Turning the "Good Races" Concept on Its Head

[Audious]

So I'm looking at running a D&D or Pathfinder game in which the characters play members of a goblin tribe.

They are a relatively peaceful tribe who is one day randomly attacked by a group of adventurers (dwarf, elf, human, etc.). A few survive including the PCs, a mother and child, twin brother and sister and a woman.

The goblins stay close long enough to watch a permanent campsite be set up and more adventurers came. As soon as a tavern started to get built, they realize that their home has been taken from them and they need to find a new one.

Now, I think I'm going to ban some of the more "refined" classes for this game, such as Wizard or Paladin.

However, I don't know if I should start them at level 1 or higher.

I plan to point them at first in the direction of the badlands nearby their home. These badlands happen to be occupied by an Ogre and his Dire Hyena pets. I think it will be a good way to get the feeling of "entering a big, scary world." Also, later in the campaign, I think I wanna attempt to steer them back to the city that has been built up around the now huge, fancy tavern.

I don't really know why I'm posting this, but I think it should be a fun campaign. So uhh... I guess post thoughts, ideas, criticisms, etc.

Edit: Also, oddly enough, I didn't see the other goblin tribe thread until after posting this, haha.

[BobVosh]

Goblins are a great LA0 race. 30 foot movement, small, and a racial hide bonus to go with the small +4 to hide. Also a weird bonus to ride. If your players are smart they should go for a stealth party.

I can see no pally, or at least traditional pally. Why not Tyranny/slaughter if they want, though?

Quick question: have your players agreed? Theme teams work better if the players want to be a gobbo/holy roller/etc.

*edit* Oh wait, is it a good campaign? My bad.
Also: http://goblins.keenspot.com/d/20050626.html
Could inspire you :P

[Audious]

Goblins are a great LA0 race. 30 foot movement, small, and a racial hide bonus to go with the small +4 to hide. Also a weird bonus to ride. If your players are smart they should go for a stealth party.

I can see no pally, or at least traditional pally. Why not Tyranny/slaughter if they want, though?

Quick question: have your players agreed? Theme teams work better if the players want to be a gobbo/holy roller/etc.

Not yet, but my players are pretty open with stuff like that.

Also, Tyranny/Slaughter don't work because I intend a mostly Good or Neutral party. Also they're not very advanced tribes. I suppose I could just do a paladin as a chosen of the tribe's god and just let them do whatever alignment within that range.

[urkthegurk]

I assume you've read the webcomic goblins? If not, then you should, just for the reference material.

I think that starting at first level is the only option for a goblins game, since the idea is that you're basically low-level monsters from this sucky tribe that decide that their tired of eating the big races dirt.

If you want to make the ogre-hyena thing work, you can still probably start it at first. In order to make him a really effective villain, you'll want to build him up at least a little, so his henchmen can harass and attack the PCs before the ogre would ever think to get involved. Sure, he'd come if another ogre attacked, but 3-5 goblins? That's not even that interesting an encounter for the big guy.

I'd make most of his hyenas regular ones, a few dozen of those, and the dire hyenas are the two that are always with him. Once the PCs deal with these threats, and whatever other critters that they encounter in the badlands (perfect for set-piece random encounters) and accomplish part of whatever quest they're on (possibly requiring a short dungeon delve), the big ogre comes after them to punish them for defying him.

I don't have stats for a dire hyena, but Sandstorm has stats for a dire jackel, which are CR 2. Two of those, coupled with an ogre with a couple class levels, and you're looking at a CR 6 encounter. By that time, they could reasonably win a CR 6 encounter, or possibly CR 7 if they're crazy-go-lucky. If any PC is to die, then it is only right that it should be at the hand of the big boss. IF the creature manages to defeat them, then any surviving PCs get to become his captives, starting a exciting adventure arc where they try to escape.

It sounds like an exciting campaign.

[Audious]

I assume you've read the webcomic goblins? If not, then you should, just for the reference material.

I think that starting at first level is the only option for a goblins game, since the idea is that you're basically low-level monsters from this sucky tribe that decide that their tired of eating the big races dirt.

If you want to make the ogre-hyena thing work, you can still probably start it at first. In order to make him a really effective villain, you'll want to build him up at least a little, so his henchmen can harass and attack the PCs before the ogre would ever think to get involved. Sure, he'd come if another ogre attacked, but 3-5 goblins? That's not even that interesting an encounter for the big guy.

I'd make most of his hyenas regular ones, a few dozen of those, and the dire hyenas are the two that are always with him. Once the PCs deal with these threats, and whatever other critters that they encounter in the badlands (perfect for set-piece random encounters) and accomplish part of whatever quest they're on (possibly requiring a short dungeon delve), the big ogre comes after them to punish them for defying him.

I don't have stats for a dire hyena, but Sandstorm has stats for a dire jackel, which are CR 2. Two of those, coupled with an ogre with a couple class levels, and you're looking at a CR 6 encounter. By that time, they could reasonably win a CR 6 encounter, or possibly CR 7 if they're crazy-go-lucky. If any PC is to die, then it is only right that it should be at the hand of the big boss. IF the creature manages to defeat them, then any surviving PCs get to become his captives, starting a exciting adventure arc where they try to escape.

It sounds like an exciting campaign.

I intend the first encounter to be too difficult. It'll cause them to keep moving. Maybe I should have a tribe of ogres lead by an ogre mage, keeping the (dire) hyenas?

I was intending to use just stats for a Dire Wolf and tweek them a bit, but I'll have to check out the Dire Jackal.