Keith Ammann
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themonstersknow.com
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
ENNIE-winning author of The Monsters Know What They're Doing and other stuff. Humanist, antifascist, curmudgeon. Teeth on the board. ✶✶✶✶

Home: spyandowl.com
Blog: themonstersknow.com
Newsletter: onefootinfairyland.com
Mastodon: dice.camp/@KeithAmmann
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TODAY'S THE DAY! Making Enemies: Monster Design Inspiration for Tabletop Roleplaying Games, with cover illustration by @kroovv.bsky.social and interior illos by @jencmars.bsky.social, is now on shelves!

Get it at your friendly local game store or through one of these links: spyandowl.com/making...
Alas for the Disappointing Sea
Strongly Discouraged Lands
9½ Candles
Slightly diminish a game:

Pathlooker
Slightly diminish a game:

Tomb Finder
January 12, 2026 at 12:58 PM
January 11, 2026 at 4:12 AM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
#DnD advice: Be sure to review your character sheet for features you aren't using that might come in handy later! For instance, apparently, my rogue can do extra damage through something called a Sneak Attack?
January 10, 2026 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
Things I love in TTRPGs #125:

Waypoints that aren't inns or taverns along major thoroughfares where you can stop for the night. Roadside shrines, little crofter's lean-tos, maintained and marked campsites with dry firewood. Places that show signs of habitation. People already there seeking shelter.
January 10, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
Instead of occupying Venezuela and terrorizing Americans with ICE and CBP, we need to be investing in housing, education, and healthcare.

IL-09 needs someone ready to fight for these priorities, not endless war, in Congress.

Join me tomorrow, 1/10, in solidarity to protest this state-led violence.
January 10, 2026 at 12:26 AM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
When Renee Good said "I'm not mad at you" what the ICE goon heard was "I'm not scared of you."

That's what enraged him. The populace wasn't fully terrorized and cowed into submission yet, so he acted to make that happen.
January 9, 2026 at 9:49 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
All the lies they're telling about Renee Good are in service of an even bigger lie: that individual human lives have no intrinsic worth and are therefore theirs to dispose of. publiccomment.blog/p/the-poison...
The Poison Always Drips Through
On Renee Good and George Floyd
publiccomment.blog
January 9, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
Happy 13th birthday to the most essential artwork of the current era, @kcg.bsky.social ‘s “This is fine,” to all those who celebrate.
January 9, 2026 at 11:06 AM
The primary function of any law enforcement agency, its role in due process, is to deliver people suspected of having committed crimes to the court system for trial.

Not to convict.
Not to sentence.
Not to administer the death penalty.

And absolutely not to do all three in a matter of seconds.
January 8, 2026 at 4:23 PM
QotN:

"I've gone most of my life without having my head ripped off … "
"You want to … TRY that?"

#DnD #TTRPGQuotes
January 8, 2026 at 3:45 AM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
Now, justice on the doers!
January 7, 2026 at 8:22 PM
Paying estimated taxes feels particularly repulsive today.

Any federal workers or recipients of federally funded grants or welfare out there, please know that I'm doing this for YOU.
January 6, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
I love that EFF knows their base well enough to lead with "we understand you probably already have a lot of polyhedral dice sets..."
January 5, 2026 at 11:06 PM
Looks like the blog will be continuing in more or less its current form, with the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica up next.
The Monsters Have Gained Some Clarity - The Monsters Know What They’re Doing
Hello again! I’d wish you all a happy 2026, except that it seems more like we didn’t do a good enough job of making sure 2025 was properly dead and buried. Get [whack!] back [whack!] in [whack!] there...
www.themonstersknow.com
January 5, 2026 at 6:08 PM
☐ E-mail my agent
☐ Review blog comments
☐ Plow through accumulated e-mail
☐ Touch base with local RPGers
☑︎ Call elected reps about impeaching the criminal thugs in control of our government, warn them that this isn't about oil, it's about IMPUNITY, and in 6 months they'll be abducting JB Pritzker
January 5, 2026 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
Château de Maintenon (France) stands near the ruins of a massive Roman-inspired aqueduct (images 3 and 4).

Originally built in the 13th century, the great manor was expanded in the following centuries.

#ttrpg #writing #dnd #art #writingcommunity #photography
📷️: rhaul; Stephane Goetz; & morganplr
January 4, 2026 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
Just realized that Emperor Qin Shi Huang's "Terracotta Army" of clay soldiers he kept in a vault in like 200 BC make him the first Warhammer Guy. he got some disposable income and started painting minis. totally get it
January 4, 2026 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
I love to travel. I even love flying. I hate all airlines. Do you see my problem
January 4, 2026 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
Within the Enna province is the star-shaped town of Centuripe, whose layout conforms to the slopes of the rocky hill upon which it stands.

The town has a long history stretching back thousands of years.

#ttrpg #writing #dnd #art #writingcommunity
📷️:Evgeni Fab; Antonino Bartuccio; & Pio Andrea Peri
January 2, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Starting to think maybe the way public health agencies should have gone was to run PSAs featuring bearded, shirtless bodybuilders getting shots without flinching, with the caption, "I'M MAXXINATED"
January 2, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
2026 is about affordable homeownership. No more "policy" this year. Feed the local fauna, befriend them, and then use them to overpower homeowners so you can occupy their dwellings.
January 1, 2026 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
Just making sure that 2025 is definitely over
January 1, 2026 at 4:43 AM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
I described something as “waist-high” and they yelled at me that the metric system exists and I was just scared of France.

Okay, my dude, it’s waist-high but in metric.
What’s the funniest reason someone got mad at you on Bluesky this year?
December 30, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Keith Ammann
We are thrilled to bring you returning guest and all around brilliant guy Keith Ammann to discuss his newest book, "Making Enemies"!
@themonstersknow.com @simonschuster.bsky.social

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
December 29, 2025 at 3:25 PM