|
Keith Ammann@themonstersknow.com |
949 followers 390 following 1622 posts
ENnie-winning author of The Monsters Know What They're Doing (Saga Press) and other stuff. Humanist, antifascist, curmudgeon. ✊🏻😷🌻🍉
Home: spyandowl.com
Blog: themonstersknow.com
Mastodon: dice.camp/@KeithAmmann
Banner by @drodrigues.bsky.social
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Let's be blunt: The United States is perpetually stuck because we give conservatives (and, lately, reactionaries) veto power over basically everything. We could have been on the metric system for 45 years by now if not for them. We could have Medicare for all. We could have gotten rid of pennies.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
I would argue that if you're making an apples-to-apples comparison with D&D or PF, you have to throw in the Malleus Monstrorum, vol. 1. (On the flip side, if you just want to start a game, you can arguably get away with just the KR.)
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Replacing physical copy ownership with digital licensing is the much bigger sin, IMO. The price tag doesn't strike me as being a major part of that strategy, though. WotC found a price point that the market would bear and is sticking with it. You want mad overpricing? Look at Call of Cthulhu.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
"To come." Editorial lingo. Why it's a k and not a c, I have no idea. But I do know a good copy editors' shaggy dog story about it.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Should WotC put out a cheaper Xerox-grade printing of its core books alongside the slick full-color ones? I have no answer to that question.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Out of curiosity, I looked up what the AD&D core books cost in 1987 (US$15 apiece) and what that equates to in today's dollars (US$42). Cheaper, yeah, but look at what we're getting now: four-color printing, vastly superior art, actual editing.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
A price increase from $50 to $60 is commensurate with that—EXACTLY commensurate, in fact. I've gotten nine years of use out of each of those 2014 books. That's pretty good bang for the buck.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
… which were also US$50, after you adjust for inflation, that's actually a slight price DROP. Remember the big push for 10 cents a word for freelancers a few years ago? By the time publishers really started getting on board with that rate, inflation had already pushed it up to 12 cents.
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Hasbro and WotC have been guilty of a lot of sins lately, but I'm not sure pricing is one of them. Doing the conversion, you're getting charged the equivalent of US$60 per core book. True, that's higher than the $50 they're charging in the states. But if you compare it to 2014 prices …
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
Sardonicus
@sardonicus.eu
[ View ] |
'Cellulose nitrate was used to make dice from the late 1860s until the mid twentieth century, and remains stable for decades. Nitric acid is released in a process called outgassing. The dice cleave, crumble, and then implode.' Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck by Ricky Jay and Rosamond Purcell
29 replies 310 reposts 1080 likes
|
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Well this is grim
132 replies 1812 reposts 4002 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
Sarah Posner
@sarahposner.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Every. Single. Fucking. Word. Of. This. Rebecca. Solnit. Piece.
3 replies 33 reposts 78 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Ouch. Gut shot.
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Those respiratory infections never threatened to render us unable to work for three to six months or to shorten our lives by increasing our susceptibility to heart disease. I'm glad you've got such a good safety net around you that you don't have to worry about any of that, brother. I don't.
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Reminds me of the Cheap-o Special on the menu of the Deerhead Tavern in Evansville, Ind., back in the '90s: for 65 cents, a "thin slice of bologna on day-old bread."
1 replies 1 reposts 3 likes
|
Fernando Salvaterra
@salvaterra.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Drow Compound map, first levels. A map for How to Defend Your Lair, 2022.
#ttrpg #dnd #art #ttrpgmaps
3 replies 8 reposts 37 likes
|
Get To Know Nature
@gettoknownature.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Please excuse a non-nature post. This is happening now to bring awareness to Long Covid. I've been watching for half an hour and already learned a lot. Dianna Cowern is an incredible science Youtuber who's been in bed with Long Covid for almost two years. Hosted by Simone Giertz & others. 🧪
7 replies 157 reposts 343 likes
|
Chris S. Sims
@chrisssims.bsky.social
[ View ] |
If you're American and don’t know about Project 2025, you need to. Find it. The Wikipedia article does a decent job of summarizing. You also need to know what Kevin D. Roberts has said about it. Believe these people when they lay their plans in front of you.
1 replies 10 reposts 19 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Congrats, Teos!
1 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
|
Wolfgang Baur
@wolfgangbaur.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Congrats to all the ENnie-nominated writers for Kobold Guide to Roleplaying!
ennie-awards.com/2024-nominees/
Killer work by
@bdavewalters.bsky.social
@ginnydi.bsky.social
@lukegygax.bsky.social
@shannagermain.bsky.social @scottlynch78.bsky.social
Plus Gail Simone and Clint McElroy and more
1 replies 4 reposts 19 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
* have actually sung this note at karaoke
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
No, I won't let you lee-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAVE
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Oobit: What is "Honeywell"? K: That's the name of the company that made the fan. Oobit: That's a silly name for a company! Is a Honeywell just a well full of honey? K: What would you do if you found a honey well? Oobit: I would call all my bee friends and they would slurp it all up.
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Your honor, with all due respect, everybody's talking at me, I can't hear a word they're saying, only the echoes of my mind.
1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
|
Jen C Mars
@jencmars.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Another eight-legged friend.
2 replies 4 reposts 22 likes
|
|
Jen C Mars
@jencmars.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I made a few little spider friend stickers, for fun.
#stickers
3 replies 22 reposts 113 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
That's the trouble with the Democratic Party, isn't it? Naomi Klein wrote The Shock Doctrine in 2007, and in all this time, I don't think a single Democratic official has read it. Heaven forbid the people we're counting on to save us from fascism should ever be prepared for a foreseeable situation.
0 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Oobit: "Is there a bunny for the Fourth of July?" Me: "Nah, there isn't really any animal associated with the Fourth of July. Except the bald eagle, because it's a symbol of our country." Oobit: "Do you think the Bald Eagle will come tonight?"
1 replies 1 reposts 8 likes
|
Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Blade Wielding Bisexual (Lordean arc)
@shengokai.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Over at the Bad Place, I made a tradition of posting Douglass' "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth of July," and I intend to carry on that tradition here. Since most versions you read in classes or in textbooks have parts omitted, the link below has the full text of the speech.
14 replies 614 reposts 1346 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (America never was America to me.)
1 replies 4 reposts 8 likes
|
Jamison Foser
@jamisonfoser.bsky.social
[ View ] |
www.findinggravity.net/p/they-say-t...
0 replies 6 reposts 18 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
For I have crossed the Rubicon Let the bridge be burned behind me Come what may, come what may— Commitment!
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Happy Day of Liberty, Equality and Justice for All. Three cheers for the red, white and blue.
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain— All, all the stretch of these great green states— And make America again! —Langston Hughes
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath— America will be!
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose— The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, We must take back our land again, America!
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME— Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
O, let America be America again— The land that never has been yet— And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed And all the songs we’ve sung And all the hopes we’ve held And all the flags we’ve hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay— Except the dream that’s almost dead today.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
The free? Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay?
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas In search of what I meant to be my home— For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore, And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came To build a “homeland of the free.”
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That’s made America the land it has become.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean— Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers! I am the man who never got ahead, The poorest worker bartered through the years.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one’s own greed!
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek— And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
—Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
|
Keith Ammann
@themonstersknow.com
[ View ] |
O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe. (There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes