This post by subjunctive moods earlier in the year got me thinking about ablative mechanics in combat, and Phlox’s All Damage As 1d6 reignited some of those thoughts.. We all...

Back in the late 14th or early 15th century, poet, nobleman, and (one assumes) at least occasional drinker Oswald von Wolkenstein prepared a list of twelve types of drunk, as...

Honestly, RPG blogosphere. If there were a Bloggie for 'worst blog', I'd be a contender.I'm not trying to beat myself up here; it's just a reflection of fact that I've barely...

Adventuring is a poor career choice. It's invariably dirty, almost always difficult, and usually dangerous. To be honest, being left to die alone in some cold, dark hole in the...

This month's Blog Carnival is about magic shops.I don't like magic shops. Having magic sufficiently commonplace that any town worthy of its walls has a dealer in ensorcelled...

Sea of Stars is hosting the Blog Carnival...

Blech. I've been trying to come up with a variant Fighter class for B/X derivatives.Trouble is, so has everyone else, and all my ideas are either (a) ones that someone has...

The Goblovna1 has always been a bit sceptical of the whole 'roleplaying game' thing. In part because being handed a 300-page technical manual to read isn't her idea of a fun...

The RPG Blog Carnival for this month takes The Worlds Between as its theme. Bridges always feel like a liminal space to me. You're neither on one bank nor the other, but...

I like thinking about alternative ability scores for D&D-like systems. Taking a bit of inspiration from Call of Cthulhu's Sanity score, here's an alternative take on character...

A late second entry for Beyond Vancian Magic, that came to me while sick and watching kids movies.Freeform casting. That's not unique. But how about... you can cast anything...

Eldritch Fields requested 1d6 celestial phenomena for the OSR Discord's 2024 Secret Santicorn1. Also, the Goblette (Goblina?) has reminded me that it was, in fact, her idea...

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been messing around with the Thief. Actually, I've been thinking about character classes generally, and that includes the Magic-User....

 As is tradition, I've been redesigning the Thief1. Probably nothing novel, I may or may not post it the end.But I'm drawn to a 2d6 skill system. Why? Partly because of the...

This month's RPG Blog Carnival, hosted by Forsaken Garden, takes Haves and Have Nots as a subject. This actually aligns with some of my setting thinking for the Sunset Isles,...

Taking a leaf from Messages from the Far Havens, I thought I'd talk a little about the games I'd like to run in 2025. Partly to pin down some ideas, partly in hopes that by...

It's no secret in the Fifth Edition community that Challenge Rating sucks. It's a guideline at best, and a rather loose one. There are all sorts of suggestions out there on how...

The King has always been the King. Even when Great-Grandfather was a boy, he had always been King. Nobody questions this. But the players might. Typical players.Roll a d12 for...

The Kickstarter Fairies have been kind this month. Off the back of Kavango the other week, the latest arrival at the Goblinhole is Mycelia, the self-described Strategic...

I've been meaning to explore some thoughts about injuries, wounds, and character death in adventure games for some time. In doing so, I've inevitably had to tackle the subject...

What's been happening in the Goblinverse since I last wrote. Or at least, wrote like I meant it.New AcquisitionsNew board games this month:Mazaza Games's Kavango, of which more...

You can only grope for a way ahead as you crawl on your belly through the filth in the coal-black tunnels.As you push forward, hoping for space, for light, and maybe even a way...

Substack is a silly place. Back to Blogger, thanks.Hoping to get back to weekly posts soon. Probably be a monthly cycle, aiming to get at least one of each of the following a...

 New posts will go up on Substack:https://therobgoblin.substack.com/

The theme for this month's RPG Blog Carnival is It's Not Easy Being Green, which sounded interesting. So here's a mini-campaign or setting.The Wood has been growingNot in the...

I was going to write something about how game designers need to go hiking. But, actually, it turns out that a lot have. Fifth Edition's ludicrous statement that an average...

Surely everyone has a take on dragons. Here's mine.Dragons follow their own morality, perhaps not quite so alien as that of the creatures of the Void, but certainly not one...