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  • Artifact Title: Various aspects and quirks of the world of Goblins have been described as "Thuntonian" as a reference to the artist's previous moniker of "Thunt," itself an abbreviation of her previous name of Tarol Hunt. While Ellipsis stated her intent to change her name, she added she wouldn't alter this particular nomenclature, adding that now she wouldn't have to feel awkward for having it named after herself.
  • Based on a Dream: Mr. Fingers, the creature in the Well of Darkness.
  • Born Lucky: Meta example. In December 2017, the artist was hospitalized with a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of brain aneurysm with potentially very serious health implications. During an angioplasty to investigate this (which could have caused a stroke on its own right), a second even more serious problem was discovered — a dural fistula which is a type of abnormal development of an artery in the brain that if undetected can spontaneously rupture with fatal results and if asymptomatic (as hers was) can only be found with the aforementioned angioplasty — essentially a ticking time bomb in her brain. She then underwent a dangerous operation (that again could have caused a stroke) to repair the fistula. In the words of a friend she's made out of natural 20s — the initial problem didn't kill her or cause brain damage, she didn't suffer any complications from the investigation, the investigation found a second problem that could have killed her at any time and the operation to fix this was a complete success and again no complications resulted.
  • Creator Breakdown: The author, Ellipsis Stephens, went through one around 2014. In 2019, she came out as transgender and explained in a blog post that her breakdown was caused by her gender dysphoria.
  • Development Gag: Originally, Elli planned to have Big Ears die in his fight against Saral Caine. However, in the final comic Ears survives the fight. A few scenes reference this by having Ears apparently die or try to perform a Heroic Sacrifice, only to immediately get stopped.ly "Father".
  • Follow the Leader: Goblins has spawned fan webcomics, notably the adventures of the Scroll Readers Goblin Tribe.
  • Official Fan-Submitted Content: The dead adventurers caught in the first trap of the dungeon crawl where Minmax and the goblins team up are D&D characters whose illustrations or descriptions were submitted by readers of the webcomic.
  • Old Shame: The author has tweeted: "There are some gay jokes from like 12 years ago, in the comic and I cringe so hard when I read them, now. They make me very uncomfortable."
  • Promoted Fanboy: Inverted. Elli is a fan of Studio Foglio and as of 2017 she has hired their colorist, Cheyenne Wright.
  • Reality Subtext:
    • Spoilered for the sake of sensitive readers. This concerns Kin's Rape as Backstory. Really, only click through if you're sure you want to know. note 
    • After Elli (formerly known as Tarol Hunt) came out as a transgender woman, SeƱor Vorpal Kickasso's character arc took on a different connotation. His permanently adopting the name and rejecting his given name of Fumbles, as well as his self-doubt and uncertainty during his conversation with the angel parallels the struggles with identity, dysphoria, and acceptance that transgender folks often face, and that Elli herself has been open about.
  • Referenced by...: Tempts Fate makes a Cameo in a few strips of the webcomic anti-HEROES.
  • Schedule Slip:
    • The strip regularly suffers from this due to the artist putting everything in great detail for each page and having slight breakdowns. It culminated in a large breakdown in 2014 that the author just overcame near the end of the year.
    • Still Played Straight, though differently, since an update timer was introduced. Originally, an update was scheduled every four days, then it went to five days. Also, when it ticks down to update time, it will occasionally skip back several hours (or even a day) and resume the countdown from there before updating.
    • The update timer is no longer there. Since the return of the comic in September 2014, the pace has slowed to around one new page a month.
    • The creator's serious medical issue in December 2017 is also likely to have a deleterious effect on the comic's schedule.
  • Series Hiatus: Tempts Fate was initially intended to have a new scenario roughly every month. But then Elli tried to make a scenario that got too big for her to handle on time while still staying on schedule with the comic. After a while she then made a mini-scenario to keep people satisfied in the meantime, and even then that one got put on a hiatus too.
  • Similarly Named Works: Not to be confused with the French comic book Goblins (2007) (with an apostrophe). It is also about goblins, but here they are stupid comic reliefs and not heroes. (The page picture for Bullying a Dragon is from this comic.)
  • What Could Have Been: Originally, Big Ears was supposed to die in the initial fight at the battle camp, and the Axe of Prissan was going to go to Fumbles.
  • Write Who You Hate: One of the villains is Dellyn Goblinslayer, a Fantastic Racist, Sadistic Torture Technician, Rapist and general Hate Sink. The author, Ellipsis, has stated that Dellyn is based on a group of four men who kidnapped and gang-raped her mother.

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