Goblin Society?

Aren't they also treated as inventors? Dangerous mad science to gnome's kooky mad science?

Gruul-gari goblins. Neat.

I'm trying to branch away from defined roles and see what such a group would value, what they could do, with the available stats and adjustments.

Man's trash is goblin's treasure. Or weapon. Or livelihood. Raul and Karl hoped it to be their salvation today.

Grumpaka's oilskin was a map of the warrens. Fungus, blood, debris, and even more unsavory stains made the coat a tapestry of what he did in the depths. Topsiders called him Steeltooth, named after the trap his medics had refitted to replace the lower jaw he lost to infection from crypt rot. A clever clasp allowed him to work it up and down, and if the rest of him was filthy that mechanism was kept clean.

"Tooth, you're breaking my balls here. This is a perfectly good body." Raul smiled, spreading his hands over the corpse. "I'm throwing in the leathers, the weapons, and even the coin purse."

"Know me this? This a guard body. Worth gold to know me who brought it. Silver? I forget where." The clicking of that damn jaw, the little fucker was smiling.

Raul stormed forward, grabbing the tiny gob. bringing him face to face. The veins stood out on Raul's temple.

"Listen here you little son of a -" Raul's last words were cut off in the twang of several strings. He murmured prayers to his gods as he lay bleeding in the standpipe, the last of his life twitching out.

Karl looked into darkness. Heard the cranking of the small bows the gobs love. He knew this was show, damn scavengers always kept their real pieces oiled to a whisper.

"There. Two bodies. A fine trade say me. How you, thief?"

Karl nodded.

They made quick work. Wrapping the bodies spiders wraps prey. Bundles borne on slumped shoulders like pallbearers at a pauper's funeral. Raul's blood stained his burlap winding sheet.

"Respect, say me. Bring no trash less have you respect, say me." Steeltooth jibed, holding out a dirty hand to shake on the deal.

Karl watched his back the whole way home. And in the warrens a crippled creature with a bear trap jaw smiled over a pile of silver. The guard's blades will need to be altered, but the Kin earned fine prizes this day.

They're an alchemic experiment turned wrong that learned to self-replicate.
They don't breed, but there's an easy "recipe" for goblins that they use occasionally. Each individual goblin come into this world an adult, with innate knowledge of the generic common language. They're supposed to be small house helpers, but they're genuinely unable to work, cooperate, or obey commands. So they live off the other races' work.
The basis of their society is lie, cheat, steal. They loot everything they need from the races that actually got their shit together. They're extreme individualists, constantly fucking each other over like the skavens, but on a whole new level. If you want to get a group of gobbos to work together, you can't have a leader. Essentially, bands of goblins exist for a specific purpose until the goal is or isn't reached, and then scatter. Government doesn't exist, long-term investment into a group or an ideology doesn't exist, cannot exist. They live in overcrowded slums yet their lives couldn't be more lonely.

TLDR Goblins are ancap hobos

They knew they had fucked up when they burned down the encampment.

The city watch paid good money. Five men splitting ten year's wages. Tobin, their sparker, helped their torches and oil to turn into a conflagration.

Then they saw the bodies. Too small, even for goblins. Children. This wasn't a war camp, it was a nursery.

Dar fell before next nightfall. Sliced out at the knees, his face black from the garrote. One eye lay out of socket.

Fin, who they knew as Horse. That one hurt. The watch found his bodybin the river, the cock that gave him his name shoved down his throat.

The twins, the muscle, died ugly. Five gobs around them, brain splatter and blood everywhere. Dom caught a quarrel through the throat but still had a goblin in his grip when they found his body. They never found Tom's head.

Tobin ran. Made it three days. Out of the city, into the swamps. He didn't dare light a fire.

They fell on him like an army. Tobin raked their torch flames, drawing demon shapes in the flames. There was some pleasure in watching them burn. Five, ten, he might have taken down a score before they clipped his knees with sling stones.

The gobs were all dressed in dark rags. But Tobin saw their leader coming. Dressed in flash, a big tricorner hat taken from some sailor, silver studded boots and a big old canecutter in his hand.

