Campaign Story Help

[Wargamer94]

so... I have a campaign set up where a group of people are sent out as pathfinders or trailblazers for a bunch of colonists... they are sent ahead to secure a place... they are set to discover a bit of prime land... the only problem is the tribe of goblins ruling it... and their buddies(ettins, various beasts, and a few other things)... I feel like goblin genocide seems like a bit of an evil act... even if the goblins are evil... what do you think? and if it is evil, then whats a good reason to kill them all...

[Pan]

Maybe you should let the players decide? You could make it possible for the PCs to run the Gobos off without having to kill every last Gobo. If you feel its neccesary to kill off all the gobos, make them worship some evil god that demands all kinds of terrible acts. This will make the decision easier and justifiable.

[Kaerlic]

Without any good reason to do so, killing an entire tribe of anything would be evil, but if you put in a reason for them to do so, everything can work out fine.
They could have captured a trailblazer sent long before them, in which case then the party would be justified in freeing the prisoner, or they could stumble upon the party's camp and attack them, which would allow some retaliation.

[Rub-Eta]

First: It is either evil or not depending on why and how they're doing it.
If they run around killing everything and everyone because they get paid for doing so, it's evil.
But if their goal is to just get the savage goblins away from the land, and they go about it by only kill the warriors and let the innocent, none-fighting goblins live and run. That may even class as a LG act.

This totally depends on how you want your players to view their task and their employer. Sure it's up to the players what they think, but it's up to you what they are presented with.

It could be: "We cleans the land of foul goblins". OR it could be: "We are being paid by (evil) bureaucrats to do their dirty work, killing the natives and such".

Some questions you can ask yourself:

Why are the colonists doing this?

Why would the PCs do the colonists bidding? Why are they with the colonists? This is VERY important, or they won't play your game or like your plot if they "just have to". Make them want to or not want to and let them do what they want.

What are the goblins doing? Living peacefully? Worshiping evil gods and ruining the land? Why would the PCs be against them?

[Ubercroz]

Easy fix: all goblins are evil. They may be technically intelligent, but they are evil no matter what. This means you can never (or maybe only ever have one with a GOOD backstory) a PC goblin.

It also means that goblins, even baby goblins, will try and kill and attack a player if they can. They are literally born evil and are literally a plague. Like wild hogs in the southern US, they are devastating to the land and should be put down even when they are little. It's not evil - its necessary.

Running some monstrous NPC races like that really gets rid of a lot of the moral quandaries that can come up. If those races are always evil, then you don't have to stress about the morality, because those races are evil.

I think its one of the easiest ways to fix the moral problem.

[laughmask21]

As Rub-eta said, make sure you coax a drive out of the PC's, otherwise they won't be invested in their quest and may not feel immersed. You could give your PC's a chance to come up with a reason for you by asking them ahead of time to come with a reason that the Goblins need to be eliminated.

Another play-to-find-out approach would be start them off scouting, and stumble upon a hostile goblin scouting party (the goblins are lying in wait for an ambush if the PC's don't spot them first). Have a distinct "party leader" amongst the goblins who seems to be giving orders, and on his person would be a note written in common, "Spy on the invaders and assess their strength. -BBEG" and a map marking directions from the goblin camp to the settlers' (since goblins are stupid and need maps =P). The players then have a perfect hook to go scout out the goblin camp and return to the settlers, or they may discover the goblins taking up arms and they need to be eliminated. Goblins are best treated as minions to a larger player, perhaps a commanding Bugbear who rests in a nearby cave to give order (also the creature that wrote the note).

Evil is all about perspective. I killed an infant (evil). And enjoyed it (really evil). Because it was infant Hitler that I went back in time to kill (oh...not so evil). But I could have raised him to be a great humanitarian leader (...I don't know how to feel anymore).

When you give your players perspective, they will make their own judgement calls. If you display aggressive and hostile behaviors coming from the goblins - slaughtering kidnapped children, eating domesticated animals alive, burning their neighbors hut down - the player's will most likely deem it justified. And if they don't, turn it around. Give them a chance for diplomacy or even followup with armed settlers coming to finish the job and the players have to choose - Goblins or Settlers...or run.

What you have is fine, and the players will let you know how they feel once they start playing. You just need to be prepared and willing to react if things do not go according to plan.