The 7th Seal

Photo by Sand Crain / Unsplash

Each night I draw a little closer to the edge, a little nearer to midnight. The clock ticks, the wind blows outside the window, the just massive doses of THC I've recently inhaled do a little jig across my synapses, my cat purrs, and sweet slow syrupy lo-fi crackles and hums in my ears as bedtime approaches with the tap tap tap of my fingers on the keyboard.

It's a chill, sleepy vibe tonight, dear readers, and I beg you to join me in it as we relax- go ahead. Turn on Dark Mode over on the top right.

It's nice, isn't it? Low key, chill, easy and comfortable. It invites you to just relax, settle in, get comfortable and read along with me as we explore the next steps in what comes next with this goblin game of ours, yes?

But, first- this is the 7th entry. That means it's been a week, a full, solid, entire week during which I have not missed a single day of writing (though, perhaps, there are days when I wish I had, as my ramblings are nigh-incomprehensible even to myself at times). When I started, I told myself that I'd create a week's worth of content before unleashing this damned thing onto an unsuspecting world, and here I am, having just achieved that. What this means is that there is a solid chance that this post is the first one you're reading, having just arrived at this little blog-thing thanks to me posting on it on Twitter or the Fandible Discord, or, quite possibly, because I've accosted you on the streets, ranting and raving about it.

Frankly it's about equal odds for any of the three.

If that is the case, welcome, dear reader! There's a whole week of previous posts before this one, in which I've been ruminating and rumbling about what games to work on, future plans, and, most recently, diving into the initial brainstorming regarding my next game: a universal 3 Goblins in a Trenchcoat game that not only provides a plethora of new worlds and types of goblins and trenchcoats for your games, but that provides rules and a framework for creating your own worlds and settings.

It's been a trip getting there, though, and I'd suggest maybe pausing here, taking a breath, maybe getting some water, just a splash, right into your whiskey. Trust me, it'll open up the flavors in the most delightful way. Take a sip, and then go back and read those other posts, in order. Not a single one of them is longer than 800-900 words or so, and frankly most are just expletive-laden diatribes on the nature of goblins, but I fear that, without a certain grounding in the experiences of the past, we are doomed to never properly reach the future.

I'll wait.


OK, back? Whew- that was a trip. I barely recognize that young man who started this journey, so full of spit and vinegar, ready to fight the world and tear his games from the beating heart of capitalism. Now, 7 days later, I can only shake my head and smile at that naive fool. He hadn't seen what we've seen, dear reader. He hadn't seen what we would become, together, you and I, us, we.

We've traveled to a place, all this week long, where whole new vistas spread before us, vast fields of unreality that await only our touch to take form, only our breath to come alive.

Here, at the border of this chaotic sprawl of possibility, we are faced with a choice- do we dive in, damn the man, and begin to create? Do we take the dull clay of creation and, with nothing but dirty fingers and good old fashioned elbow grease, start shaping new worlds into being?

Or are we not only artists, but also scientists? Is it not better, rather than trusting to naive but pure creativity, to first lay down some rules? Would not some initial constraints actually focus our creative power? Would we not, in fact, find that by creating the rules within which worlds may be made, we democratize the demiurge?

So that is where we are, dear reader. A week in to this experiment, and we have decided how to proceed with the next game: we will create the framework from which a budding gamerunner may hang their creativity. A toolkit for the crafting of entire realities, of new challenges and thrilling adventures for our trenchcoat-bound green gobbos.

Join me tomorrow for a bit of that, won't you?


Are you enjoying this bullshit? You are, aren't you? Hot diggity! Well, did you know you can encourage Dan to do more of whatever the hell this is by joining the Uncivil Union over on ko-fi? It's true! Not only is this a signal to Dan that people want more of this, but you'll also get immediate access to The Vault, where you can pick up free copies of every single game he's written, and exclusive access to the in-progress docs for upcoming games.

Daniel Rodriguez

Daniel Rodriguez

The Bad Boy of Fandible. I like RPG's. Filthy leftist Social Justice Glitter Boy. Writes silly TTRPG games. Owned by a cat. He/Him. Demi.
New York, NY