"Boss don't like tallfolk burning babies, sparker."

"It was a job! We thought it was an encampment!"

"Twas. Full of milkteeth. My boy was in there."

The creature thumbed his machete, eyes as cold as a dead man.

"Make it quick."

"Nah, don't think me. Say who you die? Take him up!"

The order was answered. They forced something in Tobin's throat. He fought, then the life left him.

Who knew gobs knew medicine?

Tobin lay in the muck. Felt the weight around his neck in the dawn light. Groggy, he looked down to his chest.

A necklace. Eleven charms. Ten fingers, and a tongue mounted on a silver stud.

>people posting random fiction in a thread
No

In one of my settings, goblins are a completely civilized species, with towns and everything. They're just assholes. They like violence and kicking people while they're down.

So you could safely visit a goblin village, but it'd be a bad idea to go there while wounded because they'd steal all your stuff and leave you for dead. Also they're usually running a dog fighting ring.

So an entire society of tiny soccer hooligans?

I'm not gonna lie, the idea of a bunch of tiny headbutters is fantastic.

why not make them not!russians?
>live in less-than-ideal areas punctuated by some sort of terrible seasonal weather phenomena like blizzards, dust storms, or monsoons
>not the most well equipped, organized, or fed kingdoms out there, but get by
>nobility looks up to the culture of their neighbors and tries to emulate it
>fight their wars by throwing massive amounts of expendable soldiers at the enemy, hold their territory through exploiting the dangerous season
>also wolf cavalry

That works too. I was thinking more like that one weird kid who'd always capture and torture animals, except he grew up that's just his hobby and there's an entire town full of likeminded people.

>shitting on worldbuilding
Lurk more you mouthbreathing faggot of a newfag.

>poorly-written murderporn is worldbuilding

>wolf cavalry

You had me at hello. Though the idea of tiny fur-stoled Rusgobs is pretty great.

>poorly written

You can always regale us with your own stories, critfag.

And yet it still manages to be a better contribution to the thread than your nihilistic meta-analysis.

Funny, that.

>There are many types of Goblins.
>Jungle Goblins in jungles, mountain Goblins in mountains.
>They have a common thread in being prone to violence and banditry to get by.
>Some countries give Goblins access to citizenship.
>Most Goblins wish to visit Goblin Mecca at least once, their birthplace and home to the world's only Goblin Empire. Ruled by a Jihadist-Buddhist class of desert Goblin who ride giant palaquins on the back of giant scarab beatles.
>Goblins believe they were born from the universal energy of the world, and one day they will return there, so you better enjoy life now while you have the chance.

I generally put Goblins where people put Orcs in a campaign, mostly because I'm tired of the Orc being the token noble savage race.

Thanks man. It's hard to make 2000 characters off the top in 10ish minutes. Wasn't looking to do all sorts of polishing.

Mongolian goblins.
Horses started out pretty small in the real world and were bred to become bigger over time, so we could apply this to a rideable species in a fantasy setting too, whether those are horses or something else
due to their small size and natural dexterity goblins were some of the first to ride these mounts and developed their culture around that
they, of course, raid and loot civilized areas, and you could throw in a goblin Genghis if you wanted them to be a serious threat to the world

Sure, but you could clean up your prose a bit. Way the goblins spoke was a headache. Made it hard to understand what they were talking about.

Nah. I am gonna stick with the style of it simply because they're not really common speakers. And cleaning up prose in 10 minutes? Haha, nah man, Veeky Forums isn't going to be a place I do fullblown writing for.

Make them insane enough to believe that they were once tall, handsome and powerful, and you've got the Chronopia RPG (aka Drakar och Demoner 5th) goblins.

Oh and fake Dwarf beards when they go above ground.

As much as I hate all things blizzard, I really like Warcraft's irreverent tinker goblins.

