iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

It's worth it to make the thing you want to make. I often need a reminder, and this is a great one

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

The quality of a design can only be judged by its design goals. #design #process #art #ttrpg-design #game-design

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Want to play with breadth and focus in your storygames? Read my article about just that on the Storygames Chicago newsletter Then sign up for newsletter. We've got five fantastic authors who write thoughtful and unique articles worth reading every month or so

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Karina S. @chirunax.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Taking commissions for June, please RT! 🧡 If you are interested please contact me via e-mail: chirunax@gmail.com Full info: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

A giant man with white pearlescent scales on his shoulders and tail covers a small woman in a red dress with his hand
The man has a huge bleeding bite on his shoulder

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Chase @chkurk.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

We wrapped up our first season of our Apocalypse world game, gmed by @jessebmiller.bsky.social today. While grabbing dinner after, we were musing about the fact that our game largely didn’t engage with combat or (physical) harm.

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

We all knew that Austin Walker was articulate, but damn, he and Sam Dunnewold uncorked it on S8 E8 of Dice Exploder talking about Dream Askew/Dream Apart. @austinwalker.bsky.social @diceexploder.com @lackingceremony.bsky.social @benjaminrosenbaum.com

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scene_four 🔜 PAX Unplugged! @scenefour.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I’m honored to say this designer, Erica Bridges, is part of the Chicago playtest cohort I organize, and she literally can’t stop making some of the smartest games I’ve ever read and played. Don’t miss Nostos.

kickstarter.com

Nostos

a tabletop roleplaying game about sailing home and saying goodbye.

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I made a bunch of custom moves for my Apocalypse World game and they're working really well so I wrote them up to share here. bsky.app/profile/jess... #pbta #gamedesign #ttrpg

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The Onion @theonion.com · 12/02/2026

Pam Bondi Thought That Went Pretty Well

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Y'all I'm not happy about it but software is about to get weird. It's been slowly getting less reliable over the last 25 years, but AI is going to cause developers and software companies to build stuff they kinda wanted but not quite what they meant and they're gonna just go with it.

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

If you haven't listened to this series I highly recommend it. And not just because I'm on episode two 😇 So go listen then join the game jam! I plan on trying out some of the other prompts. Should be fun! #ttrpg #gamejam #gamestorm #gamedesign #storygameschicago

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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Context: this speech is from SIR THOMAS MORE, a history written, as near as scholars can tell, in the early 1600s by 6 or 7 people including Dekker, Heywood, Chettle, Shakespeare, and Munday. It was never performed, because Jacobean England was a police state and it was banned by the censor.

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

My good friend @collinjryan.bsky.social and Ihave been talking about exploration for years. We're not done with that, but we did write an article for Storygames Chicago. Definitions -> discontent -> hope. Go read it and come back to talk about it! storygameschicago.beehiiv.com/p/searching-...

storygameschicago.beehiiv.com

Searching for Exploration

Our discontent with exploration in tabletop games and our flailing around for something we like

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

The Farseer Trilogy is among the best literature I've ever read

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Always work on what moves you to work. Let them all be your magnum opus if that moves you. One after another.

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Gene Ha creator of 2026 IL Reads pick MAE The Definitive Edition @geneha.com · 26/01/2026

More from historian Thomas Zimmer's thread. In short, MAGA atrocities will shrink their support. But even when the WSJ & FOX plead with him to moderate, Trump will use more outrages & violence bc that's all he knows. Our simple rule remains: DO NOT COMPLY IN ADVANCE.

From the thread:

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social
As a default, we should assume the government will keep escalating – not as part of a grand masterplan, but because they have no other strategy and nowhere else to go. As resistance is hardening, MAGA has no coherent idea of how to get from where we are now to consolidated autocracy.
9:07 AM · Jan 26, 2026

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social
· 51m
In that situation, frustrated ineptitude, extremist ideology, and MAGA psychology are all conspiring to make escalation almost inevitable. MAGA is ideologically and psycho-politically incapable of moderating.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social
· 49m
To the extent they have a plan, it is coming from the Stephen Miller wing of the MAGA coalition: Incite violent confrontations in blue urban centers, then use that state-induced violence as a pretext to declare an emergency, invoke the Insurrection Act, start deploying regular troops.

