ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once

[efreet]

I'm thinking of running a campaign set around the rise of a goblin kingdom, and the threat it poses to the world of men. If you go to one of the classic sources:

The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Now goblins are cruel, wicked and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light. It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help."

This is the feel I'm looking for and gives me every right to arm them with crossbows, masterwork weapons, gunpower bombs and smokebombs. Are there any other sources of d20 rules for other nasty things I can give them: I'm thinking of weapons, goblinesque traps and similar sorts of nastiness.

efreet.

P.S. I have seen MavrickWeirdo's Gobin-a-day thread. It is fantastic.

 

[Darkness]

I'm sure the old Dragon Mountain might have some things that could come in handy here.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

*flashback*

Imagine a large ampitheatre. You are standing with your adventuring buddies in the middle. Around the edges are 200 kobolds. They tip huge barrels of oil into the middle, and then drop torches in, setting the whole thing on fire.

Roll for initiative.

 

[Terraism]

I'd just like to point out that this thread has one of the greatest titles, ever.

That said, I think it's a darned good idea. Makes the goblins something more than squish-buggers.

 

[alsih2o]

well, i imagine if they are that smart they also know to poison water supplies and herd diseased animals in with their enemies herds.

 

[Vuron]

Hrmm how about villagers are gathered up and transported in large caravans, upon arrival in a central location they are ushered into a large room where they are told to strip and prepare for a shower...

 

[blackshirt5]

Hrmm how about villagers are gathered up and transported in large caravans, upon arrival in a central location they are ushered into a large room where they are told to strip and prepare for a shower...

A bit too close to reality for comfort, IMO.

 

[AngelTears]

I won't comment on the above.


But you can use a lot different creations, blackpowder weapons, cannons, drawing your enemies into tunnels and then sealing them up behind you. Machines with flame throwers... The list goes on.

 

[Piratecat]

Vuron, that was in appalling taste.

 

[s/LaSH]

Allow me to try and lurch back on topic...

Catapults. I thought of this recently, and it seems to me that catapults of all varieties (and trebuchets, mangonels, ballistae, constructions of that ilk) would be ideal for such goblins. Check page 151 of the DMG. I suspect that fire-belching bellows would also find common use; I'm sure someone can crib together a battering ram and a dragon, or something.

Did I mention that most of these are just as deadly inside? In fact, if you stand on a catapult under a low ceiling...