Goblin Digest - July 2025
This is a monthly collection of posts from around the GLoGosphere, hypothetically cumulative to some kind of GLoGgies awards at the end of the year.
I've only just noticed the potential date confusion in my naming scheme for these posts. I suppose usually folks would call this the "August Edition" even though it curates post from July. Oh well...
The big news this month in the GLoGosphere was about next month: Glaugust cometh! 6d6 idiosyncratic blog-writing challenges put forward by Loch and a team of community stalwarts. Some folks jumped the gun and you'll see their entries this month, but expect a ton of posts in August. Get on in here!
Gameable
- Was It Likely?: im yelling "parkour" but in a way that lets you know i'm aware of the french colonial roots of the discipline - Some nice call and response rules for complicated traversal challenges. I think maybe a "sometimes treat" but something I'll keep in my back pocket for future games.
- Dungeonfruit: Smoking Gun (Magical Revolvers) - Pretty much everything I have run has devolved into a Western lately, so I'm primed for these kinds of rules. Nice mix of general principle and specific examples.
- The Red Lantern: Older and Fouler Things (Forgotten Beast Generator) - I'm a fan of Dwarf Fortress already, but this feels concretely useful in a "roll before the session sort of way." Fun to imagine a setting that has one of these as its questing beast.
- The Lovely Dark: cracked open in the waves, its emptiness loose - I think my favorite of the HP-less systems to come out of Glaugust so far. This one feels like it a) would have a big narrative impact on the game and b) doesn't just reinvent HP from core principles...
- Heroic Geology of the Limestone Obelisk God: Beekeeping Potion Economy - I don't know if I'd ever play with real-time mechanics like this, but I really love the idea of potions that age over time and with effects that are tied into the plants of their specific biome.
Theory
- Was It Likely?: COTTONMOUTH LAW, THE 400 BLOWS & KUNG FU CAPITALISM* - Towards a working definition of cottonmouth...
- A Blasted, Cratered Land: Conspicuous Secret Doors - Technically gameable but I am more drawn to the neat description of what feels like a key element of play and pedagogy.
Class
- Spiceomancy: The Monster Inside Me Has Grown This Large (GLOG Class: Wandering Monster) - This class does an interesting thing where it retreats into the encounter table, leaving you to play with hirelings for a bit. It also has a novel format where each template's features are interspersed with short verse.
- Salty Goo: The Great Ape - Unexpectedly a class about asking questions about the world (which is my favorite kind of class).
- Garamondia: Firefly - A very, very short-lived class, but one that I think really makes you strive to hit Template B. Love a class that encourages in the player the feeling of the character.
Fluffpost
- Garamondia: Food! - A good exercise for any setting, thinking carefully about what people eat in the different cultures and regions of the world. Plus contains an actual recipe (that I'm too vegetarian to eat)!
- Was It Likely?: the City of Ships* - Really lovely. Structured as a runnable location. I think I could run a campaign set here (in a sort of Fallen London-esque mode?), but it would take a lot of legwork.