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"description": "Over 90+ blog posts. And a surprise category for 2026.",
"path": "/this-years-bloggies-nominees/",
"publishedAt": "2026-02-09T15:37:29.000Z",
"site": "https://www.explorersdesign.com",
"tags": [
"The Bloggies 2026A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.Explorers DesignClayton Notestine",
"Nick Whelan's",
"_Blogs on Tape_",
"_Writing Rooms in Pairs_",
"_Leonard Cohen's Advice for Novice OSR Referees_",
"_Got no game: Should your module be system agnostic?_",
"_Ten Intangible Tips for Development Editing Your RPG Manuscript_",
"_A Lock With No Key: Designing Obstacles for OSR Play_",
"_Don’t Write Lore, Write Tables_",
"_Pocket-Sized Powder Kegs_",
"_make better mind pictures_",
"_How to Replicate Over/Under_",
"_In Praise of Prep_",
"_Look Before You Leap_",
"_Just Tell Them What They Need!_",
"_How I Do Play by Post_",
"_Action-Oriented Interaction_",
"_Less Combat… More Obstacles_",
"_Treat Illusions As You Would Any Other Lie: No Rolls_",
"_Barkeep on the Borderlands: A Review_",
"_Mausritter, Wargame_",
"_Playing the Chaplain's Game_",
"_The Isle: The Review (Mostly)_",
"_Doing a Cool Move_",
"_Review of Initiative Methods_",
"_B1 and Toyetic Dungeon Rooms_",
"_The D &D 4th edition renaissance: A look into the history of the edition, its flaws and its merits_",
"_Monster, Maiden, Madonna, Medusa_",
"_How Jennell Jaquays Evolved Dungeon Design, Part 1: Pre-Jaquays Dungeons_",
"_Who Up Tunneling Them Trolls?_",
"_The Combat Conundrum: how violence actually works in mothership._",
"_Arthurian Mysticism and Violence: a Mythic Bastionland Analysis_",
"_Review: The White Horse of Lowvale_",
"_I Read Spine_",
"_A mental inventory for occult horror campaigns: an HPless system_",
"_RANDOM ENCOUNTER TABLES AS ADVENTURE RAM: Adding “Memory” To Encounter Checks_",
"_Scooby Doo as Post Apocalyptic RPG Setting_",
"_Promises - a Mythic Bastionland House Rule_",
"_Leverage & Rapport: A Simple Social Mechanic_",
"_Let’s Make a Forest_",
"_Generating Jaquaysed Dungeons (1.5)_",
"_1d20 Diegetic Rules, 1d20 Hypo-Diegetic Rules_",
"_What do people know about the Mythos?_",
"_Just Use Bears… Or Wolves, Dragons or Spiders_",
"_Wilderness Stocking - Expanded_",
"_Castle Claus: The Keep on the North Pole_",
"_Anti-colonial Dungeon_",
"_[HMTW] Using Divination to Generate a Character_",
"_The Elemental Plane of Plastic_",
"_Baseline Worldbuilding_",
"_WHY MEGADUNGEONS? A Campaign Structure for Modern Lives_",
"_Everything is Pointcrawl!_",
"_Making Hacking an OSR Style Problem_",
"_Why Orcs? Or, Why Do I Love Orcs?_",
"_Why I Like Binary Resolution Systems_",
"_The Star-Pattern: a Pitfall of GMing_",
"_Books [Verb] Play_",
"_Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole: The Case for Pitcher Plant Dungeon Entrances_",
"_The 10 Types of Special Rooms_",
"_The Languages of D &D Imply a Specific Setting_",
"_Conflict as Motivation and Resolution_",
"_Combat As My Balls_",
"_Does Super Mario Bros. (1985) Have Rules?_",
"_[An OSR Pattern] One, Two, or Three Exits_",
"_How Do You Handle the \"Inside\" of a Hex?_",
"Books [Verb] Play.",
"_Mapping the Blogosphere_",
"_Reviews: What Are They Good For?_",
"_The OSR Onion_",
"_What is an OSR?_",
"_The Expressionist Games Manifesto_",
"_The 1E Manifesto_",
"_A Mask That Eats Into Your Face: Honesty in the Work_",
"_Don’t wait to create, don’t wait to learn_",
"_Close and Distant Playstyles_",
"_6 Bluey Episodes Every Game Designer Should Watch_",
