All Things Goblin: Looking for Goblin Lore, Mechanics, and Personal Advice

[BlackOnyx]

As the post's title suggests, I'm looking for inspiration regarding all things goblin, be it their lore, relevant mechanics, or personal advice on how others run them at their tables.


Although suggestions for all levels of play are welcome, my main focus is on goblins as they exist in the early game: mooks that new adventurers might run into as they're just starting out.


Just about anything relevant to goblins in the d20 sphere is welcome, including, but not limited to:

- Specific modules (first or third party) that you believe run goblins well

- Specific sourcebooks (first or third party) that focus on goblins

- Specific variants/mechanical systems that might make encountering goblins more interesting

- Specific items/item types (mundane or otherwise) that fit the goblin "theme"

- Personal thoughts regarding how you like (or would like) to see goblins run at your tables


Thanks for the input ahead of time. Feel free to get as creative as you'd like with your responses.

[Kurald Galain]

As the post's title suggests, I'm looking for inspiration regarding all things goblin, be it their lore, relevant mechanics, or personal advice on how others run them at their tables.

What campaign world are you in? Goblins are markedly different in some worlds than in others.

Anyway, here is a series (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/We_Be_Goblins!) of six adventures where the PCs are goblins. They include goblin feats and goblin items, too.

[Falcos]

I (in 3.5), tend to run my goblins as pack fighters, with a streak that lends itself well to ingenuity and combat tricks regarded to be underhanded.

Of course, this then leads to the question of what kind of society this would create, and I usually place the answer to that at "a practical one". To a goblin, this "honour" and "fair fighting" the other races talk about is ash and dust. You cannot eat a fair fight. Honour will not shelter your children from the weather, clothe them in the cold. Goblins fight to be able to go home and provide for their families, like any humanlike race, and for them, if that means attacking from stealth or using gang-up tactics on someone expecting an honourable fight, well, so be it. That goblin gets to go home tonight.

(This also ties into the SRD's "Cowardly by nature" bit - being the small guy in fights more often than not and having no societal pressure for honour means you scarper while the getting is good.)

Consider also the affiliation with Worgs - goblins have, as a race, apparently forged alliances with sapient giant wolves with enough regularity that the humans have noticed. That can't be easy, but it is an alliance that is likely useful to the small, physically weaker goblins as well as the thumb-lacking quadrupedal Worgs.

[AnimeTheCat]

- Specific sourcebooks (first or third party) that focus on goblins


So the first monster manual book gives pretty solid insight on goblin culture. You've got the basic concepts of goblin society outlined in the paragraph headed "Goblin Society". From that, they are:
- Tribal
- Their leaders tend to be the biggest/strongest of them, but also can sometimes be the smartest.
- They have no concept of privacy, and as such they live and sleep in large common areas. (noting that only the leaders live apart from the group).
- They survive by raiding and stealing, usually via sneaking in to lairs, villages, and towns by night to simpy take whatever they can.
- They are not against roadside thuggery.
- Goblins do sometimes take slaves to perform laborious jobs.
- they live anywhere they can.
- their lairs are usually filthy from lack of hygiene.
- they settle near easily raidable locations, and once they have used up the useful resources, they relocate.
- They sometimes form communities with small numbers of Hobgoblins and/or Bugbears, usually with their larger cousins being the leaders.
- They occasionally form alliances with Worgs.
- The non-combatant youths typcially equal the number of adults.
- The chief deity of Goblins is Maglubiyer, who urges his worshipers to expand their number and overwhelm their competitors.

I hope that helps!

[Adamantrue]

I have a homebrew culture for goblins my game world (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?616821-Gaialin-a-SLOW-Work-in-Progress), which loosely resembles Mongols. I'm sharing what is relevant, in case you want to use any of it.

Goblin: Collective term for the nomadic tribesfolk, known for their violent mounted raids. The proper use of the term Goblin is for the females of the species, all considered wives to the Chieftain. Hobgoblins are the males and leaders of the tribe, with only a single male heir allowed at any given time. All other male children are neutered at birth, resulting in Bukubar (commonly called a Bugbear).
Inspiration/Influence: Mongols
Racial Variation:
The three dominant goblinoid races have been combined into a singular race here, with the variation being the result of gender (or castration, in the case of Bugbears).

