Aaron Hammonds
@aaroninwords.fpe.social
1K followers 270 following 580 posts
He/Him. Writer. Veteran. Burrito enthusiast. Co-Founder and Multi-Award-Winning #ForeverGM. Executive Director @tabletopartsfund.org. Designing "These Things We Keep." A game of memory, meaning, and the quiet violence of choice.
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Reposted by Aaron Hammonds
rahrah.bsky.social
Do you have an Audio Drama or AP Podcast idea you've been sitting on for too long? I'm currently taking paid sound design work while expanding my portfolio. I've won multiple awards for Audio Drama & AP sound design. Message me for rates based on what you've got in mind.
thesoundofrahrah.carrd.co
aaroninwords.fpe.social
Submissions now open! We want to send your actual play on a world tour, putting it in front of audiences and judges on four continents. But you can't be selected if you don't apply!
tabletopartsfund.org
Previous winners have received more than 100 nominations and three dozen awards at festivals on four continents. Now it's your turn! The Tabletop Arts Fund is proud to announce our 2026 Actual Play Grants.

📅 Submissions close October 31, 2025.
👉 Apply now: apply.tabletoparts.fund/ActualPlay2026
Promotional graphic for the Tabletop Arts Fund 2026 Actual Play Grants. At the top center is the Tabletop Arts Fund logo, featuring a stylized book with a red d6 and yellow d10 on its pages, crossed by a pen and paintbrush inside a circle. 

The Text reads:
2026 Actual Play Grants

“Open to any podcast or video actual play with at least three episodes released in 2025. Grants provide entry fees to all festivals in the 2026 Audio Fiction World Cup. Preference for all awards given to first-time festival participants and creators from marginalized backgrounds.”

At the bottom, bold text states:
Submissions close October 31, 2025

Link: https://apply.tabletoparts.fund/actualplay2026
aaroninwords.fpe.social
The gang at @redmoonroleplaying.bsky.social are always a pleasure to play with -- this was no exception.
redmoonroleplaying.bsky.social
Los Angeles, 2037. Neon lights cut through the rain as we bring Free League’s Blade Runner to life together with our friend @aaroninwords.fpe.social. This Patreon-exclusive series already has 10 episodes you can binge today!

youtu.be/N-9OYVHFni4?...
Blade Runner: The Immortal Game 01, Patreon-exclusive (Actual Play)
YouTube video by Red Moon Roleplaying
youtu.be
aaroninwords.fpe.social
Home safe! Thanks as always to @njwebfest.bsky.social for a fantastic weekend of art and inspiration!
aaroninwords.fpe.social
Hello, New Jersey. Thank you for letting me inside you.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
Congratulations! All richly deserved, of course!
Reposted by Aaron Hammonds
goldenlassogirl.bsky.social
I’m not going to lie, RENT hits differently now. Like, Benny is a dick, but he came into some money and wants to build lots of housing to fund usable artist spaces at street level? Why is he the villain?

I get gentrification is bad, but isn’t someone from the neighborhood revitalizing it good?
aaroninwords.fpe.social
As I reflect on TANS ending, I’m proud it does, actually end. Each season stands alone and leads to its own conclusion.

The story could have gone on, but late-coming listeners can still experience a full narrative. Not the full story, but not a disappointment.

And I'm glad I gave them that.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
I appreciate the missing perspective -- it's a refreshing change of tone for an otherwise exhausted brain. And deeply humbled to know you enjoyed our take on your work!
aaroninwords.fpe.social
My least favorite part of shuttering an AP company is the huge pile of quietly humiliating emails you have to write.

"I know I promised you this project/offered you this role/pitched you this sponsorship, but it turns out I won't be able to deliver."

Ugh.
Reposted by Aaron Hammonds
rascal.news
History Week! Rascal's bi-annual subscription drive accompanies a themed week of articles diving into tabletop's past, both professional and personal.

Subscribe now and get 25% of your first six months (details inside) as we gear up to bring a news writer onto the Rascal team!
Rascal Subscriber Drive: History Week
News blasts about the past.
www.rascal.news
Reposted by Aaron Hammonds
storyweave.bsky.social
If you missed this, then consider this our first big announcement!

Games like the Isles trilogy do so much excellent work for accessibility in the TTRPG space and we will be working on making a series that reflects this - we cannot wait to show these games off! 🩵💜
hatchlingdm.itch.io
A few days ago we unlocked a #Kickstarter stretch goal to work with StoryWeave Productions on a fully accessible Actual Play of the Isles #ttrpgs in 2026.

Look out for another big announcement following the UNDERISLES campaign in a few weeks. And in the meantime follow @storyweave.bsky.social
aaroninwords.fpe.social
I can't decide if this means I never used the words "dark," "subversive" or "dramatic" to describe TANS, or if my show is ass.
a baby with a sad look on his face
ALT: a baby with a sad look on his face
media.tenor.com
aaroninwords.fpe.social
42. There's no such thing as a "neutral" mechanic. Every single one encodes some kind of tone, power, or genre norm. Saying otherwise just tells me you either haven't thought very hard about your game, or are comfortable obfuscating your biases. Neither fills with me confidence.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
41. “A good performer” is the least valuable thing you can be to an AP company. Success in actual play is built on production pipelines, editorial vision, marketing discipline, and smart game curation. The world is full of good-enough performers. What’s rare are people who can do infrastructure.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
40. GM-less games aren't, they just deliver GM power without accountability. Framing scenes, escalating stakes, pacing play—someone still does it. But without structure, it defaults to the loudest player. Good GM-less design doesn't ignore this, it redistributes the power explicitly.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
39. The proliferation of walled-garden VTTs is a betrayal of the portability culture TTRPGs were built on. When the book you used to carry to your friends house is now locked to a DRM platform and an API key, you've fallen victim to an MBA pit trap. Digitization needn't be commercial exploitation.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
38. Reversed, the Cult of Crunch is the same gatekeeping wearing a different hat. Mechanical literacy and "elegance" are are treated as moral superiority in the corners of the internet where those design principles thrive. It is possible to discuss TTRPGs without being the above person, or this one.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
Lemme dig it up and have a look! Looking back at this thread, I realize I've started to articulate a very particular kind of vision/manifesto for TTRPGs; might as well do the work to back it up.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
37. "Nice" culture in TTRPGs is aesthetic gatekeeping that punishes creators who can't perform therapeutic-sounding discourse. Too often, critique is framed as hostility, clarity is treated as aggression, and people who fail to do "soft-spoken concern" are assumed to be acting in bad faith.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
36. A corollary for performers: introspection only resonates when it leads somewhere. Reflection in play must shape action. It needs to change who you trust, how you act, or where the story leads. Without that, you've delivered a journalist exercise instead of a narrative beat, and pacing suffers.
aaroninwords.fpe.social
35. In design, "emotional" is too often married to "gentle" and the result is hollow. If nothing can go wrong, nothing can matter. This is especially true of prompt games, where vulnerability is frequently invited but rarely pressured. As a a result, the choices are soft, safe, and forgettable.