I've added 30 new Community Copies to Diabolic Dialect both to celebrate the holidays and the release of our first adventure for it! Pick up a community copy or grab both in a bundle here! itch.io/s/177129/gin...

Some of you have forgotten that only three years ago you were perfectly capable of writing a text, writing an email, telling a bedtime story to a child, and it should worry you that powerful companies have convinced us we can’t do things we’ve been doing since the dawn of time.

This has some of the most indulgent and fun writing from @ryanzenith.bsky.social that I’ve gotten to see. Which feels like it’s saying something…

"This story doesn't need a sandworm" This is almost always wrong. Arguably, EVERY story benefits from adding a huge subterranean worm with quasi-mystical or semi-supernatural powers, or equivalent (similar to Moby Dick). Obviously the bigger the worm, the more literary quality it adds.

Things are heating up in this train wagon. And there's still two more parts after this one.

that the Whos celebrate Christmas suggests some knowledge of Christ, but whether this is our anthropic Christ or a distinctive Who-Christ remains obscure; some have argued Christianity was introduced to them during their refuge with Horton, which of course turns us to the matter of Elephant Religion

my upcoming diabolic dialect adventure “The Gingerbread Factory” probably has my most indulgent writing

I have been thinking a lot this year about how to bring folks to games — especially TTRPGs. There’s lots of paths, & most of them require a lot of patience — the long game, as it were. I know many folks who are connoisseurs, restless maximizers. But love people first, & meet them where they are.

My no-fun-at-parties take is that "christmas is a secular holiday" is an uncomfortable way of assuring me that christianity is the status quo and everything outside of that is an aberration. Sorry! It's still a christian holiday!! Just because you're an atheist doesn't make it secular!

"What she wants most of all is to crunch, gulp, and digest a gingerbread that does not protest." - @ryanzenith.bsky.social One of the best lines I've read in recent memory from an upcoming Diabolic Dialect Holiday module.

#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Guinefort, the Cajun Christmas Werewolf! When Santa Claus visits the bayous of Louisiana, the dense canopy of trees that blanket the rivers along which its people live preclude him from employing his reindeer-pulled sleigh. 1/

despite the miserable fall weather, the Abbot always made sure to take the novice monks out to his favorite mushroom foraging grounds. if they were lucky he'd also have the opportunity to teach them some weather forecasting tricks

Brioche the Doughmancer 🫓

You know, some days I sit and think about how absolutely wild it is that we've built a society where we don't provide a place for people to even sleep at night without having to pay for it, and that we've somehow made it seem like that's normal.

EVERYONE GET MORE PASSIONATE AND SELF INDULGENT ABOUT CREATIVITY AND BEING HUMAN NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bjork is op -- disjointed hitbox

Every writer who generates a slop image for their work is a class traitor. "I can't afford a visual artist" So your solution is stabbing artists in the back? Stealing from them? Furthermore, slop-generated imagery suggests slop-generated writing. That's how you're presenting yourself.

Ni quiero, ni necesito tanto. Buenas noches, gente de bien.

love when i write a bit of something that's so obviously from My Human Brain. like well, maybe this particular thing sticks out in a way that won't survive editing, maybe it won't hit for anybody else, but it took me to write this part for sure. so for now it is my favorite part

While I think the most obvious transferable skill from Improv to playing TTRPGs is learning how to react to situations quickly and authentically, we should also take note that Improv (especially long form) can teach narrative pattern recognition to help call back to previous themes and characters.

@thirdfloorwars.bsky.social gmed a game for @jessebmiller.bsky.social, @ryanzenith.bsky.social and I today and goddamn if Craig isn’t up there as one of the best GMs I’ve played with. Excited for the next session!

This is a good example of how we’re so addicted to the point-of-purchase because the library is free as hell

Body horror is the core of dungeon crawling for me and injury tables were something I always struggled with. Turns out, the key is to make it both a little weird and change how often death is an option. snowttrpg.itch.io/songbirds-3e

the people of this great republic yearn for locomotive transport

The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)

Heated Rivalry, 2025

Get in before the end of our first big giveaway if you want a chance to try a few of our games for free!

🌄A LAND ONCE MAGIC IS OFFICIALLY OUT TODAY!✨ Order one of these beautiful physical books and/or a hand-stamped bag + notebook! The PDF is also out on my itch page! vidityavoleti.itch.io/a-land-once-... Make infinite worlds, never stop telling stories, create art with others!

reread annihilation to fuel the growing flame of passion within me to write strange biological horror. cycles of radical transformation, the human will to defy it, and the inevitable sublime concession to it...

This holiday give yourself the gift of hating millionaires too.

Another friendly reminder my email is always open for indie ttrpgs who might want some press coverage!

there’s so much writing teachers can learn from good prompts and randomization from journaling solo RPGs!

We’ve got a Storygames Chicago Giveaway Bundle, just in time for the Holidays! We’ll be drawing winners on the 22nd. Enter for a chance to win by reposting or quote posting this post! You can find other ways to enter in the image in this post!

Check out our latest newsletter from @ryanzenith.bsky.social and @chkurk.bsky.social All about building games around a core structure of strong beliefs. storygameschicago.beehiiv.com/p/in-support...

How about we worry less, as a society, about whether individuals might be cheating to get a disability accommodation or some help buying food, and more about whether extremely wealthy people and corporations are paying their fair share of taxes?

me: i should make sure to always have a book with me me, this morning: eh, i dont think ill have time to read today me, sitting and waiting bored: where the FUCK is my book

Within an hour of arriving in Munich I stumbled upon the bejewelled skeleton of Saint Munditia clutching a goblet filled with dried blood, martyred in 310 AD, beheaded with a hatchet. Standard...

the homunculus union refuses to strike in solidarity with the familiar & summoned beings union. this is so sad.

im sorry but dungeons and dragons is not a game where you can "do anything". the game where you can do anything is freestyle roleplaying on the neopets message boards

Its her season

For anyone browsing holiday deals today, remember to also check out sellers like @ipr.bsky.social and @tabletopbookshelf.com. Your purchases there go towards the creators and businesses that support the indie TTRPG space.

Today is the last day our whole catalog is on sale for 50% off! Check out our games and get everything we’ve made for ~$20! itch.io/s/170881/bla...

Time to invoice the telegraph for using my illustration, I guess

What if #ttrpg combat worked like the Gardens of Ynn Like everyone gets +1 for every previous move (or round if you're nasty) and the results further down the table get more and more dangerous A built in escalation

Just catching up with the budget coverage in the papers.

Just a reminder to leave a rating/review on all the games you’re picking up in these sales. Taking two seconds to leave a 5 star rating can and will help that creator immensely. That one rating you leave could be the tipping point in the algorithm that gets that game seen by far, far more people.

So much about this sign I saw today I am still thinking about

IMPORTANT: When transporting a giant puffball mushroom you have recently foraged, it is absolutely crucial that you ensure the mushroom is firmly strapped into the passenger seat of your car to guard against sharp braking and potential whiplash

Never not thinking about Octavia E. Butler's XENOGENESIS series and how explosively that first book blew my mind and how badly I wish I had read it when I was younger (I was in my 20s) I wonder how different my writing would look today if I had

You can buy everything I've worked on for crazy cheap right now! Go take a look!