So my players want to raise some goblins.

[CGNefarious]

Warning that there are very minor spoilers from Rise of the Runelords in the thread.



So my players just finished the first book of Rise of the Runelords and after a short debate on what to do about the baby goblins at Thistle Top they decided to take them home and raise them. Knowing that the town, having been recently attacked by a bunch of goblins, wouldn't be too fond of the idea of having goblins raised in a local inn or some such, two of the players purchased an old abandoned inn about 6 hours north of Sandpoint with the intent to raise them there/start their own inn.

How on earth am I supposed to do this? Does anyone have any suggestions on mechanics for raising goblins? They're under the impression that goblins are evil because of how they're raised, so they want to show them love and kindness. But I'm completely at a loss of how to do this mechanically (and rp wise to be honest) and I'm completely open to suggestions.

Also, how do you think having three baby goblins would affect the business of the inn?

[Psyren]

Have a kindly NPC show up from the church of Shelyn and take the goblin children off their hands. If the players still want to be involved in some way, have them donate a small amount of their treasure and occasionally get (poorly spelled/scrawled) letters from the rambunctious kids. If they keep it up, write back etc., consider having the church give them a boon of some kind as a reward for their commitment.

I would treat it more like a catch-and-release program than trying to integrate them into society though - Golarion Goblins have a nearly hereditary insanity/predilection for anarchy.

[LoyalPaladin]

Hahaha. Oh... this sounds like something I would do.

Always let your players try to promote good in creatures! I mean, anything is possible with the power love right?

How long do your players plan to raise them for? Indefinitely? Till they are old enough to "hunt"? I don't see why they couldn't raise some baby goblins to be good. Heck, I play a character who would not only take them in, he'd raise them to be paladins of Torm. Darn good ones at that, Gallant ain't raisin' no wussies.

[atemu1234]

I second the kindly cleric idea. Adventuring parties are not well-known for producing well-adjusted individuals.

[CGNefarious]

I think they are pretty intent on raising the goblins themselves. They asked the headmaster of the town orphanage to find someone willing to take care of them while the party is gone, but they're going to be raising them in their new inn. I'm hoping it'll lead to some awesome RP options, I've just got to make sure I don't screw it up.

The real question is how having goblins in your inn will affect business.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by atemu1234
Adventuring parties are not well-known for producing well-adjusted individuals.

Most adventuring parties would stomp baby goblins under their bootheels and then ask for XP. The fact that these players actually care about orphaned goblins already marks them as out of the ordinary, so this just might work.

The wandering kindly cleric could be a convenient escape option, but if the players really want to be involved with raising the goblins, I'd say reward their interest and run with it. Find the age of maturity of Golarion goblins, run back the clock accordingly, and treat them like hyperactive baby chimpanzees. Don't hold back with their goblin-ness (goblininity?)--make the players work for it, which could lead to some great roleplaying and hilarity.

But if the players start to tire of the task, I wouldn't press it overmuch. That's when the wandering cleric could come by.

On the other hand, if the players persevere, then they'll essentially all get Wild Cohort for free. :smallbiggrin:


Originally Posted by CGNefarious
The real question is how having goblins in your inn will affect business.

Play up the crazy, hyperactive aspect. Goblins in the inn will cause sweet havoc, no getting around that. Business might suffer a bit, you might have staffing issues.

But if they're raised carefully, the players just might be able to rein them in a little--eventually--and might even help swing the town's attitude towards goblins in general. It's a long-term project they're taking on, so be sure to emphasize that any results will take a while to manifest.

Speaking of which, be sure to make at least one of the goblins a spontaneous caster. Have the party receive worried reports about their new inn somehow being haunted already.

:smalltongue:

[Kantolin]

If you ask me, a major question is: Do you (as a DM) want to encourage or discourage this type of behavior?

I am of course not saying it should be nothing but suns and roses, heh. But if it becomes nothing but a bundle of strife at all times with no positives, then the players will feel discouraged from doing similar (either now or in the future) and will focus more on stab/kill/loot or other things, at least with anything that's generally evil.

So! If the goal is to discourage it, then goblins are /automatically/ evil (and insane). Play up their obvious evil tendencies, and have various other people give very understandable and acceptable complaints (He tried to stab my cat, and when I rescued my cat he tried to stab /me/!). The endgoal would probably be basically 'Well, at least you tried, and it was really good of you to make the attempt'.

If your goal is to encourage it, then while you can play up the difficulty, you also need to throw the PCs some bones. Aiming on the side of amusing is probably safest - have one goblin discover a knack for making traps, and have him booby trap the whole lower floor of the inn for some entertainment and hijinx... but at the end, have him go to 'dad' and say, "I didn't really want to hurt anyone (since I knew it'd make you mad)." Simple, more endearing moments like that can punctuate difficulty/frustration with a feeling of 'Okay, we are making progress'. It can even start with just 'And she is looking at you curiously - clearly she doesn't understand why you are so upset with her wanting an ear collection, but you can see the wheels beginning to turn' or sommat.

If you /just/ have the bad moments, then it could get frustrating quickly. So lump the bad moments with good moments - even just a genuine 'I'm sorry, mom' can be sufficient.

A good plot would also be to frame the goblins - have something bad happen that actually /wasn't/ their fault, but looks like it was. Of course, it'd help to make sure a healthy slew of good moments have happened first - I find this kind of an event to work best when the PCs are fairly sure the accused didn't do it, but don't have proof. To spice it up further, make the accused goblin in question unable to defend himself competently - he's missing (He's obviously hiding because he's guilty!), or has been magically ensorcelled to forget, or he was /actually/ rescuing the mayor's son who begged him to promise he wouldn't tell anybody, and he's learned that when you promise something it's important to keep your word.

Of course, you know your players better than we do, so you know what they would or would not enjoy more personally, heh. I find the latter far more interesting than the former.

[gadren]

How old are the baby goblins, and how fast does the game progress? Seems like most campaigns don't span too many years in-universe, so I'm wondering how much chance for growth they'll even see.

[DrMartin]

no matter what they do, don't let them teach the goblins how to read, or their heads will explode!

[LoyalPaladin]

no matter what they do, don't let them teach the goblins how to read, or their heads will explode!Don't feed them after midnight either.