iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

There aren't many OSR publications that give you more bang for your buck than KNOCK!

Reposted by Lysus

Jack Panic | DNGN CLUB @dngnclub.itch.io · 28/09/2026

Game genres are only really useful in an academic and retail setting. Otherwise they are invisible walls and tribes that become barriers for people to experience the full breath of what these types of games offer. Pbta and OSR are more alike than you think.

25113

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Great post about the continuum from sandbox to signposting to railroading!

032

Reposted by Lysus

Isabelle Ruebsaat -> paxu @anxiousmimicrpgs.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I've been doing actual game design so here's some theoryslop to try and explain the basics of ttrpg play cultures to my girlfriend to balance it out

A venn diagram with Play to Find Out, Strict Player/GM divide, and OOC player control over the story

OSR is play to find out and strict player/GM divide

Neotrad is strict player/GM divide and OOC player control over the story

Pbta design legacy is OOC player control over the story and play to find out

713221

Reposted by Lysus

elias isquith @eliasisquith.blog · 21/09/2026

i’m starting to worry people just post things here, often without verifying first.

6543

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

September's 46er went up this week, with a bevy of useful and interesting posts from across the blogosphere! Hopefully you can find something you find useful. table46.bearblog.dev/the-46er-sep... #rpg #osr #nsr #posr

table46.bearblog.dev

The 46er - September 2026

This Month on Table 46 No posts from me this month, but there's plenty of good reading down below. Hopefully I'll finish up some of what's in my drafts in...

074

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Great post from Kati - it's a different lens on some things that are definitely great for keeping a table engaged.

010

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It's always good to see a restatement of good RPG principles along with examples.

161

Reposted by Lysus

Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Politics scares me right now, but the world has recovered from far worse politics repeatedly in the past. There are so many good trends right now and many of the bad ones are fairly fixable (i.e. via more open immigration)

640321

Reposted by Lysus

Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Lukewarm take: I feel a lot of pessimism about the present is built on not realizing just how bad the past was. Like if you just read a book about poverty in a first-world country in the 1950s it's staggeringly worse than now.

501157157

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I like the interpretation of Landmark, Hidden, Secret used for NPCs. Credit to Nael and a few others for posting about it!

020

Reposted by Lysus

warden @cairnrpg.com · 13/09/2026

I'm happy to announce that the first two zines from the Cairn Press "Double Feature" is now available on the Cairn Store! store.cairnrpg.com/products/wha... store.cairnrpg.com/products/the...

0156

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This is definitely along the same lines as what I discussed on my blog earlier this year, but more focused on practice in a specific culture. I'm looking forward to seeing what Isaac does with Oddipelago! link to my prior post for those interested - table46.bearblog.dev/magic-in-the...

table46.bearblog.dev

To Call Upon the Powers of the World - "Magic" in the Jewelsea

I've long disliked the way magic is portrayed in fantasy RPGs, with a neat delineation between "magic" and "mundane." I prefer a vision more accommodating of...

141

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I've long thought that writing rooms in pairs was an idea that could be expanded on and this is a great way to do it.

021

Reposted by Lysus

Skullboy @betterlegends.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Clayton makes a great point here that I think a lot of people dont realize. People pay attention when all you have to say is negative. You are digging yourself a grave made of your own discontent- the internet isn't actually a good place to complain.

14711

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I should get better at this and so should you! Short blog posts are great and they're much easier to refer to later than Discord messages.

010

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I could knock a lot of yellow off this map with one trip to New England. If we knock the standard for stayed a while from a month to a week, you can add California and Texas to stayed a while. Also, Delaware isn't real and you can't make me believe in it.

A map of the United States showing that I've lived in 3 states, spent extensive time in 3 more, visited 18 more states, passed through 7, and have never been to 19 states.

010

Reposted by Lysus

Rise Up Comus @riseupcomus.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Perennial reminder that the big corporation does not care about you and there are better alternatives.

