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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 5h

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 8h

Omg it's actually happening (and by 'it' I mean Reptar is here to save us)

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 23h

#WarRavagedPortland

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 12h

Plot twist: the article is written by an AI as well.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 12h

a purple jar of jelly with a red and white checkered lid .

ALT: a purple jar of jelly with a red and white checkered lid .

media.tenor.com

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 12h

Yeah I figure it'd be the same logic as anything else regarding pronouns, was just thinking cautiously because I know 'it' is often used as a slur and I wasn't sure if there was some way to contextually confirm (past just asking the person, of course) the word wasn't being used derogatorily.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 13h

Legit question as a cis straight ally trying to do my best: what would be the case for someone identifying as 'it/its'? 'They/them' always made sense to me because it's still identifying one as a person, but 'it/its' implies inanimacy, which I understand is why it comes off as a dehumanizing slur.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

a man with a beard is pointing at the camera with the words you da man behind him

ALT: a man with a beard is pointing at the camera with the words you da man behind him

media.tenor.com

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

...but as what should be a shared social experience that is done primarily for leisure, that you will likely be spending a lot of time and energy in, you can't just draw the line at your own subjective experience while demanding others conform to it. There must be compromise.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

There is no answer I can see apart from calling the issue out and challenging people to think more critically in those discussions, and more emphatically for the people their wants have consequences for. This isn't 'Tylenol causes autism' levels of misinformation and harm...

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

This often results in GMs needing to engage in designer level core design to just figure out how to address their wants, let alone how to mitigate any consequences to how they run the game or other players.

Reality and truth cannot be subjective when other people are involved.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

Players who refuse to engage in any sort of objective mechanical analysis make it immeasurably harder to act on that feedback, while having expectations with deep mechanical ripples and consequences makes it impossible for the GM to push back if their wants are deemed sacrosanct.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

This is one of the reasons I feel so strongly about my 'GMs aren't designers' rhetoric - a lot of the time, managing expectations and behaviour comes down to having those objective mechanical designs, especially in instrumental combat games like DnD, PF, DS, etc.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

This is a big enough problem for designers who are trying to appeal to many players at once, but it's awful for RPGs where you have GMs needing to try and figure out pain points and appealing to players, when the most those players are willing to divulge with feedback is that nebulous gamefeel.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

...but I believe it's more evidence of the internet being the source of post-truth proliferation, and gaming is just another victim of it.

When evidence questions a person's reality or experience, and they are ingrained in their truth, of course they see it as gaslighting or bullying.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

This goes beyond usual levels of chronic gamer entitlement and reaches the very disturbing levels of post-trutherism we've been seeing in the wider political and social zeitgeist. I don't think gaming cultures are the cause (insert joke about Gamergate here)...

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

It comes off as an understandable reaction to the hyper-rationalist and socially punishing optimisation that's dominated the wider gaming scene over the past two decades, but it now seems to have over-corrected and treats *any* level of instrumental and mechanical analysis as toxic and undesirable.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

The issue is that when presented with objective analysis - of numbers, mechanics that act as impetus for those experiences, optimised playstyles, etc. - players are liable to *call those analyses patronising or trying to dismiss their own experiences*, rejecting them as elitist drivel.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

It is not an absolute of your feelings being invalid, nor an all-encompassing silver bullet that shuts down objective fact and other people's tastes.

It's not even that players should be taking more responsibility for their tastes, as they can't be expected to have designer-level answers.

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

Kind of tired of both seeing nebulous 'gamefeel' being used as a punchline descriptor when people talk of their gaming experiences, while also having to explain that I'm not saying feeling or subjective taste isn't important.

Subjective taste is experience born upon an objective reality. 🧵

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Reposted by Dan Talks Games

Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 1d

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 2d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

140 1.9K 7.4K

Reposted by Dan Talks Games

Obscura | ➡ PAX Aus | Southern Realm Games @tabletopobscura.bsky.social · 1d

Balatro is the master of these multi phase maps, I have never seen any cartographer put so much effort into this kind of thing. Each one is a bottle dungeon waiting to happen, an epic set piece to end an adventure.
This set is no exception to this.

Balatro @balatro.bsky.social · 2d

Yamir, The Mammoth Fortress. It towers on the back of a giant Royal Mammoth filled with Primal and murderous fallen elves ready to swing down to any unlucky settlement in the path of their titanic living battlement.

#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg

get this map by visiting: patreon.com/balatroart

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

RIGHT???

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

SERIOUSLY, LOOK AT HOW GOOD THIS ARTICU-I mean, NONDESCRIPT ICE BIRD IS

Sheppi Isometrics @sheppiisometrics.bsky.social · May 9

#IsometricArt Token #176 - Legendary Winter Bird "Arktos" (Beast, Homebrew, Pokemon #DnD, Large)
Doing Some pokemon Pathfinder Monsters. Will do some statblocks for #PF2e

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

Looking at my collection of @sheppiisometrics.bsky.social tokens I downloaded and guys I cannot stress, this art is GORGEOUS, please support them if possible, they deserve it. #ttrpg #dnd #pathfinder2e

Sheppi TSRodriguez | Patreon

creating Isometric Art and 2D Assets

www.patreon.com

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Dan Talks Games @dantalksgames.bsky.social · 1d

*Cut to four years later*

'Happy birthday, Uncle Tim!'

'Darling, it's me, your father.'

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