Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 1h

I … uh… roll to seduce the dragon? 😳

Reposted by Mike Riverso

AdequateEmily @adequateemily.bsky.social · 1h

The fucking weirdo shit people do online now is absolutely wild. Like there is no shame to how loudly racist or misogynistic or homophobic or transphobic people will be online now. It’s fucking embarassing. It’s like watching humanity devolve.

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Riverboatjack @riverboatjack.bsky.social · 1h

He is trying to deal himself a quarter of a billion dollars.

I can't elaborate on the amount of rage I feel.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 3h

Breaking News: President Trump wants $230 million from the Justice Department for investigating him, people familiar with the matter say. Any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit. nyti.ms/4hmIi5X

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 18h

Let’s go!

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 2h

Like, it’s this. One of the most famous D&D stories ever is one where a group of friends are forced to leave the village they love because it is threatened by evil, and concludes with (some of) them returning home after defeating the big bad.

Petty Bait Machine @planarpunk.com · 6h

The same relevance as this, I reckon (i.e. the way that the game was played by arguably the most famous party in the game's history back in its early days)

The Larry Elmore cover of Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home, the 1987 Dragonlance supplement, with Tasselhoff Burrfoot explaining the mistakes on the sign (which has several backward letters) next to Tika and Caramon Majere (coz this is when they were married) and what I have always thought was a Gully Dwarf who is holding a paintbrush and looking confusedly at Tasselhoff's explanations. The inn, a large two story building inside of a huge tree, looms in the background

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 8h

I want to challenge this a little bit. While I fundamentally agree that this isn’t what the game design is about, I think that the culture around DnD has inserted non-combat stuff to give emotional context to all the fighting.

It’s more satisfying to save the town if the town is a place you love.

cavegirl @cavegirl.bsky.social · 1d

What does any of this shit have to do with D&D, which is a game about going somewhere dangerous (eg dungeons) to fight scary monsters (eg dragons)?
What relevance does all the twee art like this Hasbro keeps churning out have for a game that is fundamentally about peril, violence and adventure?

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 1h

I literally think about this image every time I watch a Jays game.

Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 2h

But I have a feeling if D&D added a relationship score mechanic to their game, a lot of people would balk at it.

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 2h

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a story about indiscriminately killing all sorts of people and monsters, but the thing that really made it successful is the attractive characters you can flirt with.

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 2h

Like, it’s this. One of the most famous D&D stories ever is one where a group of friends are forced to leave the village they love because it is threatened by evil, and concludes with (some of) them returning home after defeating the big bad.

Petty Bait Machine @planarpunk.com · 6h

The same relevance as this, I reckon (i.e. the way that the game was played by arguably the most famous party in the game's history back in its early days)

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Reposted by Mike Riverso

Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 8h

So yes, go play a different game that better supports the stories you want to tell.

But if you do want to kill monsters and take their stuff, and maybe also dance in town and smooch a big blue man with horns, then you can probably make D&D work for you.

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 8h

Now, WotC’s failure here is one of actually building a game that helps create the emotional context. Saying “you can do this with our game” means nothing if the game doesn’t actually do that.

But gamers are nothing if not creative and tenacious, and WotC is taking advantage of that.

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Reposted by Mike Riverso

Alex Arrelia @alexarrelia.bsky.social · 5h

I live near an all boys school where they hazed a child by raping him with a broom handle. Boys do mass shootings every day. Boys organize frat parties for the express purpose of doing rape

Boys are terrifying now, I don’t know if you’ve noticed. It feels like a massive, systemic problem, actually.

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Reposted by Mike Riverso

Alex Arrelia @alexarrelia.bsky.social · 5h

Whether you get sent to a troubled teen camp or you’re unemployed and stuck, reading Jordan Peterson, watching Joe Rogan, interested in movies, music, sports, esports, stoicism or nihilism, Christianity or atheism or Big Foot, it’s the same message:

prove that you’re a man by being a fascist.

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Reposted by Mike Riverso

Alex Arrelia @alexarrelia.bsky.social · 5h

I would go so far as to say that brainwashing boys into Nazis is one of the core functions of American culture, and it’s a problem.

I’m surprised more American boys aren’t Nazis. I say this as a non American looking in: there are so many ways to fall down a Nazi pipeline if you’re an American boy.

amy brown @amybrown.xyz · 8h

i actually don’t think the “average” american millennial man had a nazi phase. it’s not some boys will be boys shit. this makes me side eye you and your friend group, sounds like a personal problem

The average American millennial man has been a neocon, a pacifist, a liberal, a libertarian, a communist, a nazi, and I believe now most of us are back around to liberal again. This isn't a defense of platner it's just weird how normal this shit is for guys that age.

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ripcinema @ripcinema.bsky.social · 10h

rest assured, this will be the third time Tron has failed to become a franchise, and we've become exceedingly efficient at it

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AltWatcher @altwatcher.bsky.social · 7h

"The problem with AltNPS and other unverified Alts like them is not that they are scams. It's that they are selling you shovels on a cliff edge and telling you to dig to reach salvation, all the while reducing the reputation of the people who are actually trying to save you from falling off."

The True Story of AltNPS

YouTube video by Aden Ng

youtu.be

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Reposted by Mike Riverso

Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 8h

everything else apart, if you're too dumb to get your nazi tattoo covered up before you run for Senate, you're too stupid to be in public office

Guy Trivago @convolutedname.bsky.social · 8h

If people affiliated with the campaign have to fall back on stuff like this in October in the year prior to the election, you're toast, pack it in.

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Reposted by Mike Riverso

Bethany Black @bethanyblack.bsky.social · 1d

Them: “no one had pronouns in my day”
A TV Character from their day:

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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 7h

I guess it saves us coming back and burning it again.

Ghostin this Hell @hoovybaby.bsky.social · 17h

Wake up, babe, the least subtle visual metaphor in history just dropped

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Reposted by Mike Riverso

Ghostin this Hell @hoovybaby.bsky.social · 17h

Wake up, babe, the least subtle visual metaphor in history just dropped

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 8h

But “rulings over rules” was always the 5E design philosophy (for good reason, arguably) and I think they’re afraid of attaching rules to narrative, relationships, etc. because they might turn some folks off. So we end up with “fantasy combat simulator 2024” with some nods to skill checks.

Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 8h

Oh seriously. Uncritical or otherwise just… unaware that things can be different. That different games support different stories. It surprises me that WotC has never really tried with 5E to build any supplemental rules to support the kinds of stories their audiences want to tell.

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Ripley Matthews (Transfem Vampire Art Thing) @queerwizard.co.uk · 10h

The increasing dissonance between the game as presented by the DnD fandom and media and the actual rules of the game is so jarring to me.

cavegirl @cavegirl.bsky.social · 1d

What does any of this shit have to do with D&D, which is a game about going somewhere dangerous (eg dungeons) to fight scary monsters (eg dragons)?
What relevance does all the twee art like this Hasbro keeps churning out have for a game that is fundamentally about peril, violence and adventure?

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Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 8h

So yes, go play a different game that better supports the stories you want to tell.

But if you do want to kill monsters and take their stuff, and maybe also dance in town and smooch a big blue man with horns, then you can probably make D&D work for you.

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