From the thread:

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social
· 48m
To the extent they have a plan, it is coming from the Stephen Miller wing of the MAGA coalition: Incite violent confrontations in blue urban centers, then use that state-induced violence as a pretext to declare an emergency, invoke the Insurrection Act, start deploying regular troops.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social
· 46m
But the question we must ask is: What is the path from there to a consolidated autocracy? What are the logistics and the mechanisms that would get the Trumpists from deploying troops in a mid-sized city to the regime eliminating all political, legal, and societal resistance?

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social
· 45m
As a matter of practical reality, the idea that the minute Trump invokes the Insurrection Act all resistance is futile, Trump has won, Game Over is nonsense. That’s just regime propaganda. Let us not perpetuate it. Make them earn every inch of creeping authoritarianism.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social
· 42m
The Trumpist strategy, to the extent there is one, is centered around an assertion of absolute power. They want to convince people that resistance futile. A crucial part of the struggle against encroaching authoritarianism is to reject such notions. Don’t acquiesce. Make them earn it.

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social
· 39m
Alas, while they may not have an effective strategy to consolidate authoritarian rule, they will certainly cause tremendous harm. I do not say this lightly: From here on out, the struggle against Trumpist authoritarianism is only getting bloodier…

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

A big difference between humor and art is that art gets better when it's explained

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lumpley @lumpley.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Fixing your heart is, for us born into our arsenal of privilege in the world's most empire, both a lifelong undertaking requiring discipline, patience, perspective, and good teachers, and a necessary first step toward reclaiming your self. It's our essential duty and our most precious opportunity.

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

One thing that Treacherous Winds of teaching me is the particular power that questions have to cut through baggage and the mundane to answers that surprise and delight both asker and answerer. If you want to know what I'm talking about go play Pasión de las Pasiones by @blg.bsky.social

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Y'all. I'm building an ELF machine

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Trung Le Nguyen @trungles.com · 16/01/2026

Abolish ICE. A little journal comic from South Minneapolis. #iceoutmpls #iceoutcomics #iceoutofmpls

Just before Christmas, I got a puppy.
Her name is Minerva, and we call her *Minnie.

I'm still learning how to understand her.

Me: Do you need to go outside? Do you need to go outside, little baby? Do you need to do a poo?
Do you need to do a widdle piddle?

Minnie: Arf!

*I just call her "little baby" most of the time.

I'm also realizing I can't turn off the baby talk now.
Nobody tells you about that.

I got so lucky with my first puppy.
Her wonderful foster parents had her completely house-trained by the time we adopted her, so taking her outside for potty time has been pretty easy. I've got the puppy poopy routine pretty much down, now.

Me, putting on my coat: Let's see... I got the little poopy bags, puppy treats for bribes, jacket, scarf, phone… I think that's everything… Oh yes! And my passport.

I had been carrying around my passport for a while, but I knew it didn't matter. This is wrong. Nobody is required to carry around their papers.

I became a US citizen when I was seven. Since I was born in a refugee camp, I was stateless.
The US is the only nation where I've ever held citizenship. It's the only passport I've ever had, and it still felt important. Protective.

I would hold it in my pocket like a talisman, like it might ward off ghosts or something. But I realized I was holding onto it basically out of superstition.
ICE will pick up anybody.

I know that.

So I tucked my passport away.

And I largely avoid leaving my house.

I live a few blocks just South of George Floyd Square. I was in the neighborhood for that, too.
And all the neighbors came together to protect each other. We're already organized.
We'll do our best to get through this.

Me, to my dog: I hope I can take you for a walk someday soon. Won't that be nice, little baby?

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Wolf Hour @wolfhour.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

(cartoon Mike Luckovich) #politics #ice

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

I am unreasonably excited to see this on my screen

A photo of a computer monitor with a window titled "Yak Unshorn" filled with a field of ugly red with a painfully contrasting green square in the corner.

