iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Historical records show that the Shark Repellent is stored in the rack of Oceanic Repellent Bat Sprays on board the Bat-Copter.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

As a kid poring over Who's Who in the DC Universe, I marveled that Batman's utility belt contained not just explosives but teeny little pineapple grenades. Such crime-fighting craftsmanship.

The BATMAN'S UTILITY BELT page from the 1980s Who's Who in the DC Universe comic book encyclopedia series. Each capsule on the belt is labels and illustrated with its contents.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

If the final tour of the multiverse in Avengers: Doomsday doesn't include a scene on the home world of the Muppets, what's even the point of corporate IP consolidation?

A cropped version of the cover art for The Muppets Take the Marvel Universe #1, featuring some of the Muppets charging at the viewer among a crowd of Marvel Comics characters.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Post a meme made by you. For me, it's this image I Photoshopped together that spawned a hundred Dungeonmaster Rogers memes in the TTRPG community.

A Photoshopped image of Mister Rogers sitting behind a DM screen, a grid map and miniatures on the table in front of him, and in the foreground a D&D character sheet and pencil as if the viewer is a player sitting across the table from him.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Reminder to folks here in Washington state that your primary ballots are due Tuesday.

A great piece of art by artist Mike Shine featuring a white diamond on a red background; in the middle of the diamond is a stylized blue mailbox, with the front made up of the Woody Guthrie-inspired words "This Machine Kills Fascists".

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

My post 7th-grader was cleaning out her school bag for the summer today, and these emerged:

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Playing the new Bond game, and @anyaustin.bsky.social 's recent video gave me a good lens through which I can see how great this nightclub is. (Sadly, Bond doesn't appear to have come with a license to dance. No Dance button.) Check out his great video (one of many): www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iyj...

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Drummed out for trying to force his officers to use bananas as communicators, I believe.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

I was just there two weeks ago and it immediately became one of my favorite places.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

My list includes (but is not limited to): - Thunderbirds (specifically the Are Go era) - Longyear's Circus World books - Max Headroom - John Kendrick Bangs' "A Houseboat on the Styx" (which is long in public domain, so really, there's nothing in my way.)

The Tracy family in Thunderbirds Are Go, with several of their craft flying above them.

A colorful crowd of people in circus costumes and strange, semi-alien animals.

Max Headroom, looking sharp in a white tuxedo.

The cover to John Kendrick Bangs' "A House-Boat on the Styx".

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Today’s old book dive didn’t give me life goals…but it did give me a death goal: obligatory pancakes at my funeral.

Text from the book, the will of a character obligating those who attend the will reading to eat pancakes based on the music chosen for the funeral.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Who would have guessed that Steve Martin was writing political prophecy in the ‘70s?

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

The seven year anniversary of me realizing that Judge Dredd appears in The Princess Bride.

A still from the movie highlighting the Judge, who appears on a t-shirt draped over the chair in the young boy’s bedroom.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

From the dedication page of today's old book dive.

Centered text on yellowed paper reading: "WARNING TO SCHOLARS * This book is fundamentally unsound."

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Novel-writing update: Jules Verne tried to defeat me, but I believe I have outsmarted him with the power of imagination while allowing him to remain technically correct.

The "technically correct--the best kind of correct" man from Futurama, with the text "Le meilleur type de correct" across the top to make sure Jules Verne's ghost gets the joke.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

I loved them too--illustrations and dioramas alike. Not least because they always reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books, Minn of the Mississippi, which (if a bit dated) is still a scientainment banger (as are so many of Holling Holling's books.)

The cover of Minn of the Mississippi, featuring a turtle atop a pile of gold coins and other treasure.

An interior page from the book, the margins outside the story text jam-packed with beautiful scientific illustrations about turtles.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Dream last night of a Sesame Street parody, CHAIRS. Ted Danson is behind the (milk?) bar, everyone shouts "BERRRT!" when he walks in. Ted/Sam: "How's it going, Bert?" Bert: "I'm a breadcrumb, Sam, and everybody's doin' the pigeon." He perched on a stool next to Cliff/Ernie, and then I woke up.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

The dice roller we've been using in our Discord no longer works? Can anyone suggest an alternative system-agnostic dice roller app?

Screenshot of my Discord dice roller not working, with an "This application did not respond" message.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

When I'm getting ready to play or run an RPG, sometimes it's fun to craft the perfect character I want to play....and sometimes it's fun to make a random character generator that catapults me into an unexpected new life for a while.

