Aaron Hammonds

@aaroninwords

Game designer who wandered into visual novels and refuses to leave. Co-founder, Queen's Court Games. Storyteller, The All Night Society Somewhere in the Ren'Py code mines, digging for vampires.

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Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· 13d

#BloodThirstVN Writing I'm Proud Of No. 3:

Screenplay page in Courier. Transcript:

EXT. BUS STOP – DUSK," followed by four paragraphs of action:

"Rush hour is over for the people with somewhere to have rushed. Everyone else waits. Pov waits at this stop, on the corner of Wilshire and Westwood.

The heat has stayed on past its shift, radiating up from the asphalt now instead of down out of the sky. The breeze, when it bothers, smells like exhaust and somebody's dinner leaving the taqueria in a paper bag.

Five commuters at a stop built to accommodate eight. They have arranged themselves so as not to become a group, a sorting that leaves Pov nearest the garbage can.

Pov's thumb wakes the phone. Nothing. Dark again, pocketed, then out again. That has been the pattern since the corner of Weyburn: wake it, read nothing, put it away.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· 14d

#BloodThirstVN Writing I'm Proud Of No. 2:

Screenplay page in Courier. Transcript:

A shape detaches itself from the futon. Black and white. Miso, moving with the urgency of a creature who has been waiting nine hours for exactly this.

POV: Hey bud.

She threads through Pov's ankles, purring like a diesel engine. Pov crouches down to greet her.

POV: Yeah, yeah. I missed you too.

The hand finds the place behind her ears without being told. Warm animal, warm hand. The purr crescendos. Miso approves.

POV: Mmhmm. The whole world is terrible and you're the only good thing in it.

POV: We've been over this.

Miso head-butts Pov's shin. The scratches relocate to her chin, and Pov's hand slows to the cat's rhythm instead of its own. Whatever they were carrying, some of it is on the floor now, next to the bag.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· 16d

Apparently, the trick to keeping a project alive on social media is posting about it more than once. Oops! Let's fix that. I've got nine months of Blood/Thirst drafts, so every couple of days, I'm going to share a chunk of it. Blood/Thirst Writing I'm Proud Of No. 1:

Screenplay page in Courier. Transcript:

POV: He said not to open the door.

KITT (off-screen): Yeah, but he meant it in, like, a "don't let anyone dangerous inside" kind of way. Look at me. Do I look dangerous?

Action: Pov leans forward, peering into the peephole.

Action: KITT waits, like they're posing for a camera. Frozen in their mid-twenties. Medium height, weight on one hip, unhurried. Faded blue jeans, relaxed through the leg, cuffed once at the ankle, one knee worn soft and pale. A heather-grey tee a half-size too big, the screen-print on the chest washed down to a ghost you can't quite read. Black-and-white checkerboard slip-on Vans, canvas gone soft. A phone loose in one hand, the case scuffed to grey at the corners. They are smiling, and it reaches their eyes.

KITT (off-screen, continued): C'mon, dude. This isn't K-horror. You're allowed to let me inside -- I don't need an invite, that's a whole other franchise. (beat) Rough night to be alone in a box, is all. First night's always bad. You've been through a lot. Really wanna be alone with all that right now?

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jul 31

Anyway, apropos of nothing, did I mention I'm working on a vampire thing? Might be the kind of thing you're into, if you're dissatisfied with the direction other vampire properties are trending.

Title banner for Blood/Thirst. The words BLOOD and THIRST appear in large cream-colored serif capitals on a black background, separated by a red slash with a faint glow. Below, in small spaced gray capitals: "A Vampire Noir Visual Novel."

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jul 31

The folks on the WoD subreddits are on a roll.

Smiling Jack from Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines in a red t-shirt reading "I Went to The Beckoning and all I got was this stupid t-shirt."

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jul 31

Well, they did convert Merits into D&D Feats. And then removed Hunger. And then combined your blood pool with your health pool. And then made Humanity a slider you can move up and down. Honestly? It feels like this was the extent of the design process:

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 24

Definitely posting this meme on a whim, and not because I embarrassed myself in a recording session a few hours ago.

Four-panel 'Gru's Plan' meme. In the first three panels, Gru (wearing a headset) gestures enthusiastically toward a blank presentation board, building up to a point. In the final panel he leans in deflated, reading the board, which now says 'Your mic was muted.'"

