DM Steve

@dmsteve.bsky.social

He/him | TTRPG/D&D, gaming, fitness, Olympic lifting, cooking - and one day, all at once. | Cohost on two-time Gold ENnie winning podcast Asians Represent! | 🇻🇳🇨🇦

“Redundant” 😒 Is WOTC planning on giving community management in part or in full to AI tools? We know how the C suite at Hasbro feels about AI.

Putting a call out for TTRPG artists! Doing an initial discovery for an artist to work on a new cyberpunk, body horror action game I'm designing. Please link your portfolio! NO AI.

🚨 2026 update just went up for Manual of Gainful Exercise! 🧟‍♀️ Added 7 subclass workouts for Ravenloft: The Horrors Within 🧙🏽 Added 8 subclass workouts for Arcana Unleashed Still FREE on DMs Guild! Coupon code on product page. 🔗 Link below 👇🏽

Cover of the Manual of Gainful Exercise. Steve pictured at the top of a one-handed push-up, directly addressing the camera, hair (ponytail) in the wind. He's wearing a black tanktop with a bi-d20 logo, black short shorts, and black chucks. Mithril Best Seller and DMs Guild logo on the cover.Grave Domain (CR 6-8)
| Barbell | Circuit | | Gym / Olympic Platform |

Pull of Death:
Death by Deadlifts (rx 135 lbs // 95 lbs)
Rest 3 minutes
Return to Life - 3 rounds
10 deadbugs
10 bird dog
10 single leg psoas leg liftsVestige Patron (CR 5-9)
| Weighted vest | Running | TABATA | Gym / Outdoors |

With your vestige companion (weighted vest):
Walk 5 min (Start: 00:00)
Run 3 min (05:00)
Walk 2 min (08:00)
Run 5 min (10:00)
Walk 3 min (15:00)
Run 3 min (18:00)
Walk 2 min (21:00)
Run 5 min (23:00)
Walk 5 min (28:00, End: 33:00)

Place weighted vest weights under heels, or do on raise heels:
TABATA 40s on/20s off, 10 minutes
Bodyweight squat to standing calf raise
Enchanter (CR 12)
| Bodyweight | Chipper | Gym / Home / Outdoors |

Bolstering Belief:
400 push-ups (any variation)
Take a selfie with your new, amazing pump.

Not a joke workout. Spend a few minutes planning how you’ll do this. Example: 10 (standard) push-ups every minute for 40 minutes; 5 kneeling push-ups every 30 seconds for 40 minutes; 20 wall push-ups every 2 minutes for 40 minutes. Avoid going to failure unless you’re near the end. It’s too mentally taxing! Treat this as endurance, not raw strength!

If we’re watching media that engages with fictional oppression and I point out the similarities to real life (systemic) racism, and your response is “Can we not talk about that and just enjoy it as a movie?”, that’s white fragility.

Dark Sun is a setting with slavery at the CORE. You can make a game that has these themes... but you better respect the fact that this is a thing happening right now, and a thing that echoed in the souls of the very real world and you should go beyond sensitivity readers.

I mostly agree with this, and I'd go further in one place. If you're going to have things like slavery in a game, you owe it to your players to know the purpose of it being there and to not half ass it. Let's talk about the horror of what it really is and what it means. Or don't do it at all.

Jesse Heinig@jesseheinig.bsky.social · last mo.

And now for a gaming thread that nobody will like! My interactions with Hasbro/WotC are low these days because I'm not a fan of Hasbro corporate decisions. Thus, even though I was a #DarkSun superfan from ages long past, I'm not enthusiastic about the upcoming Dark Sun releases. cw: slavery 🧵 +

Dark Sun D&D pre-release poster for 2027, showcasing a muscular woman with a huge spiky sword and spiked armor holding a skul land attached spine high behind a battlefield of dudes in spiky armor fighting draconic or vaguely reptilian spiky creatures. The sun in the background seems to be a golden orb with a yellow outer ring, a golden corona, and spiky bits coming off of it.

Extremely drunk guy at this airport bar slurred an order for another beer. Waiter asked “Are you sure? Are you going home today or catching another flight?” And he just said “it’s okay, I’m Irish” in the most mid-West American accent. Masterful gambit, sir.

In terms of de-colonizing your D&D, I asked: What if instead of *getting* magic items, you became the *steward* of a magic item? And... I was shocked. Apparently that is not appealing to some people. I mean fair, but also... that's just not my experience. I gotta think more... 🤔

So, I can now call myself an Ennie winning Author and consultant!! Huge congratulations to the Crooked Moon team for winning Product of the Year as well as a sweep of others!! The fact I could contribute by including Desi inspired folk-creatures especially feels so meaningful to me!

