iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Awful game, just a cruel quarter-harvester designed for maximum unfairness and literally zero gameplay ... but so beautiful. Just a gorgeous thing, every frame of it.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I still vividly remember catching this at the theater on base at Parris Island, part of the brief theatrical run before the TV series hit the air. Rocked my universe as a child! The first grown-up novel I ever read was the novelization of the film. 😆

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Sounds like a fine recipe for tasty genre stew. 😋

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

If it keeps going it'll become almost as meaningless as "RPG." 😂

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I'm totally cool with it. ☺️🖖

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I still remember piling into cars to go see it with a huge group of friends, seven million years ago or so when it first got American screenings. Such an event! Such a film.

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Michael Ruocco @michaeljruocco.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Sometimes I browse through heritage auctions and I find the occasional odd gem, but today I stumbled upon the mother-load: these ridiculous grocery store ads promoting the release of The Jungle Book, and each one has me absolutely reeling. Sharing them here so you too can share in my bewildered joy

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

But now the video has mystique!

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Hey they said my word again. 😲 Uhura said it twice! 🥰 #StarTrek #StrangeNewWorlds

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

How am I just now learning that there's a Kung-Fu Panda knockoff starring Rob Schneider. #Culture #Cinema #Kunst

A YouTube promo image for "Panda Warrior," an animated film. The image has faux-Chinese styling.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I do fantasy maps ☺️ www.deviantart.com/temphis/gall...

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Right, but those parents live in the United States of America. It's _not_ their job to make sure health leadership gives them good-faith guidance. The _law_ defines who _has_ that job, and they must be taken to trial when these turds, and those who supported them, are rounded up to face justice.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

If/when we get our version of the Nuremberg Trials, it will be absolutely heartbreaking to see all the misery and death RFKjr has caused laid out point-by-point before the court.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I never stop finding wonder in how certain creative works (songs, films, poems, favorite RPG books) have a kind of healing / re-energizing effect. Renewal of purpose, renewal of enthusiasm, renewal of hope, all just bound up in a good work.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Hell yeah. Rotta and Grogu are gonna be pals for centuries and I'm here for all of it.

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Music Box Theatre @musicboxtheatre.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Heading into a week of film noir screenings like

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

From ~4 of the #HTTRPG workshops: GM: [idea!] Me: Love the vibe, but you've embodied the problem in the villain. It's optimal to just stab him in the face. Solved. GM: I thought this is for those who don't play that way? Me: It's for those who trust their GM to not put them in that situation. 🙃

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Chinatown Wars, which returned (sort of!) to the stripped-down-top-down perspective, is one of my all-time favorites, especially on its original hardware (the Nintendo DS), where it was built to take great advantge of the stylus, though the PSP controller-only version is also very good.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

My tuna salad is full of stuff. Onions, apples, pickles, cherry-pepper relish, et multiple cetera, to the point that three little cans of yellowfin result in nearly a half-gallon of fresh tuna salad. Easy on the mayo, though. It's chonky. It's a biblical miracle. Loaves and fishes. Ish.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Which is still much more finite than the infinite wizard permutations offered by hundreds of less-regimented fantasy games, ironically (and amusingly). 😅

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This book lives on the short list of those I find most inspiring.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Okay, that's good, because I've been told I'm a "West-Texas Prison System 9 and a Colorado 6." 😁

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Ned Raggett @nedraggett.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Two of Miss Piggy's most iconic co-stars gone, this world is trash.

Dolly Parton in a great jean jacket and Miss Piggy in a purple satin top and white boa and cowboy hat. What more do you need?

Miss Piggy as Benjamina Gunn and Tim Curry as Long John Silver in _Muppet Treasure Island_

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Toss @stevenspoints.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I really cannot think of a greater honor than to have the Muppets say this about you upon your passing

Instagram post from the official Muppets account: Few humans have earned the title of honorary Muppet more than the legendary Tim Curry. As a performer he was unparalleled - witty, charming, unnerving, and deeply funny. We will always consider it one of our greatest treasures to have been part of Long John Silver’s crew. Thank you for everything, Tim.

