Optional Goblin-Liege Rules

# Zook’s Goblin Rules

This document lays out rules for those looking to play a Goblin King/Queen. It also… *hypothetically* works as rules for playing a goblin character, but you’ll want to speak to staff about that possibility.

Note that these are *optional rules*, and you do not need to use them - they’re relatively mechanic-intensive compared to the rest of Wisteria, and we *do* have freeform goblin power growth descriptions in *On Spirits* if you wish to avoid using this rather in-depth system.

This was originally written to apply to a single character (Randy Sherman, my Goblin King) so I apologise for any formatting weirdness left over.

*Zook’s Goblin Rules* are based on *Quite Fiddly Goblin Generation Rules*, a Pactdice supplement by Grek.

### Overview of the Hex Grid

Each goblin strong enough to earn a name is assigned a hex grid made up of eighteen hexes, arrayed in an inner and outer ring. The corners of this hex are each assigned a number, 1 through 6, clockwise. The centremost hex is labelled with its name for ease and is never coloured in.

When a goblin is first assigned a grid, it gains a number of *Splotches* depending on how strong it is.

If it has just earned a name (these will be called ‘runts’), it receives one Splotch. If it is a lesser goblin that already possesses a name that is only now entering the Goblin Monarch’s service, it receives two Splotches. If it is a moderate goblin, three, if it’s a notably powerful goblin (a ‘greater goblin’), four. If you were to somehow acquire a goblin dragon or a goblin approaching the level of a god, they would receive five or six splotches depending on the individual goblin in question.

When receiving a Splotch, a d6 (Dynobot can roll dice using *?roll d6*) is rolled and the four hexes in the corresponding corner (the numbered hex plus the three adjacent cells) are coloured in with one of four colours: red, blue, green, or purple. Each colour has an associated property.

Red represents a goblin’s brute strength.

Blue represents a goblin’s menace and cunning.

Green represents a goblin’s sturdiness.

Purple represents a goblin’s slipperiness.

The colour chosen at the beginning is eyeballed based on the goblin’s core properties. A goblin known for solving its problems through violence is more likely to get a red or green splotch than one known for its disgusting ingenuity, who might get more blue and purple.

Multiple adjacent Splotches will overlap. This is fine; in fact, this is *expected*. Goblins are ever-changing creatures, after all. When a hex is overwritten, take only its *current* colour into consideration.

For each hex in the outermost ring, the goblin gains a trick, scrap of knowledge, or skill associated with the colour that fills that hex. For example, a red hex might give them an understanding of how to use blunt weapons on other goblins. A green hex, on the other hand, might make them more skilled at withstanding impacts in a safe way.

For each hex on the innermost ring, the goblin gains a substantial improvement to the associated baseline stat for the colour that fills that hex. A blue hex will be a flat, significant improvement to the goblin’s cruel intelligence. A purple hex will give them greater speed and improve their ability to slip free of bindings-in-progress.

### Splotches

Every time a goblin does something interesting, they gain a new Splotch. The same d6 roll occurs with each new Splotch earned this way. The colour of the Splotch depends on the act involved; if the goblin earned it by escaping a magician’s binding attempt, it’s likely to be purple, for example. For simple goblins, almost anything of note will do - whether that’s interacting with a human, being involved in a fight, or something similar. As the goblin grows in power, the requirements for earning new Splotches grow. A goblin dragon will have to do a lot more to earn a Splotch than a newly-named runt.

The above example goblin was originally known for its cunning (rolling a 2 for the starting Splotch), but gained a Splotch after successfully slipping out of a magician’s binding circle before it could be closed (rolling a 4). Its blue hexes confer knowledge of how best to take apart human weapons for its own ends, how best to sneak into human homes, and which human body parts are most vulnerable. Its purple hexes confer enhanced speed and agility, and a form of goblin climbing expertise that allows it to traverse climbable structures.

### Scars

Every time a goblin makes a poor decision with potentially severe or even fatal consequences for itself, then survives, it earns a Scar. For generating a Scar, a d6 is rolled, and a Scar is drawn from that point (or an adjacent point) clockwise (if the goblin escaped) or straight across the centre (if it stood its ground). A Scar grants the goblin a new supernatural trick that allows it to escape or stand its ground in a similar situation; this trick remains usable for as long as any hexes of the Scar’s colour remain on the grid, after which it is lost. The trick scales in strength to the goblin’s current strength (so a runt will acquire significantly less powerful tricks than a goblin dragon).

Scars may use any colour other than red, blue, green, or purple, and these colours serve only to differentiate Scars. Examples include orange and pink.

After making the stupid decision of going back to taunt the magician for failing to bind it a few days later, the example goblin ran into the magician’s familiar, a flame djinn. It is *very* easy for a flame djinn to produce elementally charged metal. Our example goblin narrowly escaped with its life, earning a Scar that rolled a 2. The Scar gives it the ability to traverse surfaces at an oblique angle like a gecko, and then leap to a different surface nearby if its current surface would be affected by a supernatural effect.

### Lumps

If a goblin has gone seven days since it got its grid and currently has food, sleep, safety, and amusement, it gains a Lump. A hex, adjacent to another coloured hex, is selected and filled in with the colour that has most contributed to the goblin’s success. This applies every seven days after the goblin got its last Lump. If a goblin does not meet those criteria, erase a hex instead.

The example goblin made it out of its little run in by fleeing, but it made it out intact and had an otherwise uneventful week. It gains a purple hex at the 3 position, which has improved its ability to avoid attacks in combat, primarily by making it more evasive.

