goblin
Bloody Cap
Content: Stats and description of the monster along with a short dungeon lair
Writing: Does a good job conveying maliciousness and viciousness
Art/design: Use of color reinforces the creature’s theme
Usability: Some text may be difficult to read, particularly when printed in black and white
Brain Pest
Content: Mushroom powered hyper intelligent goblins.
Writing: Mechanics provide an interesting abstraction of tactical superiority.
Art/design: Tiny goblins plague a victim behind the prominent text bars.
Usability: Bounty not included.
Creatures of the Dying World
Cursed Goblin Hunter
Concept: “Outraged by your impending doom, you have sworn to hunt and kill goblins wherever they may be found.”
Content: A class that accumulates goblin-related features and physical attributes; also includes a personal countdown mechanic for conversion or reversion
Writing: Fairly straightforward with a grimly witty edge
Art/design: Relatively conservative with a retro/OSR feel; some subtle work in the illustration visually reinforces the concept
Usability: May become more powerful than the average character if they survive the multiple factors working against them
Demon Dogrider / Hellhound
Content: A lance-wielding goblin class with a beastly mount
Writing: Includes standard class profile (the mount, not rider, benefit from class features) and a stat block for the hellhound
Art/design: Text heavy, but uses color to organize sections and highlight important information
Usability: As a composite character, poses certain risks but also provides particular benefits
Enter the DOME-icile
Content: A dungeon in a skull, with an evil wizard.
Writing: Surprisingly amicable for an Arch Wizard, providing advice for apprentices on how to generate new cursed magic items to punish thieving scvm.
Usability: This dungeon is approachable—through the nose or eyes. The text is navigable—and color coordinated.
Fistful of Creeps
Content: Stat blocks, descriptive text, and original art
Writing: Provides quick overviews of each monster
Art/design: Excellent monochrome portraits
Usability: Lines demarcate entries and connect them with illustrations
Goblant
Content: Like goblins, but worse.
Writing: Just the mechanics. Let the name and depiction do most of the work.
Art/design: Top half art, bottom half text. Back half ant, front half goblin.
Usability: Practically begging for a goblant colony.
Goblant Drone
Content: A worker goblant.
Writing: Just mechanics. The name and depiction do all the work.
Art/design: Top half art, bottom half text. Back half ant, front half goblin. Ready to work.
Usability: It’s probably building the goblant colony.
Goblant King
Content: King of the goblants. Complete with tin crown and skull sceptre.
Writing: The origin of goblants revealed. Magic skull sceptre adds variety to the encounter.
Art/design: Top half art, bottom half text. Back half ant, front half goblin.
Usability: A goblant colony waiting to happen. All it takes is one.
Goblet the Goblin and the Horrid Brute
Content: A goblin merchant who rides around inside (yes, inside) another, gargantuan goblin
Writing: Delivers the promised misery and humor (if you’re into body humor)
Art/design: Text arranged around some very fleshy, visceral illustrations with clever details and well-placed censor bars
Usability: Lots of background and description of behavior is helpful for running these two as characters rather than just monsters
Goblin Grinder
Content: A quirky, darkly comedic scenario
Writing: Sets the tone and provides entertaining depth
Art/design: Black, white, and pink create a unique apocalyptic atmosphere
Usability: Laid out according to probable narrative flow
In the Hall of the Goblin King
Content: A race against the goblin curse and an album of your choice
Writing: Neatly arranged in two columns (scenario rules and concise, efficient room descriptions)
Art/design: Color and typography choices facilitate quick reference
Usability: A modular dungeon; depending on rolls and album choice, could be quick and easy, long and excruciating, or fast and brutal
Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory
15 contributors
Content: Includes a random monster generator, rules for distance travel and subsistence, The Death Ziggurat and Goblin Grinder adventures, rosters of mundane and profane gear, the Grey Galth Inn setting, a gambling minigame, the Black Salt environmental hazard, new character classes (Cursed Skinwalker, Pale One, Dead God’s Prophet, Forlorn Philosopher), and new Powers
Writing: Mörk Borg imagery and tone in wide a variety of styles
Art/design: Matches content to myriad layout and design strategies
Usability: The mechanical and expository elegance you expect from Mörk Borg; the monster generator particularly uses dice in a clever way
Mutated Goblin
Concept: “The goblin-curse has twisted your body and racked your mind. Food. Eat. Bite.”
Content: A goblin character class with some really compelling features and callbacks to other published adventures
Writing: Simultaneously grim and playful—just like a goblin
Art/design: Relatively conservative (by Mörk Borg standards) but very clean and easy to read
Usability: Offers a host of character abilities but still not as complex as a certain dragon game