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Grandiloquent Word of the Day @grandiloquentwords.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Beneficent [ben-IF-iss-ent] (adj.) - Doing or producing good; performing acts of kindness and charity; characterized by beneficence. Used in a sentence: “Few stars have been so beneficent as Dolly, transforming a lifetime of legendary success into a legacy of gentle munificence.”

A "Grandiloquent Word of the Day" meme for “Beneficent,” defined as “Doing or producing good; performing acts of kindness and charity; characterized by beneficence.” At right is a black-and-white portrait of Dolly Parton. Beneath the definition, the example reads: “Few stars have been so beneficent as Dolly, transforming a lifetime of legendary success into a legacy of gentle munificence.”

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

This is one of those covers where my first response is "oh hey I had that one" and my second response is "huh, why did I have that one again?" Then I remembered. I was always in comic shops anyway, but at THAT time I was briefly obsessed with Natasha Shneider's cuteness in 2010. 😆

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

My understanding of Magic is 100% current as of ... Ice Age. 😅

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Also: if the players are completely new to the setting, it can help if they make characters who aren't worldly. They know only their local community and then learn the world through play.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I do these kind of Cribsheet things a lot! Also multiple pre-campaign sessions (the kids call it Session Zero but I often do three so I'm not sure how to number them) 😅

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Joel @itsjoels.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

You may find you get very spoiled by rules-light systems and never want to go crunchy again. 😁 I've been GMing for 40 years. Started light. Went crunchy for several years! Shrugged, went back to light! (During my crunchy years I added a single word to the Star Wars canon)!

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Not long ago I saw a commercial, packaged game - a boxed set of ... The Floor is Lava. I just stared at it wondering what they put INSIDE the box, given that the printed the entire rulebook in the title on the front =)

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

And it had a decent RPG! Never ran it, but played a little micro-campaign once.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I want the media to draw some parallels from how the administration sees those stuck aboard a ship, and those imprisoned in an ICE facility, because underneath it all, it's thinking in the same shape, about the role and value of human life compared to their ambitions.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Some GMs, if you tell them you like lots of action but aren't partial to games that rely on violence ... Smoke and sparks flow from their ears, like a computer that's just been Captain Kirked. BUT ... HIT IS ... only VERB, only VERB also SHOOT is HIT is ONLY ... VERRrrrrrB. >click< #TTRPG #GMing

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

And my favorite: designing RPGs because I love RPGs far above all other forms of publishable art and entertainment. 😍

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

When my endless delving of #TTRPG adventure libraries turns up a good one, I get such a sense of relief and excitement that I immediately go look up the designer and see what else they've done. A good ~half the time, that one adventure was all. Well, if you only do one thing, and it's good? 🫡🫡🫡

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

That above-the-clouds shot has such a lovely natural vibe. Draws me right in.

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Of the 109 FRP city guides I've studied, ~40 of them give you a good sense of what it'll be like (a) being a mercenary adventurer (b) visiting that city. Not in a failure way. Just in an ambition way. A scope way. An intended-use way. Alas. The others do more, fortunately. 😊 #TTRPG

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

They wrote their own vows. 😻

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

My hope is that this article will serve as a single landing-point for folks curious about what I mean by "High-Trust Trad" roleplaying, or HTT. rolltop-indigo.blogspot.com/2026/08/what... But, I know about hope, and the Internet. 😁 #HTTRPG #TTRPG #GMing #AdventureDesign

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I loved the City but it always felt a little rushed out. The question I always ask my fellow Talisman City players: How did YOUR table interpret "Gain 1 Object" at the Cathedral? At ours we treated it as "Gain 1 Object from the Purchase Deck."

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S. John Ross @sjohnross.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I still have a Muppet Boo Berry box from last year; I'll be happy to have another one beside it. 🫐😋🫐

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