Sunday, May 17, 2026

Who is the GLOGosphere? 2026 Edition

 In 2019, Anne wrote a partial survey of the big names and blogs related to the GLOG scene. Seven years on, the landscape is a bit different, and you may be interested to see what it's like now.

2016 saw the publication of Arnold's hack, which won many dabblers and champions. By 2020, there was a reliable population of gloggers on the OSR discord server, which grew to become very active in the early days of the pandemic. As a design scene, it started to see more second- and third-order characteristics and shared language. Some details from Goblin Guts or Many Rats on Sticks saw lots of copycats, others were left behind or iterated on. This is when the glog scene acquired a reputation for focusing on the creation of classes to the exclusion of other pursuits, and for affected a madcap and silly air. Honestly, I think the post-G+ OSR scene had a lot of silliness, and the glog reputation for it might just be downstream of the volume of the work the scene produced at that time.

By about 2021, the Pandemic boom started to slow. I had made a discord server for glog discussion, and the scene was old enough that you could track when formerly active people moved on or went silent, and you could tell the difference between someone who was just getting into the glog and old-heads who had known about it for nine whole months or more. People settled into developing their personal projects, and while the creation of glog classes— virtuous and healthful— never stopped. A few large-scale play-by-post domain games further cemented a culture of play by getting ten or twenty gloggers involved in the same setting and same sorts of in-game goals. I feel like around this time you see more anthropological blogposts, with settings describing cultures and customs that feel both real and arcadian, frankly exciting both wonder and a desire to adventure in those worlds.

At some point new bloggers started resorting to Bearblog instead of our beloved, useless blogspot. Talented writers started to come to us, and in the past couple of years we've seen more literary and artsy blogposts, poetic and interested in pushing the bounds of a typical fantasy adventure game— something that feels at the same time both vital and in keeping with the experimental days of early OSR blogging that I wasn't present for but learned about by picking through the archives of older blogs. Community events and bandwagons are semifrequent, and we seem to enjoy Goncharoving and yes-anding each other's work, altogether still a healthy, friendly, collaborative community.

Anne's post in 2019 listed contributors by blog. While blogging is still king in terms of creative output, it's interesting to look at my own blog list below and think about what it fails to represent. On discord servers, we see dozens of contributors in critique, play, and comity who don't themselves blog about their games. The GLOGosphere properly understood includes all those people to, but I have no way of showing them to you.

The following list which partially covers the GLOGosphere in 2026 was mostly drawn from my discord server's blogroll, and includes almost everyone who has posted in it in the past year. It fails to capture some all-timers who wrote in the time between 2019 and 2025, but it's pretty representative. If I failed to include you, it's probably an oversight rather than an intentional slight. The list is in order of the blogs as I found them scrolling through, so you'll find old stalwarts sprinkled among new lights, with no hierarchy of place in the list. There has been a constant stream of new blood, and so you'll observe a broad penumbra of blogs only a year or two old.

BENTHIC ZONE NARCISSUS
Blogger: Hawkbeetlette
Founded: May 2025
Location: https://or-the-feast-of-blood.blogspot.com
Known more to the glog serverites for their conversation and company, Hawkbeetlette's blogging brings a lot of real-world texture to some classic RPG blogging. I especially like their pitch for War in the Land of Poppies

Musings on Monstrousness
Blogger: Squamous
Founded: May 2025
Location: https://musingsonmonstrousness.blogspot.com
I believe we picked him up around the time of Alex's Cataphracts game, just a bit before he started posting. A year in, he already has a respectable body of blogposts, most made in a frenzy of the blog's first month.

Mediums and Messages
Blogger: Vivanter
Founded: June 2023
Location: https://mediumsandmessages.bearblog.dev/blog/
A reliable hand and community-minded, Vivanter has always been the first to volunteer to run events like the Gloggies or participate extensively in the blogging prompts of Glogtober and Glaugust. He keeps up a lot of session notes, which I know to some are true signs of the RPG blogging craftsman.

Garamondia
Blogger: Louis Mason
Founded: May 2024
Location: https://garamondia.blogspot.com/
Author and artist, Louis's impressive Barony setting reminds me of the very best of what you'll find on the Against the Wicked City blog. The blog is prolific, and in many ways has led the charge for more literary posting.

Whose Measure God Could Not Take
Blogger: Phlox
Founded: October 2018
Location: https://whosemeasure.blogspot.com/
This is me. I wasn't actually listed in Anne's initial list, being even more obscure than now and mostly posting general OSR or heartbreaker content, though I was already playing GLOG at the time.

Archon Smarchon
Blogger: Semiurge
Founded: October 2018
Location: https://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/
Thought starting in the same month as me, Semiurge has been posting quality and consistent tables from the beginning. Though he has some great adventures and classes, his d20x5 monster generators are the blog's bread and butter.

