The Bloggies Nominees

The 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.

Otherwise, 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."

The Bloggies 2026

A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.

Explorers DesignClayton Notestine

The all-new Meta category.

Why 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.)

The 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.

How were these nominees selected?

The 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.

There 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.

Lastly, 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.

I think you'll like some of these thematic matchups. Some of them aren't obvious until you read them.

How will you read all of these articles?

I 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.

There'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.

What's the schedule for The Bloggies?

Add 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).

• Bracket voting begins: Monday, February 16th, 2026
• Bonus Category voting begins: Monday, February 23rd, 2026
• Fina Winners declared: Last week of February

The Bloggies 2026 Nominees

Bonus Category Nominees

The 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.

What's next for The Bloggies 2026?

Voting. 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.

Until then, read blogs other than this one. You're already behind!

The Bloggies 2026

A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.

Explorers DesignClayton Notestine

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.