"_Faggot Games: An Urgent Warning_",
"_On Categorization, Rule Buckets, and Diegesis_",
"_Sam’s Three-Question Taxonomy_",
"_the default dungeon is colonial_",
"_Thinking About Actual Play as Non-Fiction_",
"_The Five Laws of Roleplaying Games_",
"_Valeria Loves_",
"_The Garden Below_",
"_To Be Resolved_",
"_This Vorpal Coil_",
"_Afraid of Encounters_",
"_Dungeon Scrawler_",
"_in lowercase_",
"_fluorite guillotine_",
"_The Play Reports_",
"_Birdmilk’s Cafe_",
"_Dungeon Room Index_",
"_Middle-earth Hexcrawl Project_",
"_The AD &D Series_",
"_Designing Dungeons Course_",
"_Shiny TTRPG Links_",
"_Cataphracts Design Diaries_",
"_Seven-Part Pact_",
"_Goin' Through the Fiend Folio_",
"_Books in TTRPGs_",
"_Critique Navidad!_",
"Sacha Goat",
"The Bloggies 2026A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.Explorers DesignClayton Notestine",
"_Explorers Design_"
],
"textContent": "# The Bloggies Nominees\n\nThe day has finally arrived. The nominees for this year's Bloggies are here, and in one week they'll compete head-to-head in a single-elimination tournament. If you want to find out who this year's nominees are, visit the official webpage or keep reading.\n\nOtherwise, let's talk about the surprise category for this year. In addition to the four categories we know and love, this year (and probably only this year) we're experimenting with a little category called \"meta.\"\n\nThe Bloggies 2026A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.Explorers DesignClayton Notestine\n\n## The all-new Meta category.\n\nWhy is there a category called meta? The answer is pretty simple. We had _a lot_ of great manifesto, taxonomy, and industry talk this year, but it was quickly crowding out the other categories—so rather than omit good posts, we siloed them to their own spotlight in the Bloggies. (I know I keep writing \"we\" but it really is mostly me floating ideas to friends and family before jumping in head first.)\n\nThe goal of the Bloggies has always been to get more people reading and writing blogs, and this category allows us to showcase great writing about the industry without replacing valuable advice, critique, gameable, and theory writing.\n\n## How were these nominees selected?\n\nThe nominees are selected through a mixture of submissions and curation. Anything that got a particularly outstanding representation in the body of submissions was included in this year's competition, but since this is a small competition—and blogging is so niche—a lot of posts (even popular ones online) only got one or two submissions at most. So, with advice from family and last year's winners, I handpicked the remaining nominees.\n\nThere were also creators who had a lot of support, so much support that if I strictly followed the numbers, they would have filled entire brackets on their own. Since I have the burden and privilege of hosting, I decided to limit creators to one post per bracket so that other amazing creators could join them.\n\nLastly, you might be wondering, \"Clayton, where are the seeds?\" There aren't any. Unlike Football, Fútbol, and Bloodbowl—we don't have quantifiable data to create an objective bracket, so rather than create arbitrary seeds, I tried to pair posts with thematic twins, and if that wasn't possible, then (and only then) I tried to recreate the idea behind seeds—which is to pit frontrunners with challengers.\n\nI think you'll like some of these thematic matchups. Some of them aren't obvious until you read them.