Goblin alignment

[MKV]

I'm creating a world wherein rather than goblins and their cousins attacking humans because they are evil they do so because they are the native inhabitants of the Northern Kingdoms (where most of the adventuring takes place) The humans and demi-humans have taken their land and the goblins are trying to get it back. In light of this I don't really think that goblins should be evil but am having trouble deciding what alignment they should be. Any suggestions?

[The Witch-King]

Base their alignment off of how you see them treating each other. If, in general, the goblins look after each other and work for the common good, sacrificing time, energy and resources for the good of goblinkind, then class them as good. If even among goblins, it's look out for number one and goblins only try to aid themselves and those close to them that have proven mutually useful in the past, then class them as neutral. If even among their own kind, they seek to dominate and exploit each other and they're only concerned with climbing the totem pole and don't care what happens to the weak and infirm among their own kind, then class them as evil.

[Corneel]

Why any specific alignment at all? Why not have them, like humans in standard D&D, not have any specific alignment preference?

[Everyl]

Why any specific alignment at all? Why not have them, like humans in standard D&D, not have any specific alignment preference?

I agree with this. It sounds like you're giving goblinoids a more complex role in your setting than they get in standard D&D, so why not let them be more complex characters, as well? One group of goblins might raid demihuman settlements out of desperation - they've been pushed away from their traditional territory, losing access to the lands they once farmed, the woods they once hunted, and the waters they once fished. Left with no other options, they assault and steal to survive. Another group might be led by a charismatic leader who whips his people into a frenzy against the demihuman interlopers to strengthen his own influence over the community; as long as they are constantly at war, his position as war-leader is virtually unassailable. Yet another group might simply strive to avoid all contact with demihumans, hiding in difficult-to-reach places and eking out a bare-bones existence. Some communities might even try to establish friendly (or at least peaceful) trade contact with demihumans, seeing them as no better or worse than the goblinoid neighbors they'd been fighting and/or trading with for centuries before.

So if the PCs stumble across a group of goblins in the forest, they can't safely assume that the goblins are friendly or unfriendly, good or evil. There is more to a person than their race, and goblins are people, too.