Misha

Professor of Game Design @ LIU Post. Half of Made @SumerGame with Studio Wumpus. He/Him @[email protected]

[Misha @OtspIII]

Increasingly hard to justify being around here. See y'all wherever the next hellsite pops up. mastodon: dice DOT camp/ AT the_goblin

[Misha @OtspIII]

@Pandatheist Your rpg writings were one of the best parts of Twitter for me--I'll definitely rss your blog.

[Misha @OtspIII]

@KayinNasaki Like, I think he's actually pretty smart. He just has very specific tastes and can't seem to accept that things that don't cater to those tastes aren't ontologically flawed in some way.

[Misha @OtspIII]

@KayinNasaki He once gave a presentation I attended where he said that the ideal food (and this was a metaphor for game design) was tomato soup--utterly blended into a uniform indiscrete paste. I'm honestly in awe of the man.

[Misha @OtspIII]

@IHeartFargo Eat the hot-dog! The hot-dog cart! It's Iceland's pride!

[Misha @OtspIII]

@MishaGrifka @chasewrites @IHeartFargo God, I actually started getting into rpg design posting on Something Awful. I don't think I'd push people towards there, though

[Misha @OtspIII]

@S_Murphy_Games @dark_james @IHeartFargo As a chronic bullet point abuser I keep hearing about TTRPG bullet point discourse but can never actually find it

[Misha @OtspIII]

@glassbottommeg Oh yeah, 100%. Looking back on it, my whole undergrad was me trying to apply system analysis to literature. I'm not sure I was a very good literary analyst, but it transferred super well over to game design (and, honestly, programming).

[Misha @OtspIII]

@metasynthie Like, I'm less on the side of "the GM can fix it" and more on the side of "the RPG designer and the GM are working together as a team, and the designer has a responsibility to be helpful, communicative, and easy to work with".

[Misha @OtspIII]

@metasynthie I'm hard on the side of "RPG books are inherently incomplete, and the actual system used at the table is crafted by the players", but I don't think that takes weight off the book designer. Your system has to both work RAW & communicate where it's coming from so it can be modified

[Misha @OtspIII]

@lackingceremony I honestly think good social support comes more from setting and less from mechanics, though. Any module or setting book that lists character motivations or instincts is good. Fiasco character generation that's all about what binds players to each other/motivates them is amazing

[Misha @OtspIII]

@lackingceremony Old school D&D reaction rolls are actually great if used mid conversation--'there are multiple ways the npc could respond--roll a die, and the higher the result the more their reaction is in your favor'. Effortlessly quick, but keeps things from being arbitrary and isn't binary

[Misha @OtspIII]

@BonesContention I love the format, but I'm more and more convinced it's way more about density and interconnectedness and latent energy than sprawl.

[Misha @OtspIII]

@BonesContention Ouch, this perfectly captures the struggles I've been having with megadungeon design. The big draw of the format is that it's a space you build up a relationship to over repeated visits, so things like a lack of factions/motivations/internal quests are really dire omissions

[Misha @OtspIII]

@glassbottommeg Oh no, my family has some history in academia--the whole peer evaluation committee structure absolutely breaks down into weird bad politics really easily. I was real worried about it before I made the leap to full time, and was then pleasantly surprised (so far, at least)

[Misha @OtspIII]

@glassbottommeg Maybe it's because they're just relatively young and not yet ossified, but I've been really pleasantly surprised by politics and game design programs. Everyone I've met has been very earnest, zero fussy 'protecting my turf' vibes. I was worried at first, but it's been good so far

[Misha @OtspIII]

The posting is up! You can apply for the position more traditionally now here: https://t.co/h4TOXsJnI8

[Misha @OtspIII]

LIU Post is hiring an Assistant Professor of Digital Game Design starting this Fall, with an emphasis on the design, producer, and studies sides of games. Come work with me and a bunch of really great students! Retweet to spread the word!

[Misha @OtspIII]

The job posting for the position will be up shortly, but since the position starts real soon I'm asking interested candidates to DM me directly so we can get a jump on the process!