DOOMED LIFE
24 days ago
– Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 12:03:36 PM
ACHTUNG DEGENERATES!
I'm chugging away on this here LowLife, it is actively being playtested & now I'm converting every DUNGEON DEGENERATES board game monster into something that can work with LowLife, erm, specifically the Doomed Life crossover. So many statistics!
I was initially going to provide the math for conversion but realized that there was enough missing statistics that I might as well just do entries for ALL of them (every expansion).
Anyhow, it's good & it's going well, i'll be doing the same for all the Loot. This is giving me flashbacks to my earliest rpg designs, when I didn't even know how to use a spreadsheet! (the perils of being self-taught).
I'm keeping myself sane by writing prose entries for almost every paragraph in LowLife, because I asked myself what my favorite parts of RPG books were, the easy answer was the short bits of flavor text. (I think those are just as, if not more important in creating the feeling of the game.)
If you're in a prose reading mood, you should go visit my Substack, my Rats in the Rathaus novella is being serialized on there currently.
Also get 25% off your GOBLINKO order by using the code PATREON 2026 at checkout!
x SEAN
PLAYTESTING
about 1 month ago
– Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 09:34:15 AM
Achtung LowLifes!
We have entered the playtesting phase in earnest. It's great to pass this game around & get some real feedback.
Meanwhile, I'm working hard on the Informant & writing lots of prose for it. The book is going to dive deep into the lore. It's cool.
Stone stairways weaved in & out of the stone walls of Brüttelburg. Max wasn’t sure if he was still in the raggedy & cut-rate Midenstadt or the exclusive & elite Obenstadt.
It was unclear walking the Way Ups if they belonged to the city’s distinct divisions or were an exceptional locale. Max was looking for an apothecary that had the ingredients he needed to complete his latest occult tests.
He was tired, the stairs kept on going up & down past little boutiques, clubs, pubs & other businesses, crammed into the crevices of the city. He passed a brother of the Holy Order accompanied by a droning dwarf wearing a gigantic mask of the brother’s head. The mask covered the dwarf’s body, only his lower legs & feet stuck out of the GrosseKöpfe.
The accompaniment meant that the brother was on the trail to sainthood. Not the Way Ups, but the train of trials that have been set up by the Holy Order for devotional reinvention.
As the brother & his dwarf passed by, Max noticed a sister of discipline lurking in the shadows. The sisters were rumored to drink human blood which kept them looking young & supple but they smelled embalmed if you got close.
The images are new LowLife posters available from GOBLINKO. Go get you some & make something to look at in your room!
x SEAN
Smoke tests have been sent!
about 2 months ago
– Thu, Jul 02, 2026 at 06:20:11 PM
Hello Backers!
Thanks for your patience while we've worked to get the Backerkit all dialed in. We've just sent out the smoke tests: 5% of our backers now have their surveys. If you're in the group that just received a survey, please take a few minutes to complete it as soon as possible, so that we can get feedback about anything that may be amiss. If you're in the group that did not receive a survey, sit tight, you'll be getting yours next week.
-Katie & Sean
LOWLIFE SUMMER
3 months ago
– Tue, Jun 02, 2026 at 11:09:43 AM
Welcome to Summer! Here's the news...
Sean's father, the pianist Philip Aaberg died last week, so Sean has been going slower than usual. Sean is taking care of himself & family.
This time of year is full of birthdays! Sean is turning fifty on the seventh & our youngest son James turned sixteen last week.
Still, Sean has been busily writing material for LowLife, he is particularly excited about the direction the magic is going - splitting the difference between actual occult practice & gaming fun - in particular is the names of spells & going from understanding them as a root principle & then branches with particular & idiosyncratic names like Psychotic sky, Iron Shirt & Plague of Zombies.
The idea is that magic users create their own spells that are very personable & so they don't have generic names or outcomes, they are all highly specific to reflect the nature of the magician & how they came up. Imagine their spellbooks like the sketchbooks of artists or the black books of graffiti writers!
Mustafa Bekir has been working hard on the map of Bödengärd & it's looking amazing. We'll post that up when we have something presentable to show you.
Meanwhile, Katie has also been sidelined by this death, but she is working on getting the Backerkit for LowLife together. We expect it to launch by the middle of this month.
x SEAN & KATIE
LOWLIFE ATTAINED!
4 months ago
– Sun, May 03, 2026 at 10:04:13 AM
Wow! Thanks for everyone believing in this project, in GOBLINKO. LowLife means more than "A DUNGEON DEGENERATES role playing game", it represents the energy to launch GOBLINKO into the direction of this role playing game & all the expansiveness it entails.
In the ten years since we started work on Hand of Doom, we've been through a lot. We've taken every major change as a learning opportunity, we've learned a lot. Sean has spent a tremendous amount of time studying game design, writing, marketing, psychology, the occult & more... he's read more books in the last three years than he has in the twenty prior!
We're bringing all this & more with LowLife & again, thank you deeply for supporting this project & knowing that we'll bring it.
Best.
SEAN & KATIE