6237941228

Reposted by Lysus

RPGnet 🦌✨ @rpg.net · 19/08/2026

It's been a while, but we're back. We have a beautiful set of dice that could be yours. If you want a chance to win these dice, be followed to this account and interact with this post (Like, repost, reply) and join the giveaway! #dice #ttrpg #rpg #rpgnet #rpgnetgivaway

7229

Reposted by Lysus

Woefully Encysted Creature @forlornencystment.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I am embarking on a grand adventure, running more or less the same content in parallel for two different groups in two different systems. In the 1st session of our In Search of the Unown Into the Oddish game, the player Pokémon venture to Quagsqueton & begin their first foray into the dungeon!

forlornencystment.blogspot.com

Play Report (Into the Oddish): In Search of the Unown (Session 1)

Yeah, I'm committing to the bit. I recently converted Dungeon Module B1: In Search of the Unknown to Into the Oddish . It's B1, but with Pok...

0155

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

This month's newsletter went up over the weekend, including the blog post roundup and a link to @isaacisafraid.bsky.social's Indonesian TTRPG Blogwagon! table46.bearblog.dev/the-46er-aug... #osr #nsr #posr #rpg

table46.bearblog.dev

The 46er - August 2026

This Month on Table 46 I went to Gen Con this month and wrote up what I did there! A late addition! IsaacIsAfraid has put out a call for Indonesia-rela...

175

Reposted by Lysus

Adam "Graphic Design Is Not My Passion" Seats @iknowadamseats.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I am a broom being used to find invisible fires, I s2g. I nuked a post about this the other day due to some panic typos, but tl;dr: new job + worse pay + bad pay schedule means I'm not doing great. Before selling my skills on the wider web, I wanted to offer my GMing & editing skills here. 🧵

An old color photo of a woman in blue NASA overalls with a white hard hat holding a broom that seems to have caught on fire with no visible source of the flame. You can get more information about this broom test in its original article context at Go to https://spinoff.nasa.gov/spinoff1997/ps1.html.

Original caption for this photo from that article: NASA engineer Heidi Barnes demonstrates the antiquated "broom method" of detecting invisible hydrogen and alcohol fires.

1148

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

A great review of what sounds like a great book! It's certainly moved it up in my reading queue.

051

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I love this! It's very similar to how what I call "items of power" develop in my Jewelsea setting.

000

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

This will save me a lot of time and effort keeping up with what's going on for the next five years.

010

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I'm all for religion in fantasy worlds operating less like something designed in a lab.

170

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

A thoughtful review of Patrick Stuart's least-discussed adventure. Some of the obscurities revealed here are things I knew and others aren't. This is the game that introduced me to Into the Odd and it'd be good to get a chance to play it again.

041

Reposted by Lysus

The Amanda Lee Mystery House @amandalee.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

amandalee.bearblog.dev ok i did this I made a blog put me in yr rss readers put me in your webrings

amandalee.bearblog.dev

A Bestiary and Complete World Atlas

amanda lee franck ...

57225

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I'm always here for rumination and cud-chewing on how system matters.

110

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I really enjoyed both of these blog posts!

010

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I'm always here for questions of "what is system?" which I think this post does a good job of elucidating.

000

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

I was one of the sickos encouraging Adam to write this post and I'm glad they did!

110

Reposted by Lysus

jay Dragon is unstoppable @jdragsky.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

here's another question about masculinity and seven-part pact i want to share with all of you. i have a tremendous amount of compassion for the asker and the question of "how do i make this game, which is playing with fire for my fellow trans women specifically, not burn them too hard"

I’m a bit curious, as a transwoman myself, about ways to play the game which wouldn’t just give me an ick feeling of being a man.

Have there been thoughts about how gender may be altered either in-game, or as an option during play?

I could see witches being a really fun expansion or extension of the game, as the inversions of nearly all the wizards, is that something you have considered or explored?
Vote
jdragsky
OP •
2m ago

Hi fellow trans woman! So I've agonized about this a lot, on account of ... well, you know. Also being a trans woman. This is a game where characters to refer to each other with he/him pronouns a lot. However I think there's a pretty big difference, at least for me, between "people using he/him for one of my characters" and "the feeling of being a man." For instance, here's some characters I've seen people play:

A cis woman disguising herself as her dead husband so she doesn't get exiled from his tower.

