What goes well with Goblins?

[Buttercup]

What sort of sights would anyone expect?

Give them some sort of unlikely mammal to domesticate. The weasel, for instance. They can milk them and make an especially vile cheese. They can use their skin and fur for clothing. The meat can be a goblin delicacy, which will be offered to the party if they stop for a meal. (Roast weasel in spider venom?) They can use the bones to create spoons, buttons, darts and the like.

You'll want some shamen, complete with necklaces of shrunken heads (weasel heads?).

Houses made of mud bricks, communal living, public bickering and ritualized combat to resolve arguments.

 

[DMH]

Make it a blue controlled state- uniforms, symbols, the lobotomized out for public viewing, stuff like that. Creep the players out by using telepaths reading their thoughts and telekinetics burning power points for minor reasons (like floating the beer over to the table). The only reason they do not have slaves from other races is the nonagression pact with the local humans (they invade if the goblins start using non-goblin slaves). This may seem strange, but think about the visuals for a bit to understand why I am suggesting it.

 

[Mercule]

It's always 'interesting' to have a low-level creature like a kobold or goblin with LOTS of class levels. Your PCs might not be expecting that.

I starting building the town using the town-building rules in the DMG as a guideline. That's a real adjustment to a point of view. Led by a 7th level fighter -- actually, I think I'm going to start treating Scout as the favored class.

Also... some dragons can easily shapeshift into a goblin. I imagine that a shapeshifted dragon/goblin (even one who, for some reason, CAN'T turn back into a winged reptile) and it's half-dragon offspring could make for quite a challenge.

The kindom the PCs are in is ruled by a green dragon masquerading as a human king. I don't want to re-use the same trick here, but I obviously like the idea.

Houses made of mud bricks, communal living, public bickering and ritualized combat to resolve arguments.

See my above comment on goblin intelligence. These houses could pass as human in terms of tech. Archetecture may be different, though. Hmm....

I really like the weasel idea, though. Especially the cuisine. For some reason, dire weasel boiled in weasel urine seems like such a good goblin dish (as if weasel meat wasn't nasty enough on its own). Since the PCs are supposed to be gathering info, they'll probably be observing quite a few pleasantries, including dinner. Should be interesting to see how the vegetarian elf reacts to being fed meat from one of the most purely carnivorous animals in the world. Especially since she's the only character that'll be there who has spent points on social skills.

 

[Brakkart]

The kindom the PCs are in is ruled by a green dragon masquerading as a human king. I don't want to re-use the same trick here, but I obviously like the idea.

Use it but with a twist then. In the old boxed set Dragon Mountain one of the "puny" kobolds was in fact a Frost (or was it Fire?) Giant that had been polymorphed into kobold form and gotten trapped in that shape. After a while though, realising that he was (by far) the toughest kobold around he came to like his new shape.

I can still remember the look of shock on my players faces when the party fighter hit this guy for 30ish points of damage and I said the kobold just grinned at him (and then hit him back for more!). When 4-6 points of damage had been sufficient to kill any other one of the critters, it sure wiped the smug looks off their faces as this one kobold handed the partys toughest melee character his ass on a plate (figuratively speaking).

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

I wouldn't personally add extra monsters to the goblins to spice them up - you can make them interesting in and of themselves.

Give them an unexpected religion and the consequent flavouring of the society (Lolth-worshipping goblins where the leaders and priests are all women and the men do all the childrearing, or Orcus-worshipping goblins where more than half the infantry turn out to be goblin zombies, or something). Make their appearance distinctive in some way (the Bat Eared Goblins) or give them a distinctive battlecry (for maximum old skewlness, "Bree-yark!")

 

[Endur]

Humor!

Goblins are Great for Humor!

Gnomes and Halflins are good sources of Humor, but they are so close to humans that you can be afraid to laugh too much at them.

Goblins are a little further away, so it makes it easier for players to laugh at them.

When I gm goblins, the Goblins NEVER attack the PCs. The Goblins are terrified of the PCs. They are whiny cowards. They bow, they give big gifts to the PCs. They promise them anything, just let us live types.

My goal when GMing goblins is to try and make the Players laugh the whole time.

If I want a deadly small race, I use Kobolds. Same size as goblins, but they are alien reptiles and I give Kobolds lots of traps and maybe a Dragon ally.

For goblins, though, humor is the key.

Now, I might have other big bad evils that bully the Goblins. So the PCs may end up fighting the Big Bad Evils (dark priests, orcs, Barghest, etc.). If you want something nasty to lead a goblin tribe, Barghests can fit the role well. Evil priests and Orcs are the traditional bullies. If the goblins actually get driven into a combat, they mostly rely on missile weapons and allies (worgs, war machines, etc.). Any goblin that finds itself in melee automatically flees.

 

[Tonguez]

I like the giant insect idea

but then again one of my favourite encounters involved a group of insectoid goblins, some giant spiders, ettercaps and a half-fiend insectoid goblin who was a minor diety (the god of flies)

 

[DMH]

Tonguez, do you have Bodies and Souls from Second World Simulations? It has a very spiffy insect based template (one that is customizable and very easy to determine CR with).

I still say that blues can provide an interesting varient to a goblin community.

 

[Sejs]

Use it but with a twist then. In the old boxed set Dragon Mountain one of the "puny" kobolds was in fact a Frost (or was it Fire?) Giant that had been polymorphed into kobold form and gotten trapped in that shape. After a while though, realising that he was (by far) the toughest kobold around he came to like his new shape.

Fire giant.

Heh, yeah I remember him too. Good times.

 

[jeff37923]

Give them some sort of unlikely mammal to domesticate. The weasel, for instance. They can milk them and make an especially vile cheese. They can use their skin and fur for clothing. The meat can be a goblin delicacy, which will be offered to the party if they stop for a meal. (Roast weasel in spider venom?) They can use the bones to create spoons, buttons, darts and the like.

The goblin weasel cheese is such a vile concept that I nearly urped up my dinner. Mind if I use it in my own game?

Something to not forget is the hobgoblins and bugbears that may be living there.

This town would know that it would be the Most Likely Target if any problems arose between humanoids and the surrounding countryside, so they will want to be on good terms with any non-humanoids around. Have a few scenes of sycophantic goblinoids falling all over themselves trying to be good hosts to the PCs, offering them weasel cheese fondue banquet dinners in their honor and the like. Not knowing how vile the PCs may find this to experience, and also the PCs hoping not to offend their hosts (who, actually have them surrounded at the moment).