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Mai
2019-03-10, 12:03 PM
So I have been running a game with 3 players. It is set in the early 1800's era of sorts. They even have magical equivalents of muskets that do 1d20 fire damage. (Though no player uses them. Only 1 uses pistols. (1d6) This game has my players being members of a privatized investigations and law enforfement agency known as 'Lacroix Investigations'.

In the last session, I had my kobold folk hero dressed up as a gnome and used prestidigitation to make his scales flesh colored" went into a club, and did the most racist (against gnomes) and steriotypical performance of an arrogant gnome. I had him roll performance, and he rolled a natural 1. So that's how he became this horrifyingly racist, steriotypical caricature of a gnome. (He did so badly that he distracted everyone from his part members. I had had him roll and figured if he rolled super high or super low either would be distracting. It was the most hilarious nat 1 I have ever seen.)

He horrendously offended a fellow gnome, who, unbeknownst to the party, was heavily involved in the underworld. (I won't say who incase the player sees this.) The gnome left and came back a while later. Unfortunately this kobold player devolved into bad pranks. (He was trying to imitate steriotypical gnomes prankster behavior and took it too far when he pulled the pants andb underwear down on a mafia soldier.)

So after a skirmish he was forced to flee. He met the real gnome on his way back to the party safehouse. His disguise is awry by this point of fleeing and the gnome sees through it. So our kobold starts talking about how well dragons enjoy raping the gnomeish god. (I want to clarify that I warned him this was dangerous, but he said his character hated gnomes with a passion. It this was anything else he would run. But he wanted to be true to his character. (Admirable enough.)

Needless to say, the gnome and his bodyguard take him out in 1 round. ( 1 of them crit, and the players are only level 2.) He is bleeding out and is 1 death save from dying, when his party arrive. His party try to convince the pissed off gnome to spare him. And he eventually does. (I wanted to be nice. I should have killed him if I was roleplay in the gnome well.) So the kobolds party member says some things that were not worded well, and the gnome thinks they belong to the claws of tiamat. (A new criminal sect the kobold invented to put pressure on the competing cartel and mafia.) In the end they make a deal to disband this nonexistent groupbin exchange for the kobolds life.

Now the criminal factions know that there are 3 confirmed lacroix agents after them, and that a kobold is assosiated with them. But as my kobold player temporarily uses magic tok change his scale.colors in public, they don't know that's these people. They do know that there is a kobold Warren in the sewers though. So now one of the underworld factions thinks the kobolds are stepping on their turf.


With all the background details explained, I have a question or two. I don't think I want just a kobold slaughter. These guys have a major best carved out of a sewer subsection that leads to their warrens. And kobolds love traps. I could use some advice on how to make my kobold players mad dash to save the kobolds interesting and possibly frightening.

DeTess
2019-03-10, 12:12 PM
With all the background details explained, I have a question or two. I don't think I want just a kobold slaughter. These guys have a major best carved out of a sewer subsection that leads to their warrens. And kobolds love traps. I could use some advice on how to make my kobold players mad dash to save the kobolds interesting and possibly frightening.

Are you familiar with tucker's kobolds? In short, the story of tucker's koblods is about the untold damage a smart and craftily played group of koblods can inflict on their home turf. A couple of examples of things the kobolds can do to reinforce the home-field advantage:

Small-sized environs. Kobolds don't need hallways more than 3ish feet high, so why build bigger than that? small hallways inconvenience medium-size combatants, but don't hinder the kobolds at all.
Murder-holes and secret passage ways. Have most of the walls of the main thoroughfares of the warren be riddled with small arrows slits from which the kobolds can fire crossbows or pour alchemical fire. Let the kobolds have a warren of passage-ways allowing them to reposition to attack their enemies from safe cover.
Ambushes: the koblods don't want to p[aly fair. let them attack from concealment and range, and run once the enemy gets closer. Enemies that run to pursue them will just run into the next ambush.

Unoriginal
2019-03-10, 12:14 PM
Do your kobold PC care about this warren's kobolds in any way?

Mai
2019-03-10, 12:24 PM
Yes! My kobold player just got home unconcious, got a mere 3 hp, then I had them roll to realize what might end up happening. They got it. So, scared their actions might cause the kobolds some problems, they cast an at will spell for 5 temporary hp and are dashing out of the safehouse. Needless to say, as the are still very wounded, they care about the wellbeing of these kobolds.

I have heard of tucker's kobolds but known nothing except that they were supposedly scary.

Unoriginal
2019-03-10, 01:04 PM
Seems to me like you already have your interesting and frightening situation. What do you feel is lacking?

rlc
2019-03-10, 01:31 PM
Wouldn't gnomes fit fine through kobold tunnels?

Mai
2019-03-10, 01:48 PM
They would! As would halflings.

As to what I am looking for. I want the situation to be tense and frightening for the players as opposed to just the npc kobolds and npc underworld soldiers. Only 1 player has big stakes. I am trying to find a way to make it more scary for the players, whob will be on the kobold's side.

Fiskco
2019-03-10, 02:49 PM
Volo's guide has some information on kobolds, as well as a few different "types" kobolds to spice things up.
what comes to mind in particular is the inventor kobold, which if i recall correctly gets a number of "inventions" that can make useful traps or attacks.
Keep in mind that Kobolds have a bizarre fascination with dragons; maybe the kobold warren is host to a young dragon that's acting as a crime boss, making the kobolds do criminal activity to build up it's hoard.

Nothing scares players like expecting some weak kobolds, only for the secret dragon leader to pop out and ask the party what they're doing in it's lair.

NecessaryWeevil
2019-03-10, 03:50 PM
So your question is not, "how do I make the kobolds a threat" but rather, "how do I make the other PCs invested in the outcome of this conflict"?

Mai
2019-03-10, 04:21 PM
So your question is not, "how do I make the kobolds a threat" but rather, "how do I make the other PCs invested in the outcome of this conflict"?


That's correct. :3

Samayu
2019-03-10, 05:19 PM
Nothing scares players like expecting some weak kobolds, only for the secret dragon leader to pop out and ask the party what they're doing in it's lair.

Not to mention finding out the hard way how deadly kobolds can be.