The life of a goblin (Inactive)

Game Master Belac93

Hello goblin lovers, I am looking to make a goblin pathfinder PbP campaign. This is a strange idea, but some diseased part of me decided it would be a good idea to run a goblin game starting at the beginning.
And when I say beginning, I mean the very beginning. Your characters will start out at about a half year old, and progress until I decide my lungs are going to explode from laughing. Here are the character creation guidelines.

All characters must be goblins.

15 point buy, starting at level 1, in NPC classes. Once you level up, you lost your NPC class and gain 2 PC class levels

Characters will be awarded laughter points. Every time you make me laugh, you get a laughter point. Each laughter point can be spent to gain a +5 bonus to one roll, after you have seen the result. If you make me laugh so hard I fall out of my chair, you level up.

All characters start with 1 level in an NPC class. After one quick level up, you can take a level in one of the normal classes. Certain normal classes can only be taken by a certain NPC class character. You must use unchained summoners, and cannot use the normal version of that class. The skills you choose at 1st level can be any skill from your class skill list.

All characters start as young goblins, and so have slightly different bonus's. These are replaced by normal goblin bonus's at adulthood.

1 Trait when starting, and a second at the first level of a PC class.

Each character starts with 2d6 gp worth of items.

This looks really funny do have a timezone and times you are wanting to play? Also what program are using roll20, fantasy grounds?

I am going to use this site for a play-by-post. So, I'm using paizo forums. For posting, I just ask that you post at least once every day, but exceptions could be made for 2. 2 Posts a day would be ideal.

I have had this messageboard alias for a while. Would be interesting seeing him grow up. I think he'd turn out to be a feral gnasher.

This is a cool concept. Did you see all my posts in the other goblin rectuitment? Sufffice to say, I like goblins.

Aren't they raised in cages together until the weak ones are eaten by the strong when they're babies, or something like that?

Since obviously, at less than a year old, you don't have a real story, how will you choose potential players among the entries?

Are you saying you don't want more than two posts a day? Because minimum is one thing, but I usually am checking the boards pretty frequently, and just keep up with whatever flow is the fastest.

This is a cool concept. Did you see all my posts in the other goblin rectuitment? Sufffice to say, I like goblins.

Aren't they raised in cages together until the weak ones are eaten by the strong when they're babies, or something like that?

I did see your posts. Glad to see another goblin.

Since obviously, at less than a year old, you don't have a real story, how will you choose potential players among the entries?

People who like goblins will be my first picks. Otherwise, it's first come, first served, best history. People who have interesting characters will get picked earlier. I also like humor, so I will be looking for that in the players.

Are you saying you don't want more than two posts a day? Because minimum is one thing, but I usually am checking the boards pretty frequently, and just keep up with whatever flow is the fastest.

Minimum 1 post, preferably 2 minimum, but I know many people cannot keep up with that. No maximum for posts, I like fast-ish games.

Well, I'm definitely a goblin fan. Maturation speaking, how old would a half a year goblin be? I mean they mature at 1 and 1/3 the rate of humans, hitting adulthood at 12, so exactly how much personality could you possibly have that young? That's not even the equivalent of a one year old. 9 month babies, despite what their parents try to insist, are not really fleshed out.

Keep in mind that relative age is not necessarily the only factor in maturation. Goblins I would think become autonomous much more quickly and have opportunity to develop and exhibit their own personality earlier.

Human babies spend a lot of time just uselessly lying around completely relying on their parents for their most basic needs. Goblins begin competing pretty much at birth.

Huh. Now that I actually look, I realize goblins ages are different than I thought. For some reason I assumed that they were adults at 4 years old. Remember also that goblins lifespan is only about 40-60 years, so there is that to consider. I'll say more around 6 year old starting age, so about the equivalent of a 10-11 year old, and maturing fast. It says in goblins of golarion: 'Put your baby in a cage, he comes out when he's of age.' I would say personality has developed by then.
Thanks for the age reminder.

Well, I just found this on the goblin page in PathfinderWiki:

"Goblins mature rapidly, reaching adulthood in five years and living up to fifty (though most goblins are violently killed before the age of 20)." So younger than I thought, but older than you remembered.

Ah, thats were I saw it. Ok, so I'm going to say 2 years old then.
I'll get some info on the actual setting in a while, once my inspiration strikes.

This is just about the funniest idea I'd ever seen on here. Playing as a goblin is one thing, but now, you're playing as a goblin baby? That's really is a recipe for hilarity.

I'd never gotten the chance to play one myself admittedly, not for lack of trying however. Had an idea for one like a month back, and I'm curious to see if he could even survive past the cage as a tiny mutated monstrosity.

Lets see if this little guy gets your attention GM:

Ulk is a little guy, even for a goblin and his most striking feature is his big, bat-like, ears. With a huge bump in the head, he sits besides a stone, with shackles ending in heavy iron balls on both his legs. He was not a prisoner, he was just stubborn as a mule.

