iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Matt Shay

Rise Up (From the Grave) Comus @riseupcomus.bsky.social · 4h

Rereading old blog posts, and Grognardia reminded me of this essential truth: "don't design rules with bad players in mind. Any rule, no matter how well written, can and will be abused by players looking to find a way to take advantage of a situation."

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It took me a while to learn that designing for bad faith play (‘what if louder players hog the spotlight?’ ‘what if players use this freeform feature to break the game?’) will ultimately hurt your design. Design for players who want to play the game.

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I love the Site creation rules from Mythic Bastionland, so I created this quick procedure for Inkwarren to generate them on the fly during play with tarot cards!

Quick Site Generation
If you would like to generate a site quickly, use these steps. This procedure is useful for Region maps, which will have 1-2 Sites per subregion.

Overarching Details
Give the site the following, jotting down a few details for each:

- Name
- Senses
- Challenges
- Features
- Rewards
- Strange Places

This is all you will need for preparing the site pre-session.

Quick Site Generation
To generate the site quickly, follow these steps:

Step 1: Draw 6 cards from the Minor Arcana. Lay them out on the table how you please. Values indicate a change in elevation– higher is higher, and lower is lower.

Step 2: Swords are Challenges to navigate carefully, Cups are Features that set the tone, Coins are Rewards that the woodlanders can seek, and Wands are Strange Places that don’t follow the rules.

Step 3: Add 3 connections to other rooms.

Step 4: Add 2 blocked connections between rooms by drawing a connection and crossing it out.

Step 5: Secretly, make a note of a secret connection between two cards.

After this, you are ready to run the site! Use your notes and your instincts to guide the players through.

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The Southern U.S. can be an intensely frustrating place to live but I can also get this at a drive thru so who’s to say if it’s bad or not

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Was talking about this to a friend but the magic of TTRPGs is using game mechanics to bridge our world and the fictional world. If the fictional world knows about the mechanics it loses all of the charm for me.

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Rayne Grimm Vulpes Zer-Duh @raynegrimm.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

My 5 non-D&D RPGS to get to know me by: - Pokémon Tabletop United - Heckin good doggos - Break!! - Kids on bikes/brooms - Ink!

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

My 5 non-D&D RPGS to get to know me by: - Heart: The City Beneath - Mythic Bastionland - Grimwild - His Majesty the Worm - Legend in the Mist

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

This is the year I get ADHD meds. Inkwarren is gonna be so finished it’s stupid

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Working on revising Inkwarren’s ruleset after a couple of months of our campaign. New, streamlined rules for knowledge and wealth!

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Political intrigue games are very very fun to run when the ‘fantasy’ of the setting gets involved. My players have been debating for a week now on the ethics and consequences of using the fungal hive mind they met to take back their castle.

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I have one extremely cool friend who has only ever played two TTRPGs: Mythic Bastionland and a playtest session for a horror mystery game I’m working on

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Latest version of Inkwarren’s character sheet for my campaign! Proud of this version because it gets all of the relevant play information onto one page— second page is helpful, but optional!

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

My favorite GM TTRPG bit is to have an old lady very casually describe a horrific tragedy and then just tsk and say ‘horrible. Just horrible’

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Hi all, I wanted to share a mutual aid request for a friend of mine. She unexpectedly lost her job in December when the restaurant she worked at closed out of the blue. If you have anything to spare, please consider helping out! www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...

gofundme.com

Donate to Support for a Trans Woman in Crisis, organized by Hayden Roberts

I am a 25 year old trans woman living on unemployment insurance after my employer, … Hayden Roberts needs your support for Support for a Trans Woman in Crisis

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Made a hex map for the city my Inkwarren campaign takes place in!

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Having lots of fun updating the sheet for version 1.1 of IW for the campaign I’m running!

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

I’m running my first IW campaign!! First session was last night and went great :)

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Chilly 📺 @chillydoodles.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

My character for the very first campaign of inkwarren by @ruinandrue.bsky.social ! I’m seated to start it RIGHT NOW I’m very excited

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

I get to play a new TTRPG tomorrow that NONE of you have played >:)) (it’s my friend’s new indie system! First playtest!)