BildBild

I took this picture and later when I sent it to the group chat I went, “Wait, is this AI generated?” Bitch, YOU took this picture like two hours ago! Anyways, tomahawk steak in Warsaw.

Tomahawk steak cooked medium rare in a wood cutting board, sliced into pieces. Grilled veggies underneath it and two cups of aioli and chimichurie sauce. I think it looks AI because the light is so clear and the contrast is so high that it has that almost over edited AI glaze to it. But no. It’s just a picture from my phone.

What's the deal with games needing monsters you can kill with no remorse? I keep seeing TTRPGs touting this in their marketing ... There was Obojima, a while back; now Deathbringer with its pig-faced orcs. I genuinely don't get this! What desire is being served here---and whose? 1/

Using generative AI to distance a creative work from the Asian influences that real humans experienced, absorbed, and then shared is a kind of colonization I don’t think any of us have words for - yet.

I’m waiting until Arcana Unleashed comes out to publish a new version of Manual of Gainful Exercise. ...But for now, check out these Horrors Within workouts! 👻

Shadow Sorcery (CR 11-16)
| Barbell | Gym / Olympic Platform |
Summon Shikigami of the Ten Shadows Technique: Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga:
Using one movement, accumulate total weight for each round, for 8 rounds.
After the round, do not repeat movement.
16 min timecap
100 kg // 220 lbs
200 kg // 440 lbs
[300, 400, 500, 600 kg]
700 kg // 1540 lbs
800 kg // 1760 lbs
Hexblade Patron (CR 8-10)
| Barbell | Gym / Olympic Platform |
Hexblade curse:
6 x 6 deadlifts @ +50%, with 6s pause at top
Grave Domain (CR 6-8)
| Barbell | Circuit | | Gym / Olympic Platform |
Pull of Death:
Death by Deadlifts (rx 135 lbs // 95 lbs)
Rest 3 minutes
Return to Life - 3 rounds
10 deadbugs
10 bird dog
10 single leg psoas leg lifts
Undead Patron (CR 18)
| Bodyweight | Running | Gym / Outdoors |
Undead endurance of the Shadow Monarch - Anyway, anyhow (120 min timecap):
100 pushups
100 situps
100 bodyweight squats
10 km run

NOTE: Doing a movement to completion will cut down on transition time, but might be too taxing on your nervous system. I’m also a poor runner so I knew 10km would be too much to unbroken. My strategy was 5 sets of 2km, with 25 pushups, situps, squats in between as my “rest”. It was crucial to track my run time to make sure I could complete on time.

I’m struggling on how to tell coworkers that it makes me feel disrespected when they give me AI generated replies to my (human written) messages. If this is less work for them, I guess I’m in theory okay with it??? But… the negative feeling remains. 😔

At the end of the term I asked my college creative wriing students to submit anonymous thoughts on AI. No real surprises: Mood ranges from resignation to despair, capitulation from embittered erosion of standards to total, feelings of betrayal from deep to furious. 1/

Yesterday I tried it again. 1h33m. Did 10km first fully (70m30s). Then took 5 min break and then PU, SU, squats in order (17m30s). I felt AWFUL after lol. But today I continue to feast and rest. I’ve eaten so many eggs today lmao.

Steve taking a selfie on a treadmill. He’s SO tired lol. Treadmill shows distance = 6.25 mi (10km). Steve taking an elevator selfie. Black tank top and grey sweater around his waist.
DM Steve@dmsteve.bsky.social · 4mo ago

So this workout sucked lmao. 1h47m, tho I probably could’ve done it faster. I broke it into 5 even sets, but should’ve taken advantage of my squats and pushups being really strong. But man that run… 💀

Undead Patron CR 18
Undead endurance of the Shadow Monarch:
Anyway anyhow (120 minute time cap)
100 pushups
100 sit-ups
100 body weight squats
10 km run

So this workout sucked lmao. 1h47m, tho I probably could’ve done it faster. I broke it into 5 even sets, but should’ve taken advantage of my squats and pushups being really strong. But man that run… 💀

Undead Patron CR 18
Undead endurance of the Shadow Monarch:
Anyway anyhow (120 minute time cap)
100 pushups
100 sit-ups
100 body weight squats
10 km runScreenshot from Solo Leveling. 

Daily quest: strength training has arrived

Goal
100 pushups
100 sit-ups
100 squats
10km runningMirror selfie in an elevator. Steve in a pride D&D tank top. He looks exhausted lol.