A trans woman who resents being called a man and plans to destroy the Pact.

A nonbinary demon-creature who wears multiple faces, each with their own set of pronouns.

An AFAB nonbinary person who was forced to bind/disguise themself as a man by their old master so they could become his apprentice.

A trans woman who hasn't yet figured out she's a woman, but does get drunk every time she goes to the moot and who takes the form of a woman when she traverses the Dreamscape.

A cis woman who was turned into a man by the Devil as part of a horrible bargain, and she regrets it tremendously.

A cis woman who was appointed to the Pact by the King and is treated poorly by the other wizards as a result.

I think there's a lot of ways to engage with the themes of the game without being a man. There's no one who knows how exhausting it is to be expected to be a man than we do, and there's no one better equipped to dismantle and poke at it.

315121

Reposted by Lysus

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

It's the ides of July, and that means it's time for another edition of my newsletter and blog roundup! There's a lot of good posts in there this month. table46.bearblog.dev/the-46er-jul... #rpg #osr #nsr #posr

table46.bearblog.dev

The 46er - July 2026

This Month on Table 46 No posts this month, though as you can see below, I did get a lot of reading done. I hope everyone was able to participate in Free ...

033

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

table46.bearblog.dev

The 46er - July 2026

This Month on Table 46 No posts this month, though as you can see below, I did get a lot of reading done. I hope everyone was able to participate in Free ...

033

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

An excellent and thoughtful review of Deathbringer's marketing and art direction. I'm glad Liz put in this work.

030

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Clayton's blog is a treasure trove of resources for RPG creators and this post is no exception.

1152

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This is a lot of fun! I've got a big soft spot for 4e and I'd love to play any of these in Cairn.

010

Reposted by Lysus

Nick LS Whelan @linkskywalker.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

So stoked for this. I don't think I've ever met anyone who is as passionately interested in what makes games tick and how to make them good as Jay. Even though she and I have very different ideas of fun, I trust her in crafting a good time.

0132

Lysus @lysus.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This is an interesting way of looking at action economy. I'm not sure I agree with all of the conclusions, but it's worth thinking about.

110

Reposted by Lysus

Munkao @munkao.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I made a poster to ask for people to vote for Tragedy at Zaya's Theatre. vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2026/ba... I need your vote!

Poster to campaign for votes for Ennies 2026, for Tragedy at Zaya's Theatre. A man pointing at the audience, a parody of Uncle Sam's WWII poster.
The text below says "I WANT YOU TO VOTE FOR MY ADVENTURE".

26824

Reposted by Lysus

Clayton @explorersdesign.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Explorers Design has been nominated for Best Online Content in The Ennies 2026! Not sure who to vote for? Let me win you over. Today's post is a special edition of The Explorateur. It features my favorite nominees and a long list of non-rpg design links. 🍻🎉 www.explorersdesign.com/explorateur-...

explorersdesign.com

The Explorateur: Ennies Special

The Ennie Awards, my campaign pitch, and the best graphic design links so far.

06425

Reposted by Lysus

Clayton @explorersdesign.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

It appears voting in the awards has started. I'll share a full rundown later this weekend, until then, I would love your #1, #2, or #3 vote for Best Online Content. (Designing Dungeons & Molten Sulfur are others I'd love to see win.) Ballot: vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2026/

explorersdesign.com

Awards Submission

Welcome to Explorers Design! I'm Clayton Notestine, and this is Explorers Design—my virtual design studio and label for all things game, product, and graphic design. This page is a curation of my web...

3136

Reposted by Lysus

Asa Donald | Backwards Tabletop @backwardsttrpg.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

SPINE is nominated for Best Solo Game in this year's ENNIES, and voting is now live: vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2026/ Please help spread the word and consider giving it a vote. And if you haven't heard of SPINE, here is a thread. SPINE is a dark solo ttrpg about losing yourself in a book... 🧵

You are a researcher who has inherited a strange book from an estranged relative… Image: Print copy of SPINE

59046