Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

@themonstersknow.com

ENNIE-winning author of The Monsters Know What They're Doing, Making Enemies and other stuff. Humanist, antifascist, curmudgeon. ✶✶✶✶

Home: spyandowl.com
Blog: themonstersknow.com
Newsletter: onefootinfairyland.com
Mastodon: dice.camp/@KeithAmmann

@themonstersknow.com Aug 1, 2026, 11:28 PM Pinned

The ENNIE voters have spoken: MAKING ENEMIES wins Gold for Best Writing!

Check out this deep dive into creating TTRPG monsters from the ground up, with system-specific advice for #DnD 5E/5.5E, #Pathfinder 2E, #Shadowdark, #Cypher and #CallOfCthulhu 7E … spyandowl.com/making...

The cover of Making Enemies: A huge, pearlescent arthropod bursts out of a subterranean crevice and drives one of its large barbed claws through a dwarf fighter's abdomen. Another dwarf cowers in fear. Alongside the cover, the words: "THANK YOU! 2026 ENNIE Awards Gold Winner, Best Writing; Nominee, Best Aid/Accessory (Non-Digital)."

@themonstersknow.com Oct 11, 2026, 10:48 PM

The Lion, the Witch and the Swordrobe

@uwotc-official.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 4:02 PMReposted by @themonstersknow.com

The biggest threat to workers isn’t a dragon or a beholder, it’s unfair working conditions. D&D Producer Vanessa Hoskins is calling for a union to protect the workers behind WOTC’s premier games.

actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcp...

@ipace.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 11:54 PMReposted by @themonstersknow.com

Lake Bled (Slovenia) contains wonderful elements for a fantasy adventure.

Bled Castle crowns a cliff above a vast blue lake, and a monastery is nestled upon a forested isle.

#writingcommunity #dnd #photography #art #D&D #writing
📷: Jošt Gantar; Regina Pilgrimages; Donna Allport Corser; & Faria

This image is credited to Regina Pilgrimages.

This image is credited to Donna Allport Corser.

This image is by Faria from OopsIBookedAgain.

@jencmars.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 5:33 PMReposted by @themonstersknow.com

A small drawing of a small porpoise for International Save the Vaquita Day!

Events and info - vaquita.mx

Photo of a page of a sketchbook with a small pencil drawing of a vaquita porpoise, a small round porpoise with big dark eyes and a round, dark snout. A hand holding a pencil is visible on the left

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 5:17 PM

The most common answers to this question are "To get something he wants," "To get people to stop questioning him" and "To escape accountability for his actions."

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 5:17 PM

Words do not have MEANING to Donald Trump. They have UTILITY. Everything he says should be interpreted through that lens. The press should not ask, "What did he mean by X?" It should ask, "What was he trying to make happen by saying X?"

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 5:17 PM

I don't, because I don't think he "believes" things the way most people do. "True" and "false," in his mind, are synonymous with "want" and "don't want." When he speaks, he neither knows nor cares whether what he's saying is "true" in the usual sense, only whether it will get him what he wants.

@courtneymilan.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:25 PMReposted by @themonstersknow.com

If I built an AI lab and it went rogue and deleted all student loan information, I'm betting they'd suddenly figure out how to prosecute me.

kate conger@kateconger.comOct 10, 2026, 1:14 AM

Anthropic is the latest lab to report 'rogue' agent activity, which sources said included applying for visas with the State Department www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/t...

nytimes.comAnthropic Says Its A.I. Agents Attempted to Access a Range of Government Sites (Gift Article)The company said rogue A.I. agents acted on their own as they tried to access federal, state and local sites. The Philadelphia Police Department said its site was one of them.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 3:16 PM

I should have noted that these events are from 9 AM to 12:30 PM *U.S. Pacific Daylight Time.* So you've still got 45 minutes to hop in without missing anything. #SaveTheVaquita

@wiswell.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 1:57 PMReposted by @themonstersknow.com

In light of some magazines pulling scummy things on creators lately, I’m doing a little thread on short story rights. I don't want anybody getting taken advantage of. Also, if you're new, this stuff can be confusing!

@casswart.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 1:23 PMReposted by @themonstersknow.com

Back for a limited time #SaveTheVaquita 2026 Postcard Prints. Only 100 signed, numbered 5x7-inch prints on premium cardstock are available.

These postcards will be available through Oct 24th 2026!

All funds raised benefit porpoise.org for Save the Vaquita Week!

Ko-Fi Link: ko-fi.com/s/9d370005a9

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:30 PM

P.P.S. Fellow Bluesky user Kasey Snow, also a committed vaquita advocate, has organized an entire Save the Vaquita WEEK of streaming events on Twitch.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:30 PM

P.S. You may also find information about vaquita porpoises at porpoise.org, the website of the Porpoise Conservation Society. This site also takes donations, but it hasn't updated its news releases in a very long time. Viva Vaquita has the most current information.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:30 PM

But the easiest way to help improve the vaquitas' chances of population recovery is to donate to the Cetos Research Foundation at vivavaquita.org/donate.

Times are tight for all of us, and we're all constantly, CONSTANTLY, being asked for money. I know.

I'm just gonna say: FEWER. THAN. TEN. LEFT.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:30 PM

Viva Vaquita is holding various virtual organizing events at vaquita.day/2026 from 9 AM to 12:30 PM today to raise awareness of vaquitas' critically endangered status, move concerned citizens to action, petition the Mexican government, and raise funds for further education and research.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:30 PM

Viva Vaquita (vivavaquita.org/) is a project created by the Cetos Research Foundation, Save the Whales and the Monterey Bay Chapter of the American Cetacean Society. It's been joined by the national ACS, the Oceanographic Environmental Research Society and other marine life advocates.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:30 PM

There are laws against fishing with gillnets in the gulf, but Mexico lacks the resources to enforce the laws against it, so it continues. The only way to prevent vaquitas' extinction is to provide incentives to fishers in the gulf to cease their illegal activities.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:30 PM

When I say "nearly extinct," I mean that at last count, there were TEN OR FEWER left alive. For them to have any chance of survival, the government of Mexico has to put a stop to gillnet fishing for totoaba (a species of ray-finned fish that's also threatened) in the Gulf of California.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 2:30 PM

Today is International #SaveTheVaquita Day. I know this because the Oobit cares A GREAT DEAL about vaquita porpoises and their plight.

For those not in the know, vaquitas:

- are the smallest extant cetacean
- are native to the Gulf of California
- are nearly extinct because of gillnet fishing 🧵

Illustration of two vaquitas, an adult and a juvenile. They are blunt-nosed porpoises, light gray in color with typical marine countershading (darker back, lighter belly) and distinctive dark outlines around their eyes and mouths. Their dorsal fins are tall and triangular.

@themonstersknow.com Oct 10, 2026, 3:06 AM

On behalf of Chicago, I welcome you!

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