\n\n## How will you read all of these articles?\n\nI recommend picking and choosing the categories you like. When voting starts next week, there will be a separate form for each category, so if you don't care for theory, gameable, etc, you won't feel obligated to weigh-in.\n\nThere's also a rumor—some say a quest—that others are recording these blog posts after being inspired by Nick Whelan's _Blogs on Tape_ podcast. (If you haven't listened to that podcast, you really should.) When the Bloggies podcast goes live, I'll share it on the official webpage and include a link with the voting announcement.\n\n* * *\n\n## What's the schedule for The Bloggies?\n\nAdd these dates to your calendar. This week, believe it or not, is the calm before the storm. Once voting begins, The Bloggies website will be updated almost daily (with the exception of weekends).\n\n * **Bracket voting begins:** _Monday, February 16th, 2026_\n * **Bonus Category voting begins:**_Monday, February 23rd, 2026_\n * **Final Winners declared:** _Last week of February_\n\n\n\n* * *\n\nThe Brackets for this year's Bloggies.\n\n# The Bloggies 2026 Nominees\n\n#### Advice\n\nThis category includes advice for play, prep, publishing, and more.\n\n_Writing Rooms in Pairs_\n _Leonard Cohen's Advice for Novice OSR Referees_\n\n _Got no game: Should your module be system agnostic?_\n_Ten Intangible Tips for Development Editing Your RPG Manuscript_\n\n _A Lock With No Key: Designing Obstacles for OSR Play_\n _Don’t Write Lore, Write Tables_\n\n _Pocket-Sized Powder Kegs_\n _make better mind pictures_\n\n _How to Replicate Over/Under_\n _In Praise of Prep_\n\n _Look Before You Leap_\n _Just Tell Them What They Need!_\n\n_How I Do Play by Post_\n _Action-Oriented Interaction_\n\n _Less Combat… More Obstacles_\n _Treat Illusions As You Would Any Other Lie: No Rolls_\n\n#### Critique\n\nThis category includes critical analysis of books, games, and more.\n\n_Barkeep on the Borderlands: A Review_\n _Mausritter, Wargame_\n\n _Playing the Chaplain's Game_\n _The Isle: The Review (Mostly)_\n\n_Doing a Cool Move_\n _Review of Initiative Methods_\n\n _B1 and Toyetic Dungeon Rooms_\n _The D &D 4th edition renaissance: A look into the history of the edition, its flaws and its merits_\n\n _Monster, Maiden, Madonna, Medusa_\n[ _Expressionism in Practice: A Case Study of Triangle Agency_\n](https://seraphim-seraphina.itch.io/my-blog/devlog/1339675/expressionism-in-practice-a-case-study-of-triangle-agency)\n\n _How Jennell Jaquays Evolved Dungeon Design, Part 1: Pre-Jaquays Dungeons_\n _Who Up Tunneling Them Trolls?_\n\n_The Combat Conundrum: how violence actually works in mothership._\n_Arthurian Mysticism and Violence: a Mythic Bastionland Analysis_\n\n _Review: The White Horse of Lowvale_\n _I Read Spine_\n\n#### Gameable\n\nThis category includes ready-to-use rules, monsters, and more.\n\n_A mental inventory for occult horror campaigns: an HPless system_\n _RANDOM ENCOUNTER TABLES AS ADVENTURE RAM: Adding “Memory” To Encounter Checks_\n\n\n _Scooby Doo as Post Apocalyptic RPG Setting_\n[ _Stacking The Deck – Mining Fallout: New Vegas for TTRPG Setting Ideas_\n](https://dicegoblin.blog/stacking-the-deck-mining-fallout-new-vegas-for-ttrpg-setting-ideas/)\n _Promises - a Mythic Bastionland House Rule_\n _Leverage & Rapport: A Simple Social Mechanic_\n\n _Let’s Make a Forest_\n _Generating Jaquaysed Dungeons (1.5)_\n\n_1d20 Diegetic Rules, 1d20 Hypo-Diegetic Rules_\n _What do people know about the Mythos?