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Hi, all! I was wondering - would anyone be game for an all-goblinoid playthrough of the horror adventure Escape from Meenlock Prison? My thinking is a one-shot with a major focus on roleplaying and character arcs. It would obviously be an evil-leaning party, but one that can struggle with actual moral dilemmas, so the horror still holds meaningful stakes. Hobgoblins with honor, goblins who just wanna have fun, characters along those lines.
I know that "interest checks" usually just morph into recruitment threads if people are interested, but for now I really do just want to know if this would be something people would be into. I know "RP-focused evil goblinoid party one-shot" is a bit of a weird one. I do have a concept in mind. I might look into launching an actual recruitment thread in a week or so if it's something that generates interest!
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Have I ever mentioned that Hobgoblins and Blues are among my favorite races?
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I think you have! And I completely forgot Blues exist. I guess there would be three ancestry options, then, plus whatever else the especially gutsy players can talk past me.
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Yep!
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Sounds fun!
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I think you have! And I completely forgot Blues exist. I guess there would be three ancestry options, then, plus whatever else the especially gutsy players can talk past me.
Ye. Blues are neat because it opens up the "mastermind" archetypes of goblin, along with the brutish, cruel, but insanely regimented and organized hobs and "innocently evil" regular goblins.
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True! I might want to tinker with Blues, though—reading their PFSRD entry, the whole "scheming deceivers who want to corrupt the goblin gene pool" just feels a little wonkier than it needs to be. I like the idea of them being brood parasites, like cuckoos, especially since goblin children don't tend to have the most attentive parents. I also might want to try to tie them a bit more into Varisian lore—maybe something to do with Thassilon. They remind me a lot of rune giants. They even have blue skin!
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If anyone would make a race of mastermind goblins, it'd be Thassilon.
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Color me interested
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Hmmm. Mayhaps ol' Cap'n Dogbeard could dust off his luxuriant dog pelt beard for such an endeavor!
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As far as races go, might I suggest the Monkey Goblin or maybe a homebrew version of the Kijimuna for your perusal DM? I don't know if I would actually play either of them, just want to know if they were options.
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Monkey goblins are tricky to fit in—they're pretty heavily built around being from the jungle. Kijimuna are a little less region-limited, so I'd consider them, but they likely wouldn't have much place among the Ironfang, the organization the party either belongs to or has been press-ganged by.
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Well, I've got some character ideas brewing, we can talk about them once we move to the next step with this and I flush them out a bit more.
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I'll post for interest. Also need to ask, while not goblins themselves but similar. Could a grindylow fit?
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The setting will be pretty far inland, so a grindylow will be tricky. Also a bit overly monstrous. I'd probably be more open to a goblin snake than a grindylow.
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Monkey goblins are tricky to fit in—they're pretty heavily built around being from the jungle. Kijimuna are a little less region-limited, so I'd consider them, but they likely wouldn't have much place among the Ironfang, the organization the party either belongs to or has been press-ganged by.
Really, we'd be part of the Ironfang for this? Interesting. That IIRC is a bit of a restriction on class choice, since from my experience playing Ironfang Invasion, they don't much care for "elf magic".
It's part of the reason the GM put it on "indefinite hiatus". He got tired of running Hobgoblin Slayers and Alchemists (or Troops of them) in every combat lol.
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Arcane magic (aside from bards and skalds and the like) is very ill-regarded, but that's not to say you can't play a hobgoblin wizard—it will just mean your character is probably not well-liked, and might have been press-ganged or the like.
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I'll throw in an idea -- what about an adaptation of the 3.x goblinoid race called varags? I don't have the book in front of me, but I could post stats easily within the next day or so. It might call for a little extra work, but I'd be interested in playing one. I don't know what class I'd go for yet, though.
But, no matter what: I'm interested!
EDIT: The Varag
A rough draft.
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Well, I took the time to try to make a full version of the varag by the guidelines used for creating new races on d20pfsrd.com. I'll post it here for your enjoyment or disapproval.
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Varag
Medium humanoid (goblinoid)
+2 Str, -4 Int, +2 Wis
Darkvision 60', scent ability
+1 natural armor
40' base land speed
+4 racial bonus to Stealth checks
Varags reduce the penalty for using Stealth while moving by 5; they may also run while using Stealth, but at a -20 penalty.
Speech incapability -- Varags are incapable of using complex speech due to their physiology, and attempt communication via growls, grunts, and hand gestures.
Ravenous appetite -- Varags require three times the normal food and water for a creature of their size in order to function normally. A varag that consumes only double the normal allotment of food loses the benefit of its natural armor bonus. A varag that only consumes as much as is normal for a Medium-sized creature reduces its base land speed to 30'.
Racial Variant -- Pack Speaker
From time to time a varag is born to the pack that is quite distinct from its kin. These "pack speakers" can learn to use speech, by virtue of a lessening of the typical factors that impart the race its hardiness. Pack speaker varags reduce the racial Intelligence penalty to -2, lose the speech incapability racial trait, and lose the racial natural armor bonus.
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Though the formatting isn't all that great, I think it's straightforward enough to be comprehensible.
I usually try to keep my brainstormed races to 10 RP, but this one comes out to 11. Though it's difficult to make a decision on exactly how costly the speech incapability and ravenous appetite traits are, I went with -1 RP and -3 RP respectively.
The changes made to the base race for the pack speaker variant I justified thusly: a decrease in the thickness of the skull and a reduction in the durability of the hide as a whole provide these rare varags with the increased cranial volume and greater range of mandibular motion to make speech a strong possibility.
Whatcha think??
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It's interesting! It might be tricky for a PC to be unable to speak, so the alternate trait is a good idea.
That said, I'm putting these plans on hold for now. I'm glad to see there's some interest, though!