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Post by theophage on Feb 14, 2017 20:20:43 GMT -6
Nonsense. There are no baby goblins, nor even females (though some goblins may wear wigs...)
To make goblins, the witch/magic-user/goblin shaman simply gathers equal amounts of blood, bones, dung, and slime into a huge cauldron. Then a Monster Summoning I or equivalent spell is cast on the foul mixture (maybe even the 1st level Summon spell from LotFP). One goblin is produced per level of the spell caster. They don't always come out right, and there is a 1 in 6 chance for each one produced to have some kind of mutation (use your favorite tables, including defects).
This may even happen spontaneously in dark places where these ingredients can be found together, which also has some source of magical contamination. The mutation rate in places like this would be double though (2 in 6) and may produce them slowly over long periods of time.
Imagine if a potion of Growth is poured in the cauldron as well...
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Post by foxroe on Feb 15, 2017 0:12:05 GMT -6
That's an interesting take - feels Tolkien or fey. And why not the same for other humanoids?
Perhaps they are all produced by a high level spell - cast on multiple human/demi-human sacrifices, at the conclusion of the spell, the victims are corrupted into the desired humanoid (number based on a pool of hit dice based on the caster's level). And perhaps there is a counter spell...
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Post by aldarron on Feb 15, 2017 11:11:47 GMT -6
Yeah, interesting. I especially like the idea of repurposing the monster summoning spell that way.
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18 Spears
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Post by 18 Spears on Feb 15, 2017 12:28:21 GMT -6
eggs imc
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Post by talysman on Feb 15, 2017 13:33:28 GMT -6
I have a similar approach, although I don't go as far as you have. I have a rule that, when using a Monster Summoning spell, there's a 1 in 6 chance the monster persists after the spell expires. All fantasy creatures, including goblins, began this way. I don't have a specific ritual, as you do, but I do assume that ingredients can be used to reduce the randomness of the spell: eagle feathers + lion's blood to summon a griffon, for example. I might yoink your cauldron idea as a way to increase the chance of persistence.
Goblins and related creatures, in my world, have learned to warp young children with magic to create more goblinoids, which is why there are so many of them. Villages live in fear of goblin snatchers stealing their babies.
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Post by theophage on Feb 15, 2017 17:26:34 GMT -6
I don't have a specific ritual, as you do, but I do assume that ingredients can be used to reduce the randomness of the spell: eagle feathers + lion's blood to summon a griffon, for example. I might yoink your cauldron idea as a way to increase the chance of persistence. Ooh, and now we know where owlbears come from! |
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Post by theophage on Feb 15, 2017 17:29:06 GMT -6
So you still have women and children? |
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Post by 18 Spears on Feb 15, 2017 18:05:15 GMT -6
So you still have women and children? barely intelligent queeens who has sexless drone guards, hatchlings are full grown Males and take day or two to get coordinated liek an adult |
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Post by tetramorph on Feb 15, 2017 20:16:10 GMT -6
So you still have women and children? barely intelligent queeens who has sexless drone guards, hatchlings are full grown Males and take day or two to get coordinated liek an adult That is pretty cool. |
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Post by 18 Spears on Feb 15, 2017 22:44:21 GMT -6
thanks! It works good with drones getting royal jelly when queen dies to become new one and pcs get big mean boss to fight if they find queen.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 8:26:55 GMT -6
Interesting, but shouldn't elves and dwarves get the same treatment? One being grown from a seed while the other is carved from rock? Runequest kinda did this, with elf meat being considered a vegetable.
Runequest also has the Broo which reproduce by "depositing" a larva which then eats it's way out the victim Alien-style.
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Post by tetramorph on Feb 16, 2017 9:23:43 GMT -6
I like it, @hedgehobbit.
I guess my campaign is more influenced by the Tolkien canon.
Elves reproduce the normal way, but only when an elf somewhere dies and the world needs another elf in it for "balance."