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

SILKSONG IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2025

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Finally bought Heart: The City Beneath and yeah this is EXACTLY my shit

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Philby Bear (they/them) @philbybear.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

HOLY SHIT I HAVE GREAT NEWS I just received a call from the clinic, about the blood test results! After eight months of ozempic, training and eating better? My cholesterol and liver enzymes are “back within normal parameters,” and I’m no longer pre-diabetic!

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Reposted by Matt Shay

V.V. 🏳️‍🌈 @machineheart.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Happy Twitter outage to those who celebrate!

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

One thing I’ve kinda made my peace with in game design is that it’s perfectly okay for your game to say ‘this is the way the rules are intended to work, and if you loophole them to do other shit you’re using them wrong’

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I’ve taken up drawing daily pictures of little woodlanders on my call sheets at work

Doodle of a little mouse carrying a sword

Doodle of a snake with her tail wrapped around and holding a staff

Doodle of an armadillo with a bow and arrow

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Inkwarren won’t be complete without the fishing minigame

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Started a new pathfinder game and the party vibes are unmatched (art by @chillydoodles.bsky.social)

Six stick figures with drawn heads over them sit around a train. They each have a thought bubble trailing from their heads that reads ‘these people are so weird. Thank god I’m the only normal person here’.

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Realllyyy disappointing playtest tonight. Mechanic I’ve been tinkering with for a while that I was excited about completely fell apart in actual play. Cest la vie! This is why we playtest

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Ruin & Rue was my first draft title for Inkwarren! :) it stuck around for a WHILE, so I made it my username everywhere

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Ghoula RPGs @gilarpgs.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Hey, @destinythegame.bungie.net, I really think you should consider bringing me on to make an official Destiny TTRPG. I'd do an incredible job with it.

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Graeme @gbloodworth.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

This feels so simple, but so many of those "rpg horror stories" are a result of people not aligning their expectations. I'll add too that if you have a newer player, give them LOTS of check ins and chances to change what they're playing. New people dont always know what theyll like in the long term.

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Scampir @scampir.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

"Hey guys i've been playing D&D for a few months now and I have this theory about TTRPGS:" *something I saw posted six years ago.*

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Mike Riverso @mikeriverso.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Menus vs parkour.

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Zane Schacht - Voice Goblin @voicesbyzane.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

More fantasy factions should have appalachian accents. Not to mark them as dumb or rowdy. Like I want to see Wood Elves talking about their millennia long history and stewardship of the old forests with distinct Holler drawls. I want to hear a dryad say "reckon so" and "if'n"

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Mil @melonsaurus.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Remember gamers, no matter what happens at the The Game Awards this year, your favorite game got robbed and you need to be unreasonably angry about it ❤️

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Matt Shay @twelveautumns.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Next week the campaign that I’ve been running weekly on Sundays for 3 years ends and I am So Sad

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Evangeline Sorrel @forestoath.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

I really HATE floating target numbers up to the GMs desire. It sucks, even as a gm, because it feels so arbitrary. Compared to haveing the number clearly labeled on a sheet that you have to beat or get within. Like why woukd you not give the players the information the players need? Free the gm!

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Oisin Duffy @oisinduffy15.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Art is communication regardless of how involved in the creation someone is, and in art, there's value to listening to others rather than speaking over them. I don't think it's actually a good thing to place house rules on a pedestal like this, especially coming from someone who designed such

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Reposted by Matt Shay

onion person @junlper.beer · 05/12/2024

bots are becoming a bigger thing on this platform now. not as bad as twitter, but it’s a shame that no matter what, we’re forced into experiencing the internet technological rot that infests online spaces now

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Xiran Jay Zhao @xiranjayzhao.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

We joked that 2020 was an exceptionally shitty year but I legit did not expect every year since to be so much worse

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Reposted by Matt Shay

Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Actually kind of shocked that so many on the so-called "left" on here would celebrate the death of the CEO of the Shorten People's Lives Factory.

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