iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Lyme @lymerpg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Nic has always been incredibly helpful when I'm working with IPR. He's a pillar of RPG publishing.

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David J Prokopetz @prokopetz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I think a big shortcoming of a lot of fantasy tabletop RPG worldbuilding is the tendency to want to enshrine The Adventurer as occupying an eternal status quo even if the rest of the world is allowed to change. (1/3)

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daryl "rupert pumpkin" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...

reddit comment:

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply:

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.

Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…

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Rand Brittain @randbrittain.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

So it's established that a dracula is a guy who meets all the *social* criteria of Count Dracula without necessarily being a vampire, right? Logically, the mystery equivalent of that would be a poirot.

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JRho @jrho.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The most absolutely massive flex from the state fair exhibit. This quilt is made of 40 years of prize ribbons from various categories at the New Mexico State Fair won by Carol St. Clair Johnson. She also won a prize for this quilt.

Massive quilt made of prize ribbons in blue, red, yellow, and white

Center square of quilt made of yellow and red ribbons and yellow rosettes

Block of quilt made of blue, yellow, red, and white ribbons. Ribbons state the year. Some have the prize winning object written on in marker

Carol St. Clair Johnson
born 1954; resides Albuquerque, NM

O Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years
2023
satin ribbons

After unexpectedly winning her first blue ribbon for a sewn cape in 1981, Carol St. Clair Johnson developed an enduring love for the New Mexico State Fair. The quilt Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years incorporates more than six hundred of the ribbons she won at the fair every subsequent year except 2020 (when the fair was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson earned ribbons for needlework, knitting, crochet, pies, cookies, cakes, canning, jewelry, flowers, vegetables, and potted plants. The title of the quilt is a reference to the state song, and the design places the state's Zia sun symbol at the center. The quilt earned Johnson yet another ribbon: Best in Category (miscellaneous quilt) at the 2023 New Mexico State Fair.

Courtesy of Carol St. Clair Johnson

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Helena Real 🏳️‍⚧️ @helenareal.northsky.social · 02/09/2026

I've said it before & I'll repeat it: Nobilis is my fav #rpg ever made. Its author, Jenna Moran, has a Patreon and she's previewed 200 pages of the game's upcoming new edition. Go ahead and support one of the genius of our hobby! (and get a great game in return) 😁 patreon.com/JennaMoran #dnd #ttrpg

patreon.com

Get more from Jenna Moran on Patreon

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Jack Bernhardt @jackbern.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

THE GREAT BRITISH SEWING BEE: oh my this is fun, oh what larks THE GREAT BRITISH REAPING BEE: well this is a spot of bother and make no mistake, what on earth

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Rand Brittain @randbrittain.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I've been asked to repost my guide to making EPUB versions of RPGs from the bad place, so here it is:

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Charis draws @42paintbrushes.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Cursed phone doodle #deltarune

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Dr. Fade @fade.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I am reading _The Night-Bird's Feather_, and it is genuinely one of the strangest* books I have ever encountered. It slips through the logic of fairytales and discards it like an old snakeskin: too small, too dry, to keep living in, but suitable for leaving in one's wake. (* complimentary)

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Steve Kenson ❌👑 @stevekenson.com · 26/07/2026

Publishers, if you work with Lightning Source or are distributed through Ingram, take note that Ingram is offering an opt-out if you don't want your books sold to AI companies buying them to scan for AI training. ⬇️

ingramcontent.com

AI Opt Out

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Rand Brittain @randbrittain.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I think the most surprising thing about giving up Coke Zero and all its siblings is that cutting out caffeine entirely doesn't seem to have affected me at all. I was thinking I would have to learn to like coffee or something.

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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I'm terrible at marketing my own books but it's posting here or dancing on tiktok and I can't dance to save myself

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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Lotta problems with modern information environment boils down to ‘true without being meaningful’ being both a common state of affairs for phenomena and something that inherently requires some kind of gatekeeping or context setting, both things social media is horrible at.

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Rand Brittain @randbrittain.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

So far the most actionable feedback I've gotten on my setting bible is that being a livestreaming martial arts knight sounds like a lot more fun than being a priest of cultivator Catholicism, which, okay, fair.

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Elon Green @elongreen.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

if you're wondering about the benefits of solar, my last electricity bill was $28.

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Denali @denali.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I really enjoy EB White's take on New York and New Yorkers.