Grackle Court
Blogger: Grek
Founded: May 2024
Location: https://gracklecourt.blogspot.com/
Grek shows a classic trajectory of a curious RPG mind, with many initial posts showing off and working through various glog classes; then a very cohesive hack, GLOW; and more recently a post playing with combat resolution.

Numbers Aren't Real
Blogger: deus ex parabola
Founded: October 2019
Location: https://as-they-must.blogspot.com/
Witty and erudite, deus ex parabola has given the glog scene a lot of its most cherished shibboleths and hallmarks— the THREE WORD SWORDs, the conversions of 5e subclasses into something suitable for a glog game, and memories of a legendary mountaineering expedition campaign in his Unfinished World setting. Still producing lifeful work despite a challenging real-life schedule which must dry the leather of creativity's pump. Currently producing a much-anticipated squad combat game.

Salty Goo
Blogger: Salty Goo
Founded: Salty Goo?
Location: https://saltygoo.github.io/
A fellow with a very snappy blog layout and trve knowledge of how to format things. But he's not just flash and panache, putting a lot of work into his projects to be not only fun but extensively useful.

Megzone
Blogger: Cowfrog
Founded: February 2024
Location: https://cowfrog.bearblog.dev/
Good worldbuilder, friendly and grounded. Sort of a stochastic poster, skipping a few months and then posting 2d6 blogposts in a month. Everybody likes her River Kingdom posts.

400 Independent Bathrooms
Blogger: Grace
Founded: February 2024
Location: https://choir-of-fire.bearblog.dev/
Grace has a sort of playful approach to the hobby that you might consider a classic glog style. Like a classic glogger, she has a grab bag of theory, classes, and oddities on her blog. Also, check out her music!

Archon Scourt
Blogger: Archon's Court
Founded: January 2018
Location: https://archons-court.blogspot.com/
Another there since the beginning. I don't know a lot about his current Navigator campaign, though all his players seem to love it. It is gratifying to see that he is making session notes for an ongoing Libra game, using a ruleset first formulated on his blog years ago, to acclaim. Always a very solid guy.

Mad Man's Menagerie
Blogger: PRIMEUMATON
Founded: July 2025
Location: https://madmansmenagerie.blogspot.com/
Settinghead and class-maker, with a good grasp of that RPG principle many champion, that of making your game legible by using unsubtle names like Saint Knife and Lady Satan, sketching out the shape of the story to be filled in later by the investigation of the PCs. Some say that he's a bit like deus ex parabola, except he's all-caps and deus is uncapitalized.

Was It Likely?
Blogger: Ms. Screwhead
Founded: April 2019
Location: https://wasitlikely.blogspot.com
A blog which underwent something of a renaissance of late. Spearheading the drive towards inscrutable and artful evocation— she is more Cummings than Tennyson, she sells tarot readings, she pens theories which find purchase because they are unrobotic and informal.

Goodberry Monthly
Blogger: Martin O
Founded: January 2018
Location: https://goodberrymonthly.blogspot.com
Author of Everlasting Summer, Under Gallax Hall, and other impressive projects. Martin always has a good handle on his inspirations and the history behind the sorts of things he writes about, and always seems to write with an eye to maximizing usefulness to the reader.

Temporal Negativity
Blogger: Antitime
Founded: January 2025
Location: temporalnegativity.blogspot.com/
This guy loves classic-style play, with grotty traps and fighters with the supernatural ability to be allowed to use swords and all that. Always very keep to get a game together. In his writing, shows a child's instinct for what is cool (complimentary)-- blades, blasts, orcs, and other things which we sometimes foolishly lose trust in.

Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet
Blogger: Panic Pillow
Founded: November 2024
Location: https://tabletopcuriositycabinet.blogspot.com/
I'm not actually sure if Panic Pillow has posted any explicitly gloggy work, but they make good posts. A rare member of the glog server who is also a regular contributor to the RPG blog carnival. My favorite is their d6 diseases of metal, rock and soil post.

Nrdblog
Blogger: Nrdman
Founded: January 2025 (but was posting to Reddit earlier)
Location: https://nrdblog.bearblog.dev/blog/
Good old Nrdman has been keeping the mostly-superfluous r/glog subreddit afloat almost single-handedly. Mostly a maker of classes, fitting into the stereotype of the average glogger in 2020, but the classes are handsome and well-considered.

CarrionGods
Blogger: AConspiracyOfRavens
Founded: January 2025
Location: https://carrion-gods.blogspot.com/
Known for her Nine Rivers setting, Acon has been slowly but diligently accreting a body of blogposts. I'm a fan of all the reference photos she puts in her posts. Consistent and engaged personality on the glog server.

