ewancummins wrote:This is a thread for discussion of goblins, norkers, hobgoblins, goblyns, calibans, and other orc/goblin type humanoids in the Demiplane of Dread.
I'll kick off with some questions.
Which ones do you include, if any? In which domains do you place them?
Would any of those be allowed as playable races in your campaign? Which rules would you use?
Are they natural beings that reproduce in a normal fashion, or something weirder? Fairies? Mutants? Cursed humans or demihumans?
In Ravenloft, I generally stick to a rule of thumb for all non-humans: they should only exist if there's good reason for them to do so. This is especially true for the goblinoids, but I apply it to monsters, undead, etc. Nothing in a Ravenloft game should be 'random' in the sense that its 'just there'.
Warning, this spoiler contains personal design philosophy:
The canon core domains don't really provide many places for goblinoids to exist so that they fit the domains, though there some other domains that have been designed with them in mind. Plus, the 'normal' D&D goblins and orcs aren't super great for horror that you couldn't get with humans, frankly. But there are definitely places for both.
I've always kind of liked the use of 'goblyns' in the
Feast of Goblyns as a perfect example of how to 'modify' such a race to work well in Ravenloft, and there are definitely ways to incorporate other goblinoid races in similar manners to play on horror themes. In 90% of domains, if I included them I'd do something like this. Middle Earth's original orcs also work here: they were created by taking and magically twisting and torturing elves to make a new race of warriors. You could honestly use that as-is in Darkon: have the PCs sent to investigate an elven village that's been petitioning Azalin for help and have them stumble upon some mad mage creating orcs this way.
In these cases I would never make these races playable, or even regular encounters. They would mostly be one-off types of encounters with a 'singular' source or origin. If the goblinoids themselves are horrible, I don't really see how you can make them PC-playable. The only reason I keep goblyns as a permanent feature are b/c I have kept the domain of Daglan around, and part of Daglan's curse includes outbreaks of goblyns, which he (mistakenly) thinks are caused by the reappearance of the Crown of Souls (which was actually destroyed when he was freed from it).
That said, if the horror is solely in the transformation and not present in the creature itself, maybe. Ie, the broken ones made in G'henna are, IIRC, still mentally themselves and not mindless or brainwashed monsters. Similarly, perhaps, is L'Morai and its...whole thing.
But there can be places where these races exist in their 'normal' D&D forms, and how they work there really depends on the domain: they could be the main population or they could be part of some 'outside' threat to the 'normal' inhabitants, etc. They may or may not be evil, and all of that determines how I approach them. From memory I have one domain with an established orc population (they are evil, basically normal D&D orcs), one with hobgoblins (they are basically a normal non-evil agrarian society), and one with gnolls (very primitive, but otherwise standard D&D gnolls). I also have 2 with halflings, 2 with dwarves, and 3 or 4 with elves as large or significant portions of the population.
Overall, for a Ravenloft campaign, I dissuade players from playing non-humans (regardless if the PCs are 'native' or 'outsiders') unless they understand all the baggage that will come with it (spoiler: the default reaction of 90% of people is going to be somewhere between outright hostile to terrified).