So proud of my students! This quarter I’ve been teaching a freshman and sophomore-focused class about games and education. The class has been split in half and each half has been making an educational alternate reality game for the other. Last week they each presented Act one of their game.

If you’re in Olympia, please attend the meeting today or write an email by noon. I’m a professor at Evergreen and this change would negatively impact a ton of our most marginalized students, making it more difficult to access workplaces, grocery stores, and other basic resources. #olympia

I was given the opportunity to review Miranda Mellis’ spectacular new book Crocosmia (out with Nightboat Books).

You can buy the book here: nightboat.org/book/crocosm...
Find Mellis’ substack here: youareinlovewiththeimpossible.substack.com #bookreview #ecopunk #speculativefiction

Putting this picture in my next class policies slide #creativewriting #art #education #fuckai

The wonderful Miranda Mellis will be having some book readings in Olympia and Seattle for her new book Crocosmia by @nightboat.bsky.social! She is a lovely human and a thoughtful, generous, and explosive writer, WA folks should come out to support! #literature #bookreading #speculativefiction

Got to spend some time this week playing a bisexual disaster in The Slow Knife. It’s a prompt-based TTRPG in which you play the villains of a revenge story, a la The Count of Monte Cristo. I was really impressed by the game—how thorough and intricate the prompt system was. #ttrpg #rpg #gamedesign

Very excited to say that “Death Anxiety: An Inoculation,” an essay from my autotheoretical memoir, was named a finalist in @theplentitudes nonfiction contest!

A bit late with this one, but last month I had the fantastic opportunity to speak to state legislators about the value of games in education, representing Evergreen state college and the education board of the TGA at the annual legislative game night! #games #education #ttrpg #teaching

It’s time for writing evaluations, which means I’ve been spending 40% of my time lying facedown on the floor, 40% of my time trying to think of synonyms for the word, “evocative,” and 20% of my time designing a mini role playing game about being a university adjunct during the apocalypse #ttrpg

I’m so delighted to say that an excerpt of “If This Matters” was selected as the winner of the @southeastreview.bsky.social nonfiction contest!

Running an initial playtest of my game in progress, “How Long Do You Mean to be Content?” a two person tarot-based game about seeing your own doppleganger #ttrpg #gamedesign

Setting up my curriculum for next quarter. Very excited about this class! #gamedesign #academia #speculativeworldbuilding

There's not always an intuitive entry point into the task. The hope with this activity is to provide that entry point and make the whole design process feel a little less opaque, more manageable in bite-size chunks.

I find that it can be easy for students to get overwhelmed when they try to imagine designing their own game, largely because there are so many interlocking parts.

This quarter I'm teaching "Roleplaying Games as Creative Inquiry" at Evergreen State College. It's a creative writing and game design class where students explore the tools used in both mediums to tell compelling stories (and create their own work of fiction and tabletop roleplaying game!)