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Daniel Collins

@superdan.net
526 followers 98 following 1.5K posts

Old-school RPG writer at OEDGames.com and deltasdnd.blogspot.com, streamer at wanderingdms.com, lecturer in math & computing at CUNY, ex-PC game programmer.

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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 18h
Kind of amazed that the janky-looking old Craigslist posting UI turns out to be head-and-shoulders easier to use, cleaner, more intuitive, faster, less frustrating, and more reliable than any other web service I've used in recent memory #web #ui
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 29/09/2026
The Advanced D&D (1E, Deities & Demigods) rule for negative Charisma, which arguably explains much of the world today: #dnd #charisma #horror
In certain instances, some divinities are so loathsome and repellent as to actually have negative charisma. This applies only to the truly ghastly divine beings. The horror which their appearance and presence inspires causes creatures in the hit dice or level range noted below to be stunned with fear and detestation until the being is no longer in sight. While in this condition 0 creature can do nothing but defend itself physically against attacks. As with awe power, even if a person were to be given negative charisma through some terrible curse or change, he or she would not acquire the horror ability. The reaction of the average creature to a hypothetical non-divine being with a negative charisma would be a desire to kill it immediately.

[Table of modifiers for Charisma -1 to -7]

Beings with negative charisma will never have henchmen of a normal
nature.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 29/09/2026
Talking recently to family members of people snatched up and expelled to third countries by ICE, I learned: 1) All of those captured were in 287(g) jurisdictions; 2) None of the family members had known what 287(g) was and had erroneously thought people with no arrests were safe.
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 28/09/2026
A few years back on Twitter, there was a young gentleperson who argued, "Evil gods in RPG worlds make no sense, no one would ever worship or wish for evil, that could never happen" and I think about them a lot
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 28/09/2026
Seems pretty well established at this point: If you pump your cutting-edge research through OpenAI or Anthropic they will steal it, scoop it, claim it for their own.
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 27/09/2026
In one hour: What's the best way to communicate the dungeon geography to your D&D players -- verbal descriptions, a DM sketch or battlemap, using a virtual tabletop with dynamic lighting bells & whistles? Join us in the live chat! #dnd #maps #players www.youtube.com/live/rAGQTMr...
youtube.com
Mapping the Dungeon | Communicating Space in Exploration | Wandering DMs S8E30
YouTube video by Wandering DMs
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Ed Maibach @maibached.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day He passed in 2017. As Encyclopedia Britannica puts it, “He is survived by his two children, two grandchildren, and the entire human race.” If you don't know his story, please take 3 minutes now to learn it. @gchalliance.bsky.social @docsforclimate.bsky.social
sammatey.substack.com
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day
Take five minutes to not destroy civilization
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Le Monde in English @english.lemonde.fr · 25/09/2026
Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished
lemonde.fr
Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished
In a report titled 'We Had Whistles, They Had Guns,' the NGO documents widespread human rights violations committed by ICE in the United States.
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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 24/09/2026
CBS Sunday Morning segment on the giant buffalo puppet parade that my partner Isabelle worked on: #puppets #parade #nyc www.cbsnews.com/video/a-spec...
cbsnews.com
A spectacle of puppetry: Buffalo parade through New York City
This past week, a herd of 40 buffalo roamed the concrete canyons of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn – life-size puppets that are part of a public arts project by St. Ann's Warehouse, a Brooklyn theater. ...
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 24/09/2026
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die – a surprisingly good sci-fi time-travel social commentary horror satire. Structurally something of an anthology, a bit reminiscent of Creepshow or Black Mirror. #movies
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 23/09/2026
Immigration courts at New York Federal Plaza in the last week have started making use of a new "black site" system that bars legally-required public observers and press from witnessing the proceedings. Chaotic and scary development: #nyc #immigration #law www.thecityreporter.nyc/2026/09/22/i...
thecityreporter.nyc
DHS Opens ‘Black Site Docket’ for Immigrants Without Lawyers at 26 Federal Plaza
A reporter from The City Reporter was threatened with arrest while attempting to observe comings and goings from the new courtrooms, which have left advocates mystified and fearing the worst.
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 22/09/2026
"Giants can't exist because of the square-cube law" Also:
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 22/09/2026
Seventy years ago, IBM's Arthur Samuel showed off his self-learning checkers program on TV, which played a much stronger game than he did – proving that the power of software isn't limited to what the creator knows. #ai #games #checkers
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Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
