D&D 5E Volo's Guide to Monsters Hobgoblins: You would think there are many cities.

gyor · Nov 21, 2016

Corpsetaker said:
When you read the write up on Hobgoblins you would think they have many cities in the Realms. The write up talks about them having a secret police, strictly military like, pursuit of martial and arcane arts, institutions for the arcane arts, ranks, following orders, etc....

I could picture them having a strict military society behind the walls of fortress like cities.

The write up has almost nothing to do with the Forgotten Realms, its seems based more on Greyhawk honestly.

MonsterEnvy · Nov 21, 2016

gyor said:
No mention that Bane turned Maglubiyet and Hruggek into Exarchs during the Spellplague (which means its likely many Gobliniods worship Bane as well).

Just to tell you this was bull and is being completely ignored. (And it makes a lot of sense to be ignored.) Maglubiyet is both an older and more powerful god then Bane.

Parmandur · Nov 21, 2016

gyor said:
The write up has almost nothing to do with the Forgotten Realms, its seems based more on Greyhawk honestly.

Despite the marketing, and Ed Greenwoods notes (all the stickies are Ed's reactions in character to reading a draft of the book!), it really is a generic D&D book.

MonsterEnvy · Nov 21, 2016

gyor said:
The write up has almost nothing to do with the Forgotten Realms, its seems based more on Greyhawk honestly.

Actually it's more generic D&D.

All of these creatures are still in the realms however.

BookBarbarian · Nov 21, 2016

It would make perfect sense to have hobgoblin cities, though I could also see them as living entirely out of portable military camps similar to the Roman Castra. Every morning they strike camp, every day they march, every evening they set up camp. These could potentially be like cities unto themselves.

gyor · Nov 22, 2016

The High Moor and the Lurkwood are major Hobgoblin and Bugbear locations and the High Moor is said to have had ancient fallen Kingdoms, so I wouldn't be surprised if either location had at one point a Hobgoblin civilization.

In fact I think some Hobgoblin Tribes of the High Moors actually deal with the Lords' Alliance.

And the Hobgoblins and Bugbears of the Lurkwood tend to be mercanaries working for the Hobgoblin mercs The Chill.

gyor · Nov 22, 2016

MonsterEnvy said:
Actually it's more generic D&D.

All of these creatures are still in the realms however.

For some reason I associate generic D&D with Greyhawk, but your right.

Chaosmancer · Nov 22, 2016

Willie the Duck said:
It is a conundrum I usually address by warping my FR maps ("You know those two nations who share a boarder, but aren't at war? That's because there's actually a 500 miles stretch between that the printed map does n't show. It's a demilitarized region that's fairly unsafe and full of adventure opportunities.").

I don't run FR, but I really like this idea. I am swiping it if you don't mind.

I always forget, in this age of satellite imagery, how unreliable old maps used to be

Willie the Duck · Nov 22, 2016

Go ahead, there's no copyright on ingenuity.

Shades of Eternity · Nov 22, 2016

BookBarbarian said:
It would make perfect sense to have hobgoblin cities, though I could also see them as living entirely out of portable military camps similar to the Roman Castra. Every morning they strike camp, every day they march, every evening they set up camp. These could potentially be like cities unto themselves.

I really like the idea of a portable city, but would have to figure out a way to make it so it can appear just about any where as needed, while avoiding the standard "wizard did it." I could see the hobgoblin engineering corps can have a city pop up overnight and tear one down the next.

Also how do you have factions within the city that just don't break off and go their separate ways?