An excerpt from EB White's Here is New York
There are roughly three New Yorks there is first the New York of the man or woman who was born here who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence is natural and inevitable second there is the New York of the commuter the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night third there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something of these three trembling cities the greatest is the last the city of final destination the city that is a goal it is this third city that accounts for New York's high-strung disposition it's poetical deportment it's a dedication to the arts and it's incomparable achievements commuters give the city its title restlessness natives give it solidity and continuity but the settlers give it passion and whether it is a farmer arriving from Italy to set up a small grocery store in a slum or a young girl arriving from a small town in Mississippi to escape the indignity of being observed by her neighbors or a boy arriving from the corn belt with a manuscript in his suitcase and a pain in his heart it makes no difference each embraces New York with the intense excitement of first love each absorbs New York with fresh eyes of an adventurer each generates heat and light to dwarf the consolidated Edison company

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Glendon Mellow @flyingtrilobite.com · 04/06/2026

A Naturalist’s Study of Magic Beans 2011, ArtRage digital painting #GlendonMellowArt 🐡🎨🧪

Digital watercolour of a bean plant in a sketchy style. Faint rainbow above. A pollinator gnome with yellow pointy hat flies in. Diagrams of bean pods and golden beans, glitter xylem in cross section.

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John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

We should never have let fame become a middle-class job, or even middle-class job adjacent. It’s the toxic run-off of actual accomplishment, and instead we made it the top of the food pyramid.

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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

sorry to add to the discourse but I think the "everyone should have stayed on twitter" mindset is at least partially based on the misapprehension that 1) arguing on the internet is praxis and 2) leftists are obligated to spend their time doing this

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Micah @rincewind.run · 23/04/2026

there are going to be people who say, take a wait and see approach to how the Court will treat the next Dem president and those people are wrong, we know exactly how they will treat that person and it is the polar opposite of how they treat Trump strike at them immediately, first order of business

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Rand Brittain @randbrittain.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Isekai is fundamentally a form of wish-fulfillment media, and when isekai is bad it's almost always bad because it reveals the essential poverty of the creator's dreams.

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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

We have to stop pretending the problem is anything else. The problem is Trump. The solution is getting rid of Trump. We cannot effectively prosecute a war or achieve peace while Trump is in place, because he will abandon one in favor of the other every 12 hours in pursuit of narcissistic supply

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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 05/03/2026

Turns out lawlessness is not a winning strategy. See you at Nuremberg 2.0

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

I honestly think one reason Millennials are so angry about all this is that many of us grew up during the brief period in American history where the official line was that we had won history *because* of our values, and most of us actually internalized that.

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Senty, The Fluffiest Cat In Town @sentypurr.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

tapping the sign, cancel your nitro, your emotes and banners can very much wait until they stop asking for anyone's face data

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Jaws Slayer 🎃 @jesawyer.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

every once in a while i remember this door

art nouveau green (?) wood door in a brick house, 6 Rue du Lac in Brussels, Belgium. architect Ernest Delune.

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CoreyV @coreyv.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

I worked in professional childcare for years. Kids are amazing but the most incredible child I ever met had parents who were just honest with them— about everything. Measured, but always honest. There is a power in authenticity that American culture refuses to value.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 18/10/2025

notice the general mood of the timeline? how everyone is in a good mood and there’s a lot less misery and dooming? how there’s a lot of “we’re going to beat these assholes”? anyway that’s why these events are important

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Jeffrey J. Hall @mrjeffu.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Video: a Japanese scientist was attacked by flies while giving the acceptance speech for his Ig Nobel Prize-winning research paper that proved painting Zebra-like stripes on cows led to a decrease in biting fly attacks.

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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

The world has changed so much since I wrote this, but at the end of the day it's still an essay I had a breakdown writing, an essay that took days because I couldn't stop crying long enough to write strangehorizons.com/wordpress/no...

strangehorizons.com

I’ll Laugh As You Bury Me: New Zealand, America and Cultural Hegemony

All science fiction has its basis in the real world. This is the real world I base mine in. It has jokes and cups of tea and big smiles. Sometimes I’m in awe of the power of fiction to unite us. I …

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Rand Brittain @randbrittain.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Here's a question: how can you distinguish the difference between a piece of art that deliberately fails to satisfy the audience in order to provoke a reaction from the audience, and one that just fails act satisfying the audience?

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Anthony Clark @nedroid.com · 28/07/2025

In my experience there are three kinds of fantasy magic novels:

"There are three kinds of magic," said Wizzler, handing us each a balloon. "You can control tigers, you can shoot tornadoes from your fingers, or you can fly by holding your breath. The color of confetti inside your balloon will reveal which kind of power you have."
I felt the panic rising in me. What if my confetti turned yellow, indicating that I was a Tiger-Talker? My family, a long line of proud Tornado-Fingers, would disown me. Could I ever return home, bearing such shame?
I tried to calm myself as I readied the ceremonial safety pin. Green, I thought, willing my hopes into reality. Please be green.
I popped the balloon, involuntarily shutting my eyes. When I opened them, would I see the green I hoped for? The yellow I feared? What if, gods forbid, the confetti were blue?
I opened my eyes, seeing shock on the faces of my classmates. Wizzler himself stared at me, wide-eye. Looking down, I saw myself covered in confetti... purple confetti.