I like goblins residing in and operating from mountains, but this idea can apply in other environments. I thought it'd be neat to have a structured society in a hollowed out mountain alongside a colony of giant wasps. The goblins want to burrow deeper so they train and breed giant wasps to be used as mounted cavalry, beasts of burden, what have you. By extension the wasps get to burrow deeper to expand their hive. I hadn't thought of much beyond that, but the concept of an adventuring party fighting a whole mountain of pissed off wasps and goblins is histerical.

My gobbos operate a special delivery service. They have access to underground caverns that connects many realms and knows a lot of its passages. They have an underground city of Venice and are ruled by the richest gobbo clans and firms called the Council of a Bakers Dozen.

In games I run, the goblins are all slightly crazed or demented at best, but this is due to their race being cursed by one of the major deities. Societies vary by environment and whether or not they're serving a more power being. One tribe may work as relatively peaceful miners for a mountain settlement, another may be deep underground and have formed an alliance with myconids for mutual benefit, while yet another may be groveling in chains as they serve their frost giant masters.

In the game I currently play in, I conscripted an entire tribe by killing its leader in single combat (both their former leader and my character are hobgoblins). Picked out three noteworthy specimens to act as lieutenants and trained them and the fighting fit goblins as archers and spearmen, leaving them to drill at the nearby hobgoblin warband my character currently serves. Unfortunately, most of them were lost from a sneak attack by a hidden enemy mage casting circle of death during a siege. Three survivors.

On a semi-related topic, how do you imagine hobgoblin courtship/family life/marriage works? I could never find anything about it in various supplements I've read, as they just tend to focus on the military aspects of hobgoblin life.

They are built around craft. Living on the periphery of cities, in slums around the junkpiles of others. Picking through the rubbish they glean the valuable from the real rubbish. rusted scraps, lumps of rotten wood. They take them into their hives and rework them.
Goblin markets are the place to find cheap goods. Pails, brooms, cooking pots ect. The quality is surprising given the price and the raw materials. Sure they are no rival to the fineries produced by the masters of other races, but they are found throughout the land. Some cities ban goblin goods because they undercut other craftsmen and make them destitute.

However the great empires rely and even encourage these goblins to produce their goods, subsiding their poor and allowing them start business, which most importantly they can tax.

>On a semi-related topic, how do you imagine hobgoblin courtship/family life/marriage works?

>courtship/marriage

I always assumed they did a martial claiming. The groom seeks out the hand of his bride from the father. The father will then 'battle' the intended betrothed. If he approves the match the father will yield. If he doesn't, well, the groom best be ready to die or be dishonored by yielding.

Yielding is definitely helped by gifts to the elder, or even promises of service.

If that doesn't work, hobgoblin elopement is like a slaver raid. Sneak in, steal your girl, get out. If you can get her out of the encampment she's yours.

>Family life

As they're a martial folk I would assume hobgoblin children are raised post-weaning by the crippled, elderly, convalescent, or otherwise occupied. Bugbear children learn to wash, tend arms and armor, and cook. The chuldren will gather for the nightly meal, and elders may force those who had issues during the day to fight for their supper.

Bugbear children are taught to fight from an early age, and their battles are brutal. It is not uncommon for children to kill or maim each other during these playful fights, though it is frowned upon.

Bugbear families are rarely together. The communal living of children makes familial bonds nigh meaningless, though what property a bugbear may have passes to the eldest living male (if their own don't scavenge the body).

Thanks for the input! The elopement idea sounds really fun and I'm sure my DM would go for that.

>Pathfinder

Any way, they'd basically just be dirtier, smellier, stabbier halflings. Caricatures of midwest/southern farmers with GIT OFF MA PROPERTY attitudes instead of Tolkienesque pleasant English farmers.

>also wolf cavalry

Yes, I too read Lord of The Rings and Dungeons & Dragons.

>i have no thoughts of my own and cannot contribute

Why didn't you say so man?

yeah it's not a very original idea obviously but not everything has to be original and russian goblins riding wolves is pretty cool i think

Screw you this was great

I used them as scavenger types that hung around the edges of human settlements.

