About reverse dungeons...

[psychognome]

I just got the idea of a reverse dungeon campaign. The idea is that the players are members of a goblin tribe. Better yet, the players are leading members of the tribe.

Each player gets assigned a character randomly. Deriving from the Monster Manual, the characters I'm thinking about would be:

The Chief- 8th level character (what class? Rogue? Fighter?)
The High Priest- 5th level Cleric
The Intelligence Officer- 4th level Rogue
A couple of Sergeants- 3rd level Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger or Rogue

Or something similar. Maybe the tribe could have a blue goblin psion instead of the Intelligence Officer, who works as a sort of a guide to the chief, and who'd keep watch over the nearby area with his Clairsentience powers.

Now, what do you think about this idea? And, by the way, should the Chief be forced to take the Leadership feat to lead a tribe, or would you just let him lead them through his force of personality?

 

[Tonguez]

Hey I'm doing this too (and was thinking of taking it to the IC board here too)

Anyway I'd actually let the Players create their own goblins but speicify only 1 Blue allowed and set them all at say Level 4 but with first level an NPCclass (Chief takes Aristocrat)

Otherwise great idea - what kind of scenario are you going to give them?

 

[Drawmack]

If you want to make it really interesting make it a goblinoid city. Give them a good reason to work together and seperate them into classes.

Just think of it when the aristocratic little goblin has to deal with the military made up of bugbears.

 

[Xar]

I have been playing a variation on this theme. Some kobolds find a gem with the trapped soul of a lich or other powerfull creature. Because of his long imprisonment the soul developed a multiple personality disorder, these are all played by the PC's. They can communicate by telepathy, and can also posses creatures. The kobolds are glad they found an evil boss to command them around and start constructing a dungeon. They need traps to fend off adventurers and treasure and food to attract bigger creatures. If there is need to fight the PC's can posses a creature of their choice. In the beginning they can only do this with smaller ones, but later as the different personalities 'gain experience' they can controll bigger ones, or even use spell-like abilities.
You can have lotsa different kinds of adventures like raiding a village, building a new dungeon level or persuade a tribe of trolls to join you. And the PC's are always free to pick the monster they like to posses. These can gain levels too, or get magic items.
Hmm, this kinda makes me think of Dungeon Keeper...

 

[Buttercup]

I'd put them all at the same level, too. I do like the idea of making each of them take one level of an NPC class. An adept 1/cleric 3 would be fun to play with. So would a war 1/rogue 3. But I'd say that you should think about what level of heroes you want to throw at them before you pick the goblin level.

This sounds like a lot of fun! There was a thread sometime back about defending a goblin warren that you might want to read. The goblins made use of lots of switchbacks, narrow, dark tunnels, nasty traps, flooding and so forth. It was pretty lethal.

 

[dave_o]

I plan on having my players be helping goblinoid tribes, soon, in retaliation against a human settlement (blah blah blah, sorry ). So, don't be afraid to make your gobbies civilized. I mean, they have motives and thought processes, too.

My goblinoids, at least the ones following druidic faiths, believe they are closer to nature than humans - as the leaves are green, and so are they.

Great idea about the DMG NPC classes, Buttercup. I love those classes.