iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The list is likely to change on a daily basis, but here's today's. Thanks to all those who made these games!

My 9 games: Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Starsiege: Tribes, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Control, Scarlet Hollow, Darkest Dungeon, The Banner Saga, XCOM 2.

Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My partner has coined a new word. She was telling me about an encounter with some counterfeit money (movie props), and said that "You really couldn't tell except under very close scrutination." In her defense, she was very tired after a long and active day, but I have now dubbed her the Scrutinator.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A lovely dark short story from my friend Anna. writingdisorder.com/anna-vecelli...

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I don't know about y'all, but I'm keen to see what horrors Jason has come up with...

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I'm backing the hell out of Dead Net, and I already own Dead Belt, but I'm still reposting this because the Drakes do fantastic work and you owe it to yourselves to check this out.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

#TTRPGs are great. Some are more meaningful than others. Thanks to @kierongillen.bsky.social and @stephaniehans.bsky.social for creating DIE, to @spazzster.bsky.social for running a helluva game, and to @thirdfloorwars.bsky.social @zeeweasel.bsky.social and DK for making one fantastic table.

Tattoo of an "unfolded" d12 on my left forearm.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Getting ready for some 1-on-1 Cthulhu Dark roleplaying with Craig! Who am I, where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket?

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Reposted by Brian Schoner

The Ascent of Board Games @ascentofboardgames.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

We're back with more imaginary games - well, games which WERE imaginary, at least, but some of them are real now. Although, I mean, I guess all games START as imaginary games...look, you know what we mean. www.ascentofboardgames.com/e/episode-82...

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Introduce yourself with 10 acts you've seen live. BEAT Béla Fleck and the Flecktones Fairport Convention Jonathan Coulton King's X Peter Gabriel The Police Rush Suzanne Vega Urban Blight

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 31: EDGE Let's wrap up this character retrospective with Nick "Ace" Marini, international spy and expert wheelman from a much-beloved run of the Spycraft RPG back in the late 2000s.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 30: PRIDE Pride is the purview of Fo'alan, He of the Hundred Flames, whom I played in a playtest of inHabitation, an unreleased two-player journaling game by @mirror-lock.bsky.social .

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I know a lot of folks in NC. If you know ANYONE who might possibly have been exposed, they need to get checked out ASAP - once symptoms show, it's too late.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 29: LABOR Labor reminds me of Badik, my gnome summoner from a fun (if short-lived) Pathfinder campaign. Badik wasn't very good at (or interested in) manual labor, but his summoned eidolon (Eddie for short) was more than willing to do all the heavy lifting.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 28: DEVOTION Devotion, for me, brings to mind Xavier León, my urban tattoo artist from my friend Maeve's City of Mist campaign.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

He must be so proud - he's following in Putin's footsteps!

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 27: HUNGER I've taken a lot of these prompts in metaphorical directions, but this one is quite literal. Some years back (more than I care to count), my good friend and fantastic GM @paigeleitman.bsky.social elected to run a campaign of the Serenity RPG.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 26: REGRET Lots of my characters have regret; angst is a very popular story driver for me. But I think the pick for today has to be the Starless Knight, my character from @amiewebster.bsky.social 's memorable campaign of @acoupleofdrakes.bsky.social's fantastic game Hedge.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

The documents herein contained are resplendent with grandiloquent prose, and the generosity of its purveyors is without equal. Your custom is well-warranted!

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 25: FAMILIARITY Familiarity was a tough prompt to associate with a character for me. I eventually decided to cite a pair of my very first D&D characters - Aglar, an elven thief, and Shandar, a human ranger.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 24: DISTANCE Distance, eh? I guess that would most closely tie to Khavettra, my current Draw Steel character. He's a Void-focused Memonek Elementalist (though he prefers the title "Voidmage").

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Make a band bigger: The Greater Boston Metropolitan Area

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 23: FORTUNE My most fortunate character would have to be my half-elf bard, Justin Goldbravery ("It sounds better in Elvish"). Most of my characters tend to be on the serious side, or at least not overtly silly, but Justin is one of the exceptions.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 22: GRIT The Grit Award has to go to Sten, my human hunter from @thirdfloorwars.bsky.social 's long-running Forbidden Lands campaign.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Love this game! I even wrote a one-shot convention adventure for it (The Quinquennial Adjudication of Couture), which I've run a few times. You want a sharp vocabulary for this one.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 21: CHARITY Frankly, not many of my characters were particularly charitable; until recent years, that wasn't a thing I even thought about in a TTRPG. However, I did have one character who was really focused on improving the lives of folks in his neighborhood.

