Yeah, that's why I should make post edits while tired and/or stressed. Fixed, and moving onward.
Goblin
[sblock]
STR 7
DEX 11
CON 6
INT 10
WILL 11
PER 8
Durability: 6/6/3/3
Speed: Sprint 20, run 12, walk 4
Reaction Score: Ordinary/2
Attacks
Unarmed 3/1/0
Defenses
+2 resistance modifier vs. ranged attacks
+2 resistance modifier vs. WIL encounter skills
Armor (Good)
Skills
Athletics [7]; Acrobatics [11]-dodge [18], zero-g [12]; Stealth [11]; Vehicle [11]-space [14]; Movement [6]-race [7]; Stamin [6]-endurance [8]; Knowledge [10]-computer [12]; System Operation [10]; Awareness [11]-perception [21]; Investigate [11]; Lore [11]-UFO [14], fringe science [14]; Resolve [11]; Culture [8].
IDecription
The "goblin" is not a figure out of folklore, but an alien visitor similar to the Grays. It stands 107 centimeters tall, with an oversized head and big, floppy ears that come vaguely to a point. Its eyes are large and perfectly circular, positioned toward the sides of its face and closed to the ears than its nose, which consists of two short, narrow slits angled slightly downward in the center. Its eyes also glow, as does the rest of it - the result of a biological process that also provides a certain luminosity to its blood.
A goblin's legs seem almost vestigial and appear to be used more to orient the creature than hold it upright. It generally propels itself using its arms and hands rather than legs and feet. Its fingers resemble talons more than anything else, though it generally doesn't use them as weapons.
Encounter
Goblins and humans meet for one of two reasons: a goblin is doing business with humans, or a human has stumbled on the goblins doing business with other humans. Gone are the days when the crew of a goblin ship might approach humans openly in an attempt to establish communications and trade negotiations.
When on Earth, a goblin wears a body-fitting, silvery utility suit. The suit provides armor sufficient to protect the goblin from most kinds of damage. It also includes gravity reduction strips meant to facilitate loading and unloading heavy objects. These strips function exactly the same as a weight neutralizer (See Chapter 9: Goods and Services in the Player's Handbook for details). The goblins have found many uses for these gravity strips, not the least of which is reducing their own personal weight so they can leap, climb, flip, and fall with ease.
While wearing this suit, a goblin can perform astounding physical feats, gaining a -1 step bonus on Athletics and Acrobatics skill checks, including Acrobatics-dodge.
Goblins rarely carry weapons. They are merchants, after all, and do not wish to intimidate potential customers. In hostile situations, they rely on their own agility and their worksuits to carry them out of harm's way. They are not averse to picking up and using the occasional weapon, but they prefer nonlethal items, or better yet, technological gadgets that obviate the need for violence altogether.
Habitat/Society
The goblins come from the same general area in space as the Grays, who were never aware of their existence before hearing of these visitors to Earth. Somewhat less technologically advanced than Grays, and having explored the universe in different directions, goblins took considerably longer to discover mankind.
Their first real contact was in Europe's Dark Ages, when they were mistaken for faerie creatures (though they were not the source of faerie legends). These initial encounters taught them that humans were volatile and aggressive, but slow. Their subsequen visit (in Kentucky, in 1955) illustrated that humans' aggression hadn't changed much, though their technology had. Humans now had firearms.
The goblins also discovered during their visits to Earth that the Grays had been there before them. Knowing of the Grays from countless other worlds, the goblins were keen to avoid them: Greys preached noninterference, while the goblins sought trade. For the space of a few decades during the 5 Century, the goblins avoided Gray "blockage ships" (in reality, simply scout vessels) to bring technological innovations to the backward humans - most of which were lost through misuse of confiscated by the Grays. Their ships laden with minerals, ice, and radioactive ores, the goblins departed, intending to return when the Grays were more amenable to open communication and barter with the EArthlings.
When the goblins did finally return in the middle of the 20th Century, they were stunned to see just how far the Grays had recanted from their policy of leaving humans to themselves. The skies of Earth were thick with alien vessels, and extradimensional species were once again harnessing the power of dark matter to reactivate and utilize gates between worlds.
The goblins eagerly approached a human outpost, prepared to trade, but their gestures of greeting were misinterpreted. The humans used their primitive slug-throwing weapons to drive off the alien envoys. After repeated attempts to communicate with the humans - whose language and customs had warped curiously in a mere fifteen hundred years - the goblins withdrew to reconsider their course of action.
Eventually, they realized that despite the heavy alien traffic, Earthlings were only dimly aware of the existence of extraterrestrials. This was largely due to a a treaty the Grays had formed with some human governments. What the goblins had sustence for so long was true: for all their talk of noninterference, the Grays didn't practice what they preached.
To the goblins, this was license to follow suit - albeit covertly, to avoid the attention of the Grays, and carefully, to avoid being blasted to bits by ignorant humans. How to do so at first stumped them. Aliens regularly monitored Earth's communication networks, and landing were extremely risky now that the humans had not only firearms but also fast airships on which to mount them.
The answer came when humans "invented" computers, which led in a few short decades to the development of electronic networks. The goblins used electronic communication to first learn the language of humans, then to make a few innocuous overtures to Internet-oriented fringe groups. They were regular subscribers to the alt.alien.visitors newsgroup, and when "Pretty Good Privacy" encryption became available, the goblins began to openly correspond with those humans they felt could become clients.
Now they make periodic smuggling runs to Earth, bringing alien technology (some of it "liberated" from the Grays) and carrying away the mineral resources they value so much. So far, they have managed to escape the notice of the Grays, but they are prepared to depart Earth again should things become to hot.[/sblock]
These creatures are based on the
Hopkinsville goblins, so perhaps we should dub them as such to avoid confusion with standard goblins?
They seem to be size Smal and either Humanoid or possibly Outsider (although the latter seems a stretch, considering the Grays are of the Humanoid type and share a sector of space with the goblins); as far as hit die goes, perhaps simply grant them 1 like d20 Modern's goblins, or, if we're generous, 2 or 3 for the extra skill and feat netting.
They also have the following ability scores when converted to d20 Modern measures (compared to a standard goblin):
Hopkinsville Goblin: Strength 8, Dexterity 15, Constitution 7, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 15. Charisma 10.
Goblin: Strength 8, Dexterity 12, Constitution 10, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 10 Charisma 8.
Proposed scores for the Hoppys (if we want to make them a low-CR species): Strength 8, Dexterity 13, Constitution 8, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 15, Charisma 8.
Do these numbers sound good?