“I don’t understand,” I growled, my body trembling with pain. “I combined eighty percent Earth-elemental mana with twenty percent Fire-elemental mana (Type B), focused through a twenty-four-sided icositetragon made of yellow topaz. This, in conjunction with my blood type, star sign, sense of humor, and nickname, should have produced a blazing column of lightning to vaporize my enemies. Instead, it made a big bubble that smells like fresh laundry. Why?”
Skullgrumbler began to laugh. “You fool! You don’t even realize…” he squealed. “You’re facing east!”

“It’s whatever you want,” explained Magemaster Grampledog. “Magic is just whatever you want.”
I knew he was speaking in riddles, but I couldn’t grasp his hidden meaning. “So the rules are…”
Grampledog lit a sliver of smokereed. “No rules. You say some words and you wave a stick and whatever you want just happens. You don’t even need the stick.”
His wisdom still eluded me. I stared into his face, trying to decipher what he was really saying.
“No, listen.” Grampledog snapped his fingers and his desk turned into a pile of chicken nuggets. “I didn’t even know that would happen.” His hat then came alive and began to yodel.
“It’s pandemonium,” he explained. “It’s complete nonsense.”

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Micah @rincewind.run · 24/07/2025

“banning pornography” is bad on its own but it is imperative that everyone understand that these people consider the very existence of queer people to be pornographic they consider the most chaste depiction of a queer relationship, or an openly trans person, to be porn and they want it banned

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Ann Leckie @annleckie.com · 07/07/2025

I already said this in my newsletter, but I honestly can't say it enough--I recently read The Nightbird's Feather by Jenna Katerin Moran and it was fucking awesome and you should read it www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/...

kobo.com

The Night-Bird's Feather ebook by Jenna Katerin Moran - Rakuten Kobo

Read "The Night-Bird's Feather" by Jenna Katerin Moran available from Rakuten Kobo. Death’s daughter steals a girl’s self-hate to decorate her garden. An accidental bond of fate forms between them—acr...

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Shawn Harris @shawnforcongress.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Can you hit repost? Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't want you to know the name of her opponent but will try every desperate attempt to save her seat. My name is Shawn Harris. I am a Democrat, husband, father, Retired Brigadier General, farmer, and I'm running against MTG. Can you share and follow me?

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Rascal News @rascal.news · 23/06/2025

Roll20, which owns DriveThruRPG, told Rebel Scum's designer (@9thlevelgames.bsky.social) that allowing their "hateful content" and political speech on its platform constituted a "slippery slope."

rascal.news

DriveThruRPG delisted a tabletop game about revolutions over “hateful” politics

Rebel Scum's censorship reveals the limits of Roll20's apolitical guidelines.

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Grudging Signup @grudgingsignup.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

This would go some way to explaining the $3,600 a month on candles

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

it's hard to find a motivation for DOGE other than 'hatred of the good.' these are bad people fundamentally envious or un-understanding of the idea that you might work or give for others, and attempting to punish it.

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jeeyon shim 심지연 @jeeyon.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

The ttrpg industry has the "Is $20-$30 USD too much for a PDF?" and "Do designers need to raise their prices with COL?" conversation every 12-18 months and it's been going on since like 1995 so here are the answers from across the ages: 1. No. 2. Yes.

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Vivian Jenna Wilson @thevivllainous.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE AND AMAZING OPPORTUNITY😭😭😭😭

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Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.blacksky.app · 20/05/2024

This was posted by wrestler Kevin Knight on his twitter on May 17. And listen man. Listen. This is a great example of cultural interplay. I might have to recreate this joint.

A ramen with black eyed peas, cornbread and collard greens

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John Rogers @johnrogers.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

For the new kids: Rule 1: Where there is value, there is crime. Rule 2: A fine is a price. Rule 3: Nothing ever stops until a Rich White Guy goes to jail. Rule 4: There are no Moriartys Rule 5: Everyone can be conned.

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Libro.fm @libro.fm · 14/03/2025

Hi, we are an alternative to Amazon-owned Audible 👋🏻 With us, you select the independent bookshop you want to support (we have 3,000+ partners across the globe), and we share profits from your purchase with them. We're also employee-owned and a registered Social Purpose Corporation.

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Chris B 🐻🌈 @loottheroom.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Customers who want the RPG industry to continue to thrive and grow outside of a handful of bigger publishers able to weather the storm of hugely increased prices on print products are going to have to become comfortable paying realistic prices for digital products. $5 PDFs aren't going to cut it.

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