Amber Macfarlane

@amby.navy

writing about RPGs at https://amby.navy follow my works at @rmrondel.itch.io, or on https://sadslut.club she/her

Really, *really* dislike what I'm seeing of the new Dark Sun. OG Dark Sun had some seriously cool, *very relevant* themes (life under tyranny, life after genocide, life after ecocide) + bondage glam rock Jojo-pose aura-farming. This new stuff is busy-gore + generic metal + cyberpunk (???) Urgh.

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What's the deal with games needing monsters you can kill with no remorse? I keep seeing TTRPGs touting this in their marketing ... There was Obojima, a while back; now Deathbringer with its pig-faced orcs. I genuinely don't get this! What desire is being served here---and whose? 1/

my face when I googled something about my game darkwebSTREAMER and the genAI response declared that a man designed the pioneering language system that I, a woman, designed we were talking about erasure of women's achievements by LLMs YESTERDAY and today i see this? goddamn.

post shows a screenshot of google's AI response, then a question, then another response, with the following text:

Would you like to know more about how they built the procedural internet, details on the game's Twitch integration, or its estimated release date?


(human reply)
howo did they build the procedural internet

(google AI)
The development team behind darkwebSTREAMER bypassed standard game design templates to build what they call the "world's first procedurally generated internet". Instead of relying on static, pre-written text, the studio created a dynamic, reactive ecosystem using a custom-engineered blend of linguistic frameworks, anthropology, and proprietary Al systems.

Rather than utilizing modern Large Language Models (LLMs) which can break immersion or hallucinate incorrectly, they engineered a highly controlled, rule-based simulation from the ground up. Natural Language Processing (NLP) Architecture
• Dynamic Content Creation: Lead programmer Tony Li used his background in linguistics to design a bespoke NLP system. This system constructs text elements on the fly-including dark web forum posts, emails, and chat room logs-ensuring that grammar, syntax, and phrasing match a 1990s internet dialect.
Mel Andrews@bayesianboy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.

EN World has banned discussion of Deathbringer, the TTRPG they supposedly voted as their "Most Anticipated of 2026". Masterful gambit, Dan "Professor DM" DeFazio and co.

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The deathbringer demo crowd was all 30-50 yo white men. Chanting, laughing—prof DM really puts on a show. Deathbringer’s art shows you what they find funny. Women are funny. Enemies that look like black people are funny. I am Red Box D&D old. And I thought we ALL had grown up more than this.

Voting for the ENNIE Awards ends some time today!! If you haven’t gotten around to it already, please head over to the website and vote for which nominees you want to win- and if you missed it, check out this thread where I present my case for why you should vote for me to be a judge next year!

Seraphina Garcia Ramirez@seraphimseraphina.bsky.social · 4w ago

Voting for the 2026 ENNIE Awards is live! I’m one of the candidates to be a judge next year, and I’m asking for your vote! In this thread I’ll explain what that means, why you should vote for me, and where you can read more of my thoughts on tabletop games. vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2026/ 1/

Just read this and it's phenomenal. Incredibly well-drawn characters, and a situation that rests on the knife's edge of Violence. I hate everyone in it and feel desperately sad for them at the same time. Good shit.

Robin M. Rondel@rmrondel.itch.io · 4w ago

ICD-10 Code W54 is my entry to the Violence jam hosted by @lukegearing.bsky.social. It's about an illegal teenage dog fighting night in Forres, Scotland and is, perhaps, my grimmest work yet. Photos taken with @moodcamera.bsky.social. You can get it on my Itch: rmrondel.itch.io/icd-10-code-...

I don't know, just feeling a little burned out over the battle nun doing so well, the reminder that r/rpg doesn't like us, and the tone deaf webinar invite from Backerkit about DCC (no, the other one). Just feels hard and bad right now as an indie designer.