The world of Goblindom (and a slight delay)
Magic in Goblindom permeates everything, including the goblins themselves. And the nature of Dungeons is closely tied to the Magic Spheres.
And now for something completely different…
As we explained a couple of months ago, this additional newsletter discusses the creation process behind Goblindom—Live, Evolve, Die—although today, we need to give you slightly bad news.
Goblindom was supposed to be released towards the end of March, but unfortunately, due to several factors, we had to settle for a much more feasible end of May. Now, Oddplan is a collective that aims to bring digital products worldwide, trying to maintain a high level of quality and give voice to new names while experimenting in every possible way imaginable. But do you know what Oddplan is not? A company.
And even though TTRPG companies, in theory, should have a fixed and regularly paid staff and rely on professional game designers, they still struggle to deliver a product already funded on Kickstarter within the expected timeframe—imagine us.
Oddplan is funded by what I like to call “Mr. Piggy,” which is my savings, and the voluntary efforts of most of the writing and marketing team. Therefore, various external factors usually influence our timeline.
On top of that, support from much of the rest of our national author community can be summed up with, “Thank you for your help , but we have no material reason to reciprocate,” so you’ll understand that sometimes our work becomes challenging. Basically, between physical and mental health issues (because one of the rules we’ve set for ourselves is to give a lot of space to the team’s well-being, considering that one of the founders ended up in burnout, which still causes issues today) and commitments from jobs that pay the rent, we’ve decided to take things more slowly. No one is chasing us; we haven’t asked anyone for money. We deserve to give you a product that you can enjoy in the best possible way and that, at the same time, satisfies us as well.
Pulling all-nighters for deadlines that aren’t tied to emergencies makes no sense. Simply put, complaining about exploitation is pointless if we are the first to exploit ourselves.
But this doesn’t diminish our commitment, so what’s next? We'll share some juicy leaks in the upcoming newsletters dedicated to our project.
Let’s start with a simple first chapter.
The themes of Goblindom — Live, Evolve, Die
Goblindom — Live, Evolve, Die (Goblin — LED) is a game about exploring, discovering, and overcoming trials through the creativity, initiative, and cunning of the players through their interaction with the world, besides the obvious need to survive in a hostile ecosystem as utterly insignificant life forms.
Goblins are not heroes: they are lowly creatures, very weak compared to the rest of the world, with no respect for their safety or that of others; such is their attitude to get what they want without entertaining a single thought about the consequences.
Violence is silly and grotesque: As in a Tom & Jerry cartoon, violence is extreme and gruesome but must never become offensive or disturbing for the rest of the group.
Play to discover: Explore the world, live adventures, let stories emerge, and let the group live them together.
The World
Magic
Magic, at least how it’s known to humanity, is a mysterious force of utterly unknown origins, divided into six elements: Water, Air, Earth, Fire, Light, and Darkness. After ages of non-stop studies and observation, human sages claim that magic possesses traits similar to a gas, being both ethereal and invisible in its most basic state. Thanks to its bizarre nature, magic appears to have spread across the world, seeping into particular places of power, especially in the depths of the earth, eventually altering reality in these places and thus creating the ever-changing labyrinths that make up the Dungeons. All of these notions that have been mentioned so far are known mainly to both humans and goblins that, however, have discovered and recorded such notions in their own way… which is in a frustratingly imprecise manner, plagued by an awful attention span, and observed from a point of view contorted beyond reason by sheer spite.
Goblins are indeed well aware of magic, with some even being capable of casting spells. However, they find their own name for it, “Thingamagik,” to be far more appropriate than the prudish, ridiculous name humans use, identifying the six basic elements in the so-called Spheres, essentially fields of expertise more focused on the tendencies and “behavior” of each element, all filtered through a Goblin’s view of the world and the well-respected tradition of the goblin shamans of just making stuff up as they go.
The Dungeons
These complex and nonsensical biomes vary wildly in depth and danger. Still, all are composed of different “levels,” areas defined by the local ramification of magic, sometimes represented by a dominating Sphere, resulting in an ecosystem with nearly unique creatures and characteristics. The dungeons aren’t just labyrinthine caves, and though they always appear underground, many levels of a dungeon may appear identical to a forest of the outside world, its “sky” perfectly illuminated by glittering gems on the walls, floating wisps of fire, or by a miniature sun made up of Light magic collecting on the cave’s ceiling. Dungeons aren’t simple anomalies of stagnating energy but are an essential part of the world, necessary to collect the magic in excess before it rots. This also means that Dungeons are often rich in magical crystals, arcane fuels and oils, and other priceless resources any human alchemist would easily kill to have. And indeed, they do.
Dungeonology, the scientific study of Dungeons, is still a young academic field in the Overworld, currently engaging only a handful of curious scholars—too frail to don armor and venture below in search of first-hand knowledge and incommensurable riches. However, when it comes to nomenclature, dungeonologists have already found a name for everything. For instance, the patchwork constellation of caves, tunnels, and ravines most commonly inhabited by goblin tribes is collectively called “Goblindom.” A sort of informal state, where the ruthless and chaotic rules of the little greenskins reign supreme, and bubbling pools of newborns appear with predictable regularity.
Goblins never use this term, mainly because they don’t know it. Even if they did, they would find the concept utterly stupid: everywhere they go is part of the Goblin Kingdom.
The Creatures
There are different theories on how magic can create new, distinct life forms in the depths of Dungeons, primarily since none of these creatures reproduce sexually despite some apparent sexual dimorphism. Some creatures, among the most primitive, reproduce through budding or self-pollination, such as giant amoebas or the queen of a hive of monstrous bugs, while the more complex forms simply appear to manifest in the environments with the most appropriate characteristics whenever enough magic gathers together. In this context, an especially fascinating, if possibly disturbing, subject is the so-called “Carrion,” also known as undead, that is born from the remains of a once-living being. However, Carrions are entirely new and distinct Creatures.
In general, magic makes it so that the Creatures inhabiting a Dungeon follow a very different set of rules from those of the simple natural world, even in how they grow up and age. Indeed, a Creature follows a unique form of growth, a series of rare, sudden, and drastic mutations known as Evolutions by human scholars, caused by peculiar circumstances and that causes the Creature to grow not only stronger but also to manifest a form of authority on the less evolved forms of its species.
The themes of Goblindom — Live, Evolve, Die
We hope you enjoyed this first glimpse into the world of Goblindom. We're still sorry you won't be able to get your hands on the manual at the end of this month, but rest assured—the wait will be worth it.
That doesn’t mean we’ll be sitting on our hands in April, though; you can expect another release—once again exclusive to our Substack subscribers—in the coming weeks.
Have fun!