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From Dogs to Dragons: Kobold Evolution
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<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7739687" data-attributes="member: 6873517"><p>Gygax had what was later termed "<a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/09/gygaxian-naturalism.html" target="_blank">Gygaxian naturalism</a>" firmly in mind when he designed a lot of the early work. Obviously he didn't call it that, but he had an ecology in mind that involved the notion of "graduating" from different foes further up the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_chain_of_being" target="_blank">Great Chain of Monster Being</a>. The <em>Caves of Chaos</em> are a good example of that. Lower tier monsters like kobolds and bandits were foes appropriate for starting adventurers. As one "moved up" older foes stopped showing up and were replaced by higher monsters, all the way up to giants and dragons. </p><p></p><p>The Caves themselves do have some nifty traps and other craziness in it. For example, one of the goblin caves has an ogre that the goblins pay to fight for them. As I seem to recall the party could bribe the ogre, too. The goblins are engaged in a civil war and smart PCs can exploit that. The kobolds have some nasty pit traps and other things. A pit was a pretty unpleasant obstacle for 1st level PCs. The more "advanced" monsters like hobgoblins, gnolls, and bugbears have their own caves and also have better tactics. But those monsters are more appropriate for 2nd and 3rd level characters. Eventually you graduate to the priests and the minotaur. If you finish the whole place off, you're ready to move on to Expert! This was very evident in BESM, but even in the higher levels, say Expert, you'd still see a room full of orcs, who could definitely be a threat to a weakened party or be a waste of resources. </p><p></p><p>Tucker's kobolds reversed the Great Chain of Monster Being and made kobolds really dangerous not by making them individually powerful but by having them play nasty. As much as the Great Chain of Monster Being is a cliche, so too can Tucker's kobolds.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7739687, member: 6873517"] Gygax had what was later termed "[URL="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/09/gygaxian-naturalism.html"]Gygaxian naturalism[/URL]" firmly in mind when he designed a lot of the early work. Obviously he didn't call it that, but he had an ecology in mind that involved the notion of "graduating" from different foes further up the [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_chain_of_being"]Great Chain of Monster Being[/URL]. The [I]Caves of Chaos[/I] are a good example of that. Lower tier monsters like kobolds and bandits were foes appropriate for starting adventurers. As one "moved up" older foes stopped showing up and were replaced by higher monsters, all the way up to giants and dragons. The Caves themselves do have some nifty traps and other craziness in it. For example, one of the goblin caves has an ogre that the goblins pay to fight for them. As I seem to recall the party could bribe the ogre, too. The goblins are engaged in a civil war and smart PCs can exploit that. The kobolds have some nasty pit traps and other things. A pit was a pretty unpleasant obstacle for 1st level PCs. The more "advanced" monsters like hobgoblins, gnolls, and bugbears have their own caves and also have better tactics. But those monsters are more appropriate for 2nd and 3rd level characters. Eventually you graduate to the priests and the minotaur. If you finish the whole place off, you're ready to move on to Expert! This was very evident in BESM, but even in the higher levels, say Expert, you'd still see a room full of orcs, who could definitely be a threat to a weakened party or be a waste of resources. Tucker's kobolds reversed the Great Chain of Monster Being and made kobolds really dangerous not by making them individually powerful but by having them play nasty. As much as the Great Chain of Monster Being is a cliche, so too can Tucker's kobolds. [/QUOTE]
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