D&D General The Appearance of Female Goblins

[Coroc]

Maybe one scale to compare some Female Goblins to, would be: more like Smurfette from the Smurfs, or more like Greta the Female Gremlin from Gremlins II?

So now they should have long blonde hair ?

 

[Coroc]

Goblins are the mental effluvia of evil deities when they dream, so there is no need for gender. Or young goblins.

Yep they lay eggs, nope that wuz kobolds, they multiply by cloning ...? Ah, forget it

 

[Coroc]

Definetly more like Greta. The female Pathfinder Goblin with the lipstick somebody posted earlier in this posted so reminds me of that!

Goblins for future ?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Following the boob plate tangent:

Plate armor costs 1500 gp. That's about as much as a +1 suit of chain mail or even a +1 suit of splint mail - which would have the same AC. So assuming all plate mail is at least a little enchanted (just minor stuff off the tables in front of the DMG item list) isn't out of place.

Which means any impracticalities can be handwaved via magic

Sure, but it's sexist to have one gender going in for "impracticalities" and not the other, which is my key point. If you have equally ludicrous fantasy armour on both, great. History proves men are very keen to show off via armour.

 

[Imaculata]

Also, THIS is a thing:

So the next time you put boob-armor in your campaign, don't forget to also include the male equivalent.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Yeah and that's the thing - an awful lot of D&D art of "full plate" is pretty clearly derived from 1400s plate looks. Since 3E there's been an increasing amount of "pure fantasy" plate as well of course, which is often ludicrously embellished with incredibly heavy-looking, dangerous and easy-to-damage elements.

I think I'd feel safer in a solid brigandine than a lot of post 2000 D&D "plate". It either seems ramshackle or to be put together from far too many pieces and contain gaps - and that's without getting started on spikes and Space Marine-sized paudrons. It really does look as if modern D&D plate is designed more for aesthetics than the 1300s and 1400s plate of TSR era D&D. No one wears sensible armour.

Of course that might be why WotC-D&D plate is so much less effective at protecting its wearer than TSR-era plate...

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Now that I think about it, how do you know if that is a Female goblin? Goblins may just love Lipstick for all we know.

We don't! And considering how fluid gender norms are nowadays, it honestly doesn't matter much.

As does this debate of "what female goblins look like," doesn't matter much...

 

[Weiley31]

We don't! And considering how fluid gender norms are nowadays, it honestly doesn't matter much.

As does this debate of "what female goblins look like," doesn't matter much...

Regardless, my Goblin lore is gonna basically state that "for whatever the reason, known only to Goblins themselves, they have a big thing for lipstick."

I just love it!

 

[Kobold Avenger]

If it's a setting where there are such things as "City Goblins" which is a term for Goblins who live in Human dominated cities and tentatively belong to the Human society (Eberron has a bunch of City Goblins living in Sharn). So for a City Goblin, the assumption is that most will try to stick to some Human norms and they're likely be marginalized minority inside this Human society often involved in lowly jobs. A Human noble might have a bunch of Goblin domestic servants in their staff.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

If it's a setting where there are such things as "City Goblins" which is a term for Goblins who live in Human dominated cities and tentatively belong to the Human society (Eberron has a bunch of City Goblins living in Sharn). So for a City Goblin, the assumption is that most will try to stick to some Human norms and they're likely be marginalized minority inside this Human society often involved in lowly jobs. A Human noble might have a bunch of Goblin domestic servants in their staff.

This seems unlikely, unless the goblin is fully integrated into this city's society. More likely, the goblins in a city are going to congregate in a specific section and maintain elements of their culture there. Goblin markets, goblin gambling dens, goblin music, all that stuff would be there, and the goblins maintain whatever gender norms they have there.

I personally like the idea that goblin gender is almost entirely irrelevant to them. Neither gender are good parents so have no role there, and it is only during a pregnancy/birth period that a female goblin is treated any differently than the male.

I believe kobolds are actually described in Volo's as biologically gender fluid, able to switch genders when necessary to propagate their tribe.