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James L. Sutter

@jameslsutter.bsky.social

810 followers 220 following 530 posts

Co-creator of the Pathfinder & Starfinder TTRPGs. Author of the queer young adult romance novels DARKHEARTS and THE GHOST OF US, plus fantasy novels, comics, video games, and more. Musician. ME/CFS husband.

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · Nov 23

OBLIGATORY INTRO POST: Hi everybody! You might know me as a co-creator of the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games, but these days I'm mostly writing queer young adult rom-coms. If you need some grumpy teen kissing in your life, maybe check 'em out? jameslsutter.com/novels.html

Two novel covers: THE GHOST OF US with the tagline "supernatural sapphic seduction" and DARKHEARTS with the tagline "band bro enemies to lovers"

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Reposted by James L. Sutter

Danny K @dannykpolitics.bsky.social · 3d

WATCH: ‘Portland Frog’ pepper balled by ICE agents

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 8h

(I cannot count the number of times editors have saved me from stupid mistakes and lapses in judgment—or the number of authors and developers I've done the same for. Even editors need editors!)

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 9h

When we were doing the first Pathfinder Bestiary, I was up very late one night writing a death-gaze variant of the cockatrice.

The next day Wes Schneider came into the office and yelled "SUTTER! Did you seriously just name this thing "the deathcock'?!" 😬

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 10h

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 10h

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 1d

Perfection.

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 1d

I'm jealous! I've been periodically googling "Hiron Ennes new book" ever since I read Leech...

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 1d

Empire of the Dawn by Jay Kristoff, King Sorrow by Joe Hill, The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes.

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 1d

WIFE: "Hey babe, you wanna come sniff this garbage can?"

ME: "So this is what our pickup lines have become."

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you! I can't wait to see what y'all do with it!

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 10d

Sorry, but I've never run an ARG—that's a very different skillset than mine. Best of luck!

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 11d

A new adventure begins...

James's setup for running a D&D campaign, with a laptop, GM screen, dice, hand-drawn maps, initiative tracker, pawns, D&D books, etc.

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 11d

I literally had my players ask me today about rolling to establish a donor-advised fund. 😂

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 11d

Just learned that @epictellers.bsky.social is doing a single-player cRPG Starfinder video game! 🤯

Creative directing Starfinder will always be one of the high points of my career, and it's wild to see how the game has continued to grow in the years since—congrats to the whole @paizo.com team!

Epictellers Entertainment @epictellers.bsky.social · Aug 1

Ready to gather a unique crew and venture into the Pact Worlds in Starfinder: Afterlight? ✨

We're proud to announce our partnership with @paizo.com
to bring the very first party-based RPG video game in the #Starfinder universe!

#StarfinderAfterlight #EpictellerEnt

Starfinder: Afterlight - Teaser Trailer

YouTube video by Epictellers

youtu.be

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 11d

(For the record: I love doing Q&As with schools, book groups, libraries, gaming clubs, etc! Hit me up: jameslsutter.com)

James L. Sutter - Author

jameslsutter.com

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 11d

Or barring that, just make it personal... all the AI spam I'm getting has the same intentionally vague marketing voice summarizing my career, so if I get an invitation that's more conversational—"Hey, I'm a big Pathfinder nerd and would love to have you talk to our group"—I know the sender is human.

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 11d

Event organizers: heads up that authors are getting absolutely inundated by AI-generated spam inviting them to be "featured" in pay-to-play "book groups." If you're a *real* book group, I recommend being specific in your email—mention something about their work a bot couldn't get by scraping a bio!

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 11d

Ha! :D

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 11d

"Economies are the hardest part of designing an RPG, because no matter how well you try to balance things, once folks get a ton of money, they're able to use it to start breaking the game."

"...actually, that's true of the real world as well."

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 13d

It's still #SapphicSeptember for another week! Maybe you need a supernatural fake-dating YA romance starring a teenage ghost hunter who finds an actual ghost? If so, THE GHOST OF US has you covered!

jameslsutter.com/novels-ghost...

The cover of THE GHOST OF US, showing two teen girls kissing in front of a full moon.

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 27d

We are the vanguard of linguistic drift. 🗡️

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 27d

Sure, generative AI is powerful, but can it fuck up the same guitar riff 37 times in a row? Can it hate the sound of its own voice, and wish it had studied audio engineering as a teen instead of staying up all night playing Starcraft?

Real musicians will NEVER be replaced. 🤘

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · 27d

I think AI is gonna do great things for music. Specifically, it's gonna make people hearing the flubs and imperfections in my recordings think "oh good, this was made by a human!" and not "wow, this guy needs to practice more."

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · Sep 3

Requiring customers to produce an original receipt to honor a "lifetime warranty" should be punishable by public flogging of the offending company's CEO.

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · Aug 19

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/covid-19-v...

Covid-19 vaccine label change, alpha-gal syndrome, leaked MAHA report, mRNA funding cuts, and... where is bird flu?

The Dose (August 18)

yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com

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James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · Aug 18

(It's true that—for the moment—"high-risk" includes things like mental health conditions, which may still allow under-65 folks to get vaccinated. But given this administration's war on vaccines, I wouldn't be surprised if they tighten that restriction, and pharmacies may be skittish regardless.)

James L. Sutter @jameslsutter.bsky.social · Aug 18

HEADS UP: if you're not up to date on your COVID vaccine, the time to get one is RIGHT NOW. The FDA (i.e. RFK Jr) is set to restrict it to people 65+ or high-risk starting Friday, and as soon as they make that announcement, pharmacies will have to comply immediately.

Go protect your community!

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