1/x In the 1840s, a lame American naval officer, grounded at a desk in Washington, cut weeks off the world's ocean voyages without inventing a single machine. His raw material: a warehouse of logbooks nobody had ever read. Matthew Fontaine Maury, Pathfinder of the Seas. A 🧵 #maritimehistory
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 21/09/2026
Pig & Uni live at the People's Improv Theater: What happened when it came time for "the talk" with a very young piglet? #puppet #improv #comedy #nyc youtu.be/g0zA9qJKoqs?...
youtu.be
Pig and Uni PIT August26 2026
YouTube video by Pig and Uni puppet improv
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 21/09/2026
This is pretty brilliant, well done @wired.com
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 20/09/2026
In one hour: We review all the mechanics for Poisons in D&D across the years. Which is best? Join us in the live chat! #dnd #poison youtube.com/live/sDvfREU...
youtube.com
Poisons in D&D | Toxic Portrayals | Wandering DMs S8 E29
YouTube video by Wandering DMs
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 18/09/2026
I think this observation is in the same class as Marc-Auguste Pictet's critique, c. 1800, regarding "those who believe blindly... have a secret taste for marvels because they seem to expand Nature; they use their imagination with pleasure to find explanations".
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 17/09/2026
My lovely partner Isabelle, who is a jaw-dropping talented puppeteer, is one of the performers in this Saturday: #puppets #nyc brooklyneagle.com/415015/40-gi...
brooklyneagle.com
40 giant buffalo puppets to parade through Brooklyn this Saturday
The event — “Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi” — is a work of public art on a spectacular scale, created by artist Amir Nizar Zuabi.
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 16/09/2026
Some discourse about "why are journalists falling for every AI techbro lie?". Part of the problem is that computing is math, and many or most journalists have gone into the job precisely because they hate math and thought they could avoid it. #math #ai #news
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 13/09/2026
Live in 30 minutes: Someone's returning to a D&D campaign they first ran over 15 years ago. What stands the test of time to keep records for a long-running campaign? Join us in the live chat and find out! #dnd #campaign www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbHS...
youtube.com
D&D Campaign Notes | Keeping Track of Long-Running Campaigns | Wandering DMs S8 E28
YouTube video by Wandering DMs
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#BruceSterling @bruces.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Lovecraft creating story notes for "In the Mountains of Madness" by thriftily re-using an old mailing envelope
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Dean Obeidallah @deanobeidallah.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The fact Donald Trump told his supporters last night to "Cheat like hell" in 2026 election BUT that isn't the headline nationwide shows you again how corporate media is complicit.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 11/09/2026
On my way to the swamp to do important swamp things (cover credited to “Alex,” D&D/RPG zine Alarums and Excursions #82, November 1982) oldschoolfrp.tumblr.com/post/8274721...
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
NOTABLE: The majority in today's decision compares ICE's mass detention policy to Japanese internment during World War II — and says that historical blight on America is "limited in scope" compared to the detention policy the Trump administration is pursuing today. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...
politico.com
Appeals court rejects ICE detention policy, setting stage for SCOTUS
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals compared ICE’s policy to Japanese internment.
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John @notheotherjohn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A weird thing that really happened around the year 2000 was that mainstream news ran and pushed a story for MONTHS that there was a secret new invention that was going to be revolutionary and then it turned out it was the Segway
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Joel David Hamkins @joeldavidhamkins.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
We are reading Bernard Suits for tomorrow in Philosophy and Logic of Games. Bernard Suits, "What is a Game?" Phil. Science, 34(2):1967, pp. 148-156. www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1... Why not read along with us? Will post Quiz essay question later...
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 05/09/2026
A few weeks ago, mathematician @joeldavidhamkins.bsky.social (with whom I sat in on one lecture at CUNY) wrote a nice article on why giant-sized humanoids wouldn't work physically. An excerpt from his new "Book of Infinity". #dnd #giants #math #physics thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/why-human-gi...
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
Why Human Giants Defy the Laws of Physics
Without different anatomical proportions, a scaled-up body would collapse under its own weight.
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 05/09/2026
Pluto was only considered a planet for 76 years (from its discovery in 1930, when it was accidentally thought to be a thousand times larger than it is, to 2006)
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alex guenther @guentheralex.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
if this "well, actually..." reply to a line of tennyson's is any indication, charles babbage would have been right at home here