A screenshot of a spreadsheet containing an array of fantasy characters, from "Zem the Stuck-up Sage" to "Apple, the Inquisitive Counterfeiter" to "Dok, the Wisecracking Gemfinder".

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Riffed my way into a corner while running Mythic Bastionland tonight...only to discover the tool I needed close at hand in the supplement I made for last year's MB Jam. Thanks, past me! Next time, after a decade of tracking it, the players may finally bring a Myth to a bloody close....

Cover to the my Mythic Bastionland supplement, AULDREALM SCROLLS.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Really enjoying watching old episodes of Time Team, learning about history and archaeology, but I hope at some point I see the episode that explains who's chasing them such that they have to leave every dig after three days.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Last night's dream: I was watching an old episode of the Love Boat called "The Two Docs" where ship's doctor "Doc" Bricker was running around the ship with Matt Smith's Doctor. (Yes, I know it should have been a Baker or Davidson Doctor, but dreams do what they will.)

The classic frame used to introduce guest stars at the opening of episodes of the Love Boat, framing Matt Smith in his Doctor costume, as well as sunglasses.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Still the standard lack of bath, but this time I can’t say they shorted us on room.

A large room with a single toilet against the distant wall.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Among the reasons Starfleet Academy makes me smile is that its future location at the foot of the Golden Gate is right where I spent so many hours with my kid in reality at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. Per aspera ad astra, young one.

In the background, the Golden Gate Bridge looms out of the fog. In the foreground, a small child is in motion, their hair whirling and a hula hoop looping around their waist.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

I even saw it in the theater with my kid, and got the world’s most honest ticket stub.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

At first seeing this mystified the players. Ten loops later it stressed them. Five after that they were racing madly against every tick to escape. Good fun for everyone, even when I played an NPC janitor who had to meet them over and over and over again for the first time.

A timer, counting down from ten minutes, at 9:54.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Had a terrific time (over and over again) GMing friends (including @strahdvonz.bsky.social , unable to be photographed) through a Mothership timeloop at Orcacon today. Great con, good players. So nice to all be around a table and not on a screen.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Mount Si, looking ridiculously picturesque today.

What I said. A beautiful mountain ringed by clouds and with a perfect crown of snow above sloped draped with green conifers.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

"Post the first photo in your roll when you type in 'blue sky'. Living in Seattle I expected a gray rebuke, but I got something much better from long ago.

Against a blue sky, three people in colored overalls work on a giant mech contraption mounted on treads, with a giant eagle head on one shoulder. The cockpit is open, and someone with a star-painted helmet stands inside.

Yes, this is an actual photo I took at MakerFaire one year. I later watched that mech punch a car hanging from a crane, which was both awesome and hokey as you might expect.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

I don't know where it all went wrong, but the death of Google Reader was definitely a milepost along the way.

A metal sign attached to a door reading "SHUTTERING GOOGLE READER KILLED BLOGGING".

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Kid is off at a party and my spouse is asleep, so I'm closing out the year with the Weirdstone.

The cover of Alan Garner's "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen", featuring the a dark, hooded form pointing at the viewer, a raven perched on their shoulder while a flock circles in the sky above, trees in the background seeming to wave in the wind.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Got to play CBR-PNK today and had a great time, even if the plot where I had an AI crammed in my head wasn’t as escapist as I’d hoped for. We had some great heist action using a robofoodtruck as cover, though.

A character book for the game CBR PNK spread out on a table in front of a tablet showing some of the rules. A bowl full of dice is nearby.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Got out of the car, and noticed a strange black line across the sky (first photo); figured out the source when I turned around and discovered the low winter sun causing an airplane contrail to cast an enormous shadow across the clouds (second photo.) Amazing.

Scattered clouds across suburban skies, with an odd darker area across them.

A sun low in the sky, a contrail arcing up from the horizon, the sun casting a long shadow across the clouds in the upper foreground.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

Jólabókaflóð! This year’s holiday book stack. Now it’s reading time!

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

One last stop at the SubPop record store at SeaTac before they close at the end of the year.

The exterior of the SubPop store in SeaTac’s main concourse.

One of the displays of Polaroid photos of musicians and celebrities who have come through the store.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 12: Tiny Taverns takes the Tinyd6 system I love and lets you run campaigns that never leave the tavern--because the players run it. Light mechanics but expansively cozy in tone. I've run it multiple times and will again. shop.gallantknightgames.com/products/tin...

