The Furtive Goblin
@furtsburrow.bsky.social
https://furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/
An anxious goblin living under a rock in Upstate New York. Likes to blog about fantasy and tabletop gaming. Book of Gaub, Bridgetown, and now Sooty Beards! https://plusoneexp.com/pages/sooty-beards
(He/Him/His)
An anxious goblin living under a rock in Upstate New York. Likes to blog about fantasy and tabletop gaming. Book of Gaub, Bridgetown, and now Sooty Beards! https://plusoneexp.com/pages/sooty-beards
(He/Him/His)
Technically the holiday's already been going on for a few weeks now and has a few weeks still, but today seems to be a day for well-wishing.
So I wish a painless Narblesnard to my dear burrowers and other surface folks. May your acorns be plentiful, and the squirrels too sluggish to catch you.
So I wish a painless Narblesnard to my dear burrowers and other surface folks. May your acorns be plentiful, and the squirrels too sluggish to catch you.
December 25, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Technically the holiday's already been going on for a few weeks now and has a few weeks still, but today seems to be a day for well-wishing.
So I wish a painless Narblesnard to my dear burrowers and other surface folks. May your acorns be plentiful, and the squirrels too sluggish to catch you.
So I wish a painless Narblesnard to my dear burrowers and other surface folks. May your acorns be plentiful, and the squirrels too sluggish to catch you.
Made a silly little fella for another Troika! jam.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/12/wayw...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/12/wayw...
Wayward Perchtling Background for Troika! Community Jam: Xmas 2025
Another little entry for another little Troika! community jam , this one holiday-themed. You can find it and my past jam entries on Itch.i...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
December 21, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Made a silly little fella for another Troika! jam.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/12/wayw...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/12/wayw...
Put together some observations on porting The Banner Saga to a tabletop setting. Actually writing it as a finished project feels like an impossible task, but writing a blog post about how I WOULD do it is much easier.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/12/thou...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/12/thou...
Thoughts on Porting/Adapting/Fudging The Banner Saga to Tabletop
The Banner Saga, or Post-Apocalyptic Oregon Trail Viking Tactics DX as I like to call it, was the first video game I ever saw crowdfunded. ...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Put together some observations on porting The Banner Saga to a tabletop setting. Actually writing it as a finished project feels like an impossible task, but writing a blog post about how I WOULD do it is much easier.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/12/thou...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/12/thou...
In which I ramble about lumpy dwarves, art history, and a little bit of geology.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/11/an-a...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/11/an-a...
An Alternate Universe of Dwarvish Art & Architecture as Glimpsed in MERP's Mines of Moria
Or, a Manifestation of Furt's Guilt Over not Doing More with the Art History Courses He Took in College I've tangled with Rolemaster 's litt...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:02 AM
In which I ramble about lumpy dwarves, art history, and a little bit of geology.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/11/an-a...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/11/an-a...
Another rad project from Asa Donald of Backwoods fame is in the works, and I've had the privilege of working on it with him! If you like solo TTRPGs or the idea of found footage horror in book form, check it out! It'll even let you vent those dark, twisted urges to mark up a book you might get.
NEW (FREE) GAME FORTHCOMING:
SPINE is a dark solo ttrpg about losing yourself in a book.
In SPINE, you are a researcher who has inherited a strange book from an estranged relative…
SPINE is a dark solo ttrpg about losing yourself in a book.
In SPINE, you are a researcher who has inherited a strange book from an estranged relative…
September 30, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Another rad project from Asa Donald of Backwoods fame is in the works, and I've had the privilege of working on it with him! If you like solo TTRPGs or the idea of found footage horror in book form, check it out! It'll even let you vent those dark, twisted urges to mark up a book you might get.
I was rereading some AD&D 3E/5E fan projects the other day and noticed the clown-haired catoblepas in that old piece of PHB art has a tramp(ier) stamp.
May 19, 2025 at 11:42 AM
I was rereading some AD&D 3E/5E fan projects the other day and noticed the clown-haired catoblepas in that old piece of PHB art has a tramp(ier) stamp.