"What now, Ulk? You fall again?" Yalla, the old matron asked him, with a mix of amusement and pity for the little one.

"I not fall... I be flying." Replied Ulk yelling, quite offended... as always.

"We no fly Ulk... we be goblins..." She sighed. "But why the balls?"

"...If I no climb, I no fly." He explained, completely frustrated.

Yalla has lost the count of how many times Ulk climbed the walls of the cave and jumped to 'fly'. He tried many times and in many ways: naked to be lighter... with clothes to work as wings... even with bats tied to his arms and legs... all with the same result, a fall and a huge bump. Then she noticed that TWO heavy iron balls were an overkill for the little fella. "But why TWO balls?"

"One not enough... I be flying with one... flying fast..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crunch wise, he will be an Alchemist with the Winged Marauder and the Granadier archetypes, starting as a Commoner.

Just one question, when the npc class is abandoned, we loose the skill points and extra feat (in the case of the commoner)?

That is a good question and would definitely affect one's planning. If you don't lose them, its kind of a Magikarp situation that encourages going with commoner to begin, mechanically speaking.

Mechanically speaking, each class could have a boon:

Adept: extra spell per level
Commoner: an extra feat
Expert: extra skill points
Warrior: extra hp?

Also, Ulk will be pretty useless before leveling up.

Another question DM: Are your adventures already set while we are babies, or will you change it according to the selected PCs? Asking this because the Winged Marauder assumes a goblin ventures into the nest of giant vultures to steal an egg and train it! So it would be a nice adventure by itself if this is your intention.

I'm definitely interested. I'll have to think about who I will want my gobbo to grow up into.... :)

Sir Longears, I like that idea. I believe that, since commoners are so useless, I will upgrade their hit dice to d8s, and give them the same weapon and armor proficiencies as the expert (so light armor and simple weapons), and the warriors bonus will be +2 damage with attacks.

For the other question, no you do not lose the extra feat, that is why starting as a commoner is worthwhile for people. For the skills, I believe I managed to set it up so that you cannot lose skill ranks on level up. All the NPC classes that are available get 2 + int skill ranks per level, and the expert gains 6 + int. All the classes that an expert can become have 6 or higher + int skill ranks.

I think the baby adventures will be max 2 set ones, and the rest will be driven by character ambitions. I agree that that would be a cool adventure.

For the encouraging commoner to begin with, remember that you must choose a feat that a commoner can use. So you have to take a feat that requires no class features at all.

GP: 2d6 ⇒ (5, 6) = 11

I understand the additional feat of commoners to be quite general, but what about the 1st level normal feat? Here are some suggestions:

1) We are assumed to have our future class features (even if we are unable to use it right now);
2) We take only non-class feats right now and they are retrained when we choose our class;
3) We take only non-class feats right now.

In my case I think I'm good with any of them, but to some classes it might hurt quite a lot if option 3 is the chosen one.

Ulk will have:

Str 6 (-2 pts)
Dex 17 (3 pts)
Con 12 (2 pts)
Int 16 (10 pts)
Wis 12 (2 pts) -> 10 while baby
Cha 8 (0 pts)

Another question... the above +2 to ride and +2 to stealth are a reference to the Skilled racial trait, right? In Ulk's case, I was planning to swap the Skilled trait with the alternate Over-sized Ears (+4 to perception) racial trait... so I get +2 perception while a baby instead of the +2 to ride and stealth?

I'll say option 1 would be fine. Nice roll for gp.
Yes, you would have +2 perception. I also forgot one thing. Your characters will start with 20 foot speed until they grow to small size.
Any alternate feature that gives a numbered bonus to a skill or speed is halved.
EDIT: Apologies, used wrong alias.

If it weren't for the fact (un)Chained Summoners can make neat elementals, I'd not even consider them for this. Still not a good idea for such a restricted class though.

There's a lovely Wizard Archetype for Goblins here on the boards I'd love to use, if you don't mind homebrew. Spellsniffer is one I helped fine tune it a little after suggesting it to its creator. :)

There's a lovely Wizard Archetype for Goblins here on the boards I'd love to use, if you don't mind homebrew. Spellsniffer is one I helped fine tune it a little after suggesting it to its creator. :)

I was just wondering whether to let people take this. I literally have it open on another tab as I type this. Sure, you can take it, but I do not think I will allow any other homebrew unless someone finds a really good one.

Dotting for Interest
I'm thinking of doing a
Warrior and work towards Barbarian

would it be ok if I plan to use the UNCHAINED barbarian?

GP ROLL: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 6) = 10

would it be ok if I plan to use the UNCHAINED barbarian?

Anything unchained is fine.

