Post/Author/DateTime	Post
The_Robot 04-10-07, 10:31 PM	I have a great new character all fleshed out, now I only need a name. However, for me, that is usually the most difficult part. Normally I play in more modern settings with human characters, for obscure film and literary refferances work well (a rogue scholar named Guy Montag for instance.) This time though, I'm playing as a goblin extreme explorer (rogue/swashbuckler base classes). I don't have any idea how goblin naming works. Any help?
goblin_pride 04-10-07, 10:46 PM	This time though, I'm playing as a goblin extreme explorer (rogue/swashbuckler base classes). I don't have any idea how goblin naming works. Any help? Go read part of the No Love for the Goblins thread. There's lots of examples of naming in there.
Darth Syntax 04-10-07, 11:46 PM	Well, goblin naming conventions would tend to vary depending on the culture that the goblin in question comes from. If said goblin is from Darguun (and is not Dhakaani) the names might be quite different from a goblin from Karrnath or from Aundair. If you would like, I (or goblin_pride I am sure) would be more than happy to offer up some suggerstions. A little cultural background would be invaluable.
goblin_pride 04-10-07, 11:59 PM	If you would like, I (or goblin_pride I am sure) would be more than happy to offer up some suggestions. A little cultural background would be invaluable. I thought I did that by pointing him at the door at the end of the hall. It's a really big room though, start at page 27 or so for the fluff-rich pages you'll find lots of names in there.
Darth Syntax 04-11-07, 12:07 AM	Yeah, it is a bit of a long thread, so I thought we might make it a bit easier on the poor fellow. For grins, here is an example goblin name (granted the name is now some 9,000 years old, but what the heck). Yäägerïïn Ïïlenösh Madhyarga Tïïlennö (Male goblin, civil servant)
The_Robot 04-11-07, 08:30 PM	ok, thanks you two. Somehow I knew you'd be the one's to help me out. Got (stole) the name from that thread pretty easily. I've got another question now, what is the average lifespan of a goblin? I can't find it any where!
goblin_pride 04-11-07, 08:39 PM	I've got another question now, what is the average lifespan of a goblin? I can't find it any where! The old Monsterous Compendium (remember those?) put a goblin's average lifespan between 35-50 years. I'd say with access to Eberron's society a city goblin might live an extra 10 years on top of that. The Dhakaani in my game pull off the miracle of living on average an extra 25 years or so, making their lifespans about 60-75.
Darth Syntax 04-11-07, 11:05 PM	As I never saw these monster compendia (being somewhat newer to the game than my esteemed colleague), I drepmt up my own goblin age table as there dosen't seem to be a 3.X table for them. Childhood: 0-12 physical adulthood: 13-45 middle age: 46-70 old age: 71-80 venerable: 81-100 (max age at about 120)
The_Robot 04-12-07, 06:08 PM	Awesome. Thanks again guys!
Darth Syntax 04-12-07, 06:53 PM	No problem. Always happy to be of service.
Edymnion 04-12-07, 07:27 PM	As I never saw these monster compendia (being somewhat newer to the game than my esteemed colleague), I drepmt up my own goblin age table as there dosen't seem to be a 3.X table for them. Childhood: 0-12 physical adulthood: 13-45 middle age: 46-70 old age: 71-80 venerable: 81-100 (max age at about 120)Other way around, actually. Goblins in general tend to have short lifespans, even when they don't have adventurers killing them like in other settings. I'd say a goblin would be considered one of the oldest goblins alive by the age of 50.
goblin_pride 04-12-07, 11:16 PM	Other way around, actually. Goblins in general tend to have short lifespans, even when they don't have adventurers killing them like in other settings. I'd say a goblin would be considered one of the oldest goblins alive by the age of 50. Very short. A goblin reaches adulthood at 5 years and usually doesn't live past 35, with 50 being extremely old, according to the older editions. I extended the lifespans of them for the city goblins of the five civilized nations and the Dhakaani, but the rank and file in other nations including Darguun I kept the same.
Darth Syntax 04-13-07, 12:15 AM	The problem with such a young age of physical maturity in goblins is that it dosen't leave enough time for them to develop the complex cognitive skills that the prolonged childhood allows us. Goblins, who are at least as intelligent as humans, would need to maintain "cerebral plasticity" as long as possible to produce the appropriate level of intelligence. Also, their small stature would seem to be in their favor in terms of longevity. Their hearts would have to work somewhat less hard and they would be slightly less prone to expireing from coronary fatigue. This also helps to explain the proportionatly long lifespans of gnomes, halflings, and dwarves. Elves are just weird, but the whole giant bit might explain them in Eberron. High population numbers for goblins can easily be produced by assuming low infant mortality in addition to frequent multiple births (twins and the like). Goblin populations would increse at least twice as fast as humans due to the multiple births alone, couple that with the shorter generation time, and you can have a great number of goblins in a very short span of time.