_\n\n\n_Just Use Bears… Or Wolves, Dragons or Spiders_\n _Wilderness Stocking - Expanded_\n\n _Castle Claus: The Keep on the North Pole_\n _Anti-colonial Dungeon_\n\n _[HMTW] Using Divination to Generate a Character_\n _The Elemental Plane of Plastic_\n\n#### Theory\n\nThis category is all about systems, settings, and more.\n\n_Baseline Worldbuilding_\n _WHY MEGADUNGEONS? A Campaign Structure for Modern Lives_\n\n _Everything is Pointcrawl!_\n_Making Hacking an OSR Style Problem_\n\n _Why Orcs? Or, Why Do I Love Orcs?_\n_Why I Like Binary Resolution Systems_\n\n _The Star-Pattern: a Pitfall of GMing_\n _Books [Verb] Play_\n\n _Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole: The Case for Pitcher Plant Dungeon Entrances_\n _The 10 Types of Special Rooms_\n\n _The Languages of D &D Imply a Specific Setting_\n[ _There is a point to Tom Bombadil (or how I approach lore)_\n](https://www.weirdwonder.net/tom-bombadil-or-how-i-approach-lore/)\n\n_Conflict as Motivation and Resolution_\n _Combat As My Balls_\n\n _Does Super Mario Bros. (1985) Have Rules?_\n_[An OSR Pattern] One, Two, or Three Exits_\n\nUpdate 2/9/26: _How Do You Handle the \"Inside\" of a Hex?_ was removed by author's request and replaced with Books [Verb] Play.\n\n#### Meta\n\nAn all new category for ideas about taxonomy, creativity, and beyond.\n\n_Mapping the Blogosphere_\n _Reviews: What Are They Good For?_\n\n_The OSR Onion_\n _What is an OSR?_\n\n_The Expressionist Games Manifesto_\n _The 1E Manifesto_\n\n _A Mask That Eats Into Your Face: Honesty in the Work_\n _Don’t wait to create, don’t wait to learn_\n\n _Close and Distant Playstyles_\n _6 Bluey Episodes Every Game Designer Should Watch_\n\n _Faggot Games: An Urgent Warning_\n _On Categorization, Rule Buckets, and Diegesis_\n\n _Sam’s Three-Question Taxonomy_\n _the default dungeon is colonial_\n\n _Thinking About Actual Play as Non-Fiction_\n _The Five Laws of Roleplaying Games_\n\n* * *\n\n# Bonus Category Nominees\n\n#### Best Debut Blog\n\n * _Valeria Loves_\n * _The Garden Below_\n * _To Be Resolved_\n * _This Vorpal Coil_\n * _Afraid of Encounters_\n * _Dungeon Scrawler_\n * _in lowercase_\n * _fluorite guillotine_\n * _The Play Reports_\n * _Birdmilk’s Cafe_\n\n\n\n#### Best Blog Series\n\n * _Dungeon Room Index_\n * _Middle-earth Hexcrawl Project_\n * _The AD &D Series_\n * _Designing Dungeons Course_\n * _Shiny TTRPG Links_\n * _Cataphracts Design Diaries_\n * _Seven-Part Pact_\n * _Goin' Through the Fiend Folio_\n * _Books in TTRPGs_\n * _Critique Navidad!_\n\n\n\nThe Best Overall Blog post will be decided alongside the bonus categories the week after the tournament. Until then, we don't have our final list.\n\n* * *\n\n# What's next for The Bloggies 2026?\n\nVoting. Make sure to bookmark this year's page and mark your calendars. I want to build on the awesome work done by last year's host, Sacha Goat, and try to double this year's voter turnout.\n\nUntil then, read blogs other than this one. You're already behind!\n\nThe Bloggies 2026A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.Explorers DesignClayton Notestine\n\nBookmark the official page of this year's Bloggies.\n\n* * *\n\n_This year's Bloggies are being hosted by_ _Explorers Design_ _a creative outlet by Clayton Notestine. If you liked this article, the tone, or the work that I do, please consider liking, sharing, and subscribing._",
"title": "The Bloggies' 2026 Nominees",
"updatedAt": "2026-02-16T01:23:40.526Z"
}