Reposted by Nicholas OrvisAuthenticity Trip | 200-Proof Games @200proofgames.bsky.social · 15hPeople think that dice are the engine for RPGs, because they’re so visible. The d20 is so iconic. We think apocalypse world “runs on 2d6.” It doesn’t. It runs on moves. *Moves* are the resolution engine - the dice are *only* the randomizing agent, which is an important piece but not the heart! 2505
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisSpokane Rising @spokanerising.com · 29/09/2026Send Stephen Miller to The Hague. 21074452426
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisPookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Reminder that in Canada upon becoming an engineer you get an iron ring made of a collapsed bridge, purposely designed to be uncomfortable, to remind you that your ethics demand you give a fuck even about the boring grudgework of such as double-checking your math. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ringen.wikipedia.orgIron Ring - Wikipedia 2073062278
Nicholas Orvis @nsorvis.bsky.social · 23/09/2026My latest essay is up on Playtest Material! Looking at the points of contact between theater and RPGs. If you want a sense of this "gameful theater" thing I've been banging on about, I get into a bit of that near the end! 1106
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 16/09/2026The 1948 Genocide Convention does not require one person being killed. Read the Convention. 437827
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisPlaytest Material Magazine @playtestmaterial.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Thank you all so much for such an impressive subscription drive so far! We are at 49/75 subs: Nearly two thirds of the way to what we need, and we've more than quadrupled our original subcriber base in less than 24 hours. 11410
Nicholas Orvis @nsorvis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026I've got an essay on theater, TTRPGs, and critical spectatorship in the inaugural issue of Playtest Material, a new quarterly journal of serious RPG criticism. And they're having a subscription drive right now! If RPG crit interests you, check out some of the previews and consider a sub. 0115
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisDilek Sayedahmed @dileksayedahmed.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I truly, deeply, sincerely do think the guy flipping burgers at McDonalds should be able to afford rent, bills, and groceries with his paycheck alone. That's kind of the whole point of having a job and I can't believe this is considered a radical position.🤷🏽♀️ 159167194680
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisMark Simpson-Vos @simpsonvos.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Reader, I sobbed at the end of this. Because ALL our children deserve better than the world we are bequeathing them.nytimes.comIn Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own? (Gift Article)A decade ago, I made a decision about my daughter’s education that I hoped would challenge New York City’s separate and unequal school system. Now 16, she thinks I made the wrong choice. 48832
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisMaid Mocha @spacemocha.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Good thread altogether but the end is the most important part imo - a boycott needs an *end point*. If you are not gettable, if nothing they do will ever get you to shop there, then they have no reason to change practices in response to the boycott! 117141
Reposted by Nicholas Orviscayce @cayce.zone · 06/09/2026it's called "dukkhamaxxing". kids are cultivating attachment at unheard of levels on the streets to experience whole new levels of suffering 27119
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisColin Dickey @colindickey.com · 07/09/2026“I got your ‘eat shit’ loud and clear” is, unfortunately, an objectively very funny statement. Point: AI 691543
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisCharlotte @fireantprincess.bsky.social · 05/09/2026when conservatives say “facts don’t care about your feelings” you need to understand that it is not meant to say they are committed to facts but that they are committed to creating a form of epistemological dictatorship where no one is able to disagree with their obvious lies. 5434148
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisThe Stillfleet Studio ☉ more than play 🇵🇸 @stillfleet.bsky.social · 04/09/2026News: I'm very excited to support the new critical journal of TTRPGs, Playtest Material, as guest editor of Issue 2: Histories playtestmaterial.org/issue-two-hi... @playtestmaterial.bsky.social @laurieoc.bsky.socialplaytestmaterial.orgIssue Two: HistoriesIt’s my great honour as guest editor to introduce the second issue of Playtest Material, “Histories.” The call for submissions for this issue will open to the public September 15 and close October 15.... 21411
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Pop Syllabus. 437395
Reposted by Nicholas Orvisgrant @grantpardee.bsky.social · 31/08/2026"Tiny Tim, who DESERVED to die," 9297882597
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisDr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 30/08/2026“Why didn’t scientists warn us?” 271728768
Reposted by Nicholas Orvisaustin_walker @austinwalker.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Impossible to add up all Avery's done for the medium. But easy to say how much her work helped me come to understand how to play, facilitate, and design games. Also, they're fun as hell, you should buy them! 219894