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Reposted by Brian Schoner

Craig (Third Floor Wars) @thirdfloorwars.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Tried out a new scenario I’ve been cooking for Cthulhu Dark by @grahamwalmsley.bsky.social. I love duet play but the more I run CD with 1 GM and 1 Player, the more I find the system really works for the intensity of 1:1. Cthulhu Dark: The Answer ep 1 youtube.com/live/9xSTNbr...

youtube.com

Cthulhu Dark: The Answer ep 1

YouTube video by Third Floor Wars

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 20: PROMISE I'm interpreting today's prompt of "promise" in terms of "potential" - in this case, promise that was perceived but was never really there.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 19: DESIRE If you're going to talk about Desire in the context of a TTRPG, I feel like the game has to be Heart (or, I mean, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, but I haven't played that one yet).

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 18: DIRECTNESS Warlocks, I think, are often perceived as the subtle and sneaky kind of spellcasters, as befits their dark and sinister patrons. My albino tiefling, Moonshadow, is...not that kind of warlock.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 17: INTENSITY I have to give the intensity award to a much-loved character from a short-lived play-by-forum D&D 4E campaign...mostly because there's not a day for ANGST.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 16: COMPOSURE I suspect that my most composed PC would have to be Lord Christopher Cogburn, Esq., a/k/a Christopher of Amber - a composed, noble gentleman who crafts clockwork devices in a steampunk-flavoured Shadow of his own devising.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 14: ENDURANCE When I first tried out the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG, it was at Gen Con (or maybe Origins) around 2007, when I created a character and jumped in to my first adventure in the Heroes of Rokugan living campaign.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 14: REGARD Aeglos Coldriver was born a slave, one of many of his indigenous people conquered by invaders from across the sea (who were themselves fleeing from monstrous invaders of their own).

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Neralis does fantastic work, folks - takes notes well, communicates quickly and clearly, and produces awesome results. Get them commissions!

My Deva Swordmage Lahash, as rendered by Neralis.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 13: STRAIN Strain is a difficult word for me to parse in terms of a character, but after some thought, I associate it with Ser Caspian the Tiger Knight, from an ongoing game of Mythic Bastionland.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 12: LOSS I feel like RPG characters are second only to Disney animated characters on the "odds their parents are dead" scale. My favorite character in this department would have to be Diego Villalta de Rios del Castillo (traveling as Diego Herrera) from a great 7th Sea campaign.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 11: TACT I try to make most of my characters tactful, unless their ignorance and rudeness is the point.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 10: SECRET I have an unhealthy fondness for playing characters with secrets - those who aren't what they appear to be.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 9: PRIVILEGE My most privileged character would have to be Sir Basil Atherton, KCVO, whom I played in the Living Death shared campaign in the early/mid 2000s.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 8: RESOLVE My characters tend to be on either end of the resolve spectrum; they're absolutely committed and willing to sacrifice anything (including themselves) to achieve their ends, OR they're the first one to suggest calling the cops and letting the professionals handle it.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 7: MERCY One of the fantasy PC archetypes that I often return to is the "death paladin" - a religious warrior who serves a god(dess) of death and is focused on putting the undead to rest, giving them the mercy of a final, peaceful death.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 6: REACH REACH is a tricky one to tie to a specific PC, but I'm going to go with Thumper, my Troll Physical Adept from my Shadowrun days. Reach is a melee combat modifier; trolls have an innate bonus to it, and Thumper used a quarterstaff, which gave an additional bonus.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 5: BURDEN I've created my share of angsty characters over the years, but when I hear "burden" I immediately think of Jaaziel "J.J." Warren, from @spazzster.bsky.social's amazing and intense run of DIE on @thirdfloorwars.bsky.social. (youtube.com/playlist?lis...)

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 4: CHARM I LOVE playing charming characters; my default build in any computer RPG is whatever lets me talk NPCs into giving me their stuff and/or making out with me. (Hat tip to @janedouglas.bsky.social for - I think? - coining the term "Sexterity" for this attribute.)

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

#RPGaDay2026 Day 3: POISE The essence of poise is, of course, t'skrang swordmaster T'sitas Haital Sessipau from an Earthdawn campaign many a year ago. Loyal, flamboyant, talented, and unflappable, he is fondly remembered to this day.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I'm a day late to begin #RPGaDay2026 but I'm doing it anyway. My plan is to apply each prompt to a character I have played or am playing; we'll see how long it lasts!

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The Ascent of Board Games @ascentofboardgames.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

New episode dropped - and this time we're talking about games that don't exist! (Although some of them do exist now - it's a long story.) Come give us a listen! www.ascentofboardgames.com/e/episode-82...

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

You've been murdered. Who do you want on the case?

Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp in The Residence.

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Brian Schoner @bschoner.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I'm quite enjoying Black Jacket from @mipumi.com . It's easy to summarize this game as "Balatro but blackjack," but that does it a disservice. A Slay the Spire-like climb with a lot of fascinating unlocks, more strategy than I expected, and a genuinely well-told story dealt out in dribs and drabs.

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