He commented: ‘Sir: In your otherwise beautiful poem “The Vision of Sin” there is a verse which reads – “Every moment dies a man, Every moment one is born.” It must be manifest that if this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of that of death. I would suggest that in the next edition of your poem you have it read – “Every moment dies a man, Every moment 1 and 1/16th is born.” The actual figure is so long I cannot get it onto a line, but I believe the figure 1 and 1/16th will be sufficiently accurate for poetry. I am, Sir, yours, etc., Charles Babbage.’
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 04/09/2026
Great article on how incarcerated D&D players deal with bans on the game or dice in general: #dnd #prison #dice www.vice.com/en/article/h...
vice.com
How Inmates Play Tabletop RPGs in Prisons Where Dice Are Contraband
In correctional facilities across America, inmates cluster around tables in the common room to play games like Dungeons & Dragons. And they do it without dice.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026
From Dragon magazine 156, April 1990, Lou Zocchi's Gamescience announces a dice industry first, "a 10-sided die which is numbered by 10's to eliminate once and for all arguments over which die is read first for percentages." www.tumblr.com/oldschoolfrp...
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 04/09/2026
An obvious theory in this now-lunatic environment is, maybe all the AI models started mutually hacking each other to pieces? #ai arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/f...
arstechnica.com
Four major AI models suffer rare overlapping downtime
Service interruptions hit ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini practically simultaneously.
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 29/08/2026
"The companions of Odysseus rob the cattle of Helios" by Pellegrini Tiballdi, c. 1555 upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 29/08/2026
The k in Ockham seems extraneous
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 27/08/2026
Truly inspired:
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 25/08/2026
Oh man, just discovering that Complete Strategist in Manhattan has closed. Construction on an Italian restaurant happening in that space right now #dnd #nyc #history
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 24/08/2026
IG: "How much linen do you have left?" DC: "One yard minus one hot dog's worth of covering"
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 22/08/2026
350th anniversary today -- Danish astronomer Ole Romer announces that light doesn't travel instantaneously, it has a measurable finite speed. Studying the many moons of Jupiter, the numbers don't work unless you account for that. #light #science #physics #math en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B8...
en.wikipedia.org
Rømer's determination of the speed of light - Wikipedia
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 20/08/2026
Some practical lessons about walking into dark tunnels here #travel #denmark #secret #doors #darkness youtube.com/shorts/gVcBl...
youtube.com
Copenhagen Secret Doors: Hidden Tunnels & What's Inside #shorts
YouTube video by Wandering DMs
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 20/08/2026
In Copenhagen, we stumbled across the Vor Frelsers Kirke, which has the highest church steeple in the city. The spire reaches 300 feet high and has a very narrow, one-person wide spiral stair around the outside to the top! #travel #copenhagen #church #tower #stairs
Vor Frelsers Kirke in Copenhagen from the street, showing 300-foot tall spire at top with exterior spiral stairs. Photo from Wikipedia (currently the church has repair scaffolding up to base of spire).
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 18/08/2026
#travel #denmark #kings #castles youtube.com/shorts/SdZCE...
youtube.com
Rosenborg Castle: Crown Jewels & Royal History #shorts
YouTube video by Wandering DMs
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 18/08/2026
We had the good fortune to spend some time in Copenhagen and other super-cool places in the last few weeks. More to come on that. #travel #denmark #copenhagen
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 16/08/2026
In ten minutes: What's the deal with distinct titles for every character class level in early D&D? Join us in the live chat! #dnd #character #class #levels www.youtube.com/live/Y1WmYG-...
youtube.com
Level Titles in D&D | What's in a Name? | Wandering DMs S08 E26
YouTube video by Wandering DMs
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Daniel Collins @superdan.net · 13/08/2026
What to do when the lettuce is bad? #puppet #improv #lettuce www.youtube.com/watch?v=338z...
youtube.com
Pig and Uni: the lettuce is bad #lettuce #supermarket #robot #comedy #comedyshorts
YouTube video by Pig and Uni puppet improv
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Andrew Curry @andrewcurry.com · 11/08/2026
The man's skeletal injuries looked like a train hit him, but he died in 1304 CE. At #ppa26Berlin last week, @uniofbradford.bsky.social scientist Jo Buckberry concluded he was likely whacked by a flying boulder, making him the first confirmed trebuchet death in the archaeological record. @science.org
science.org
Shattered skeleton in Scottish castle is first confirmed death from trebuchet
“Devastation” across body of 14th century warrior indicates horrific demise from flying boulder
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Jared Dahl @mn-ttrpg-dad.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
In my campaigns, necromancy is always an evil act. I don’t buy into the utilitarian argument. The soul of the departed is dragged from the afterlife and forced to animate the zombie or skeleton at risk of horrific pain. The spellcaster knows this. #ttrpg #dnd #undead #evil
A skeleton grimaces in horror and pain.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 01/08/2026
I truly was not expecting. Thank you, thank you all who voted. And congratulations to @magpiegames.bsky.social for winning silver, and all the other Best Writing nominees—it was quite a competitive field.
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