[snip]

Goblins weren't technically subjugated by the Giants. They were the equivalent of pests, vermin, scavenging on the scraps of civilization like rats. And sometimes being exterminated like rats, but their prodigious breeding rate always kept them present.

They proved a vital link during the "Rise" of the other races, a source of communication and coordination between various factions.

After the Rise, they suffered a new indignity. Because they weren't enslaved during the Giant's reign, the other races saw no need to allocate lands for them. They were left again to scavenge, but without the Giants crushing their numbers, they were able to organize, forming proper tribes and developing a proper culture.

[snip]

For most races, there is a even split between males and females. For the Goblin race, only 1 in 8 children are born Hobgoblin (the Goblin word for male), though the specifics vary for each individuals (some Goblins cannot produce sons at all, while others have a 50/50 chance). This results in a faster rate of population growth. The smallest tribes tend to consist of a Hobgoblin Khan, 5 Bugbears, 50 Goblin adults, 70 Worgs, and 20 Goblin young.

The Giants began the castration process on the Hobgoblins, in an attempt to control the Goblin population, and this created the first Bugbears. This became part of the Goblin tradition, with Bugbears acting as the muscle for each tribe.

Hobgoblins take as many as a dozen wives, to ensure the birth of some sons. Besides the obvious need of Hobgoblins as heirs, eldest sons are traded as peace offerings between waring clans. Since wandering clans often cross into each others' territory, this is a surprisingly common practice, and actually protects each clan from excessive inbreeding.

Since Goblins greatly outnumber Hobgoblins, Goblins often pair with each other, and generally tend to prefer it to a heterosexual relationship. Even the Hobgoblin's wives may pair with one another, though are still dutybound to the Hobgoblin. Though rare, sometimes Goblins pair with their Worgs.

There are two leading roles for Goblins, that together can rival the Hobgoblin's authority. The first is the Heart, which is preferred wife of the Hobgoblin. Though by default his first wife inherits the role, it will often be changed when another wife proves to be most worthy in his eyes, and rarely changes after that. The other role, the Fated, is the mother of a Hobgoblin heir, and rarely changes unless there is an untimely death. It is uncommon, but sometimes the Fated and the Heart are the same Goblin.

Though Goblin raids are common in some areas, many Goblin clans have allied with multiple settlements, and act as protection for trade caravans between them. Because of this, learning the Goblin tongue is useful, though the difficult pronunciations prevent it from replacing Common as the trade language of choice.

Goblins and Worgs worship the Barghest as gods, and the Barghest have shaped their culture for centuries, even before the Giants. It was the Barghest that created the Worg, and introduced them to the Goblins as a gift after the Rise. They work to keep Goblins from truly allying with others, perpetuating discord and conflict.

[mabriss lethe]

If you look at their stats, baseline goblins are good at hiding, riding, and dex based combat. They also have darkvision.. That screams mounted skirmisher and night attacks. They fight best by trying to outnumber, outmaneuver, and ambush their foes, take their spoils and vanish into the dark, and when possible, have their mounts do the heavy lifting.

They don't have a penalty to either Int or Wis, so divine casters, wizards, psions, etc are decent caster choices. While wizards don't seem to have a lot of support in goblin related information, psion does. There's even a specific goblin subrace that has a favored class of psion (Blues)

[ExLibrisMortis]

The excellent Thurbane has a list of goblinoids here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?588636).

[afroakuma]

I did this (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?350307-So-You-Want-To-Kill-A-Goblin-(Fluff)) a while back; if it's of any interest, I'm happy to answer supplemental questions.

[ShurikVch]

Check the Goblinoids (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?564420-Goblinoids) thread - it have a lot of stuff

One of the "most Goblin" adventures is Into the Dragon's Lair

Races of Ansalon have ACF for Goblins "Sikk’et Hul Freedom Fighters"

GRP Bastards & Bloodlines - obviously - have "half-goblin" crossbreed