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View Full Version : Ideas for a goblin adventure/dungeon? (3.5)



Harperfan7
2010-03-13, 05:54 PM
I've got one made but it seems kind of flat to me, so any ideas to make it more dynamic would be appreciated.

(clarification: against goblins, not of goblins)

EDIT: Level 2-3, homebrew (closest thing is faerun)

penbed400
2010-03-13, 06:05 PM
There should be a shaft somewhere in the dungeon that small characters can fall through and if they do they take 15D6 of nonlethal falling damage. When they wake up they find themselves next to a lake and here noises around. At the middle of the lake have a small creature who lives there and eats the fish in the lake. Have him challenge the player to a game of riddles. If the character wins he gets a magic ring that lets him turn invisible.

Make the ring allude to having more power later, it'll be a great plothook.

Harperfan7
2010-03-13, 06:11 PM
There should be a shaft somewhere in the dungeon that small characters can fall through and if they do they take 15D6 of nonlethal falling damage. When they wake up they find themselves next to a lake and here noises around. At the middle of the lake have a small creature who lives there and eats the fish in the lake. Have him challenge the player to a game of riddles. If the character wins he gets a magic ring that lets him turn invisible.

Make the ring allude to having more power later, it'll be a great plothook.

Does the creature in question have a problem with grammar? It seems like it should for some reason.

Icewraith
2010-03-13, 06:11 PM
level? Setting? Challenges?
Need to know what you're doing that seems flat before we can give advice.
All I can say is an entire group of 1-hd warrior goblins always seems boring. Make sure there's a few clerics or at least adepts, one or two effective rogues or rangers for sentries (Unless your PCs are really fragile, Warriors with Alertness just get steamrolled), and a leader with at least one PC level.

Edit: Also schizophrenia is a great hook for any npc! Be good enough at it and your players will think you've gone nuts!

Human Paragon 3
2010-03-13, 06:34 PM
On a more serious note...

I once ran a goblin dungeon where the PCs were trying to get back kidnapped children from their village. This is not necessary to run the encounter I'm about to outline, though.

In the climax of the dungeon, the PCs find goblins who are in the proccess of selling the children to Orcish slavers. The kids are in a cage made a bone suspended over a pit. When the PCs crash the party, the lead goblin slices the rope and runs, but doesn't sever it all the way through.

The PCs then have to fight off the remaining goblins (and optionally orcs) while mounting a rescue on the kids. I ran this as a skill challenge (it was 4e) but I didnt tell the players it was one. I just let them do everything in their power to stop the kids from falling, and if they f'd up 3 times, the rope breaks and falls into the pit, and the kids die.

It was a very memorable combat, and they did manage to save the kids, but even if they failed, it would have given them a great new villain, the lead goblin who killed the kids to save himself.

StoryKeeper
2010-03-13, 11:20 PM
I'm still foggy on what you're doing. Are the PC's playing goblins or are they encountering goblins?

If they're playing as goblins, you can get Reverse Dungeon on RPG now. It has some interesting stuff in there including maps, goblin equipment, and some of the neighbors in the area.

If they're encountering goblins, maybe something like...
A.) Play up the classic folklore of how goblins are fey. Have fey show up to help out for some reason to throw your PC's off balance.
B.) Goblins might be bad guys most of the time, but can your PC's shoot children and infants? Goblin infant shields strapped to adult goblin chests like armor. Make sure the PC's see the "armor" first though so they don't feel like you tricked them into killing the little goblins.
C.) Similar to B., if the goblins have hostages, make sure they use that to their advantage. Have a handful of NPC's with goblin swords at their throats when the PC's show up, and explain that the NPC's will die if the players don't cooperate. Then give them a chance to save the NPC's so that you're not a jerk.
D.) Change up the environment. Players will hear "goblins" and think "the usual adventure crawl." Instead, have the goblins raid the village as soon as the PC's start to walk out the gates. Goblins can climb on top of buildings, start fires, etc. to shake things up. Imagine the split in priorities the PC's will have if they have to save people from burning houses while dodging goblin arrows and generally trying to minimize damage.

This what you're looking for?

Beelzebub1111
2010-03-13, 11:36 PM
A lot of DMs treat Goblinoids and Orcs as pretty much the same thing. This isn't quite right. Goblins should be organized. Yes they raid and cause destruction, but there is always a goal for it or a reason. What are they taking? What do they want. If there are some hobgoblins in charge, you should probably ad much more clever tactics, taken from orders.