Nicholas Orvis @nsorvis.bsky.social · 30/08/2026Recent TTRPG mini-discourse lodged in my head has me thinking about the value of Thomas and Sharp's "Fun, Taste, and Games," which IIRC has an entire chapter patiently explaining that, yes, many people do enjoy Monopoly. Because most people don't play games like game designers and scholars do. 130
Nicholas Orvis @nsorvis.bsky.social · 30/08/2026As someone who took his student newspaper editors to task over email because they changed "zany" in my lede to "ribald," yeah, you really should not let an LLM just tweak your language either. 33910
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisMark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 29/08/2026I feel like I’m living In a dystopian novel written in 1993 that was rejected by dozens of publishers because it was incredibly stupid. 353117362246
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026They have whiplash. Is A.I. the future or is it the end of jobs? It can't be both (they took 1900 hours of AP classes so they know they can figure that out for themselves). Where are all the professors and why are they all in a seminar about A.I. instead of inspiring them or telling them what to do? 981796
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisJoel Calahan @joelcalahan.com · 28/08/2026My son starts college in two weeks, and his decision really boiled down to finding a place where he thought faculty and students did learning old-school: small seminar discussions, field work, etc. He wants a tech-proof degree. Many of the colleges made no attempt to sell this to him! 318724
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisRook @boxen.bsky.social · 26/08/2026You already had several good reasons to boycott Starbucks, but here's another one 064
Nicholas Orvis @nsorvis.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Monsterhearts and Dream Askew are both delightful games! Great for an evening with friends. The Quiet Year is fascinating. But Brave Sparrow, anthologized in "Variations on Your Body," changed my brain chemistry. And the essay "We've Been Stranger Things" in the same collection is stellar! 010
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisAvery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Do you love any of the games that I have created? Whether it's Monsterhearts, Dream Askew, The Quiet Year, Going For Broke, or a deeper cut, now would be a great time to hit quote-tweet and tell your friends about it! It's been a slow month. 💕✨ store.buriedwithoutceremony.comstore.buriedwithoutceremony.comBuried Without CeremonyMy name is Avery Alder, and for the past eighteen years I’ve been designing tabletop roleplaying games. These are games about community, relationships, doubt, queerness, and the collapse of civilizati... 12593364
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisJes Steele ✌️ @piratito.com · 25/08/2026Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris performing “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow” on The Dolly Parton Show (1976) 213218838
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisBetter Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Let me get this straight. Sometimes a famous person dies and everyone is nice about it? Merely because of their deeds during life? 51157502525
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisAll In with Chris Hayes @allinwithchris.bsky.social · 25/08/2026“This isn’t a problem that started with the storm. We are a predominately Black city that tends to get ignored,” says Grammy award-winning rapper Freddie Gibbs as his hometown of Gary, Indiana remains without power after two weeks.youtube.com‘IGNORED’: Rapper Freddie Gibbs SPEAKS OUT on Gary, Indiana’s power crisis YouTube video by MS NOW 12543171729
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisAparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I will add, long before this became federal, red state legislatures have been working hard to destroy academic freedoms about what faculty can even say. In Oklahoma, we were told that we could be fined and/or jailed if we provided "material support that led to a student getting an abortion."... 3617174
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisRay @sireviscerate.myatproto.social · 22/08/2026This isn't a "surprising message of support for trans adults". This is a bigot whose arm is being twisted into doing public relations damage control by the media network that invested billions into a franchise she's been poisoning with hate for the last decade. 301048329
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisJon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 21/08/2026WSJ giving Cofnas a platform to insist that he's just a brave truth teller but also a small bean birthday boy. People should lose their jobs over this. 91757360
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisUncle Duke @uncleduke1969.bsky.social · 22/08/2026him: license and registration please me: *hands them over* him: *eats license and registration* me: now wait a min- him: *burps* insurance card please 16748138
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisJeremy Antley @jantley.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Archival work is both time and resource intensive but if you can swing it, nothing beats looking at primary sources. I’m a big believer that everyone should visit their local archives and just start digging. You will feel more connected and be better informed for the effort. 14215