I'll start off as a Commoner then, and go into Wizard(Spellsniffer, Spellsage) and work his way up the wizardly ranks, burning all kinds of stuff and maybe even going into Dragon Disciple. Because more fiery options.

Gold: 2d6 ⇒ (1, 5) = 6

So, for people in order of posting who expressed interest:
Statboy Expressed interest
Bitey Tinygob Interest as Bitey bigjob, warrior/commoner to become feral gnasher
Thegreeteagamer Expressed interest
Threeshades Not certain if you expressed interest or were just joining in on the conversation.
Uret Jet Interest, no idea what your character is going to be.
Sir Longears Ulk, commoner to be Alchemist, Winged marauder granadier
Cartmanbeck (Interest, no character yet)
Azten Commoner to be Spellsniffer Spellsage wizard.
Brandon Dellmen Interest, Unchained barbarian.

Ran this guy through We be Goblins. Would love to take him back to the early days as warrior Baby Thud... : )

This does sound very nice indeed. Not sure what I'd make

Would you allow an Oversized Goblin?

So, for people in order of posting who expressed interest:

Bitey Tinygob Interest as Bitey bigjob, warrior/commoner to become feral gnasher
[...]
Threeshades Not certain if you expressed interest or were just joining in on the conversation.

Bitey is my character.

Sorry about a lack of comments lately. I've been thinking about what I'd want to do.

How long is recruitment going to be?

Bitey is my character.

Ah! Thats a nice surprise. I forgot to look.

How long is recruitment going to be?

I think that it will probably end on the 27th, but could be as early as the 23rd if people get characters done fast. I thought 27th might be nicer for people celebrating Christmas

Would you allow an Oversized Goblin?

I do not particularly like the idea of oversized goblins, but if you can think up a good reason why, then I will let you. But a good reason, not just 'I've always been big' or, 'I'm half ogre.' Something interesting.

I'd be very interested! I've got an idea for an Adept going into Necroccultist called Spooky Mags.

People who are done their characters can start posting them.

Wealth: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5

----------------------------------
The young goblin lady triumphantly stood atop the bundle of straw she had spent all day building up. She looked around at all the other little goblins she shared her cage with, and called out to them. "Come here! Mags has story! Mags spook you!"

The goblins, knowing what her stories usually entailed, ignored her and kept eating bugs and picking their noses. Mags, immediately becoming frustrated by this, started shrieking at them. "Mags say come! Story good! LISTEN TO MAGS!" She went up to he closest goblin and grabbed his shoulders. "Mags curse you all! Only lift curse if you listen!" She clambered back up her stare pile, and grinned as most of her cowardly cagemates came over and sat down in front of her. "Good! We start now."

"There once was goblin! He name Gubs." she began, coming up with the name on the spot. "He, uh, very stupid! He walk in woods alone. But they not good woods!" She suddenly whipped around, staring right in the eyes of a random goblin, and started to get quieter and quieter as she continued. "They spooky woods! He look around, but it dark! He panic, 'cause he can see in dark usually, but not this time. He start screaming and screaming, 'cause it too spooky for him. Then he turn around and...

"RAAAAR! SKELETON HORSE COME OUT AND EAT HIS FACE!" she suddenly screamed, freaking out all of the gathered goblins. Most of them panicked and ran away screaming, while a few just curled up on the ground and stared crying. Mags laughed harshly for a few minutes, then walked away to go play with her favorite mouse skull, satisfied by a job well done.
---------------------------------

Here's Mags, submitted for your approval.

Interested People: order of posting
Statboy Expressed interest
Threeshades Interest as Bitey bigjob, warrior/commoner to become feral gnasher
Thegreeteagamer Expressed interest, undecided on character
Uret Jet Interest, no idea what your character is going to be.
Sir Longears Ulk, commoner to be Alchemist, Winged marauder grenadier
Cartmanbeck Interest, no character yet
Azten Commoner to be Spellsniffer Spellsage wizard.
Brandon Dellmen Interest, Unchained barbarian.
voodooChili Thud Thud, Warrior to be Barbarian
Cuàn Interest, no character yet
Shub-Niggurath’s cousin Al Spooky Mags, Adept to be Necromancy Occultist

Goblin ghost stories are ridiculous, nice job.
If so many people are signing up, I may do a separate campaign with the same idea later.

I want to take the Hard Head, Big Teeth alternate racial trait, which replaces the normal goblin skill bonuses. Can I have it for the baby form already? (maybe with 1d2 damage rather than 1d4)

Also Starting Gear: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9 gp

I want to take the Hard Head, Big Teeth alternate racial trait, which replaces the normal goblin skill bonuses. Can I have it for the baby form already? (maybe with 1d2 damage rather than 1d4)

Yes, you can. Just adjust the damage for tiny size creatures. I believe that is 1d3, not 1d2.

