm. It’s not about the ogre, it’s about whether choices have an impact on the story. They can still do that even if minor parts of the set dressing - like whether or not you’ll fight an ogre around the corner because you the DM spent ages prepping that encounter - are relatively constant
For camping, in cold weather switching from being active to resting can be miserably cold. To combat this you can fill a heat tolerant water bottle with some boiled water, wrap it in a shirt or sweater to prevent burning, and put it into your sleeping bag to warm it up quickly. You can also sort of do the reverse for when you wake up. You can put your clothes for the next day in a small bag and sleep with them in your sleeping bag. That way they won’t be frigid when you’re trying to dress.
I used to drag my clothes into bed with me in winter when I was a kid. No central heating, no double glazing, no insulation, no carpets. Might as well have been living in a tent.
Better yet understand that none of your gear makes heat, you do. Think of your sleeping bag and clothes as batteries that need to be recharged periodically and your body is a generator. When you shiver that is your body trying to burn calories to produce heat. You can stay much warmer by keeping busy and moving around than you will by standing around a fire. When you wake up cold in the middle of the night, move your legs like you’re riding a bicycle while laying on your side. It won’t take long to warm up. Also keep an isolating layer between you and the ground like a foam sleeping pad. It also works for when standing on frozen ground.
