Once I decided to use OSE as the game for my Arden Vul campaign I needed to make a few decisions. These decisions were made in the two or three weeks that I was also reading the first part of Arden Vul – for more details on that, see my previous post: Prepping To Run The Halls of Arden Vul. One of the decisions that needed to be made was whether to allow Imperial Goblins as a playable race. And if so, what stats do I give the Imperial Goblin? This post discusses that decision, and since there are more decisions and houserules to talk about, this is probably going to be a series of posts… so in that light, I suppose this is Arden Vul post #2.
WHAT IS AN IMPERIAL GOBLIN?
In the Arden Vul setting, Magae, Imperial Goblins are distinct from wild goblins. In antiquity, goblins were enslaved by the empire and forced into servitude. This horrible practice forced the goblins to serve the empire as general manual laborers, miners, farmhands, and in a few regions, military conscripts. They were an integral part of the empire’s expansion for so long (literal millennia) that they became inured to the “civilizing” forces of the empire and adopted the trappings of Archontean society. They have become a distinct racial subgroup, still related to their wild counterparts, but with vastly different behavioral patterns, belief systems, and cultural touchstones. Over the years, the vast majority of Imperial Goblins have been freed and eventually gained imperial citizenship.
While their body shape, ear size, eye color, and hair growth patterns are the same as the Wild Goblin population, Imperial Goblins don outfits and mannerisms that are distinctly reminiscent of the empire. That is, it would be very easy to distinguish an Imperial Goblin from a Wild Goblin standing next to it because the Imperial Goblin will be wearing a conical hat, colorful vest, and fine leather boots, or possibly armor similar to that worn by Archontean Legionnaires. The Wild Goblin, in contrast, might wear a dirty loincloth or clothing cobbled together from scraps and animal fur. The Imperial Goblin speaks pointed and crisp modern Archontean (the common language of the region) while the Wild Goblin may speak a debased or pidgin form of modern Archontean. The Wild Goblin’s primary language, however, is Wild Goblinish, a debased form of the Hobgoblin tongue.
All goblins are known for their powerful strength and durable constitutions, but many Imperial Goblins are also blessed with keen minds. They are known as shrewd business owners and strong negotiators. At least one Imperial Goblin matriarch runs a trade business that is lucrative enough to earn the respect of the other powerful merchant factors. Unfortunately, though they make excellent estate managers, appraisers, and bankers, Imperial Goblins are still treated as second class citizens in many pockets of the empire.
GOBLINS IN OLD SCHOOL ESSENTIALS
Goblins in OSE have two relevant entries. The first is the monster entry on page 176 of the OSE Classic Rules Tome. This entry describes the typical goblin creature that traces back to the early days of D&D, which makes perfect sense given that OSE is quintessentially BX D&D. These are the stats and info I will be using for the Wild Goblins in the setting, no changes needed, but it definitely does not satisfy my vision of the Imperial Goblin.
The second relevant entry in OSE is not in the rules tome, but rather can be found in an issue of Carcass Crawler, the official Old School Essentials zine. Issue 1 features some new classes and races, as well as rules for black powder firearms and some new optional rules for combat talents and thief skills. I recommend you check out all of the Carcass Crawler issues if you are so inclined. Of course for my game, I am looking at the goblin write-ups in the issue.
I say write-ups because there are two of them. I am using OSE classic, which mimics D&D editions prior to 1e by using a race-as-class system during character generation. In 1e AD&D race and class were separated, allowing for more combinations of racial abilities and class/profession abilities. OSE has an Advanced version that uses the same basic rules as OSE Classic, but adds separate race entries (and a few optional rules expansions) so that you can play a style a tiny bit closer to 1e if you choose. I chose to go with OSE Classic, so I am looking at the race-as-class version of the goblin, but just in case any readers are curious, I wanted to let you know that CC#1 has entries for the Advanced version too.
The goblin write-up in CC#1 is very good, but it has some elements that don’t match my conception of the Imperial Goblin described in Arden Vul. It has DEX and STR as prime requisites, but Imperial Goblins are known for their strength and constitution, so that doesn’t match. The goblins in CC#1 have wolf affinity, which is an awesome addition for a wild goblin ancestry, but doesn’t match so well with Imperial Goblins. And lastly, they only go up to 8th level. Demihumans in OSE Classic have level limits and that doesn’t surprise or upset me, but I want the Imperial Goblins to have more possible level progression than Halflings. Still, there are elements of the goblin in CC#1 that I like, so I am keeping those in mind.
In the Arden Vul book, the author/designer (Richard Barton) suggests that if the GM wants to allow Imperial Goblins as a PC race, they should use the statistics for Gnomes. It is easy to do so because Gnomes do not exist on Magae and so aren’t found in the published works covering Arden Vul. So next I went to look at the gnome listing in OSE Advanced. They are arcane spellcasters, speak to burrowing animals, and have a level limit of 8. Those three things told me that I was not going to be happy with a straight renaming of the gnome entry as, similar to the goblin in CC1, it doesn’t match my conception of the Imperial Goblin.
After all, look at this guy! That’s the 1e A&D Gnome (1e Monster Manual page 46), these cousins of the Dwarves were cool, but not my idea of the badass Imperial Goblin.. So… I decided to just bite the bullet and create my own Imperial Goblin entry…
ELEMENTS OF THE IMPERIAL GOBLIN
So after looking at all the goblin entries, the gnome entries (in both OSE Advanced and 1e AD&D), and also looking at the dwarf and halfling stats in OSE Classic, I decided on a few abilities for the Imperial Goblin.
- Requirement: minimum CON 9
- Prime Requisites: STR & CON
- HD: 1d6
- Maximum Level: 11
- Armor: Any + Shields
- Weapons: no 2-H or large
- Special: Defensive Bonus (AC bonus vs large opponents)
- Special: Awareness (only surprised on a 1)
- Special: Infravision 60′
- Special: Goblin Backstab (+2 to-hit from behind, dbl dmg)
- Special: Hiding (2-in-6 hide)
- After Reaching 9th Level: Establish Fort/Clan
- Class Level Progression and Saves: same as Dwarf
Those abilities and attributes and abilities are a mix of Dwarf, Halfling, Thief, and the CC#1 Goblin. I also wanted to add something to the Imperial Goblin that recognizes their keen attention to details around them, especially because they fancy themselves proud members of the Archontean Legions. Using a bonus to initiative doesn’t work for an individual PC because I use side initiative. Sidebar: side initiative means that every combat round, each side rolls a d6 to determine initiative order and then the combat goes in the proscribed combat order (morale, move, missile, spells, melee) not based on an individual initiative roll. Anyway, I wanted to do something, so I stole an ability from the Cloud Giant, which has keen senses and is therefore only surprised on a 1-in-6 (normally surprise happens on a 2-in-6). That fits perfectly, is short and to the point, and provides a small benefit.
I also spent some time working out how an Imperial Goblin Fort would work once established, that is, how it will grow and how big will the clan get… Alas, this article is already too long, but you can read about it in my OSE Imperial Goblin.
You can find Old School Essentials here. You can find The Halls of Arden Vul on DriveThruRPG: Arden Vul PDFs + Hardcovers or PDFs Only – it is expensive, but it is worth it. (full disclosure: both of the above are affiliate links)
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Until Next Time I wish you good gaming,
~DMSamuel
