Want to understand Honoré de Balzac? Try Dungeons & Dragons instead of literary theory

By Harsh Trivedi, Teaching Associate French, School of Languages, Arts and Societies., University of Sheffield

Most people think originality comes from endless freedom. The role playing game Dungeons & Dragons suggests the opposite. It gives players a small number of races, classes and backgrounds and somehow produces characters that feel endlessly distinct. A half-elf paladin might be an immediately recognisable type, yet no two half-elf paladins ever feel the same once play begins. This is because identity in Dungeons & Dragons is not created by escaping structure, but by working through it.

Nineteenth-century readers encountered something strikingly similar in the novels of the French novelist…

Read complete article

~	Jailed Critic in Rwanda Faces 30-Year Sentence

~	Botswana’s hike of old age pensions hasn’t fixed the problem of who cares for the elderly – new study

~	Elite gymnasts are no longer retiring after pregnancy – sport science needs to catch up

~	Everything can be a bet now – the rise and risks of prediction markets

~	The worse your mental health problem, the less sympathy you get – why?

~	Smartphone photos may be misleading doctors and putting patients at risk – new research

~	Net zero will transform Britain’s economy – our map reveals the most vulnerable places

~	Pittsburgh nurses are fighting for better staffing ratios — and the research backs them up

~	Making sense of a chaotic planet: How understanding weather and climate risks depends on supercomputers like NCAR’s

~	How protecting wilderness could mean purposefully tending it, not just leaving it alone