Reposted by The Furtive Goblin
Sooty Beards by @furtsburrow.bsky.social and myself has its first live play yall! youtu.be/WoDCuNjubXM?...
Wandering Monster plays Sooty Beards
YouTube video by Wandering Monster
youtu.be
April 19, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Sooty Beards by @furtsburrow.bsky.social and myself has its first live play yall! youtu.be/WoDCuNjubXM?...
Since there's another bank-bustingly successful #shadowdarkrpg Kickstarter going on, I was inspired to finally take a stab at a class in the game's style. It's more an answer to my own anxiety over the real-time torch mechanic than anything, though.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/04/lamp...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/04/lamp...
Lamplighter Class for Shadowdark
LAMPLIGHTER CLASS Owl-eyed watchers, jumpy tomb-skulkers, or selfless defenders of the light who use burning oil and grim hope to keep the l...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
April 6, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Since there's another bank-bustingly successful #shadowdarkrpg Kickstarter going on, I was inspired to finally take a stab at a class in the game's style. It's more an answer to my own anxiety over the real-time torch mechanic than anything, though.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/04/lamp...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/04/lamp...
Reposted by The Furtive Goblin
NEW GAME ALERT...
What if I told you that you are a mech pilot, doomed to burn out?
This deck of cards? It’s your mech’s battery pack.
Every time you use your mech, you take one step closer to burning out… Finish your missions before you run out of cards and deplete your battery.
What if I told you that you are a mech pilot, doomed to burn out?
This deck of cards? It’s your mech’s battery pack.
Every time you use your mech, you take one step closer to burning out… Finish your missions before you run out of cards and deplete your battery.
April 2, 2025 at 11:25 AM
NEW GAME ALERT...
What if I told you that you are a mech pilot, doomed to burn out?
This deck of cards? It’s your mech’s battery pack.
Every time you use your mech, you take one step closer to burning out… Finish your missions before you run out of cards and deplete your battery.
What if I told you that you are a mech pilot, doomed to burn out?
This deck of cards? It’s your mech’s battery pack.
Every time you use your mech, you take one step closer to burning out… Finish your missions before you run out of cards and deplete your battery.
I think I've finally concluded my conceptual game mechanics kick by expanding on an experience system taken from a weird old Dragon Magazine article.
... Not sure where to go from here.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/04/earn...
... Not sure where to go from here.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/04/earn...
Earning XP Through Community Investment
(Misleading Clickbait Title: Elevate Your D&D Campaign With Orgies, Inc.™!) A few times on this blog I've fiddled with alternate XP systems ...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
April 5, 2025 at 10:33 PM
I think I've finally concluded my conceptual game mechanics kick by expanding on an experience system taken from a weird old Dragon Magazine article.
... Not sure where to go from here.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/04/earn...
... Not sure where to go from here.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/04/earn...
Reposted by The Furtive Goblin
Ever wanted an ancient, majestic dwarf-hold mashed together with a dying coal town? Sooty Beards has your back! Check out this grimly whimsical micro-setting zine and supplemental booklet of D66 TROIKA! backgrounds, or some of the other bearded goodies we’re offering!
plusoneexp.com/pages/sooty-...
plusoneexp.com/pages/sooty-...
Sooty Beards!
Plus One Experience
plusoneexp.com
March 29, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Ever wanted an ancient, majestic dwarf-hold mashed together with a dying coal town? Sooty Beards has your back! Check out this grimly whimsical micro-setting zine and supplemental booklet of D66 TROIKA! backgrounds, or some of the other bearded goodies we’re offering!
plusoneexp.com/pages/sooty-...
plusoneexp.com/pages/sooty-...
Did some salvage and fiddling with the bones of an old draft and tried to hammer alignment into something resembling the 'cosmic battle without [Good] and [Evil] tags' approach from the Elric/Eternal Champion series.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/adap...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/adap...
