Daniel Collins

Daniel Collins

@superdan.net

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

559 followers102 following1.5K posts

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

You've got to savor being able to say things like, “In the prior millennium we did things differently”, because it's a joke that only comes around once every thousand years

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Happy 80th anniversary of "Wittgenstein attacks Popper with a red-hot fire poker at a meeting of the Cambridge Moral Sciences Club" Day to all who celebrate #philosophy

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

This was my favorite of the 5 proofs, and I was just a little sad it was the only one that didn't generalize to the infinite case.

Joel David Hamkins@joeldavidhamkins.bsky.social

The fundamental theorem of finite games at CUNY. Of 5 proofs, this was proof number 4, by De Morgan's law. As seen at yesterday's Grad Student Logic seminar. (Photo courtesy of @foysavas.bsky.social)

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Observation: I'm faculty in a Department of Mathematics & Computer Science and we are never-ever invited to any college function that talks about AI usage or policy

#BruceSterling@bruces.bsky.social

*I don't get why any "general" intelligence automatically appears in the process here. Maybe you just get huge oversupplies of math and code. Like, to the unpleasant levels of endless traffic jams and ear-splitting noise.

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Some possible spoilers to classic D&D adventures coming, namely my favorite cover-art misdirections/false rumors to trick possible players:

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

The original cover to AD&D S1: Tomb of Horrors. The crowned lich rising off its couch to confront you is a depiction of the false crypt area (the actual arch-lich looks nothing like this, and is hidden in a much harder to find secret area).

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Can I say that as a 4th-grader in 1980 I was picked to cast & direct a short Rumpelstiltskin play, and I chose one of my girl classmates as the title character because she was obviously the best actor and fit. Geez parts of this country have gotten stupid in the last 40+ years.

Erin Reed@erininthemorning.com

A girl won the role of Seymour in South Grand Prairie High School in Texas. Then, the district freaked out because of Texas' anti-trans and anti-gay law. So they tried to strip her role and give it to a boy. She refused, so now they are cancelling the play. Subscribe to support our journalism.

erininthemorning.comTexas School Kills ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’ After Girl Cast As Seymour, Citing Anti-LGBTQ+ LawFollowing backlash, the school gave one young actress’s role to a boy—and told her to share the role of Audrey with another girl as consolation. Then they cancelled it altogether.

Daniel Collins reposted

Joseph Rezek
@rezekjoe.bsky.social

My heart breaks for mathematicians whose lives and careers are being destroyed by AI — and especially this PhD student, who doesn’t even know he is a poet

Daniel Collins reposted

PSC-CUNY
@psc-cuny.org

ICE out of New York. To learn more about our union's ongoing efforts to protect our immigrant colleagues, students, and neighbors, and get involved, visit psc-cuny.org/ISWG

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Watching The Bounty (1984) with Anthony Hopkins and in the Bligh-finally-loses-his-shit sequence, you can see he's already got the Hannibal Lector character in the toolkit #movies #acting

Daniel Collins reposted

Chloe The Cartographer
@chloethecartog.bsky.social

The game dwarf fortress isn’t for everyone, it’s likely the most complex management game ever created. I love it, so I jumped at the chance to work with mightymerch.store to make a 20th anniversary map poster. This one was super fun to draw. #map #cartography #dwarffortress #graphicdesign #games

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Some 35 years ago in college I saw my first live improv. A group had made the long long drive up from Boston to UMaine to perform in the auditorium. #improv

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

On their second show, the audience prompt was a lousy inside-joke. My instinct was to yell not to do it, but the moment passed. As a result the next hour totally bombed, the room was dead, and they never came back. I've regretted not doing that for decades, and get edgy at any improv.

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

So last Saturday I'm at the Henson/Muppet folks' Puppet Up show in NYC. The amazing host @mrpatrickbristow.bsky.social was juggling a bunch of crazy prompts, and later misremembered one. This time, I yelled out a correction. He pointed from the stage and thanked me for the fix. Achievement unlocked!

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Sat in on a lecture on a solution to the fractional knapsack problem. Put in terms of a thief in a store trying to maximize value from arbitrary splittable items. Called "portions" by a lecturer who doesn't sound R's much, so canon in my head is now this is about stealing potions from a magic shop.

Daniel Collins reposted

United Wizards of the Coast - CWA
@uwotc-official.bsky.social

This morning, the D&D team and Magic's Studio X informed our leadership of our intent to unionize. We love the games we make and the work we do, and unionizing is how we protect that work. unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/news/dnd-stu...

unitedwizardsofthecoast.comDungeons & Dragons and Studio X Join United Wizards of the Coast - CWAToday, October 6, 2026, the designers, artists, writers, producers, and workers behind Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Duel Masters, D&D Beyond, and countless other games are uniting in soli...
Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

I'd say over the last year I've spent a combined 12-14 hours a week at three or four different establishments playing different mixes of pop music nonstop, and I've never heard of this song

Denny Carter@dennycarter.bsky.social

This kind of take made a Rolling Stone writer so mad they wrote a whole piece about it.

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

I joined a bowling league with a bunch of older mostly white guys. Over a couple years I got to know them, listened to them, heard what they said in the car...

Justin Wolfers@justinwolfers.bsky.social

At the risk of doing social media wrong, lemme suggest folks engage with what I wrote, rather than the 280 character summary. There's plenty to disagree with in the actual piece I wrote, but it's of a different nature than some of the reactions I'm seeing to this thread.

View full thread
Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

It was a year and a half in when I got to hear in the car, no joke (and this is in NYC): 1st guy: "I just got 3 new biographies of Hitler. It's so great he escaped to Argentina. Why don't they teach that in schools?" 2nd guy: "They should, they're just a bunch of sheep"

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Yes I can pass in these circles as a white, straight, cis, christian guy. It takes some time before they reveal their real sentiments. It's worse than you'd think.

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

I joined a bowling league with a bunch of older mostly white guys. Over a couple years I got to know them, listened to them, heard what they said in the car...

Justin Wolfers@justinwolfers.bsky.social

At the risk of doing social media wrong, lemme suggest folks engage with what I wrote, rather than the 280 character summary. There's plenty to disagree with in the actual piece I wrote, but it's of a different nature than some of the reactions I'm seeing to this thread.

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

And I became more and more furious at their racism, bigotry, sexism, appetite for violence against foreigners, belligerence, thoughtlessness, willingness to excuse every high crime and misdemeanor that DJT commits as a conspiracy, mindless parroting of Fox News, and flat-out stupidity.

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

At the grocery store buying non-virgin olive oil because of something the British Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church said

Daniel Collins reposted

Jason Bradley Thompson
@mockman.bsky.social

Thanks Shannon! 🙏 I hope to get it back in print soon… maybe next year in conjunction with a certain game…. 🤞

Shannon Appelcline@shannonappelcline.bsky.social

I was hoping to also hype Jason's _Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath_ adaptation, which was how I fell in love with his work, but it's out-of-print! But if you're a Dreamlands fan, definitely grab a copy of the hardcover if you ever see it.

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

Had one of those lovely institutional interactions at the bank where a process that's happened for twenty years is suddenly mind-wiped from existence (“sir, we could **never** take a check for that!”)

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

We know that very large prehistoric land animals roamed the Earth. E.g.: Sauropods, baluchitherium, etc. The gigantopithecus gorilla is theorized to have stood between 9 and 12 feet tall.

Daniel Collins
@superdan.net

So I think a more interesting question, and of course a much harder one, that rarely gets worked on, is: What would the biological limits for a humanoid giant actually be? What would the limits be if we modified the proportions, as for a gorilla or a tyrannosaur?