Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

@themonstersknow.com

3.8K followers 570 following 4.6K posts

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

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 9d

IT'S ALMOST HERE! Making Enemies: Monster Design Inspiration for TTRPGs includes not only a treasury of ideas for creating your own homegrown abominations but also TWENTY original monsters, illustrated by @jencmars.bsky.social.

Preorder now at spyandowl.com/making... to get your copy on Oct. 7!

A hardbound copy of Making Enemies rests on a wooden dining table. On the cover, a huge, pearlescent arthropod bursts out of a subterranean crevice and drives one of its large barbed claws through a dwarf fighter's abdomen, while another dwarf cowers in fear. The book is surrounded by blue and red polyhedral dice.

A wickedly grinning jack-o-lantern, larger than a man, running around on spider legs. You can tell it's larger than a man, because it's grabbed one with a viny tendril and is stuffing him inside itself, having lifted its own lid with another tendril.

A carriage with darkened windows, speeding through a ghostly mist. Its headlamps are eyelike and glowering, and there's an incriminating bloodstain on the front of it, right where it might impact a person's head.

Some horrible, shapeless thing that looks sort of like a gargantuan nudibranch, plowing through everything in its path, including entire trees. It's such a juggernaut, it's even breaking the frame.

2 15 40

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

The TRiiBE @thetriibe.com · 17h

NEW — Some TRiiBE readers, among many others on the internet, have been suggesting that the Chicago police arrest ICE agents for their misconduct.

TRiiBE publisher @morganelisej.thetriibe.com put out this explainer video, breaking down the legality for y’all.

youtube.com/shorts/WDHFe...

Can local police arrest ICE?

YouTube video by The TRiiBE

youtube.com

12 84 150

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

Jen C Mars @jencmars.bsky.social · 3h

Carolina mantis, found on the tire of a parked car and relocated to our backyard where I hope she finds snacks and maybe leaves us the gift of more mantises

1 13 72

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 2h

Now, the second one of them pulls a gun on one of my neighbors, my tune will change.

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 2h

Do I want the Texas NG here? Hell, no.

But if I were out there right now, my message to them would be, "Awww, first Abbott sends the Venezuelans up here, and now he sends you? Sorry he doesn't care about you, man. Don't worry, we'll find a place for you to stay. We're welcoming like that."

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 2h

Speaking as a Chicagoan, I'd bet cash money that most of the people verbally abusing him aren't even Chicagoans.

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 3h

If they'd done this for Sears, we might still have Sears.

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 3h

👋🏻

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

LaTia de los Muertos 🔜 Gamehole Con! @latiajacquise.com · 5h

what's your favorite part about playing a heist? asking for Very Scientific Research Purposes

12 3 15

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 4h

Doing things right under the targets' noses.

Confounding their detection systems.

Misdirection.

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 18h

If you're in Chicago, you can catch me in person this week reading from MAKING ENEMIES:

Friday, Oct. 10, 7 PM at the Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave.
Sunday, Oct. 12, 3:30 PM at Chicagoland Games, 5550 N. Broadway

Hope you see you there!

1 9

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 18h

The municipal flag of the city of Chicago: two light blue horizontal stripes on a field of white, with four red, six-pointed stars between them.

1 10

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

Die Hard Dice @dieharddice.bsky.social · 20h

NEW dice sets launching Friday!! 👻🐍

October is a good month to be a nerd 😋

1 10

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 21h

Many great entires have died because of typos. 😉

(In all sincerity, much appreciation for this peek behind the curtain.)

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 22h

I mean, I'll be sorry to see it go, but there's not a lot you can do when you've got only three stars on Yelp.

Block Club Chicago @blockclubchi.bsky.social · 23h

Parson’s Chicken & Fish is closing its Andersonville location this month after ownership sells the business. blockclubchi.co/4odB1YF

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 1d

"It’s a beast. A monster. A behemoth. But it’s a behemoth of the very best kind. It’s a CR 30 epic boss of a book with a treasure hoard of inspiration. I don’t know what you expected from Keith Ammann, but it was probably this."

Read the @scrollforinit.bsky.social review: scrollforinitiative....

2 4 17

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

GMHakimVO @gmhakimvo.bsky.social · 1d

It's the honor of my life to have narrated @themonstersknow.com's new book, which released from @simonandschuster.bsky.social today.

I have one of Keith's books on my bedside table, and have been playing D&D since I was 8 and DMing since I was 16, so this was a Pinch Me moment for sure.

2 8

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 1d

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...

A hardbound copy of Making Enemies on a wooden dining table. On the cover, a huge, pearlescent arthropod bursts out of a subterranean crevice and drives one of its large barbed claws through a dwarf fighter's abdomen, while another dwarf cowers in fear. The book is surrounded by blue and red polyhedral dice.

3 27 77

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 1d

You're correct. He was originally the Evil Grimace.

The Dark Truth Behind Evil Grimace - Mashed

You may not know that Ronald McDonald's big purple pal Grimace was once named "Evil Grimace." Here's the dark truth behind this creepy character.

www.mashed.com

3 31

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

Jennifer Kretchmer @dreamwisp.bsky.social · 1d

And, importantly, it was for *artists*.

Investing in creatives having sustainable lives creates better art, which benefits society in a multitude of ways (including financially).

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 1d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

61 160

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

The DM’s Book Club 🎙🎧📚 @thedmsbookclub.bsky.social · 1d

The next episode of our DM’s Book Club series is out!

Bonus: Making Enemies! Interview with @themonstersknow.com !🎲 🎙️ 🎧

🎧 linktr.ee/dmbc

#RPG #ttrpg #dmbc #themonstersknowwhattheyaredoing #makingenemies #interview #dnd #pathfinder #shadowdark #CoC #Cypher

Social graphic composed of screenshots showing the latest episode of The DM’s Book Club being out on podcast platforms.

1 3 7

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 2d

this is practical advice about immediate steps to take if somebody you know has been taken by ICE.

nothing is ever guaranteed, they'll try to get away with whatever they can, but you have to try whatever you can too

ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 2d

this felt too informative not to share

71 89

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

Scroll for Initiative 📜 @scrollforinit.bsky.social · 1d

New post! A review: Making Monsters from @themonstersknow.com, on sale from tomorrow. A CR 30 epic boss of a book with a treasure hoard of inspiration.

scrollforinitiative.com/2025/10/06/m... #dnd #pathfinder #callofcthulhu #cyphersystem #shadowdark #5e

1 1 7

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 2d

.@infinitefreetime.com on MAKING ENEMIES: "The reason I feel so comfortable recommending what by rights ought to be a very niche book to everyone I know who reads is that Keith’s enthusiasm for game design and TTRPGs shines through every page of this book."

Read the review:

#REVIEW: Making Enemies: Monster Design Inspiration for Tabletop Roleplaying Games, by Keith Ammann

We’ll begin with my absolute favorite thing for book reviews: Disclaimers!

infinitefreetime.com

4 21

Reposted by Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con

Jen C Mars @jencmars.bsky.social · 2d

I found this mantis on a car tire in a parking lot and brought it home because aww, but upon closer inspection I think this is a female Carolina mantis which I haven’t seen in my area before

Photo of a green mantis standing on the plastic baggy I was trying to get her into against a background of dirty parking lot

1 2 38

Keith Ammann 🔜 Gamehole Con @themonstersknow.com · 2d

Certainly more right than Paul Vallas would have been. Cripes, he'd just be writing Donald Trump checks straight out of the city's accounts.

1 1