It is my pleasure to introduce you all to The Curious Goblin, a shop based out of Portugal. Curious Goblin is a studio/shop that emphasizes building your own creativity. Telmo Leal, the creator behind Curious Goblin reached out to me and I had to say he had my curiosity and excitement. Curious Goblin has a variety of things for all ages, from great art gallery pieces to TTRPG goodies.

A big thumbs up from me was the protective packaging around the goodies were recyclable/reused products with the logo colorfully spray painted on. I love when companies are more renewable with their resources to cut down on waste products.

Dm Bork and I both love puzzles and frequently watch people solve puzzles on YouTube together (Chris Ramsey is one of our favorites), so getting a surprise puzzle in our package was quite exciting. The rope puzzle was fun and I would consider it to be on a novice level for those who love puzzles. It was made out of reclaimed wood and nylon string. Overall the puzzle was well made, there were a few splintering wood fibers around the hole that the string is through but it is nothing that a little sand paper couldn’t fix up.

Bork and I were both able to solve the puzzle quickly (about a minute) but I can see for those not familiar with puzzles it could provide a small and fun challenge to solve. I love adding props and physical things to my games. This small puzzle is easily portable and can provide a physical puzzle for your players to solve.

The main event, and the reason why Curious Goblin sent me a package, was to review the Goblin Invention postcard that they have. These 5x8 inch postcards are double sided and made out of card stock material. On one side there is a place for postage and address along with an introduction to Curious Goblin (the company) and Maré Baixa.

The concept of the Curious Goblin Postcard is there is a goblin who is curious and is in the process of building a Golem. You, the writer, roll 2d6 to think of a person and imagine a scenario with that individual. The hope is that the person you roll is the person you will send this card to. I like that there is a story involved with the postcard, and that the goblin building the golem needs you, the sender, to help in bringing this post card creation to life.

This was a cute and inventive way to send a little card letting someone know that you thought of them. As a large fan of snail mail, I love the concept of a ttrpg inspired postcard. All you need is a common six sided dice and tada, you are on the way to finishing a Goblin Invention.

I was gifted 3 lovely Goblin Invention cards to test out for review. I had lots of fun rolling for my people and sending the cards out. I rolled for all three prompts then took my time thinking and writing for each person individually.

I tested a few different ways to write on the postcard as well to help figure out which way was the best in my experience:

Rated 2 out of 5: The pencil.

A lead pencil can work. The quality of the paper is good enough to erase the pencil lead if you make a mistake (if you push hard the letters will stay indented in the post card paper, but the lead erases). Even the pink residue from the erase rubbed away for me. I still don’t recommend a pencil when it comes to mail- whether postcard or writing addresses on envelopes. It works but there is still the possibility of your address or creation being erased or rubbed away. I will say I was surprised how well the pencil held up through the mail so if that is the only writing tool you have it will still work.

Rated 4 out of 5: Sharpie or Permanent Marker.

The sure way of ensuring that your stuff doesn’t wash off in the snow or rain is using a permanent marker. I tested it out and will say that it worked well. The postcard material absorbed the ink well. There was no smudging in my experience. I will note that you may want to find the thinnest tipped marker you have. Even my “fine point” Sharpie was a bit thick.

Rated 0 out of 5: Non-washable Markers

Partially out of curiosity, and partially because I wanted to test other things that were available in my classroom I will say the worst experience I had was with the markers. It smudged terribly, even when just putting it on and was even more worse for wear after being mailed.

Rated 5 out of 5: Colored Pencils

I think I was happiest and most surprised with the colored pencil test. The paper let me color easily with the colored pencils without needing to apply much pressure. Using colored pencils allowed me to add color to the post card with no smudging like with the gel pens or markers. One of my favorite customizations was coloring in the goblin with colors that reminded me of the recipients. I was even able to shade and add details (such as putting eyes and pupils on the goblin).

Rated 3 out of 5: Gel Pens

Gel pen was by far the easiest to apply. The color looked good and not much/if any pressure was needed to write. The major downside was that some of the ink did smudge (even giving it proper time to dry before sending/ touching). I don’t believe that the paper absorbed the gel ink as nicely, so be warned that your work may get smudged in transit in the mail like mine did. My

Rated 4.5 out of 5: Pens

For this part of my writing experiment I chose 3 pens from my desk drawer to test out. I primarily use my R2 pen and the Blue z grip.

The pens:

Z grip- blue

Staples - black

R2 Blast- Orange

Pens to me are the good ol’ reliable option when it comes to filling out postcards. Depending on your pen, some of them (like the Staples pen) I needed to press hard for the ink to be legible but others like the Blue and Orange options worked good. Some pens worked better on the material than others. The cheaper pens with less quality ink I had to push harder with, leaving grooves in which the ink then filled. This would be probably the easiest and most convenient way to fill out these postcards.

Rated 0 out of 5: Crayons

My first attempt to add color. Was a TERRIBLE idea. Did not color well on the postcard paper, was able to rub it off with just my thumb leaving just a small color stain behind. I originally wanted to test crayons for the potential of using wax seals on it, but the crayon test failed so I wasn’t going to test wax seals after either.

Things of note:

To make it easier I circled the numbers that I rolled on the dice on each post card to help the receiver know which person they were on the list and to help make sense of all the words that were imagined thinking of them.

I found these post cards to be a fun and unique experience to send to my ttrpg friends. I think there are enough ways to customize them and use them to truly give each individual a special golem all their own.

I would also love to see a digitalized version that we could send to individuals that we don't have mailing addresses for (like a digital link that gives you so many you can download to type in as a pdf form before sending). I do believe that more Goblin Creations should be filling peoples mail boxes.

Check out the Curious Goblin Shop at https://www.curiousgoblin.com/.

Check out their YouTube channel and watch videos (such as them building one of the nest boxes) from their shop.

Want to help build your own creativity, try one of the Curious Gobin Maker Experiences! A Maker Experience is where you and your team get to work together in a creative experience created by the Curious Goblin for you. As stated on their website “There is no limit on participants or ages. Creativity and imagination are the limit.”

They also have an Etsy Shop where you can get their logo dice tower, Goblin Invention postcards of your own, the rope puzzle featured above, Curious Goblin T-shirt or if you are into terrain building there are road barriers, foam planks/bricks and other goodies to fit your need.