Goblin Market by Kestrel Eliot is a role playing game published by Eliot Crow.
The supplement is available for $9 on itch.io but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. The supplement comes in four versions. There are two 18-page PDFs, one printer friendly, one not, with one page being the front cover, one the Table of Contents and one the Notes. There are two more versions, one a 24-page OpenDyslexic PDF, the other a txt file.
The Introduction explains that this is a character driven and narrative heavy game and how light or dark it is is up to the players. No GM is needed, though one player should be the Facilitator, who should read the game before play and the descriptive parts during the game, and draw the cards, and the game will typically take one 2–4-hour session. The game uses one deck with the jokers removed and separated into red and black decks. The game is played in three acts for the first two, the narration is read then the instructions followed. Players draw a card and answer the prompt; other players may ask questions if desired. More rounds can be played before moving onto the next act. Act 3 is choice and narration, with no cards.
Comfort and Care has content warnings and mention of safety tools.
Character Creation explains the players are going to a goblin market together, or alone in solo play, and has some questions to answer about the characters.
Act 1: Setting the Stage is the first act and requires cards be drawn from the red deck.
Act 2: The Market uses the black deck.
Act 3: The Choice is what the characters choose to do and questions to answer.
Epilogue is set one month later with the players answering appropriate questions.
The prompts for the various different cards are then listed.
Goblin Market in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough that these would have been useful. The Table of Contents covers the major sections. Navigation is okay. The text is either single column or two column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are no illustrations bar the cover. Presentation is adequate.
This is a narrative game that has more in common with solo journalling games, though without the journalling, than most role playing games, and can indeed be played solo. It’s entirely dependent on the players to provide input on prompts and is therefore not for everyone. It’s also rather expensive at full prove. Goblin Market can be found on itch.io by clicking here.
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