Nothic's Eye
Blogger: Loch Eil
Founded: March 2020
Location: https://nothicseye.blogspot.com/
Another author and artist, Loch runs the seminal Ashes to Ashes pbp domain game and other campaigns whose goings on you'll sometimes hear about in the glog server. Playing a game with Loch is crazy because you'll get these beautiful visual aids they draw out as a matter of course, and it's often more beautiful than any diagram you'll see in a printed product. Also very chill person.

Anxious Mimic
Blogger: Thistlebelle
Founded: March 2017 (with a 6 year hiatus!)
Location: https://anxiousmimic.blogspot.com/
I don't have the strongest sense of who this is, but I do recall her being friendly in discussion and writing good posts. Her Magicien class shows good glogging instincts and the system ideas she has up from January of this year are cogent and interesting.

Spiceomancy
Blogger: Chris M-S
Founded: July 2020
Location: https://spiceomancy.blogspot.com/
A friendly and productive artist, who's pulled off flashy projects like the Craftsman ARG and his own "trading card game". If he doesn't have a career in illustrating a dozen cool independent zines, it won't be for lack of merit. Does some classes but really comes up with a lot of toys to put in your game.

naybasplacetoputrpgideas
Blogger: Nayba
Founded: March 2024
Location: https://naybarpg.bearblog.dev/blog/
Another person who doesn't do patently gloggy content, but does good content and is friendly and happy to engage. Her thoughts are worth consideration to anyone interested in classic fantasy play.

Playthings of Mad Gods
Blogger: Madperson
Founded: July 2023
Location: https://madgods.bearblog.dev/blog/
A very careful and detail-oriented blogger who seems to want their gameworld to "make sense" and values high coherence. Writes many session notes, which as stated is a pursuit many belove. Writes good classes.

The Transiapheian Bulletin
Blogger: Shiftyhomunculus
Founded: August 2023
Location: https://iapheia.bearblog.dev/blog/
Known mostly as a commenter and glog server netizen in good standing, Shifty also has a blog with a few posts. My favorite is d86 Volatile City-State Governments.

The Red Lantern
Blogger: Sylvanas
Founded: October 2023
Location: https://redlantern.bearblog.dev/blog/
Another longtime glogger whose history belies their smaller body of blogposts. With a good mix of classes, tables, and trinkets, it's by no means worth overlooking, and those who write seven or eight blogposts a year are doing much better than those who write none, and much much better than those who write a hundred.

Shadow and Fae
Blogger: Hilander
Founded: February 2022
Location: shadowandfae.blogspot.com/
Hilander is a double-threat; a writer, an artist, and a layout editor. It's been great to watch him grow into confidence with his skills, and frankly surprising how quickly he can churn out first drafts of a project that look and read and play better than what some people are selling at a premium.

Path Unending
Blogger: Ecksian Raven
Founded: April 2024
Location: pathunending.wordpress.com/
The rare wordpress user. Ecksian draws their own art for each blogpost, a charming touch. The content is good, though I'm not as familiar with its extent as I could be.

1d12 Dragons
Blogger: Fifth Dragon
Founded: September 2021
Location: https://1d12dragonhoards.blogspot.com/
An intermittent poster, but always with a lot of pizazz. Fifth is solid enough and always keen for discussion, and it's been good to play with it in domain games.

Xeno's Ramblings
Blogger: Xenophon of Athens (not that one)
Founded: February 2020
Location: https://xenophonsramblings.blogspot.com/
Xeno has always been a good blogger to go to for well-considered rules and evocative classes with clear inspirations. Yet in the past few years it seems she has unfolded like some clever puzzle, showing depth and dimension unsuspected, an artful side and jwaw de veev (sic). Infrequent poster, good glog person.

Sundered Shields and Silver Shillings
Blogger: SunderedWorldDM
Founded: June 2020
Location: https://sunderedshillings.blogspot.com/
Another pandemic get. Sundered has an approachable vernacular style I assume is derived from his work with the youths. This is surprising giving the foreboding intricacy and implied worldbuilding of his renowned setting, Fe.

Oversights and Oubliettes
Blogger: Regalia
Founded: October 2020
Location: https://oversightsandoubliettes.blogspot.com/
Occasional contributor, but with good insights and a steady perspective. Hoping to see his Lizard Lords setting come to fruition some day. I like the cut of his jib.

Heroic Geology of the Limestone God
Blogger: Robot_Face
Founded: August 2020
Location: https://hglog.tumblr.com/
Occasional contributor, but a familiar face. Participates in the events and has a good head for writing abilities. 

Mascara Knight
Blogger: Blatella
Founded: August 1971 (but actually July 2023)
Location: https://mascaraknight.blogspot.com/
A moderate of the artsy set. Evocative writer of prose. Knowledgeable and a good sense of humor.

