Nicholas Orvis
nsorvis.bsky.social
Nicholas Orvis
@nsorvis.bsky.social
Dramaturg, director, critic, and scholar working at the intersection of theater and games.

Co-creator @dndramanerds.bsky.social. Opinions my own.
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
The reason folks are focusing on DHS's refusal to honor Real IDs is that it means that the Trump regime is asserting the right to detain anyone in America, resident or visitor, without probable cause. It's an erasure of habeas corpus for all Americans.
bsky.app/profile/jare...
Add to this that HSI just filed a declaration in our case challenging these policies saying they can’t trust REAL IDs as proof of status.

So showing your papers isn’t even enough to end the stop.
December 13, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
there is a certain condescension in the idea that “racism should be publicly unacceptable and come with consequences” is an attack on the “working class.”
December 12, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork
December 12, 2025 at 4:00 AM
I'm not even a HARD-CORE AI skeptic but if "the man-hours poured into this film were more than a traditional Production [sic]" then I have to politely ask:

WHY SHOULD ANYONE USE IT FOR THIS?
This is a since-deleted LinkedIn post from the marketing agency that created the since-deleted AI-generated McDonalds Christmas ad, and all I can think of is how the energy consumption must've been about on par with a small suburb or heavy industrial load to produce 30 seconds of slop everyone hated
December 11, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Our @stillfleet.bsky.social campaign wrapped up yesterday! (Well the finale AIRED yesterday.) A real delight to sit down with this crew of mayhem makers and talk about the game.
At the conclusion of our @stillfleet.bsky.social campaign, Nick sits down with the cast to discuss the experience, the ways success and failure are framed in it, and what it’s like to play such profoundly non-human characters in a far-future setting.
December 11, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
Not only do @benferber.com, @dndramanerds.bsky.social, and company make fun AP; they also say smarty-pants things about gaming in general. It's always strange but nice to read/listen to reviews, and DnDN goes beyond the "good/bad" dichotomy, breaking down how game props lead to different emotions
At the conclusion of our @stillfleet.bsky.social campaign, Nick sits down with the cast to discuss the experience, the ways success and failure are framed in it, and what it’s like to play such profoundly non-human characters in a far-future setting.
December 11, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
Biggest commitment to a 3 second joke I've ever seen
April 9, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
The final stretch goal (at $180k) is a Creator’s Guide to PBTA, and I need y’all to go back that because I’m a creator looking to make a PBTA and I could really use a guide.
December 8, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
11 Days Remain. $8,250 till we hit the last stretch goal, at which point every backer gets the PDF of our creator's guide to PBTA, An Apocalypse of Infinite Games, the moment it's ready.
Wanna be among the first to see? Here's your chance!
#ttrpg #pbta #AW3rd www.kickstarter.com/projects/lum...
Apocalypse World: Burned Over
The 3rd edition of the groundbreaking original.
www.kickstarter.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
It's my pleasure to announce the Longlist for Best Transfeminine Fiction in the 2025 TFR Reader's Choice Awards!

This year, TFR recognizes 14 titles from every genre and section of the industry 🩷

Thank you to everyone who voted early to craft this list! Voting ends December 26th at 11:59 PM EST.
The 2025 Longlist for Best Transfeminine Fiction (TFR Awards)
Thirteen early contenders for the best transfeminine novel of 2025. Voting is open until December 26th at 11:59 PM EST.
thetransfemininereview.com
December 7, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque:
"This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".
December 7, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
People are always surprised to learn how little creators actually own in comics, games, etc. Big corporate brands are usually built on a work-for-hire model, meaning creators get paid once and then the *company* owns their ideas forever. This is why independent/creator-owned work is so important.
Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli says she does not get any royalties from the ‘Spider-Verse’ films, Insomniac games, or merch

"I don’t get anything … that's the saddest part of my life"

(via SiteJamesons | TW)
December 7, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
Every new word in this sentence is worse than the last
December 6, 2025 at 11:29 PM
As someone only peripherally aware of the Steam drama, I really appreciated both this piece's articulation of the issues and its gentle critiques of HORSES. Good Lord, is that all it takes for Valve?
December 4, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
Then, what if we trusted that if people use an accommodation, that they’re doing it because it’s reasonable to them? The more neutral and abundant accommodations are, the more disabled people will actually get what they need. If able-bodied people happen to benefit too, so much the better.
December 4, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I've always liked Shaw's writing (even when I've disagreed), and I'm happy that the Times has a dedicated theatre critic again!

(Lots of other things to be said about that paper, but...)
December 3, 2025 at 8:24 PM
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Today marks one year since the Dec. 3, 2024 martial law declaration that rocked South Korea and still reverberates today. What’s on my mind today is the grit of South Koreans who rushed to the National Assembly that night, in freezing weather, to demand a return to democratic government.
December 3, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
"Eligible to New York City-based artists with children under the age of three, awardees will receive a grant for $25,000 to be used for childcare expenses with the provider of their choice." www.artistsandmothers.org/grant - Applications due by Jan 2.
Grant — Artists and Mothers
www.artistsandmothers.org
December 1, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
“Against Cop Shit“ is my “Tom Holland Lio Syncing ‘Umbrella’.” I see it, I repost it.

Expel cop shit from your hearts.
"'We are both scamming each other, you and I, and I intend to win.' When a classroom becomes adversarial, of course, as cop shit presumes, then there must be a clear winner and loser."
- Jeffery Moro, Against Cop Shit
jeffreymoro.com/blog/2020-02...
December 1, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
We can read 4000 year old texts. We can't open 20 year old digital documents
November 28, 2025 at 11:18 PM
I love The Magus (and all @momatoes.com's work), so definitely encourage you to grab one of these if cost has been an issue for you in checking it out!
The Magus was featured in a popular TikTok, and people have been really supporting the game.

To celebrate this milestone, 100 community copies are now available—no need to email anymore. Get a free copy of the Magus in just a single click.
December 1, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
ℑ𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪 𝔇𝔞𝔯𝔨𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔉𝔞𝔯 𝔉𝔲𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔢, 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝔒𝔫𝔩𝔶 𝔐𝔬𝔦
November 30, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Nicholas Orvis
A story Stoppard told several times, in several places:
November 29, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Giving me a flashback to that time in undergrad when (shortly BEFORE I was on staff) someone was stabbed in the chest by a cavalry saber (prop mixup) during a show they'd written and directed.

(They were, luckily, fine.)
incredible quote lol
November 29, 2025 at 2:41 AM
The OSR isn't the center of my focus, but a lot of really interesting thinking has come out of it, and I really love this blogpost. Particularly love the way it draws in to complement (rather than oppose) PbtA, Jay Dragon, et al
November 28, 2025 at 8:45 PM