iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

How do you find the EVIL monster lair - by getting the local Ixitxachitl drunk, that's how....

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Seriously, if LLMs are as good as my autocorrect then Skynet will kill us all by accident...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

History tends to repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. The ghost of Marx is presumably delighted that Farage and Bardella want to be associated with the legacy of Louis Napoleon

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Sitting in the park, and the temperature is suddenly bearable, and the birds have started making funny noises... probably it's just a cloud...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Obviously, I'd just finished writing up the helpful residents of the tavern that the players just acquired... and THEN I realised I could simply have used the cast of Fawlty Towers instead... #fail...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

For those who enjoy seeing Hyacinth giving Meriadoc a thick ear, everyone's favourite (ie only*) Lancastrian Detective is currently loitering on the iPlayer... *ok, ok, Juliet Bravo is out there too...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

You should go listen to Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics... its good, especially today as she is graced with a Biggins... Radio 4 on BBC Sounds

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

This dnd game *might* not go down this route, though I fear there is a certain gravitational inevitability...

"This had better work!" A cartoon from the AD&D DMG - 2 characters with Mickey Mouse ears prepare to infiltrate a temple to a rat god

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

DnD - weird session where you are worried your Glantrian Investigators are going to shoot Joan Hickson.

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

It's worrying, spending a weekend away convinced a Stephen King novel is about to happen to you

A pale blue, slat-built lighthouse-like building

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Having got back from North Kent, Birmingham is refreshingly multicultural..

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Lines that make you unexpectedly emotional "The First Transport is Away!"

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

"You never give off treasure" Reader, they've looted a door of solid Mithril... Not quite sure what they can do with it, but hey... (DnD - Thunder Rift Mountain)

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

"History has a tendency to repeat itself, first as Tragedy, then as Farce, then as Lettuce, then as..."

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

...Lord Melbourne’s memorable political rule that it did not matter what the Cabinet said so long as they all answered at once. This he called the Collective Responsibility of the Cabinet... 1066 & All That still proving itself on topic...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

So, while doing Important* d&d research, we discovered that everyone's* favourite Captain Hastings, Hugh Fraser, also wrote* the theme song to Rainbow. Funny* old world *ish

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Eastercon done, bought some books, caught up with unexpected friends, managed to get served at the bar, went to a lot of cool pannel discussions, and listened to a lecture on Monsters from the Deep... tired now, may buy Lego

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Yay, new old new Dr Who was out this morning, saves from finding a quiet corner of Eastercon to watch them. Besides the problematic* Mavic Chen a v fine watch indeed. Not we can endless bicker about what a Companion actually is and worry about Nominative Determinism wrt planets *understatement

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Darokin Cops #Mystara - are crims down the sewer? Maybe, but also many baby Chuul. Theo doesn't pop the question on date night. Aralyn is paranoid about a letter and someone is using mind control to make people throw away jewellery. A missing person reappears - as a statue. Is the Nun a medusa?

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

#Mystara - The Fulvina housewarming party might include an evil midnight ritual on the roof... no one can quite tell due to the localised lighting storm. There also a protracted swashbuckling duel going on, a queue of murders waiting to be solved, and a sulking volcanologist

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - interrogation via mouse, a boyfriend possessed by a rubbish dragon, & a family reconciliation. Then stopping people spying on the Tortle's Frog-Zoo, and another series of grizzly murders by 'the Grick' that point towards the mysterious disappearances near the docks

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - time to look into a mysterious house with funny windows. Perhaps the lady inside is a vampire, she's keen for permission for a return visit. Her secretary Is secretly working for the Iron Ring however - starting a 3-way fight with him and a vigilante known as the Grick

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

This weekend I'm off to #Empire LRP - to hang out with the cool kids/nerds in the npc/monster hut, and to see how many Mystara references I can sneak in. 6 months is too long between seeing people... also I might be on the lookout for more halfling 'aphorisms' ...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - a baby Chuul in the sewers ... and the Iron Ring, who are feuding v. the Veiled Society and Fellowship of the Pouch. Not Bad for a city with 'no gangs' in it. A priest of Yagrai gets away - obviously, and the final scene looks like a raid on the Play School House...

An Orange House with a Red Door - the emblem of the Play School kids TV show for the BBC

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - It's off down the sewers, where apparently they have post-mortem-debtors (zombies) doing the maintenance. There's also a secret room, two inconvenient hirelings, and an acid-burned corpse That Sewer-Crustacean that's just crawled into view is probably totally innocent

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - Rival post-scrap reports, a Parley between Clerics, Iron Ring are shown as some of the baddies. Then dinner with Theo's extended family, leading to a plot-hook that leads back down the sewers. But what are the Franichs and Sythins up to? And what is 'the Grik'?

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - It's time for the training exercise - other cops are playing the role of kidnapping Thyatians and a dignitary needs rescuing. ish... Our team LARP fight beating up the cast of Dad's Army who are badly dressed as Romans. Then the Real Thyatian Ambassador turned up.

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - One of our cops is being billeted with a chap they recently arrested - except the Mob have got here first to kill their Mark. It's Darokin, so obviously the fight involves a conversation about an Invoice for a Healing Potion.