Half Again As Much
Blogger: Dr Curious VII
Founded: May 2024
Location: https://halfagainasmuch.blogspot.com
I don't know too much about this writer but they are a good writer. Good words on sphinges.

The Lovely Dark
Blogger: Vulnavia
Founded: ??? 2021?
Location: https://thelovelydark.blogspot.com/
A rockstar of the artsy set. Could it be xe has only been blogging a year? Seems longer. The renown of the blog is in very artfully described classes, evocative beyond all expectations, so that one feels that to play a Lovely Dark paladin is to be allowed into a character with an expressed interiority, most uncommon for a class.

Liches Get Stitches
Blogger: Lichesgetstitches
Founded: April 2019
Location: https://lichesgetstitches.blogspot.com/
A blogger more active in the past, he did impressive work in making his pokemon game operational when many of us doing similar things in a similar space did not.

Mad Queen's Court
Blogger: Vayra (age 5)
Founded: March 2020
Location: https://www.madqueenscourt.com/
While not as active any more, Vayra's blog has some incredible dungeons and adventures, as well as seminal classes, all written in an unself-serious style that readers are calling winsome and winning. Her knight-as-superweapon glog class is sort of the apex of the OG glog's idea of simplifying all a class's progression into four levels by simplifying a classic 3E build along the same lines.

Sinusoidal Freakshow
Blogger: Lunatic Bematist
Founded: February 2023
Location: https://sinusoidalfreakshow.blogspot.com/
One of those blogs that serves as someone's personal public notebook. It's endearing to see someone exorcise their thoughts about some system or concept that itches to be expressed. I think it's something many of us bloggers can relate to.

Glass Ziggurat
Blogger: Whisperling
Founded: May 2023
Location: https://glassziggurat.blogspot.com/
A rare poster, but I really like their 15 powers that came to me late at night post. Feels like a classic osr blogpost from the old days.

A Blasted, Cratered Land
Blogger: Lexi
Founded: January 2019
Location: https://crateredland.blogspot.com/
Formerly prolific, now in a cozy state of semi-retirement. Lexi doesn't seem to ever half-ass her posts, and gives you copy that feels like it's already been through the editing passes needed to reach a zine's final draft. Her Facility project seems like it would be really fun to play through, and it's always a delight to see her participating in a community event.

Dungeon Fruit
Blogger: Morgan
Founded: October 2020
Location: https://dungeonfruit.blogspot.com/
Another visual artist of great skill and renown. Makes neat little games or gives lists of interesting trinkets. Always a worthy read.

What's On Your Mind, Then?
Blogger: Kachow
Founded: May 2022
Location: https://yourmindthen.blogspot.com/
Kachow is always nice to see around, but I haven't fully investigated their blog. Their Ring-Bearer class has some of the sauce.

Uncanny Ramblings
Blogger: Domopunk
Founded: November 2023
Location: https://uncannyramblings.blot.im/
Producer of session notes, miscellany, and most notably a community list of settings, which I always thought was an interesting task. As much as I admire deus ex parabola's Unfinished World or Locheil's Qal Ashen, I've never considered the value of those settings as "merely" represented by the blogposts which touch on them, deprived of game experience. Still, I bet it has connected many people to interesting posts.

Velvet Inks and Crystal Fires
Blogger: Purplecthulhu
Founded: August 2020
Location: https://velvetinks.blogspot.com/
Low-frequency, but has developed from competent to uniquely capable, with a strong artistic voice. Purplecthulhu has been a reliable glogger for forever, and she does well representing both the lyric and the simple common sense virtues the scene values.

Seed of Worlds
Blogger: Xaosseed
Founded: April 2019
Location: https://seedofworlds.blogspot.com/
While Xaoseed absolutely has a glog pedigree, I actually mostly think of him as an OSR public utility blogger— aggregating links, doing statistics, and shining a light on the scene as a whole. It's just a cherry on top that he also shares his personal work, writes classes, and so on. He also writes reviews which are oddly rare in the greater scene.

Goblin Punch
Blogger: Arnold K.
Founded: November 2012
Location: https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/
By rights as originator of the glog, Arnold should be at the top of this list, but he's not too involved with the scene, and from what I hear has been busy the past few years riding around on motorcycles and curing COVID and such, so no one can blame him. While he doesn't post with much frequency, I like that he's still always tinkering.

Library of Attnam
Blogger: Red_Kangaroo
Founded: July 2018
Location: https://attnam.blogspot.com/
A classic blog with posts I remember scouring years back, like the d100 glog wizard schools list made up of links to everyone else's blog. Red has always been friendly and keen to check out other people's work. These days the blog seems like a miscellany or personal public notebook, with a few fun classes sprinkled in.