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Just learned about the Glaze project. @theglazeproject.bsky.social It's both offence and defence for artists against predatory AI training Great work

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Gabrielle A. Perry, MPH @geauxgabrielle.blacksky.app · 04/01/2026

Not coping well w/ the events of the world. My therapist says empathy, just like anxiety, has to have boundaries. Otherwise both spin out of control. He said empathy’s boundary is compassion & compassion is actionable. We’re not meant to physically FEEL the pain of EVERYTHING around us. It’d kill us

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Working out some exploration ideas

A page of handwritten notes titled "Malignant Sprawl Hex types" covered in hex tiles with various icons.

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

When studying theater, my directing teacher, Edgardo de la Cruz, said that he was always reading plays and sometimes he was ready to direct right away. Sometimes though it took 10+ years (or forever), even for a play he loved, for him to have something to say with its production #ttrpg #design

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NEZ @nneezz.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Greed points at everything they want and grasps anything they can. Their true form is unseen. Their own hand partially blinds them. Different eyes puncture their crown, stolen from others. They float, detached from all. Their stick is sharpened at both ends

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

This gets me pumped to make games!

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

I notice myself and others will often, when hearing someone give their take, read an intended implication that other takes are wrong, or that people with a different take are bad Just something in trying to be conscious of. It's an assumption I don't want to make

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Learning C just so I know what the fuck @tsoding.bsky.social is talking about

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lumpley @lumpley.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

Wow!

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

What if #ttrpg combat worked like the Gardens of Ynn Like everyone gets +1 for every previous move (or round if you're nasty) and the results further down the table get more and more dangerous A built in escalation

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

It just hit me A good thing about Apocalypse World is that it is full of tools to **support my executive function** at the table! Threats, MC moves, moves, playbooks, and stakes questions I can always look down at the table and have a good detail or direction for the situation Under rated!

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb Here's how The Farseer Trilogy is influencing Treacherous Winds. - The promise of discovery can keep interest for a very long time - Character flaws is the juice #ttrpg #epicFantasy #treacherousWinds

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Here is a recent page from my notebook. I'm wrestling with the magic system for my game Treacherous winds I noticed that magic in the epic fantasy I'm reading isn't the magic I've experienced in TTRPGs So I'm writing rules about discovering magic as much as wielding it #ttrpg #epicFantasy #design

A photo of a handwritten page in a notebook. Reads "Treacherous Winds Magic. It's about the process of discovering the rules of magic. Every campaign will be different. Thematically relevant. P.C. Moves to use magic, Discover it. M.C. moves to reveal deeper wondrous truths of magic. Play to find out how magic works. It's power and danger. When you wield magic. Say what you aim to do. Say the method used to do so. G.M. Say what risks or costs keep you from doing this casually. G.M. track these on the wind. Is this a new method? Add a risk or cost"

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

If you aren't following SwiftOnSecurity you aren't really on bluesky Not just for the Swifties and security heads

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

Reading @robinhobb.bsky.social while designing Treacherous Winds has been a great stroke of luck I find myself seeing, through her words, what I want from my epic fantasy role play #ttrpg #epicFantasy #design #writing #Fitz

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Avery Alder, Buried Without Ceremony @lackingceremony.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

Apocalypse World has had a bigger impact on my life than any other roleplaying game. It's just a phenomenal game, designed by phenomenal people. You should pick up a copy of the new edition!

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N. K. Jemisin @nkjemisin.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Been a while since I did a charity stream on Twitch, but I'm feeling the urge again. Tomorrow (Sunday) 11 am to 2 pm Eastern I'll be playing "The Long Dark" -- an old game but a new fave, to benefit NY Common Pantry. Join me for giveaways and (probably) horrible death! tilt.fyi/YVoFdn7Efo

tilt.fyi

Tiltify - Made for Fundraisers

We give you the tools to engage with your donors and raise more for your charity

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Jesse B. Miller @jessebmiller.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

When the designers who started a movement release an updated version of the game that has most influenced me, I back it.

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MegueyB 🔜Metatopia @megueyb.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Go #VOTE, so you can again next year!

Vincent and Meg grinning after participating in democracy. GOTV!!!

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