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Mar 21

We decided early that Blood/Thirst wouldn't have a default protagonist. It's core to our design: we want the game to welcome as many people as possible. I found plenty of Ren'Py plugins that offer pronoun support, but none that handle gender-fluid cases. So I'm writing one.

Screenshot of Python code for Blood/Thirst's PlayerPronouns class, built in Ren'Py. The class supports single pronoun sets (he/him, she/her, they/them) and weighted gender-fluid combinations, with usage examples showing dialogue interpolation like '[p.They] [p.v('walk','walks')] to the door.' The code includes weighted random selection so a player using she/they pronouns can set how often each is used, with rollback support so saving and loading preserves the active pronoun state.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Feb 27

What have I been doing instead of making actual play? Writing an orientation-inclusive vampire dating simulator that turned into a sensual neo-noir supernatural horror mystery about a burned out millennial who becomes a vampire and also you can kiss the other vampires. It's called Blood/Thirst.

Screenshot of Ren'Py script from "Blood/Thirst," a vampire visual novel, showing an opening bus commute sequence.

The protagonist, twenty-nine, scrolls Instagram past engagement announcements and wellness ads while reflecting on the distance between their younger self's ambitions and where they've ended up. The scene branches into five backstory choices (striver, intellectual, compromiser, romantic) each written in a distinctive, confessional voice. The striver learned the ladder was built on connections; the intellectual's careful analysis didn't impress the tenure committee; the compromiser stopped being the person who spoke up; the artist discovered you can't eat inspiration. Pronoun variables like [p.They] indicate player-defined identity.

The scene closes with the character laughing at their 22-year-old self's color-coded Google Doc of "Non-Negotiables" before a bus announcement ("Now arriving: Maple and 23rd") pulls them back to the present.

Code is shown in a dark-themed editor with syntax highlighting, with labels in orange, dialogue in green, comments in gray, and Ren'Py keywords in blue.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Feb 26

Screenshot of a tweet reading: "We've assembled 100 people with ADHD and 5 people with no soft skills to manage them, and given them a simple goal: make an impossible amount of money. We call it [actual play] and we think it's going to work great."

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Dec 24

Santa came a few days early this year.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Oct 24

Bloodlines 2 was never going to live up to expectations, but I'd be more willing to forgive its shortcomings if it felt like the developers had any kind of respect or affection for the source material. Vampire: The Masquerade (Masquerade Optional)

A video game objective prompt from Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 with a diamond-shaped icon on the left. The text reads: “Track down and deal with Jonathan. (Optional) Don’t break the Masquerade.” The background is dark with a faint purple gradient.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Aug 9

A Tumblr post by user kirbykonka reads: “I thought Old Man Yaoi was like a specific person or entity. Like you walk down to the river, there’s Old Man Consequences, you walk down to the oak tree there’s Old Man Sensibility, and then you walk into the gay club and you’ll never guess who it is.”

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Aug 3

Related joke.

A Tumblr post by user "canmom" lists media file formats in a joke format:

MP1: audio codec and container format
MP2: audio codec and container format
MP3: audio codec and container format
MP4: video codec and container format
MP5: actually, this one's a gun.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Aug 1

When you graduate from Critias' academy but there's more Camarilla stuff to learn.

Roadside directional sign with three lines of text, each followed by a right-pointing arrow. The sign reads:
"Donaldson →
Marian University's →
Ancilla College →"

The sign is posted beside a road bordered by dense green foliage.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jul 24

Alt-text: A Tumblr post by user "lovergf" reads: "haha nooooo don’t recreate puritanism under the guise of progressivism because you don’t have critical thinking skills like for reallll stopppp haha". The post has 21,390 notes.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jul 11

You're listening to The All Night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queen's Court Games.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jul 11

A two-panel cartoon illustrates a commentary on public support for journalism. In the first panel, a speaker at a podium asks, "Who wants high quality independent journalism?" and the entire crowd enthusiastically raises their hands. In the second panel, the speaker asks, "Who wants to pay for high quality independent journalism?" and nearly all hands go down, with only one person barely raising theirs and many looking away or uninterested. The cartoon highlights the gap between valuing journalism and being willing to financially support it.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jul 7

You're listening to The All Night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queen's Court Games.