Adapting Moorcockian Cosmology to D&D
Years ago now I tried writing a post about alignment in D&D, Elden Ring, and Michael Moorcock. It quickly bloated into a messy constellation...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
March 15, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Did some salvage and fiddling with the bones of an old draft and tried to hammer alignment into something resembling the 'cosmic battle without [Good] and [Evil] tags' approach from the Elric/Eternal Champion series.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/adap...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/adap...
Aaand one more post for the day looking at a d100 system for BFRPG, where I looked at some of the merits of an experience system that rewards successful rolls vs one that grants experience for failures.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/new-...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/new-...
March 10, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Aaand one more post for the day looking at a d100 system for BFRPG, where I looked at some of the merits of an experience system that rewards successful rolls vs one that grants experience for failures.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/new-...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/new-...
Another little indulgence in my problematic trashfave, this time welding bits and pieces of OSE together into a couple of Warcraft-inspired character classes.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/azer...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/azer...
Azerothian Kobold & Furbolg for Old School Essentials (Classes & Species)
A lot of the early lore for Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft has become so foundational, or alternatively so transformed and reinterpreted o...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
March 10, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Another little indulgence in my problematic trashfave, this time welding bits and pieces of OSE together into a couple of Warcraft-inspired character classes.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/azer...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/azer...
Forgot to share this mess I wrote the other day theorizing a better way to do Dragonlance's ambient magic from the 5th Age, using Talislanta's freeform spellcasting as a reference.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/musi...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/musi...
Musings on a Dragonlance X Talislanta Magic System Crossover Nobody Asked For
Notice: What follows is a collection of ideas and guidelines rather than a fully realized homebrew system. It probably would have been faste...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
March 10, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Forgot to share this mess I wrote the other day theorizing a better way to do Dragonlance's ambient magic from the 5th Age, using Talislanta's freeform spellcasting as a reference.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/musi...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/musi...
Spent a few hours ripping apart a PDF for font files and tracking down never-reprinted French edition character art to create a Talislanta 4E archetype with maximum fidelity to the half-page card format. As high-fidelity as MSPaint allows, at least.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/khar...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/khar...
Kharakhan Sage (Archetype for Talislanta 4E)
KHARAKHAN SAGE “Eat something, you’re all skin and bones. Almost short as a Marukan...” Your people are dying out. Your clan knows it, and...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
March 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Spent a few hours ripping apart a PDF for font files and tracking down never-reprinted French edition character art to create a Talislanta 4E archetype with maximum fidelity to the half-page card format. As high-fidelity as MSPaint allows, at least.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/khar...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/03/khar...
This month was very orky for me for some reason, not that I'm complaining. I decided to finish it off with a d20 table of ideas for nonstandard half-orc combinations. If something doesn't logistically make sense, you can probably blame a wizard.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/half...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/half...
Half-Orc, Half-What?
My previous post converting half-orcs from AD&D to OD&D remound me of the weirdest piece of half-orc lore from the early editions: that the...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
February 28, 2025 at 4:21 PM
This month was very orky for me for some reason, not that I'm complaining. I decided to finish it off with a d20 table of ideas for nonstandard half-orc combinations. If something doesn't logistically make sense, you can probably blame a wizard.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/half...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/half...
I always liked helping the half-orcs at the end of Shamutanti Hills, so I figured why not give one the opportunity to do some adventuring too?
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/vent...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/vent...
Venturesome Svinn (TROIKA! Background Inspired by Sorcery!)
Your people are the Svinn clan, sometimes called "aggressive-looking man-orcs" by those humans of Kakhabad who have not yet known the modest...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
February 26, 2025 at 9:59 PM
I always liked helping the half-orcs at the end of Shamutanti Hills, so I figured why not give one the opportunity to do some adventuring too?
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/vent...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/vent...
Reposted by The Furtive Goblin
What is Sooty Beards?
A setting zine about a fantasy dwarf-hold crossed with a decaying American coal town.
People are leaving and things are falling apart.
If something doesn’t change–
if things can’t change–
it’ll become a ghost town soon.
