Goblin thread

How are the goblins in your game?

They live underground and are probably stunted, mutant humans.

A people divided, prophesied to unite at their place of birth.
Inheritors of a vast empire.
Brothers and sisters with the rock and sand.
Keepers of hidden secrets and powerful charms.
Peaceful warriors of the path to enlightenment.
The true children of the Gods.

Terrific liars.

- Goblins are a PC class that can grow stupid, loyal minions overnight.
- The PC-level goblins are smart and can plan and are sort of queens of their own ant hive
- They're pretty much vegetables.

In my buddy's setting, they're bastard Fae with incomplete glamours. The lavish and decadent Fae Kingdoms produce so many bastards and unclaimed kids that they just fucking dump them outside the city walls. Having no other way to survive (being dumped into the wilderness with nothing), they turn to raiding. Their partial glamours are what keep them alive outside the Kingdoms, but they look like Goblins with them on so people aren't big fans of them. Without the glamours they're creatures of pure shadow, or something to that effect.

I should read that quest in the archives sometime

Goblins in my setting are the first step in the dungeon ecosystem. Indeed, they are the originators of most dungeons.

A species with magical origins, Goblins tend to move about the world and find new places to settle down and start a new tribe once the old tribe gets too big or other dungeon-dwelling species drive them out. Even when decimated down to the last male goblin, the creature will undergo a metamorphosis and change from male to female and search out a new spot to begin anew, producing a new brood within a matter of weeks. This new colony then digs out the familiar passages of a goblins den, and begins to set about multiplying and expanding it's den until either population pressures force a younger generation out due to competition over resources, (in which the older goblins graduate to Hobgoblins), or the goblin tribe is forced out by another species.

That isn't to say that Goblins are mindless animals - Goblins are very much part of civilized culture. For some reason, whether it be a natural evolution of thought, or just plain random chance in demenour, a goblin might not find the prospect of finding a new hole in the ground interesting and in such, develop a keener intellect and join society as an outcast or loner. These unique individuals are most often goblins that have already changed to their female forms in preparation to search out a new home, but find themselves without the natural urge to do so. Whatever the case, Goblins have a knack for numbers and architecture. Most major cities employ goblins as foreman's for construction work to exploit that natural instinct for design.

Overall, goblins are very common all over my setting, making the start of new dungeons and starting the dungeon ecosystem off.

Think "low elves".
They're a bit more angular, slightly larger, and less "ugly" than most Goblins.
They're extremely shrewd, cunning, and reproduce pragmatically, as they live a little longer than humans, but can breed and mature quickly.
They once ruled a world-spanning empire, but the "lesser" races rose up against them and broke their hold, now they operate subtly.
Now there are very few left, and those few aren't in the mood to restart their race just yet, mostly waiting in the shadows for the world to get a bit more hospitable.

Sort of like the ones in Moria as seen in the LotR-movies.

A species with three mating types that differ greatly in physical form. I combined goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears into one species. While each that develop as male or female, only male goblins, all hobgoblins, and female bugbears are fertile. Goblins are born in litters.