A Tumblr post by user "glass--beach" dated January 10th reads: "the point of art is not to be great but to make it transparently obvious that there is something wrong with you."

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 30

Wanted to cast a self-deprecating joke; it is also an AoE spell. All creatives, save vs. impostor syndrome (DC 17). On failure, become incapacitated by the creeping suspicion you don't actually know what you're doing. Effect lasts 1d4 business days, or until positive feedback is received.

A four-panel yellow comic with simple line art characters.
Panel 1: A character says, "I'm a game designer."
Panel 2: A second character asks, "Are you good enough to call yourself that?"
Panel 3: The first character replies, "It's not about being good."
Panel 4: The first character continues, "It's about being too dumb to stop."
Text at the top reads, "This is about me so it's OK I hope." The comic is signed "BUTTPOEMS" in the bottom right corner.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 25

Everyone in Chicago and Los Angeles right now.

A man in a suit with blond hair sits with his eyes closed and a pained or prayerful expression, as if in deep concentration or emotion. The subtitles on the screen read, "JESUS, I SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE FOR OTHER PEOPLE, AND I WANT THAT FOR ME."

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 23

Finally got around to actually reading the "AI Makes You Stupid" study and *yikes* do we need to have a talk about methodology. Not an AI stan, but there are some real big claims being made on the back of some real bad science. Experiment design nerd yapping continues below. ⬇️(1/6)

A composite image showing the results of an EEG alpha band analysis using the dynamic Direct Transfer Function (dDTF) across three groups: LLM (Large Language Model), Search Engine, and Brain-only. The brain maps illustrate neural connectivity patterns, with connections color-coded from blue (lower dDTF) to red (higher dDTF). Each group is labeled with arrows: red for "LLM", green for "Search", and blue for "Brain". Significant connections are marked by colored lines, and the scale on the right indicates p-values ranging from less significant (blue) to highly significant (yellow/orange/red) with asterisks denoting statistical significance (* to ***). A faint sketch of a participant wearing an EEG headset and using a laptop appears in the background. The title reads: “Your Brain on ChatGPT.”

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 22

The archive is finite. Its shelves have limits. Every record demands preservation—but These Things We Keep demands sacrifice. Scarcity forces your values to the surface. Not everything can be saved. When the shelves are full, the archive will remember what you chose to leave behind.

WHEN WE FACE THE SHELF
When all the records have been revealed, you must choose which to keep.

Each round, you will roll a die. The size is determined by the number of players. The result tells you how many records must be left behind. The rest may be added to the archive.

You may always keep at least one.
You may never keep them all.

How you choose is up to you. You are the archivists. This is your burden. There is no fixed procedure. Only the limits of the shelf, and the values you bring to the world. Will you strive for fairness? Influence? Strategy? Sentiment?

If you are unsure of how to proceed, consider one of the following rituals.

Silent Consensus
Read each of the records aloud. Sit with them. Let each player choose one they cannot bear to lose. If the group must discard more than the unclaimed records, let the conversation begin there.

The Curator’s Burden
Select one player to decide which records are kept. Others may plead their case, but the decision rests with the Curator alone. Select a new Curator each round.

You may also choose no method at all.
You may argue, weep, compromise, fall silent.
But you must choose.
The records will not choose themselves.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 20

You're listening to The All Night Society. An actual play podcast brought to you by Queen's Court Games.

Alt text: A Tumblr post by user "nondelphic" dated May 22 reads: "people say 'write what you know' and then get surprised when i hand them 47 pages of unprocessed emotional trauma disguised as . . . " The remaining text has been erased, and replaced with "a vampire podcast." Below the post are hashtags such as #writing, #writer problems, #writing humor, and others. The post has 5,380 notes and shows typical Tumblr interaction icons for sharing and liking.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 20

The archive does not describe. It insists. In These Things We Keep, every record is marked with an Adjective, a Verb, and a Noun. You roll a die for each. We don't merely ask what a record says. We ask what it does to those who touch it. Once a record has voice, it is harder to silence.

ADJECTIVES
What quality does this record carry?

