Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 ultimatecarl Mar 22, 2009 20:17:13	No, not stomping Goblins, you racist! Goblins stomping everything ELSE! Video Intro here! I've always wanted to do a tongue-in-cheek campaign that isn't 100% parody or nonsensical. Goblinoids are perfect for that! It lets everyone be a greedy, gross moron and yet still be totally in character! So, I came up with the basic idea for GoblinStomp. In short, all PCs are Goblinoids, which means they have to be a Goblin, Hobgoblin, or Bugbear (all three of which have info on being used as PC races in the back of the Monster Manual). I'm not sure how many players I'm going to have, or even how we're playing (I may resort to online if there's not much interest). The basic premise: The PCs all belong to a clan of surprisingly successful Goblins. They are led by one of the meanest, toughest Bugbears to ever menace these lands. A few years back, she (yes, SHE) and her Goblinoids lucked out. Near their tiny cave was a Dwarven fortress built into a small mountain. These Dwarves had been fighting quite a nasty "war" with some Orcs. One final push, and they had managed to defeat the nasty Orcs, but not without considerable losses. Your boss thought this would be the perfect time to strike. Normally, she and her group would have been completely destroyed by the underestimated Dwarves, but as luck would have it, the Dwarves were already being sneak-attacked by some Ogres they hadn't realized they were sharing a mountain with. Together, these two dim-witted assaults combined into just too much for the Dwarves to handle. Their mountainside fortress now belonged to the Goblins! The Chief wasn't exactly the brightest tactician, but she was certainly crafty and smarter than an Ogre. In another strange strike of fortune, she managed to convince the two surviving Ogres that her band had saved their lives. Not only did she just score a sweet pad, she also got two oversized slaves out of the deal! And so, the Goblins flourished. However, they seemed to flourish just a bit... Too well. With no level 1 adventurers constantly killing part of the population, two ogres to do quite a bit of work, a Dwarven stockpile, nice housing, and a few other surprisingly good things that I don't feel like writing out how they happened (like a War Troll mercenary who owes a debt to the clan), overpopulation had set in. Food and space were both running out, and Goblins with a taste for fine Dwarven crafts will naturally only be satisfied for so long. The Chief has decided to send out a small group (the PCs) to explore the nearby area and find food, possible places to branch out to, and anything valuable to steal! That's basically the main quest and entire major plot. I don't plan on making things much more complicated than that (unless the PCs are stupid and, say... Accidentally declare open war between the clan and a nearby civilized kingdom). I'm going to create the map ahead of time, and have specific interesting things in set places, and let the players explore however they want, approaching nearby areas in any order and doing what they wish. I will of course adjust encounters/levels/etc. in each area on the fly so that they really can go in any order they want and still keep everything fun and fair. I think I WILL have a few set things, but give the players fair warning so they don't rush straight into obvious death (for example, one landmark I'm planning is a Dragon that's set up a small hoard in a distant peak. I'll definitely, say, have the dragon fly by and land in the save before they reach it, so they know to back off. Of course, nothing is stopping them from trying to sneak in and steal some things!). To spice things up, there's a few fun side things I've decided: 1) One of the players (I will roll it randomly) will be a Were-Rat. Only I and the player will know this, and they will not know it until after they have rolled their character. In the fluff/etc. I'm going to make it very clear that this clan (like most Goblinoids) are horribly racist and intolerant, and tend to want to kill anything that isn't just like them. In other words, that player will want to hide it at all costs. 2) The War Troll can be called in to "repay his debt" once. At any given point, the players can bring him with them to help. He'll be considerably high level, but not good for much besides fighting and maybe to intimidate someone or cause a distraction. If it's something horribly stupid, he wont do it (you can't get him to go fight the previously mentioned dragon, for example), but for the most part as long as he's got a good 50% chance of survival, he'll do it. After that, he goes on his way and will probably never be seen again. 3) Anything that is found on the player's travels is supposed to come back to the Chief. If the players find some good weapons/armor/etc. and are going to head back to the surface, there's a pretty good chance the Chief will let them keep the items (or at least something else similar but that the Chief doesn't like as much), but no guarantee, and never any treasure. If the PCs wish, they can attempt to hide some of the stuff they find to make sure they keep it. ...Or try to sell out the others if they know they're hiding something. I'm still working on it, but that's about what I've got so far. Right now, I'm trying to think of different areas that the Goblins can encounter. It may not be "realistic", but I'm mostly trying to find very obvious set pieces that contain either good, underground living space, a ton of food, a ton of cash, or some combination of the above. Anyone have any ideas they could bounce off of me about areas like that? Thanks for any feedback! Oh, and this is my first post, too. Heya. :D
#2 tricksterpippin Mar 23, 2009 23:23:46	That sounds like a really fun campaign. I considered running a similar campaign, but with all the savage 'monster' species, and have the main races non-existent, or slaves. Some ideas for adventures: -stealthy raids on civilized lands, emphasize the STEALTHY. Sneaking into human village to steal grain supplies, or treasure, and having very strong consequences for being captured or discovered, possibly causing a war, as you said. -old abandoned keeps, and fortresses, etc. They are large areas, possibly containing loot or living space. Maybe have an old keep that is being used by some bandits, classic type of setting, but it still fits your purpose. The players could even work with the bandits to secure food. -natural cave systems, possibly even branching off dwarven fortress. All sorts space could be found down here, and some interesting enemies. -you mentioned a dragon, from what you said about his difficulty level he is well out of the players reach, however maybe one of his offspring live in the vicinity, and once dragons leave the nest they rarely have any attachment to their parents so the PC's may be able to secure a small horde and possible housing location. The possibility of dragons around also means kobolds, a heap of low level mobs to fight with and take whatever shelter they have. Hope it helps, and best of luck with it!