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Well, sounds like before long we are going to need the BBC World Service so that Americans can get news www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Trump dismantles Voice of America with executive order

More than 1,300 staff placed on administrative leave as White House accuses VOA of being anti-Trump,

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - A Thyatian Opera made from youtube clips, a useless Halfling Interpreter, and Date Night likely to turn into a heist. The other cops got on with prying into a mysterious disappearance, maybe to do with the Umbarth Family trying to get their trade house back?

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

The Fulvina housewarming moves onto the afternoon hunt - a Golden Ram that's probably an AWOL animal companion. Also secret interviews with the count, a new mysterious Elf vigilante, a gate-crashed romantic picnic, a giant cog, and yet another body #Mystara Murder Mystery

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - Crowd control at Thanegioth Gardens, where the Tortle Richard Attenborough has crossbred everything with frogs. The monsters aren't monstrous, but some of the guests are. Then we are back to the Missing Persons case and Theo is damn sure it's Vampires all the way down

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

It's a fair cop - I just had a player ask 'Just how many of these npc pics are Angela Lansbury!?' The answer is 'more than they've spotted' I've not even brought out Mrs Iselin yet #Mystara Murder Mystery

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - the (alleged) Dowager Queen of Dawnrim steals a reproduction chess set, it's clearly worth less that the bling she is carrying. Next-off our team is doing crowd control at Thanegioth Gardens, what could go wrong. Also: Shrewsages - the culinary delight no one wanted

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

King? The ability of the USA to re-enact all Shakespeare plays simultaneously is quite astonishing.

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

D&D football time at Castle Fulvina housewarming - more a brawl & marriage market than an actual game. Various nobles get pummelled, Dr Piombo turns up dead in the bed he wasn't in last time anyone looked, and Varujan has an unlikely visit from his brother. Also:Earthtremors #Mystara Murder Mystery

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - everyone gets a levelling up encounter - Garrest has some obscure opportunities to expand his business - and then they have to go and interview the worst thing possible - Adventurers...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

I'm at a Ladywool community 'development' meeting - ie Birmingham Council has decided to demolish a suburb, and refuses to engage properly with the residents... Again

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

D&D- morning after night before at Castle Fulvina - the haunted painting has dream-spammed out people's deep secrets. Will go down well with high strung feuding Wizards. Guilio Fulvina gets an unwanted horse, the Volcano is about to erupt, & its time for a football match. #Mystara Murder Mystery

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - we wrangle a prosecution for not-murder, hear about a missing burlesque performer, & really annoy a Glantrian Cultural Attaché Then to a Charity exhibition of 'Traladaran Statuary,' misidentify most of them - especially the ones looted from Atruaghin. Also, Doughnuts

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

D&D- deep night at Castle Fulvina & our gang try to rest & id some loot- aside from spotting Celebrity Chef Ms Deveraux heading towards Dr Piombo's room, cleaver in hand. The Elixir still resists ID-ing, while the magic mask is unsurprisingly Evil, and where had Dr P gone? #Mystara Murder Mystery

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Darokin Cops Night #Mystara - it's Elf O'Clock as our team have to deal with an adventuring party who have murdered the bod who hired them. But was it an Evil Shadow Elf Wizard who deserved it. Certainly it might have been? Still the 'dodgy staff' is in the evidence locker, so all is almost well...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

We are playing Brass-Birmingham ... ish ... we are the world's worst capitalists

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Saturday brunch turned into 'Let's go to Waylands Forge and but some games' Because why not? Apparently we will be flooding a zoo this afternoon because board games are a diverse sort these days...

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

So how many d6s is 'you get blown up and then the castle falls on you' worth?

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Weds Night and it's the Glantrian House-warming from Hell as the party discover inconvenient <not dead> bodies being moved between bedrooms, night-time 'alchemists' on the search for Corpse Root, and end up diffusing a Really Big Bomb. Possibly they shouldn't have accepted the invite after all..

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

This scene seems hopelessly optimistic right now... but I like it anyway youtu.be/ZkCfGJmt318?...

youtu.be

Babylon 5: ISN Back on the Air

YouTube video by Jeffrey O. Gustafson

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Tuesday Night is Cops in Darokin Night - we have a mysterious severed head, a new Diplomancer on the team, and a strange inscription that's really two strange inscriptions co-habiting on a bit of roofing slate. Also smarmy lawyers, prisoner shuffling, and a consignment of magic weapons from Glantri

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Just 'finished' listening to this - well all 110 episodes of the main series anyway - well worth the wait to see two people blubbing their way through Sleeping in Light, and even finding a few new plot points of view along the way... www.babylon5first.com

babylon5first.com

Babylon 5 For the First Time - Not a Star Trek Podcast

Two veteran Star Trek podcasters watch Babylon 5 for the first time. They search for Star Trek like messages in this series, deciding if they should have watched it…

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Jon @plautiani.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Well, got to serendipitously end the d&d session with the gang spotting a couple of country house guests moving a body between bedrooms... so, that's a goal achieved at least

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