Routes and Routs
Blogger: Epistellar
Founded: Jan 2025
Location: https://rar.bearblog.dev/blog/
I think of Epistellar as a rules guy. His interest in systems does him a lot of credit, as does his consistency writing session reports. Good person to discuss a game with.

Roll to Doubt
Blogger: Weird Writer
Founded: September 2021
Location: https://rolltodoubt.wordpress.com/
Weird writes relatively sprawling and comprehensive analyses. She also covers game theory, and it's hard to disagree with her about such things.

On Unnamed Horizon
Blogger: Ro
Founded: September 2018
Location: https://unnamedhorizons.blogspot.com/
A game and friendly poster. His Heading Out Unknowingly game seems well-considered and fun, and I really liked his Angevine post for the Cloak and Sword bandwagon.

Pilgrim's Temple
Blogger: Pilgrim Procession
Founded: March 2017
Location: https://pilgrimtemple.blogspot.com/
Many glog classes and setting things. A 4e illiterate like me won't understand the Dawn War, but I trust the stuff he does with it is very clever. I liked his Huguenot class.

Whimsical Mountain
Blogger: Zmia Garina
Founded: July 2018
Location: https://whimsicalmountain.blogspot.com/
Long-time glog server netizen. I feel like her writing has really developed over time, and I'm glad to see she's writing session notes, as it feels like a sign of her DMing chops getting put to work.

Craggenloch Tribune
Blogger: Random Interrupt
Founded: May 2021
Location: https://craggenloch.blogspot.com/
Another relative long-stander. Check out his Four Grimoires post from September of 2025 to get a sense of his writing— complete, evocative, neat.

Knicks and Knacks
Blogger: CommonUse
Founded: September 2023
Location: https://bitspieces.bearblog.dev/blog/
Great grab bag of content here— classes, settings, characters, spells. Very likely there's something on their blog that's directly helpful to whatever fantasy RPG thing you're thinking about running right now.

Pillar of Worms
Blogger: Anon
Founded: August 2025
Location: https://pillarofworms.blogspot.com/
Very neat Hollow-Knight inspired project. Some very evocative classes.

Froward Friend
Blogger: The Froward Friend
Founded: August 2025
Location: https://frowardfriend.blogspot.com/
Seemingly a blog that was made for Glaugust(?), Beeptest is a longstanding glogger. Most of his posts seem to be setting work and interesting place-bounded tables. 

Occultronics
Blogger: Josie
Founded: May 2020
Location: https://occultronics.blogspot.com/
The blog of ever-unfolding polydidact Josie, Occultronics is home to at least a couple scary naked women with sword classes. Her Hex setting is exciting for its well-realized descriptions and the promise of modern alt-Earth adventure.

Carotid Canvas
Blogger: Ell
Founded: September 2023
Location: https://carotidcanvas.blogspot.com/
Perennial poster. I hadn't actually looked through his gloghack before, but it seems promising and I hope it's served his Northern Lights game

Same is Shark in Japanese
Blogger: Walfalcon
Founded: March 2016
Location: https://sameissharkinjapanese.blogspot.com/
Originally known for wacky glog classes and glog games set in malls, the blog has developed into even more of a melange for Walfalcon's skills and interests, showcasing his fiction alongside session reports and— actually I'm not sure if the blog actually covers his music and audio media skillz. Wth if so.

Cyber Jazz Fusion
Blogger: Cyber Chronometer
Founded: November 2020
Location: https://cyberjazzfusion.wordpress.com/
I actually forgot that our bookish and informative friend Cyber made classic posts like the lo-fi paladin. Ever-thoughtful, they just now finished "An Esotery of Skills" which seems to have won some immediate fans. Hoping there's more to read on along those lines.

Sage's Sanctum
Blogger: Lizard
Founded: October 2025
Location: https://sagesanctum.bearblog.dev/
A newer blogger with a lot of vital energy. Her cyberpunk work is very interesting, obviously that's a milieu that doesn't often get extensive treatment in the space.

Coins and Scrolls
Blogger: Skerples
Founded: February 2017
Location: https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/
One of the true glog OGs, Skerples wrote Many Rats on Sticks, a gloghack which was once acclaimed as the basis of most other hacks. These days, he brings out oddities from history or does a deep dive on old D&D math. Would be of interest to OSR folks of all stripes.

Among Cats and Books
Blogger: Elmcat
Founded: February 2024
Location: https://elmc.at/
Like Xaoseed, this is a public utility, aggregating posts and doing other useful things. He also engineered the rootring which OSR blogs have taken up to increase the joy of discovery of new writers. Also, he's a sweetie.

Trick's Tales
Blogger: Trick the Giant
Founded: April 2021
Location: https://tricks-tales.blogspot.com/
Relative newcomer (to us), interesting Mongolian-inspired setting.

