If I remember correctly the Goblin Encounters issue was an editing error. The author used goblin stats but meant to reskin them as small desert nomads.
I'm going to use them as goblins, and call them as such. When player kills last of them, I going to say in howardish voice: "And thus died very last of it's kind,m after long centuries of darkness and bare survival. One more species vanishes from a face of the world".
Hope it will set right mood and players will catch, how harsh world Athas is.
If I remember correctly the Goblin Encounters issue was an editing error. The author used goblin stats but meant to reskin them as small desert nomads.
I'm going to use them as goblins, and call them as such. When player kills last of them, I going to say in howardish voice: "And thus died very last of it's kind,m after long centuries of darkness and bare survival. One more species vanishes from a face of the world".
Hope it will set right mood and players will catch, how harsh world Athas is.
Now that's just wrong!
I like it!!
ahem, sorry, bit of OT-ish inspired humour, hehe
It's been a long time since I saw those 2e darksun books, and I can't remember what the word in goblins is. I thought they were still around, but I'm not totally sure. I was going to use them in my game's first dungeon crawl, if they don't it's easy enough to just tell the players they're something else. But I wanted to know, mostly for my own sake.
In the old 2E books, the Goblins were wiped out by the Champion of Rajaat Daskinor, the Goblin Death. Daskinor is the (insane) Sorcerer-King of one of the Lost Cities of the Forgotten North -- Eldaaritch.
However, there really is nothing specifically tying you down to have them completely exterminated (especially as Eldaaritch and Daskinor aren't in the 4E materials [yet]). After all, it is your campaign. Personally, I have them annihilated, except for some undead versions of them that are still messing with the individual responsible for their deaths, and adding to his insanity.
When looking at anything non-canon, ask yourself whether it adds anything to your game to make it commonplace. Does it strip away favor? Is your time best spent explaining why canon is wrong, or making non-canon fit the canonical view?
For my game, I would rather alter gith and silt runners and create lower-level versions of other classic canonical monsters than try to weave a story around why goblins should still be around. Everyone knows goblins and the whole point of playing Dark Sun is to be in a very different setting. (Otherwise, why not just play in the deserts of Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms?)
This may not be true in your game, in which case you go the non-canonical route. You may need to explain that to players that know the setting well so their expectations match your game.
In City by the Silt Sea, Dregoth has a Planar Gate.. he wanders various planes looking for information on deities, and such, and there is no reason he might not have brought back some samples of creatures that were wiped out on his own world, to study, or whatnot. Or to release into the wild and see how they adapt to his world, and wreak havok on the general population, who has never seen these things before, and wonders . . wtf?
Also, as explained by the various house rules that allow a non-canon race to play, perhaps some were the victim of a teleport gone awry, or a rarely opened portal from another world, and now they are stuck here.
Go ahead and use Goblins.
In City by the Silt Sea, Dregoth has a Planar Gate.. he wanders various planes looking for information on deities, and such, and there is no reason he might not have brought back some samples of creatures that were wiped out on his own world, to study, or whatnot. Or to release into the wild and see how they adapt to his world, and wreak havok on the general population, who has never seen these things before, and wonders . . wtf?
Also, as explained by the various house rules that allow a non-canon race to play, perhaps some were the victim of a teleport gone awry, or a rarely opened portal from another world, and now they are stuck here.
It isn't that you can't do it. You can. There are a ton of ways you can explain it. The question is always whether your game gains anything as a result.
At some point, the substitutions will water down (pun intended) your version of Athas. The iconic one will end up superior to most players because it will allow them to experience the uniqueness of the setting.
My general rule of thumb is to make a point of any variance from canon. Gonna bring back goblins? Why? How about that everything behind the 14th Daskinor "Goblin Death" being false? What did he do in the 822 years he claimed to have used cleansing the goblins? Why did he fail at his task? How did he manage to outsmart the other Champions and Rajaat, who would have verified his work? What secrets did he hide in Eldaarich? What did he do to change gnomes, making them very much fit the setting? Infuse them with elemental power? Make them his children, knowing that an army would be needed against Dregoth? That is a solid reason to bring back gnomes, for sure!
But, just because you like the shifty power or their look? I don't personally see it. But it isn't my game, it is yours.
So, I let in some of these things, but I want better descriptions and reasons. Dragonborn can be Dray, yeah, I can go for that. But.... by canon, Dray weren't really discovered till 10 years or so after Kalak's death, when Dregoth started with his plans. So, should they be around in the setting 4e provides? so close after Kalak's Death? Maybe they are advanced scouts?
As for allowing races.. not all of the Sorceror Kings succeeded in cleansing their assigned races. Borys didn't butcher all of the Dwarves, Lalali-Puy let a few Aarakocra get through, Andropinis failed to eradicate all the Elves... so it is not totally unfeasible that some got through elsewhere. Or, like I said... maybe the races you allow aren't actually natives to Athas, but natives of other planes, kidnapped and brought in by Dregoth, or through some freak accidental portal malfunction.
I remember when my friend first cracked open his original Dark Sun campaign settings.. we made characters, and he ran us through a game. He didn't have the DS monster material, so we used normal AD&D Monstrous Compendium, and we had fun. Even later, when we learned that half of what we encountered shouldn't have been there, we still had fun with it.
More important is, how do you use them and what are you going to accomplish? If you need to achieve something: mood, story arc, particular scene and goblins are necessary, go ahead. If you only need low level monster, search through Creature Collection, certainly you'll find something interesting.