Check it out at TTRPG.link/SootyBeards
2/x
A setting zine about a fantasy dwarf-hold crossed with a decaying American coal town.
People are leaving and things are falling apart.
If something doesn’t change–
if things can’t change–
it’ll become a ghost town soon.
Check it out at TTRPG.link/SootyBeards
2/x
Sooty Beards!
Plus One Experience
TTRPG.link
February 22, 2025 at 6:11 PM
What is Sooty Beards?
A setting zine about a fantasy dwarf-hold crossed with a decaying American coal town.
People are leaving and things are falling apart.
If something doesn’t change–
if things can’t change–
it’ll become a ghost town soon.
Check it out at TTRPG.link/SootyBeards
2/x
A setting zine about a fantasy dwarf-hold crossed with a decaying American coal town.
People are leaving and things are falling apart.
If something doesn’t change–
if things can’t change–
it’ll become a ghost town soon.
Check it out at TTRPG.link/SootyBeards
2/x
Been reading Supplements I-III and decided OD&D could use some playable half-orcs.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/conv...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/conv...
Converting the Half-Orc to OD&D and then Overcomplicating it Again Anyway
The first three supplements for OD&D added a plethora of optional rules that would later be elaborated into AD&D 1E. Supplement I: Greyhawk...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
February 16, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Been reading Supplements I-III and decided OD&D could use some playable half-orcs.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/conv...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/conv...
A quick background inspired by one of my favorite bits of worldbuilding from Sunless Sea and Fallen London, looking at how the Khanate keeps its old sky-worship alive, deep underground. I feel like Sunless Sea is pretty TROIKA!, horror elements aside.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/blue...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/blue...
Blue Priest of the Salt Steppes (TROIKA! Background inspired by Sunless Sea/Fallen London)
The light flickers to life overhead, momentarily blinding you and transporting you someplace else. For just a moment, you imagine it is the ...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
February 14, 2025 at 9:07 PM
A quick background inspired by one of my favorite bits of worldbuilding from Sunless Sea and Fallen London, looking at how the Khanate keeps its old sky-worship alive, deep underground. I feel like Sunless Sea is pretty TROIKA!, horror elements aside.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/blue...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/blue...
After a longer wait than usual, my next entry in the history of shamans in D&D is out! This one looks at one of the Mystaran Gazetteers, The Orcs of Thar. You can read along this time, since someone threw the boxed set up on the Internet Archive.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/spir...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/spir...
Spirits & Spookiness: Gazetteer 10: The Orcs of Thar (1988)
Preface Ugh. Alright, let’s get this over with. The Orcs of Thar , written by Bruce Heard for BECMI D&D, is the 10th entry in the Mystara Ga...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com
February 13, 2025 at 4:21 PM
After a longer wait than usual, my next entry in the history of shamans in D&D is out! This one looks at one of the Mystaran Gazetteers, The Orcs of Thar. You can read along this time, since someone threw the boxed set up on the Internet Archive.
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/spir...
furtivegoblingaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/spir...
Learned about the D&D material published in early issues of White Dwarf magazine last night and found a character class that lets you play as a pack of 16 blink dogs. I feel like we need more of this kind of thing.
archive.org/details/whit...
archive.org/details/whit...
February 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Learned about the D&D material published in early issues of White Dwarf magazine last night and found a character class that lets you play as a pack of 16 blink dogs. I feel like we need more of this kind of thing.
archive.org/details/whit...
archive.org/details/whit...
Deep down, I always knew my disembodied head would find its way onto your desk someday.
Seriously though I love it. 💚
Seriously though I love it. 💚
To celebrate the near completion of Sooty Beards, I’m making felted characters for each of the crew. Here’s @furtsburrow.bsky.social !
January 25, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Deep down, I always knew my disembodied head would find its way onto your desk someday.
Seriously though I love it. 💚
Seriously though I love it. 💚
"Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!" is basically just Girl Dinner with extra steps, isn't it?
January 25, 2025 at 2:56 PM
"Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!" is basically just Girl Dinner with extra steps, isn't it?