Infernal Pact
Blogger: Domicilius
Founded: July 2023
Location: https://infernalpact.bearblog.dev/blog/
I mostly know Domicilius from his Cataphracts retrospective and Pokemon campaign retrospective, but I'm surprised in doing research for this list to see that he actually has glog classes as far back as the beginning of his blog years ago. Good writer with sensible points to make when he discusses RPG theory.

Subjunctive Moods
Blogger: Matthias
Founded: November 2025
Location: https://subjunctive-moods.bearblog.dev/blog/
I've had occasional positive interactions with Matthias in the OSR sphere for a few years now, and so I'd say their blog, which has but a few posts (mostly about the theory of play) only represents a small piece of Matthias's value.

Press the Beast
Blogger: NBateman
Founded: December 2023
Location: https://pressthebeast.bearblog.dev/
An inspiring and approachable blog that knows how to say "JUST DO IT" in a way that makes you more likely to fr fr just do it. Runs the gamut of lovely arcadist play and tactical advice to very open essays or fiction.

Two Smoking Boots
Blogger: Mercury
Founded: March 2024
Location: https://twosmokingboots.blogspot.com/
Interesting collection of posts— monsters, situations, things to consider. Not super long in our little corner of the internet, but I hope they'll post more and win their acclaim.

Ravenous Ambiance
Blogger: Ambnz
Founded: January 2019
Location: https://ravenousambience.blogspot.com/
As a blogger, Amnbz has not been very active in years. Yet when they do post, or pop into the glog server with a question, they're always working on something interesting. This is a very good sort of person to have in your server.

Vikugna Vikugna
Blogger: Vikugna
Founded: Kwietnia 2026
Location: https://vikugnavikugna.blogspot.com/
Every so often, like a bolt from the blue, someone will join the glog server and drop five or six very slick glog classes, or some creative and well-formed hack, putting their best foot forward. So with Vik, who besides her work has been charming and affable.

Necromancers Killed Our Master Club
Blogger: Leo the Hobbit
Founded: October 2023
Location: https://nkom.bearblog.dev/blog/
Has been putting out a pleasant mix of glog classes and procedures, as well as the odd oddity. Leo seems to be of the set of bloggers who was inspired by the charismatic Cavegirls and Vayras of the world but who write in the competentist style of the Lexis (Blasted, Cratered Land). I wonder what's up with that.

Kludge Kauldron
Blogger: KludgeKauldron
Founded: October 2023
Location: https://kludge.bearblog.dev/blog/
In addition to classic fantasy milieu and underserved historical-infused settings, the glog community has a definite interest in freaked-up modern campaigns. Kludge has some great examples of this on his blog. Check out his Fighter in Los Tronos post— it's a classis (a class chassis), the most generic form of that class as it will appear in his game, yet it is clearly painting with the brush of a modern combatant rather than a knight or swordswoman of eld.

Explode Corpse
Blogger: Homunculus
Founded: October 2024
Location: https://explodecorpse.blogspot.com/
A blog with less than ten posts, but clearly gets the vibe of the scene. Check this line from his Glogmas post: "It’s bite does [sum] damage to a relationship (the average of the two characters Will scores) if the relationship goes to 0 HP they have to 'break up' and not be associated with eachother any longer," I tell you it's good, and furthermore could be found on the blog of any great glogger.

Federal Agent Make-Believe
Blogger: Dragoleaf
Founded: August 2024
Location: https://federalagentmakebelieve.blogspot.com/2026/05/unknown-armies-avatar-bodyguard.html 
Also a formidable in the world of Delta Green, Dragoleaf has some very artful glog classes, some cool session reports, and basically anything you'd want from such a blog. Check out their Pelts for XP series.

Thursday, May 7, 2026

Ten Years of GLOG (and! the Tomb of the Khan)

Everyone has a homebrew ruleset, and everyone wants to show it to other people, or at slap it around until it's presentable. And a lot of people are interested in your fantasy heartbreaker. When you first published your "Version -1.0", the world was a very different place, and the niche of a niche of a niche that talked about retroclones and hit dice and the grossest monsters a creative biologists can imagine was a little different too.

Ten years ago, on May 7th, 2016,  we were introduced to the Goblin Rules of Gaming. Since then, partially because of the conversational tone and DIY spirit, partially because it distilled good parts of E6 and old school D&D, in overwhelming part due to accidents of history, people have hacked and rehacked glogs of their own, and it became a very happy gaming scene, with active blogs, daily discussion, friendships, the inevitable sprinkling petals of loves blossoming, and general goodwill.

