This is less me expounding on a thesis and more me musing about a topic where I have conflicting intuitions. Epistemic status: exploratory. One thing: What do I mean by munchkin? "Munchkin" is a term from the tabletop roleplaying game community. It's talking about the kind of person who treats the game as a system to optimize, doing weird or unexpected things that aren't against the letter of the rules but often are against the spirit in order to gain some advantage. It's a term that usually has negative valence, though once in a while it'll be spoken with a kind of grudging respect. Lately I've had the idea of social munchkinry in mind. But let me talk a little more about tabletops first.[1] Munchkinry is kinda fun in isolation. Looking at the myriad rules in a dozen rulebooks to try and come up with some overpowered combination is a neat mental exercise that combines the surprise of comedy with the fun mental stimulation of a good math puzzle. I've had hours of entertainment trying to get the most out of a third-level wizard. One good strategy for getting good munchkinry is to figure out if there's some aspect [...] ---Outline:(00:10) This is less me expounding on a thesis and more me musing about a topic where I have conflicting intuitions. Epistemic status: exploratory.(00:21) One thing: What do I mean by munchkin?(02:53) Its kinda nice(06:15) Its kinda not(09:15) So where am I at? The original text contained 5 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. ---
First published:
November 17th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zxdjt2tLnxvGhW9Fd/mixed-feelings-on-social-munchkinry
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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