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Post by talysman on Feb 16, 2017 10:43:05 GMT -6
I don't have a specific ritual, as you do, but I do assume that ingredients can be used to reduce the randomness of the spell: eagle feathers + lion's blood to summon a griffon, for example. I might yoink your cauldron idea as a way to increase the chance of persistence. Ooh, and now we know where owlbears come from! Yep. I could also add that I'm implying Monster Summoning spells do not summon creatures from another world, but rather manifest ideas as flesh and blood. So the wizard who made owlbears really was mad. Interesting, but shouldn't elves and dwarves get the same treatment? One being grown from a seed while the other is carved from rock? Runequest kinda did this, with elf meat being considered a vegetable. For me, elves, dwarves and orcs aren't treated the same as monsters. I kind of assume that they are descended from humans warped by magic, perhaps deliberately so in the case of elves. I don't see elves as being any more connected to nature or trees than anyone else, but more like isolationists trying to make themselves immortal. I've fretted over how to make dwarves unusual, but haven't gone the "carved from stone" route mainly because I've seen a couple different people already do that in their campaigns and I want something original. |
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Post by tkdco2 on Feb 16, 2017 13:43:58 GMT -6
Do the goblins have a natural lifespan, or are they effectively immortal unless killed? The latter option would be better if you want to have a horde of them pillaging the countryside. The Ork! RPG has the young ones sprouting off mature orks, as there are no female orks. I have a copy of this game, although I haven't tried it yet. |
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Post by talysman on Feb 16, 2017 15:44:24 GMT -6
Do the goblins have a natural lifespan, or are they effectively immortal unless killed? The latter option would be better if you want to have a horde of them pillaging the countryside. Can't speak for theophage, but I'm leaning towards immortal goblins. I already treat fantasy monsters like griffons as unaffected by age or starvation. Which explains how those creatures can survive in some underground chamber for hundreds of years. They don't need to eat, but they do still get hungry, and often go mad from not being able to eat for decades. |
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Post by Porphyre on Feb 22, 2017 14:17:55 GMT -6
Goblins steal human babies , then feed them with goblin fruit and goblin seeds , turning them into goblin babies in the process.
If there is no human baby available, some tribes go for piglets: the resulting offsprings are orcs ...
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Post by tkdco2 on Feb 22, 2017 15:04:49 GMT -6
Lately, I've been treating humanoids as having their own civilizations and cultures, so they reproduce just like humans. They sometimes fight with humans and demihumans, but they aren't evil races, per se. They're more likely to be found in cities than in dungeons.
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Post by scottenkainen on Feb 23, 2017 13:15:57 GMT -6
In my current campaign, monster race young are more like unintelligent animals than human-like children.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2017 0:06:47 GMT -6
Orcs, goblins, kobolds, and other such creatures arise in the dark, deep places of the earth where the ambient magic field of the world is given shape by human nightmares.
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Post by talysman on Feb 24, 2017 0:34:11 GMT -6
For my goblins, I look for inspiration from the poems "Little Orphaint Annie" and "Goblin Market", the "village of the crazies" in Gymkata, the climactic scene from "Freaks", and maybe the third story from "Trilogy of Terror". My goblins can't speak complete sentences, only one word, which they repeat mindlessly until another word strikes their fancy. My goblins perform repetitive, meaningless actions, when they aren't attacking. My goblins have no industry and no culture.
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Post by foxroe on Feb 24, 2017 5:46:37 GMT -6
These are some great ideas. I'll be running B2 for a small group in a few weeks and I'm strongly considering assimilating some of these. So, instead of "non-combatant women and children" humanoids, they'll all be combatants. The "children" will just be low-damage "newbie" humanoids, and I'll probably just drop the "women" (since created/grown humanoids possibly implies that they are "sexless" monsters anyway) or just treat them as additional "males".
Of course, that may make some of the chieftain encounters... awkward.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2017 11:55:07 GMT -6
I generally assume there are no orc babies (though there are females as I try to have a 50-50 distribution of male/female everything in my game). All four PC races were created by the gods. The other humanoids are the demons' and devils' corrupt, ongoing, and only partially successful, attempts at copying what the gods did. One of the shortcomings of these creations is that they are sterile; more can only be produced "in the cauldron," through constant effort of the demons' and devils' minions.
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