It's bad to mythologize the history of your niche social scene. I don't want to act like we're something totally unprecedented, or that anyone is some great hero. But it's good to appreciate what you have while you have it, and I've been immensely enriched by the acquaintance of the many gloggers, and by friendly and open blogs such as yours which have become the basis of so many games, rules, stories, like, loves, and lively vertices. Hurray for ten years of GLOG! Yippee for rolling dice! Yay for my internet friends, and even my acquaintances!

With that out of the way, here is a short dungeon: 

The Tomb of the Khan

Three hundred years ago, a warriors named Sartak tricked and defeated the undying sorcerer Attila the All-Seeing, chewing up his teeth and drinking up his blood to become something more than a mere man. Two hundred years ago, the vampiric Khan Sartak was felled by the twelve noble jarls of King Karlstorr, whereupon the  khan's horse carried him back to his people, who dutifully buried him in preparation for his inevitable return. Since then, people have had more immediate problems to focus on, and the underground complex in which Sartak lay was forgotten. Two weeks ago, a minor earthquake revealed a shaft descending into the dark, ornate and well-worked stone fit for a king and a king of kings. Exposed to the elements, local bookworms fret that fragile documents perhaps stored within will be ruined when the next storm comes. Two hours ago, it started to drizzle.

There are no random encounters. After three hours, water will start to damage all unstowed parchments and worse (see area 9 and area 12).

Key

1. Hole. Looking down, one can see a hundred foot shaft, its walls of beautifully sculpted stone arches arrayed around a spiral staircase. The hole has torn through part of what was once a vaulted ceiling. If it's midday, enough light breaks through the gathering stormclouds to show the twinkle of a small pool of water on the floor. If you have a long rope, it would be easy enough to stake it and climb down.

2. Main Exit. Climbing the spiral stairs, another staircase branches off and comes to a chamber that comes within five feet of the surface, and porous rock allows vampires, who can turn into clouds of particles, to flow up and down through it. In the chamber is a courtesy sarcophagus. Lifting the lid gives a hiss and releases an invisible floral-and-pepper-scented gas which burns the lungs if you breathe it in (1d6 damage). Dissipates in ten minutes.

3. Shaft Base. A couple small pools of water, not yet gathered into drains carved to resemble a bearded man drinking. Short hall leading to area 4.

4. Meeting Chamber. Murals showing the khan drinking blood and turning into a bat and riding a cool skeleton horse, etc. Stone table and seats. Every surface piles with scraps of old parchment-- mostly the receipts and random notes of the khan's servants (some arguing about whether they should just drink his body dry), but also an envelope containing powder of gaseous form (snorted, as potion). A small polished bone box on a pile of papers serves as a watertight, airtight vaultlet. Contains a deed to a manse east of here, as well as a homoerotic vampire biography (300 gp).

5. Hallway. Murals cover the walls. A party of six skeletons-- three archers and three spearwomen-- stand guard. Speaking only the ancient language, they may be convinced that the party belongs. There are three spinning block traps dispersed through the hallway which the skeletons are aware of and will avoid-- stepping on the block causes it to spin freely, depositing you into a ten-foot-deep pit (one of which is almost totally waterlogged). Unless you're very tall it's hard to push the block above you away and climb out on your own. If the party seems tough, the skeletons may retreat back to guard area 6 and monitor them to attack from behind as they descend the upper stairs (area 8).

6. Storage. Cracked old pottery and mouldering scrolls. A gilded horse skeleton stands on a pedestal in the middle of the room. If touched (or enticed), it turns to face the party, gold leaf cracking away. It is Khongor Mini, the khan's mummified horse. (Stats as mummy, but +1 reaction, Morale 8. Can only be tamed by one who has the blood of Attila running through their veins.) Careful search of the room reveals a scroll with innovative saddle diagrams (worth 500 gp to a saddler or knight) and a palette of rouges and powders (worth 200 gp to a fancy person or thief).

7. Temple. Statues depicting Khan Sartak drinking blood from the wrist of Attila the All-Seeing, who is drinking from the wrist of the Devil. An altar holding the remains of a traitor vampire, now ash except for a black diamond heart (1000 gp, combusts in even a hint of sunlight). Another couple bone boxes-- one empty, one containing a spellbook with the spells Viscerkinesis (telekinesis but only for organic matter), Horste (haste for horses), Sanguine Visions (see through your blood for two hours), and Walking Coffin (coffin or similar grows four legs and serves loyally, if clumsily, for four hours).

8. Upper Stairs. Steep and dry. Fighting on these would give a -2 to attacks and make you tumble down on a natural 1 or if you're hit by a critical. Also, as you descend if you aren't silent the stone-headed thrall comes up from area 9 to investigate.