goblin_pride 04-13-07, 01:45 AM	I was quoting the ages according to the second edition. Some of the demographics in that edition are based on the harsh lives led by the goblins in a standard game. For that matter alone I tend to extend the figures slightly. Society more than physiology would be the bulk of the reasoning behind the maximum age among goblins. Goblins, even in the dhakaani tend to live short lives just due to the rigors and strain of surviving in a very harsh militarized society.
loseth 04-13-07, 08:36 AM	I agree with Darth that it's hard to imagine the development of human-like intelligence in five years (though, of course, there's no special need for a GM to go realistic--I just like it personally). A potential compromise would be allowing goblins to reach non-neurological maturity very early, and neurological maturity 5-10 years later. But I think this complicates things a lot and it would just be easier to give them physical and mental maturity somewhere in the 12-20 years range. As for goblin numbers and population growth, food efficiency will be overwhelmingly more important than anything else. If, for example, you compare population numbers for a set unit of space between medieval civilised nations and medieval hunter-gatherer populations, then you get about 10-50 times more population per unit for the civilised folk. The reason is that civilised societies can feed vastly more people from a given unit of land. So, if you want high goblin numbers, I'd say make them more efficient foodwise than other races. The obvious thing to point out is that goblins are small, so they should already be much more efficient food producers/consumers on a per capita basis (growing enough food to support 150lbs worth of animal would feed 1 human, but 2 or 3 goblins). A complicating issue, though, is that goblins often live underground, so we'd need some good explanation for how goblins manage farming-like food efficiency without farmland.
goblin_pride 04-13-07, 12:03 PM	The obvious thing to point out is that goblins are small, so they should already be much more efficient food producers/consumers on a per capita basis (growing enough food to support 150lbs worth of animal would feed 1 human, but 2 or 3 goblins). A complicating issue, though, is that goblins often live underground, so we'd need some good explanation for how goblins manage farming-like food efficiency without farmland. Standard-world goblins live underground, this isn't always the case in Eberron. True, some do in Eberron as well but that's more a matter of social status over a preference for subterranian homes. Goblins, in my game at least, are true omnivores, they can and will eat just about anything that has ever been alive assuming survival is at stake. What this means is that goblins in a city can endure a siege condition for much longer than anyone simply because that after the food runs out they can continue to survive eating things like rats, dogs, cats, shoes, thatch, and eventually the furniture. Certainly a goblin will be at optimum health eating meats but if necessity provokes it, their metabolism can break down any sort of organic matter including an oatmeal-like paste made from sawdust (called siegebread in Darguun). Goblins in a besieged city could hold out indefinitely assuming you could find a group of them that wasn't willing to throw open the gates and change sides once the other inhabitants starved to death.
Burningspear 05-30-07, 11:21 PM	Goblins, in my game at least, are true omnivores, they can and will eat just about anything that has ever been alive assuming survival is at stake. What this means is that goblins in a city can endure a siege condition for much longer than anyone simply because that after the food runs out they can continue to survive eating things like rats, dogs, cats, shoes, thatch, and eventually the furniture. Certainly a goblin will be at optimum health eating meats but if necessity provokes it, their metabolism can break down any sort of organic matter including an oatmeal-like paste made from sawdust (called siegebread in Darguun). Goblins in a besieged city could hold out indefinitely assuming you could find a group of them that wasn't willing to throw open the gates and change sides once the other inhabitants starved to death. :rofl:
Kinger 06-02-07, 11:39 AM	Siegebread. Nice. I also subscribe to the "Gobbos can and WILL eat anything" line of thinking, going so far as to houserule Goblinoids as having a +4 Fort bonus to saves vs. mundane disease and ingested poisons. I feel confident this doesn't offset anything balance-wise because really, how many times do PCs use mundane disease or ingested poison against enemies? :)
BrotherDog 06-06-07, 03:20 AM	Another idea if you're pressed for time: Just enter your real name in the blank and press translate... http://www.coveworld.net/eberron/goblin_translator.html ...ta....da..!!! It can be fun for stuff like that.
Identitystolen 06-06-07, 11:24 PM	One small nitpick about the translator, the goblin names of Sharn in S:CoT aren't the ones given by the translator. Other than that, you made my rogue far more interesting (now I can get away with cursing at the table, woot!) Oh, and on the topic of goblin names, can anyone think of an expanded version of Mek? The excuse of having such a short name is that Mek prefers people calling him by the short hand version instead of hearing them slaughtering the whole pronunciation.
BrotherDog 06-07-07, 03:36 AM	Yeah. It doesn't actually translate, it just converts the letter groupings to a more Dhakaani sound. That site also has one for the DalQuoran tongue and one for the Elves. It can be fun tossing around curses in a fake language... ;;D