This meant the usual amount of raiding or ambushing travelers causing people to seek adventurers to deal with them, but some of them would set up trading posts outside. You'd find some rare trinkets but they'd either have jumped up prices, require odd trades or they'd trade them for your services.

Had great fun playing as the owners of one such post which was pretty much a merger of a racist stereotype of an angry/flustered asian shopkeep trying to haggle the shirt off your back and american rust belt junkrat that uses a wand of fire to keep out pesky varmints.

It was pretty good. Keep it up.

I tend to run goblins as fairly cunning, but with little force of will. They tend to end up being lead by either the few goblins that are willing to take initiative or by stronger creatures such as ogres that want some extra hands. Due to this they often won't progress farther than they need to.

That said, in the game I'm running the players managed to convince them into peaceful relations and trade using copious amounts of alcohol. Now they've started up the basic scaffolds of society (dirt roads to the ruins they're living in, impromptu structures and minimal common tongue) in order to get food better and easier. It's pretty much resulted in an accidental immigration problem complete with "takin ma jerb" racists. Not sure that counts as a society, but it's been something.

Read the Legacy of Dhakaan trilogy.

It takes place in Eberron, and it features goblinoids rebuilding their empire.

The goblin clans are divided by castes, like assassin or lorekeeper.

>Slavblins

Complete with squatting and vodka cyka

What about Stalinist, Maoist, North Korean or other personality cult Goblins?
>"Dear Leader, who is a perfect incarnation of the appearance that a leader should have"
>some of the Soviet space program stories you could be referenced
>also the Chelyabinsk disasters and stupidity could be referenced

A matriarchal society in the vein of mobster families, Godmother if you will, internally they are nice enough, respectful under the gaze of the Godmother but when it comes to rival families, rather underhandedly violent and vicious. In my head theres always more males them females, its just how they breed, more are born.

Tl;dr, tribal Godmother. Cus whynot.

I've thought about sexual dimorphism or even a male/female/neuter sort or a virgin birthing race where females spontaneously reproduce asexual standard goblins and the breeding of male and female produces stronger offspring.

It would be pretty amazing to have a Cult of Korg. Ridiculous shittalking over the top legend.

Goblins are generally neutrel in my settings. Keep to themselves and would rather trade than get wiped by a neighboring kingdom.

I do have a goblin kingdom situated in a large forest that houses a continual connection to the feywilds. The goblins love to collect flowers and their leader is a Fey Warlock.

Could be an interesting take. Are they otherwise changed due to this connection to the Feywild?

That's basically what I did with Kender. Red Scare Communists, as if the PCs needed any more justification for killing them.

>kenders

Trash folk. Why are we even discussing them?

I've generally made the attribute of Goblins laziness and boorishness. Goblins are not stupid, they are technically just as smart as a Human or an Elf, but their actions are usually driven by a desire for immediate, short-term gratification, with no sense of cleanliness or propriety, or standards of behaviour. The Goblin adventurer considers his companions, who send good silver to stay at the inn and buy expensive liquor, to be idiots, when you can crash in Grok's tool shed and drink all the moonshine you want for two copper.

In my settings, therefore, Goblins are pretty pervasive in most large settlements. They're obnoxious lowlifes, but they're willing to do terrible, disgusting jobs nobody wants to do for a paltry sum, so they are tolerated, if disliked.

Goblins are particularly common in gangs, where they provide an ample source of willing blades, while being unambitious and easy to manage. Plus, you can pay them in drugs, and they'll think they're ripping you off and getting away with it.

A lot of adventures of mine involve the PCs getting onto a criminal plan, or trying to salvage a criminal plan, which has gone sideways due to some comically inept Goblins sent to do one simple job.

Not really. They have a fanciful sentimentality and lean towards good but enjoy pranks. General Fey mentality. The forest is rife with Faerie Dragons, Quicklings, Lycanthropes and an evil tribe of Bullywugs. The trees are all twisted and bright. On the outskirts and plains around the forest Redcaps and Gnolls are an issue. There is a neutral druidic elven Kingdom on the far side of the forest but they are much further from the Feywild portals