9. Rink. Massive domes ceiling leaking the occasional drip into a massive rink of ancient, long-dried blood. The scale of the rink is logistically horrifying, and it's not clear how deep it is. The dripping roof has made little pools of liquid blood on the very surface, and a humanoid imprint is seen in the deepest pool, as though someone has yanked themselves out of it, leaving bloody footprints leading up to an emaciated clot-covered freako whose head has been totally covered by ancient cement. The stone-headed thrall is a minor vampire, weakened by decades of ravenous stillness. (Stats as ghoul, but -4 reaction, grapple instead of paralysis, 4 to-hit ungrappled foes due to blindness, headbutt instead of bite, and if max damage is rolled for headbutt the cement cracks and it can see and do a normal vampire bite.). After three hours, enough water will start streaming down the domed roof and the steps that the whole block of dried blood will liquify, spilling its contents down into area 12-- nineteen stone-headed thralls, a thousand skulls, and six random treasures.

10. Lower Stairs. The occasional sycophantic well-wish from a minor vampire, left on a scrap of repurposed parchment.

11. Throne Room. Wide and low golden chair (worth 1500 gp, slows you down), brocade on the wall made of thread-of-gold (500 gp, heavy), chest-high golden puzzle box built into the floor (spend 10 minutes shifting around tiles to roll 1d20+intelligence. On a 30 or higher, reveals Lamentation, an insane sword with a needle-like tip and skeptical eye in the fuller. +2 to hit and damage vs things with blood, and each hit replenishes their blood into you, healing 2 hp most of the time but possibly having alternate or dangerous effects based on the blood into you question.

12.  Tomb. The body of Sartak lies on a low bier-- ten feet tall, naked, with many wounds but the blush of not-quite death and a peaceful expression. Pillars support a vaulted ceiling that seems to be covered in dried blood. In fact it is the underside of the rink in area 9. After three hours, the liquefied blood will crash down, flooding this chamber. Sartak will rouse from his brumation, drinking enough blood to fully wake, before draining the more delectable half the of thralls and enacting plans for a new conquest. While still brumating, he is not totally defenseless. Immune to mundane weapons, his hypnotic defenses require a save to be attacked with any weapon. Teeth, on the other hand, seem to slide into his flesh like biting into an apple. If one creature drinks Sartak's final lifeblood, they become a super vampire, though the spirit of the merged mind of the Devil, Attila, and Sartak will require them to perform vampiric deeds to actually get any XP they earn-- darke soirees, murder of the innocent, so on. If multiple creatures drink of him, each gets a vampire power of their choice (no repeats) and a vampire weakness of the DM's choice).

Saturday, May 2, 2026

American Name Generator

 Like many people, I like to rely on a random name generator for the names of incidental characters in the games I run. This is problematic in the context of a game set in the modern United States of America, because there isn't an ideal name generator that reflects America's diverse name origins, Anglicization and artifacts of assimilation, and other quirks. fantasynamegenerators.com is normally an all-star, but its American Name Generator just gives you English names, which works fine I guess but gives up on diverse name origins. Simply all-sending on behindthename.com's Random Name Generator does give you varied names, but has several problems for this application-- the names are generally quite "authentic" and almost never show signs of assimilation, the weighting of the names is based on how many names of different origins the website has rather than US demographics, and names of a particular culture aren't connected to surnames of that same culture.

I've put together a simple tool which will spit out American names, based on over 800 of the 2020 US census's top 1000 first names and some of the top 1000 surnames, supplemented by various surnames claimed by various nationalities. Especially useful were sites about immigrants to America and how their names often changed, allowing me to include, say, Swedish-American surnames descended from but distinct from Swedish-Swedish names. This generator definitely includes the first names and surnames of most Americans. If you grew up in the US, I can guarantee that this generator will give you the name of some of your old classmates, as well as various celebrities and famous folks.

There are a mountain of compromises and inaccuracies in this generator, but it gestures at genuine diversity of US names in approximate proportion to actual US demographics. I'm very happy to say that names strongly associated with a culture of origin in the US, like "Ivan" or "Guadalupe", are more likely to be paired with a culturally-associated surname, but well might be paired with another type of surname, reflecting the facts on the ground. Because the cultural proportions are based on the general demographics of the US as a whole, you'll notice that it might be out of proportion of the part of the country or the specific setting you're rolling for. Some Midwestern readers might be surprised at how many Hispanic names the generator spits out, for instance, while readers from the Southwest will feel like those kinds of names are under-represented. Names always take the form of personal name, then surname.

My biggest piece of advice for readers who want to tweak the results from this generator is to be more willing to tailor the first names to the surnames in the events of non-European characters. The list of most common personal names are all very English, somewhat Spanish, and sparse of almost everything else. Therefore, characters with, say, a Vietnamese surname will never have a Vietnamese personal name. While many people in the US really might a Vietnamese surname and a first name like John or Lindsey, there's plenty of Thanhs, Hieps, and Viets. Enjoy! You are ready for A D V E N T U R E ! ! !