A group of fantasy characters toasting with overflowing mugs of ale. After which they go find a mop to clean up, I assume.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 11: Thousand Year-Old Campfire is another brilliant story-builder game from @timhutchings.bsky.social, guiding you through your excavation of a cave, and the stories that are revealed by what you find. thousandyearoldvampire.com/products/tyoc

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 10: A Field Guide to Hot Springs Island is a wonderful in-world book that you can hand to players and let them chart their own path through the setting. A systemless GM companion book provides more full (and perhaps more true) information. shop.swordfishislands.com/a-field-guid...

Two pages of printed text, surrounded by scribbled notes in several hands.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 9: Sherwood from @rrookstudio.bsky.social is a small RPG that lets players be outlaw archers, monks, heroes, and wanderers...then gives them arcane talents and sorcerous rituals to make things interesting. The GM section is a bit light, but still lots of fun. r-rook.itch.io/sherwood

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 8: Loom is a solo text-adventure-inspired game with a twist, as paragraphs are fleshed out using cards and procedural tables in combination to keep things surprising, and dice to resolve events. www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/4...

Surrounded by computer iconography, a blocky digital image of a creepy black monastery, green light glowing in its wondwos.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 7: Iron Valley by @mkirin.itch.io overhauls the sometimes grim tone of Ironsworn and gives it a Stardew-flavored overhaul, from crops and fishing and festivals to all new core moves and piles of useful oracles. Terrific cozy solo storytelling fun. mkirin.itch.io/iron-valley

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 6: Augmented Reality is a handy collection of oracles and tables (including some fun drop tables!) that will help you bring your cyberpunk setting to life, including tons of NPCS. www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2...

The Instacitizen Drop Table from Augmented Realities.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 5: The Monster Overhaul; if I could only have one supplement alongside my fantasy RPG rulebook, this would be the one, super jam-packed with details and ideas and maps and options to spice up your heroes' opponents. Wildly useful. www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/4...

The Owlbear page from the Monster Overhaul.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 4: Hands-Free RPG sets aside dice, cards, and even books to present a toolset you can use to run RPGs in your mind. I checked it out for novelty, but it's been (ahem) living in my head ever since, not just interesting but actually useful. scriptorum.itch.io/hands-free-rpg

A segment of Hands-Free RPG explaining how you can use a random word in your head as a random number generator by counting the strokes in the letters that make up a word (in this case, the word SPLUNK.)

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 3: ENTITY is a solo RPG where you play a robotic explorer lost in deep space, with no way back to Earth. I had stumbles on the learning curve but it was worth persisting to explore strange worlds and uncover alien wonders. www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/4...

A stoic woman looking out through the visor of her spacesuit helmet.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME(S) 2: Sanctuary and Sentinel from @meghanlynnftw.bsky.social are a duet-pair of GMless storytelling games where you tell the tales of events at a place of power as its guardians are slowly winnowed away until only one remains to keep their lonely vigil. meghanlynnftw.itch.io/sansen

A page from Sentinel, with a lovely illustration of an ornate tower at the center, framed by flowers and mist, stretching up in front of the full moon.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

DAY 12, GAME 1: Kitchen Contest is a competitive dice-and-story game where players compete to be the best in a culinary competition. You can focus on making your own food the best--or sabotaging opponents' work. Intense fun, with no dirty dishes afterward! hanschun.itch.io/kitchen-cont...

An array of ingredients in white bowls laid out on a black table next to a chef's knife, silverware, and a foreceps/scissors thing.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

12 DAYS OF 12 GAMES, DAY 12: The twelfth day of my dozen-shares of games (and game-adajcent things) that I like, and that you might too. And each comes with a link so you can support great designers, writers, and artists! #12days12games

For the last time, a wicker basket of large foam dice, the d12 sitting on top and finally showing its 12 face.

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

DAY 11, GAME 12: The Well is an RPG where you play a culture of adventures forced to delve ever deeper down a spiral. The setting drew me in, but the Gambit mechanic that gives you benefits in exchange for potentially dire repercussions is what I remember. shoelesspetegames.itch.io/the-well-rol...

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Seth Johnson @inkslinger.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

DAY 11, GAME 11: Korkiko - A Magical Year from @mousehole.press is just as good as you've heard, perfectly encouraging you to tell tales of exploration, friendship, and growing up. I've played several times--including with my kid--and each time is wonderfully distinct. mouseholepress.itch.io/koriko

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