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisSoraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 20/08/2026So there was a racist mass media smear campaign that got repeated louder and louder and louder until people assumed there had to be at least *some* truth to it just based on the sheer volume of allegations? This is flooding the zone with shit. This is Bannonism. 111073171
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisSoraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 20/08/2026Wait a damn minute. The things Arday did, like the marathons, had been previously covered, with first hand primary sources, by English news orgs, contemporaneously?!?! And yet the Telegraph and others just kept repeating that he'd lied about them, despite tons of documentation they happened?! 🤬🤬🤬middleeasteye.netJason Arday's marathon challenge and football claims found to be true after his deathClaims the late academic made which were widely derided as false in media and online discourse this month appear to be true, an MEE analysis has found 542690908
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisThe Onion @theonion.com · 19/08/2026Democratic Socialism: Myth Vs. Fact theonion.com/democratic-socialism-m… 159223606267
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisProf. Anthea Butler @antheabutler.bsky.social · 19/08/2026I didn't really want to write this becIse it's complicated and sad but 3 things..1. not the title I would have chosen 2. What weny wrong was long before Cambridge and 3. Racism www.ms.now/opinion/jaso...ms.nowOpinion | As flawed as he was, Jason Arday deserved betterAnthea Butler: There's more than one tragedy within the Jason Arday story 48120
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisMo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 12/08/2026“Those are not my beliefs.“ Oh really? See, the thing about beliefs is, unless you act on them, they are just words you say to make yourself feel better and you don’t truly believe those things at all. Hope that helps! 033267
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisScott Dworkin @dworkin.bsky.social · 18/08/2026NEW: Trump is moving to open 45 million acres of national forest to logging and development. 45 million. Acres. Land that belongs to you, that your grandparents protected, that nobody gets to replace. We just launched this. Tell Congress to stop him: actionnetwork.org/letters/tell...actionnetwork.orgTell Congress: Stop Trump from destroying 45 million acres of our National forestsContact Congress today! 11935181895
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisEvan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 19/08/2026I'm definitely reading those higher ed articles about the US brain drain and the total denigration of our higher ed institutions, but make no mistake: there isn't a country in the world primed to "save" academics or "science." Every university I know is quietly or loudly dealing with draconian cuts. 15110
Reposted by Nicholas Orvismolly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 17/08/2026it was a generational fumble for the dems to pull back on letting coach tim, our gentle midwestern uncle, stand in front of a mic and express disgust and bewilderment at what an absolute grab bag of misfit freaks this admin is. this is weird! these people are fucking weirdos!!! it’s yucky! 15169961230
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 17/08/2026I sincerely believe they could have ridden “They Weird, Yo” all the way to the White House. 473965600
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisAnna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Once again and over and over until it gets through: archives and libraries scanning something for preservation is an entirely different story than private citizens and companies doing it, because there are strict ethical standards for the former and the latter consider them annoyances. 5940244
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisPOCGamer aka PanzerLion! @pocgamer.com · 17/08/2026I've hated AI slop since it launched, and I hate it more now. There's a bunch of channels on TikTok now that are, on the face of them, "history" channels. The information they give is, by and large, accurate. The imagery they generate? Literally feeding white supremacy. How? They're making...1/3 2509
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisJen Taub @jentaub.bsky.social · 17/08/2026“A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.” ysph.yale.edu/news-article...ysph.yale.eduUniversal Health Coverage Could Save $1 Trillion and 114,000 Lives Every Year, Yale Study ProjectsA single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it 596165407118
Reposted by Nicholas OrvisNathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 15/08/2026Reminder for those who might not remember that a scholar in my subfield was, c2013, credibly accused of plagiarism, found guilty by an independent committee, had the book revoked by the press—& was not fired or dragged in the press but (over objections from 13 of her own colleagues) made into a deanbrowndailyherald.comAfter plagiarism allegations, prof. was named deanServing the Brown University community since 1891 22494202