1. Sacred - This record is revered. It holds spiritual or moral weight.
Who sanctified this knowledge? What happens if we desecrate it?
2. Dangerous - This record could cause harm—physical, social, or ideological.
Who might be hurt by this knowledge? Why did someone create it anyway?
3. Personal - This record is deeply tied to an individual’s story or experience.
Whose voice speaks through this? Why did they make it?
4. Subversive - This record undermines authority, structure, or power.
What system does it oppose? Who benefits if it spreads?
5. Beautiful - This record moves the soul.
What emotions does it evoke? Can beauty be dangerous, or deceptive?
6. Corrupting - This record changes those who read it—and not for the better.
What does it erode: morals, memories, identity? Why can’t we look away?
7. Intimate - This record exposes something private, raw, or vulnerable.
Why does this feel like trespassing? What part of you responds to it?
8. Heretical - This record challenges sacred truths or doctrines.
What belief does it defy? Is it blasphemy or revelation?
9. Esoteric - This record is obscure, coded, or difficult to understand.
Who was it made for? What knowledge lies just beyond your reach?
10. Dogmatic - This record is rigid in its claims. It leaves no room for doubt.
What truth does it demand? What happens if you resist its certainty?

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 19

Walked into the living room. Found the cat testing dazzle camouflage.

A black and white long-haired cat lounges on a checkered black-and-white blanket, gazing directly at the camera with wide, curious yellow eyes. The cat’s fur closely mirrors the blanket’s bold checkerboard pattern, creating a subtle camouflage effect that makes its form blend into the background at a glance.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 18

The archive is not a sanctuary. It is a battleground. These Things We Keep is about the politics of preservation. It's not about saving books -- it's about the violence of deciding which books deserve to be saved. It asks what you'll fight to remember, and what you're willing to let go.

WHY WE CHOOSE
Curation is never neutral.

Every act of preservation is an act of omission. What we call “wisdom” reflects who we are willing to listen to. What we call “history” reflects who we are willing to forget. The libraries we’ve inherited—those we build—bear the fingerprints of empire, exclusion, and silence. Some stories were lost. Others were stolen. Many were never written down to begin with.

The archive is not a sanctuary. It is a battleground.

The conflict in this game is not mechanical. It is social. It is ethical. It emerges in the pauses, the pleading, and in the strain of disagreement. You will not resolve it with tokens or initiative rolls. You will resolve it—if at all—by listening, by arguing, by deciding what you cannot bear to forget.

You will begin with noble intentions.
You will try to be fair.
But there are always too many books.
And not enough shelf.

This game invites you to reflect—not only on what knowledge is worth keeping, but on why. What makes something sacred? Who decides what is dangerous? Who benefits from forgetting? What does it cost to remember?

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 17

I've been quietly working on something. A tabletop game about memory, meaning, and the quiet violence of choice. It's not finished. Right now, it's just a text file and some audacity. But it feels good enough to keep trying. If it sounds like your kind of thing, I'd love to play it with you.

These Things We Keep is a game about memory, meaning, and the quiet violence of choice.

You are archivists in the twilight of the world—cultists of a crumbling order, devoted not to gods, but to knowledge. Across a ruined landscape, you gather what remains: fragments of wisdom, remnants of stories, stray sparks of insight left behind by a people who could not save themselves. Some texts are sacred. Some are dangerous. Most are incomplete. All are fading.

In each round of play, you will uncover the final traces of a forgotten past. You will give shape to lost books, whispered histories, broken manuals, and haunting testimonies. And then, together, you must decide which can be saved—and which will be allowed to vanish.

You will not have enough room.
You will not all agree.
You will choose, and you will live with the choosing.

This is not a game about fixing the world.
It is a game about carrying forward what little you can.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 16

I keep this handy for our casting channel.

A classical oil painting of a weary woman in a blue and red dress sitting against a stone wall, holding a letter in her hand. A young girl clings to her arm, looking up at her with concern. Scattered objects lie on the floor, and the mood is somber and resigned. Superimposed text reads: "Scheduling a TTRPG, oil on canvas," humorously comparing the difficulty of arranging tabletop roleplaying games with the emotional intensity of historical portraiture.

Aaron Hammonds@aaroninwords· Jun 15

Anyone else, or just me?