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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

@themonstersknow.com
4.4K followers 560 following 6.2K posts

ENNIE-winning author of The Monsters Know What They're Doing, Making Enemies and other stuff. Humanist, antifascist, curmudgeon. ✶✶✶✶ Home: spyandowl.com Blog: themonstersknow.com Newsletter: onefootinfairyland.com Mastodon: dice.camp/@KeithAmmann

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Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con
Brian G. aka urbanbohemian 🪩🥂💖 @urbanbohemian.com · 3h
We're on Bluesky, put the link in your post. Put the link in your post. Put. The. Link. In. Your. Post. Links in posts aren't buried or de-prioritized here. This is one of the last platforms you don't have to make interested users do detective work to find the link. Just put it in the post.
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Shadomain.com's Jason C @shadomain.com · 4h
We talk Monster Strategies in #ttrpgs with @themonstersknow.com and the community today. Check out the Shadomain Show on YouTube at youtu.be/9xDVdJZHrn0 and read the full discussion in our accompanying blog shadomain.com/strate... 1/2
Monster Strategies with Keith Ammann episode thumbnail of the Shadomain Show
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Jen C Mars @jencmars.bsky.social · 5h
This painting was featured by the Chicago Ornithological Society in the fall issue of their quarterly magazine, The Chicago Birder The org does great work with restoring and maintaining local habitats and advocating for protections for our local and migratory birds! www.chicagobirder.org
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 4h
Here's what I can officially say: Simon & Schuster is exercising its exclusive rights to sell in North America and its non-exclusive rights to sell the English edition in Europe. U.K. sales are waiting on the rights' being picked up by a U.K. publisher, which we hope will happen very soon.
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 7h
When people in power deliver bad news to you, they expect you to just take punch, accept it, and move on. In these situations, we need to empower ourselves to reject the premise. I want you to look at three time points in the fight to save the academy of natural sciences with me. (Thread)
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Jen C Mars @jencmars.bsky.social · 18h
I have a book resting on the headboard where I sleep and just now I noticed a bookmark sticking out and I didn’t remember using a bookmark so I touched it and it RAN AWAY because it was a house centipede and we both freaked out but now we’re fine
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 8h
Edgewater Tacos is our weekly go-to. Can't wait for this new restaurant to open.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 14h
We're just one week away from the release of REMONSTERED! THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING! There's still time to pre-order your copy and receive it on release day, Oct. 6! www.spyandowl.com/re...
The cover of REMONSTERED! THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING: Five adventurers—a dragonborn paladin, a forest gnome barbarian, an orc druid, a tiefling bard and a goliath sorcerer—are fighting a rakshasa in the richly appointed office of a royal adviser. On the rear wall is a portrait of a handsome, mustachioed human who wears the exact same robes of honor as the rakshasa. The rakshasa is savagely tearing into the paladin's throat with its claws. The look on the paladin's face is of someone unexpectedly confronting his own mortality. The shellshocked barbarian looks like she's about to drop her absurdly oversize axe; the bard and the sorcerer are clearly terrified, holding their weapons limply. The druid, on the other hand, looks resolute, angry and unafraid. The image is accompanied by the words "One more week! Pre-order now!"
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 19h
And if you're in the Chicago area, attend my release-day reading at the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square! www.bookcellarinc.com/keith-ammann...
A composite image featuring the cover of REMONSTERED! THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING, a thumbnail photo of Keith Ammann, the words "TUESDAY OCTOBER 6, 7 PM—REMONSTERED! BOOK LAUNCH" and miscellaneous D&D imagery.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 20h
We're just one week away from the release of REMONSTERED! THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING! There's still time to pre-order your copy and receive it on release day, Oct. 6! www.spyandowl.com/re...
The cover of REMONSTERED! THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING: Five adventurers—a dragonborn paladin, a forest gnome barbarian, an orc druid, a tiefling bard and a goliath sorcerer—are fighting a rakshasa in the richly appointed office of a royal adviser. On the rear wall is a portrait of a handsome, mustachioed human who wears the exact same robes of honor as the rakshasa. The rakshasa is savagely tearing into the paladin's throat with its claws. The look on the paladin's face is of someone unexpectedly confronting his own mortality. The shellshocked barbarian looks like she's about to drop her absurdly oversize axe; the bard and the sorcerer are clearly terrified, holding their weapons limply. The druid, on the other hand, looks resolute, angry and unafraid. The image is accompanied by the words "One more week! Pre-order now!"
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Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con
Jen C Mars @jencmars.bsky.social · 21h
This book is thick with D&D 5.5 knowledge and also my ink drawings!
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 29/09/2026
We're just one week away from the release of REMONSTERED! THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING! There's still time to pre-order your copy and receive it on release day, Oct. 6! www.spyandowl.com/re...
The cover of REMONSTERED! THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING: Five adventurers—a dragonborn paladin, a forest gnome barbarian, an orc druid, a tiefling bard and a goliath sorcerer—are fighting a rakshasa in the richly appointed office of a royal adviser. On the rear wall is a portrait of a handsome, mustachioed human who wears the exact same robes of honor as the rakshasa. The rakshasa is savagely tearing into the paladin's throat with its claws. The look on the paladin's face is of someone unexpectedly confronting his own mortality. The shellshocked barbarian looks like she's about to drop her absurdly oversize axe; the bard and the sorcerer are clearly terrified, holding their weapons limply. The druid, on the other hand, looks resolute, angry and unafraid. The image is accompanied by the words "One more week! Pre-order now!"
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 29/09/2026
Yes, it does. The only part that's open to interpretation here is the intent, and if you listen to Itamar Ben-Gvir or Bezalel Smotrich, I don't think their intent is in doubt.
ihl-databases.icrc.org
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 29/09/2026
Even in Chicago, where our museums are institutional powerhouses, we can see the effects of chronic underfunding as admission prices climb and commercialization infects everything. Wealth concentration robs all of us.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 29/09/2026
You should never use it at a table. I unironically love that appendix, but it should come with a large, brightly colored warning label reading FOR PREP ONLY—DO NOT TOUCH DURING GAME SESSION.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 29/09/2026
The past truly is a foreign country. #DnD
A block of text from the AD&D Wilderness Survival Guide:

"A system for determining the weather at any time and place in the campaign world is a necessary part of a set of rules that defines and describes that world. Yet weather, by its very nature, is anything but systematic. Modem-day meteorologists, armed with all the equipment and knowledge that man has devised and accumulated, still can't always predict with certainty what the
weather will be from one day to the next — so how can a game designer hope to accomplish what they cannot?

"The resolution of this paradox lies in the judicious use of one of
the designer's most valuable tactics: simplicity."A Temperature Variation table that no one in the year 2026 of the Common Era would ever describe as "simple."The sentence that follows the initial excerpt:

"The tables and text on these pages may not look simple at first glance, but they are simple indeed compared to what would have been needed to account for all the combinations of terrain, climate, elevation, and location that exist on Earth."

OH IS THAT THE STANDARD WE'RE MEASURING THIS BY
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Jennifer Kretchmer @dreamwisp.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is, has been, and will forever remain a @latiajacquise.com appreciation account. She is one of the kindest, most caring, hilarious, brilliant, and talented people I’ve ever met, and there isn’t enough room on the internet to sing her praises highly enough.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 21/09/2026
Come for the discussion of REMONSTERED! THE MONSTERS KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING. Stay for the on-the-fly creation of an adventure outline that starts as a fey mafia rivalry and ends as romantic tragedy.
youtube.com
Keith Ammann and The Gobfather II: Remonstered! (That RPG Podcast #32)
YouTube video by Advanced Old School Revival
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 28/09/2026
Never in my life seen a dragon throw away so much treasure.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 28/09/2026
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as our bosses see us
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Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Ctrl-F “Laquan McDonald” <Not found>
nytimes.com
Rahm Emanuel Makes His 2026 Play
The longtime Democratic insider has emerged as a behind-the-scenes force in his party’s push to win back Congress. After that, he’ll think about 2028.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
Absolutely sue for misuse of your image. This is vile.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
In these particular cases, they're live guys talking about stuff they seem to know a lot about. But they don't seem to trust that they can be interesting or get ideas across without using slop visuals.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
Well, guys, this is why. If not for the genAI, I'd probably be boosting these channels far and wide. Instead, I'm going to boost www.youtube.com/@Mystic-Arts..., www.youtube.com/@StephaniePl... and www.youtube.com/@corkboardsa..., who produce awesome content without AI.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
YouTube is recommending several channels to me featuring some genuinely fascinating-looking historical content, which I'd love to watch, except these channels' creators also make heavy use of genAI to produce their graphics. So I click "Don't Recommend Channel," and YouTube will never tell them why.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
*YES (how does GBoard manage to keep getting worse and worse as time goes on)
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Iam Pace @ipace.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
For me, passage through valleys accented by precipitous cliffs and peaks embodies travel in fantasy adventure. A place that embodies this is Yosemite. These *cool* winter photos of Yosemite are by photographer Michael Shainblum. #writingcommunity #dnd #photography #art #D&D 📷: Michael Shainblum
This image is by Michael Shainblum.This image is by Michael Shainblum.This image is by Michael Shainblum.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
I have some obscene violations of professional courtesy to report, and NONE of them are on the part of the applicants.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
Why are we out here judging job APPLICANTS when employers don't bother to acknowledge applications, filter résumés through AI, ghost applicants after they interview, lay new employees off 18 months after hiring them, change in-office-vs.-remote expectations and generally treat workers as disposable?
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
You've broken your world. You have to be temporarily relocated to another one while this one is fixed. Assuming you can give the gods one good reason why they shouldn't just consign you to level 208 of the Abyss right now for this consummately chaotic and evil act.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
As you feel yourself being pulled off balance, dragged down into the hole, time suddenly stops. The sky disappears. ALL the gods are there. Multifarious voices, speaking in unison, ring in your ears, your bones, your universe. {!!!WHAT!!!} {!!!HAVE!!!} {!!!YOU!!!} {!!!DONE?!!!}
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
You haul ass with every ounce of energy you can muster, but it's not enough. The sinkhole is gaining on you. You feel it pulling you backward and downward. Your Speed starts to decrease. You gain a level of exhaustion. Then another.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
The world shakes. The sinkhole spreads outward. You feel heavier and heavier: gravity is increasing in the vicinity. If you don't run now, you won't be able to stand.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
As your vision adjusts you see debris crumbling off the side of the tunnel and falling down into the hole. It becomes a sinkhole that begins spreading outward from the point of impact. Anyone standing over crumbling ground must make a Dex save, falling to their doom on a failure.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
The sphere falls to the ground like a bowling ball. But it doesn't stop when it hits the ground. It plunges straight through and continues to fall, carving a tunnel to the center of the world. The sides of the tunnel are white-hot.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
Where the bag of holding is placed inside the other bag of holding there is a loud bang and a rushing intake of air, and a sphere of annihilation appears in the location of the outer bag. Any PC holding the bag at the moment the second bag was placed inside it is sucked into the sphere.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
Actually, real talk: This is probably how you make a sphere of annihilation.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
That'll show him.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 25/09/2026
Because it didn't work. That's the whole thing with Trump: He's a bullshitter. He neither knows nor cares whether what he says is true or false. All that matters is whether it induces others to give him what he wants. Words don't have meaning to him, only utility.
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Clark Valentine @clarkvalentine.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Humans are responsible for the automated systems they build and initiate. Every time. - Says me, a guy who builds automated systems for a living
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
youtu.be
Malkovich? Malkovich
YouTube video by PejmanMan
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
Seems to but does not. It's not even possible to search for a slightly uncommon spelling of a name by putting it between quotemarks and saying "Return only results that include [name]." You still get swamped with results containing the more common spelling.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
No, Google broke boolean search on Google. Like, nearly 10 years ago.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
I want a dog with uninterrupted prosperity
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
My next elf character is going to be named Amethyst Woodstar.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
Is this the same door at two different points in time? I notice that they're both No. 6 and that most of the brick and stone work around them is identical.
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Catherynne M. Valente @catvalente.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
You know, when I can’t afford something & my credit is maxed out, I just don’t get to have it. So weird. Maybe they should hold a bake sale. That’s how we fund unimportant stuff like education.
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
Yet! That's the whole point! (I probably should have been a bit more mindful when taking the picture not to cover up the "Updated for 2024/25" part with my thumb)
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
After the buzzer: "We could take our infinite food pot and have a food sled!"
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Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 24/09/2026
QsotN: "The inspection of our new castle is not going well. There's a big mold problem in the basement." "Also a slight flooding issue." "Sometimes something good happens. I can't think of any examples right now." "You think I'm good with kids?" "You're the nice one, as far as I can tell." #DnD
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