Yes, it'd be d3 if adjusted for size, but considering that baby goblins only get half the skill bonuses i thought it would be fair to shave off another die category.

Yes, it'd be d3 if adjusted for size, but considering that baby goblins only get half the skill bonuses i thought it would be fair to shave off another die category.

That seems fair. Alright, d2.

Wether I'm interested depends on wether I get into another recruitment I already applied with...(don't want to overextend).

But there's one important question I have:

Considering we are going to be goblin children, I'd say there's a very high chance one or more of us end up setting ourselves on fire, getting skewered, or choking on something.

If Sneakyfinger gets crushed by a cart while trying to gobble up roadkill, is a whole new character in order or can his brother, Sneakyfinger II(uncaring, uncreative parents who named the whole litter that way), take over?

Main reason I am asking is wether it makes sense to plan ahead, or just take things as they come...wether it makes sense to think about "this individual goblins personality", or just get into the general mindset. And wether it makes sense to get even slightly attached to them, or sacrifice them in best goblin tradition whenever it seems applicable/funny?

In other words: What kind of casuality rate have you planned for this?(because most goblins tend to die violently...and hell, that's part of what makes them so fun)

This will be one were characters can survive. Its about the journey of goblins from childhood to adulthood. But I would still have a backup ready, and you may need to use it. I do want your characters to survive, but I want it to be hard enough like you feel that you are goblins, working your way from the very bottom, to living like kings.
I would rate it, if 5 is certain death (think tomb of horrors), 3 is average, and 1 is almost never dying, this is a 4.
EDIT: With the brother thing, never. If you die, make a new character, preferably a different class. I hate it when people make Bob ii or any sort of clone.

EDIT: With the brother thing, never. If you die, make a new character, preferably a different class. I hate it when people make Bob ii or any sort of clone.

Haha, I understand. It's just, with the sort of lethality I imagined, we'd have run out of classes before hitting Level 3, and the "weekly cast" could have become confusing in terms of not knowing who is who, what class, doing what, why?

All moot though if you want those goblins to try and survive instead of blowing themselves up in crazy antics -

So, we'll be a first level NPC class character at first, then when we "level up" for the first time, we'll lose the NPC class and be a first level character with a normal class?

I think I'm going to bow out of this one, as I'm not finding the time to build the character with the holidays and such. Everyone enjoy your goblin-ing!

Gip, mighty goblin wizard, is ready for sneaking out of the baby pins!

I suppose I can reformat Ked, considering it is almost certain the game I was applying to with him will not happen. He would be an Unchained rogue. Sneakiness is what goblins do best!

He is one post shy of the deadline for a name change, so let me know if you have a clan name picked out yet.

I will probably go commoner to start. Bonus feat is a bit tough to resist. Pokemon taught me Magikarping is always a good thing.

Incidentally, has nobody considered how hard combat will be as tiny? You have to enter the enemy's square to melee, drawing AoOs.

Oh yeah, how do you plan on mapping?

Gip, mighty goblin wizard, is ready for sneaking out of the baby pins!

A couple of things. You need to roll 2d6 for your starting equipment worth, and I need to know what class you are planning to become. I'm assuming cleric or rogue, based on your ability scores, but it seems hat you are saying wizard in your post. Glad to have you!

So, we'll be a first level NPC class character at first, then when we "level up" for the first time, we'll lose the NPC class and be a first level character with a normal class?

That is nearly correct. What I am going to do is that at appropriate moments in the story, characters will gain their class features. So a player who is going to be a druid will get their animal companion, or a barbarian will get rage, and so on.

I think I'm going to bow out of this one, as I'm not finding the time to build the character with the holidays and such. Everyone enjoy your goblin-ing!

Sad to see you go!

He is one post shy of the deadline for a name change, so let me know if you have a clan name picked out yet.

Incidentally, has nobody considered how hard combat will be as tiny? You have to enter the enemy's square to melee, drawing AoOs. EDIT: Just until the characters are small size.

Oh yeah, how do you plan on mapping?

Three forest goblins was my planned name.

Well, I usually hate maps. I play D&D 5e a lot, and the maps actually make the game less fun I find. Plus I have trouble with most mapping software. If everyone really wants to use maps, I'll try to find something usable, but I'd rather not.

Well...I mean, eventually flanking will be pretty important for me. But I'm sure we can freeform it otherwise. It's not like tactics and such are huge modifiers in Pathfinder like they are in savage worlds.

If you do use them, I personally can't use Roll20 most of the time due to it not being phone friendly. I only use my computer like once or twice a week due to no internet at home...but I'm on the phone a lot.

Well...I mean, eventually flanking will be pretty important for me.

I will be pretty lenient with flanking and all positioning.

Hip would be my character. He's going for Spellsniffer, which switches Wizard over to Wisdom, and I roll the gold earlier. ^^