The Goblin Market

Red snowfall of moths, fluttering on the wing. 

An elephant trumpeting, shockingly loud, from somewhere near your feet. 

Twitching stall curtains draped over curios that whisper your name, as a woman with a golden grin beckons you closer, proffering tapestries of lymph nodes and maps to your heart's desire for a price that's almost too good to be true.

~

In the autumn of last year, I was made redundant from my job of eleven years, and taking a look back over that time I realised I’d lost a creative spark that previously drove me, and in a fit of frenzied, caffeine-fuelled panic inspiration, I got to work making something.

If you’ve ever been in a position where your players are shopping, and you’ve had to quickly drum up a string of shopkeepers and vendors on-the-fly, this book might just help you. The Goblin Market is a system agnostic collection of over fifty merchants, monsters and even stranger things which can be dropped into your campaign to add weirdness and magic for your players: retired river gods, escaped nightmares, tea merchants, wicker basket mechs, predatory graves, vengeful dragons seeking to raise an army to defeat tyrannical princesses, off-duty demons, magical roboticists, mystery cults, accidentally immortal witches, and many more.

Each entry details a merchant and the items they both buy and sell, but also contains a number of plot hooks (over 140, last time I checked) so you can give your players sidequests to investigate. Each vendor can be dropped into your game on their own, but also exists in a setting - a setting where each market stallholder invokes and involves other entries and merchants as rivals, romantic interests, family members and possible eldritch accomplices from the days before the Moon was born. 

It’s a living, breathing place, and I’ve loved writing it so, so much. It's my hope that you'll love it too.

Written by David Hayes

Brought to life by the illustrations of the talented Kate Lucas (https://skeejeedoodles.carrd.co/)

Layout by John Fairgrieve