D&D General The Appearance of Female Goblins

[Kobold Avenger]

So I've been thinking of the depiction of Goblins, as they're a more common PC race that exists outside the core PC races.

One thing that occurred to me is the differences between what they look like in things like World of Warcraft and how they're like in D&D. It could be argued that generally male Goblins in WoW and D&D look similiar enough, in that they're mostly bald. But when it comes to female Goblins, the ones inspired by WoW look more like short green Human women with large ears, I think D&D has rarely shown what a female Goblin looks like and could be assumed that they don't look much different from male Goblins.

A lot of more general fan art tends to lean in more the influence of WoW. I guess there's the third option where they could be depicted as recognizably female but generally comical and "ugly" in appearance.

I've come to the conclusion that there's some general trends in appear for Goblin females, there's the ugly direction, the comical/caricature direction and the attractive/cute direction.

 

[Mirtek]

I know I will get negative feedback on this one, but over the time I met way more female players descriping their fighters/monks/barbarians/etc. as River Tam vs. as Mother Russia.

PS: Dragonborn boobies fall into the same category of issue

 

[Urriak Uruk]

In Tomb of Annihilation, there are female goblins. They don't look very different than the male. They certainly don't look like short humans with large ears.

Personally, I love the Pathfinder female goblin. Being almost exactly like the male, but has lipstick.

 

[MarkB]

So I've been thinking of the depiction of Goblins, as they're a more common PC race that exists outside the core PC races.

One thing that occurred to me is the differences between what they look like in things like World of Warcraft and how they're like in D&D. It could be argued that generally male Goblins in WoW and D&D look similiar enough, in that they're mostly bald. But when it comes to female Goblins, the ones inspired by WoW look more like short green Human women with large ears

WoW learned that lesson early, with Trolls and Tauren. Initially, males and females of those races had very similar body types. However, Blizzard received many complaints about the female characters being "ugly", and so they made significant changes to them, bringing their features, body type and posture far closer to the human norm.

They followed that pattern with every subsequently-introduced playable race, and goblins were no exception.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

It seems as time goes on, the female version of every non-human race in D&D gets sexier, so to speak. Dwarves went from (maybe) bearded almost men, to short but thicc as hell.

Google image search "female half-orc d&d". Good thing they removed that Charisma penalty because I see no sign of it. (Unless they all have really repellent personalities. )

 

[DnD Warlord]

I have never had a woman play a woman character without boobs... back in 4e during the dragon born chest arguments everyone of the women I knew argued FOR female body part.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I actually think the increase in sexy female characters has been accelerated by the increase of female players. D&D is in many senses a game of wish fulfillment.

 

[Tonguez]

IMC goblins are amphibians and look far more like the pf version than not, females are substantially larger than males and some queens grow to obesity. They’re covetous scavengers that steal other people’s stuff and then make conspicuous displays

 

[dave2008]

Here is an image of a female goblin from ToA I believe:

 

[VelvetViolet]

Goblins don’t need to be sexually dimorphic, nor to have two sexes.

I’m quite partial to goblins being spontaneously generated, summoned from fairyland, or reproducing like plants.