### Junk

If a goblin currently has a victim to torment (be that another, weaker goblin, or a human, or something else) it can erase an outer hex and find a minor goblin trinket soon after. The trinket acts as a pseudo-artefact keyed to that goblin, with capabilities in line with the colour of the hex traded away.

Alternatively, if the goblin is willing to start carving part of itself up, it can be put out of action for a few days and lose an inner hex to gain a powerful goblin trinket. This works the same as a minor trinket but is more significant and more magical. The injury gained this way is recovered by the time that ‘cooldown’ period is over.

After its little run in with the elemental, the example goblin decides to put together something more useful in a fight. A brief period of painful slicing later, and it wraps a shiv in some of its own grisly muscle, going down for a few days but coming back out with a knife capable of inflicting wounds that quickly necrotise and ooze contaminated mud-like muck - even when used on spirits. Additionally, though the knife is metal, it cannot be altered by elements. This makes it useful against that magician’s elemental familiar, if the goblin ever runs into it again.

### Resilience

Finally, goblins interact with injury differently from most corporeal spirits. Goblins receive significantly less damage from anything disgusting, disfiguring, or otherwise mundanely or magically violent. In exchange, opposing elements (such as elementally charged metals, like a hot stove, or cleaning products, such as sea-salt shrapnel) inflict significantly greater damage. Lessened injuries that don’t instantly kill a goblin will be recovered from overnight.

### Archetypes and Gremlins

This section will mostly be me rambling about different types of goblins, and also how gremlins interact with this system.

So given that the colours on a goblin grid are a pretty good approximation of a goblin’s abilities, we can group different combinations of colours into different archetypes.

For example:

A goblin with primarily red and green hexes is a straightforward, physically oriented goblin. These might be called *Brutes*. Brutes are primarily geared towards strength and sturdiness; they’re going to be less smart and less slippery than their cousins but considerably more hardy and their hits will have a lot more *oomph* behind them.

On the other hand, a goblin with primarily blue and purple hexes is cunning and fast. They might be called *Schemers*. They’re more fragile than their Brute cousins, but they’re a lot smarter, and they’re much more likely to figure out ways to slip out of bindings and avoid hits rather than simply withstanding them.

A less common archetype would be a goblin with red and purple hexes. These might be called *Marauders*, as they combine significant physical ability with above-average agility, but lack survivability and intelligence.

Similarly, a goblin with blue and green hexes is going to be harder to put down and significantly more intelligent than other goblins, but lacks offensive power or speed. These might be called *Leaders*, as they can stick around when other goblins are in fights, and guide their less intelligent brethren.

A significantly rarer variant might have red and blue, or green and purple hexes. A red/blue goblin would be characterised by strength and cunning, but would likely lack the green or purple traits that allow goblins to survive so long. A green/purple goblin, on the other hand, would likely be very hard to put down, but would lack the intelligence or strength to capitalise on that hardiness.

On the topic of gremlins: they work pretty much the same as goblins with regard to grids and hexes. However, a gremlin’s skills, tricks, and trinkets are going to be more geared towards abstract functions and interactions with technology. Where a regular goblin might get tricks that let them pick locks, a gremlin might get a trick that lets it travel through transparent barriers like windows and pop out the other side - both oriented towards forcing entry to homes, but one significantly more material and the other more abstract in nature. See also the example goblin’s blue hexes; they had a skill that let them break down human weapons for parts. That’s the kind of thing that would be all over a gremlin’s grid, because sabotage and improvised tech is part of what makes a gremlin a gremlin (blue hexes might give it knowledge on improvised pipe bombs or traps or something, for example).

### Guidelines for Skills, Tricks, and Trinkets

Wisteria is a freeform system; there are no skill checks or combat rolls (at least, not by default) and as such hex benefits aren’t measured in mechanical benefit. They grant no +1s or extra dice. Instead, they should have short descriptions which are sufficient to be eyeballed in roleplay.

For example, the example goblin’s blue hex skill *Forced Entry* is described as such: it “allows it to sneak into human homes more easily”. This could be taken a number of ways, but when taken together with the name it becomes pretty clear that this is intended to allow the goblin to enter human homes quietly, whether that’s by finding unlocked doors and open windows, or waiting for an opportunity to enter unseen (like when a human enters through the front door, allowing the goblin to swing in behind it and then duck out of sight). This *doesn’t* mean it can magically break through steel doors or carefully disassemble a magician’s defensive wards - though such things might be possible, they would not be in the purview of a simple breaking-and-entering skill. For the steel door one, that would likely come with a red hex of some kind, and the ward one would be a specialised blue hex.

As a general rule, more general benefits are weaker than more specialised benefits. Using the above examples, *Forced Entry* is a pretty broad skill, so it should be treated as being able to do many things but not as effectively as a narrower skill. A skill built around knowledge of hardened materials and how to breach them might allow a goblin to break down a steel door given time and tools, but wouldn’t allow it to easily identify unobserved entry points like *Forced Entry* would. Similarly, a skill that grants a goblin knowledge of defensive wards wouldn’t do anything *but* grant that knowledge, due to how specialised that is.

As a final note, a goblin’s prominence also determines how powerful their skills, tricks, and trinkets are. A lesser goblin’s *Forced Entry* skill will be less in-depth than a greater goblin’s. A goblin dragon probably wouldn’t have a *Forced Entry* skill, but if it did, it would be considerably better than even a greater goblin’s. Goblin prominence is another thing that should be eyeballed - a goblin that has grown particularly notable may rise in prominence and go up a class, but note that it’s a lot harder to grow in prominence the more prominent you are (so a runt to a lesser goblin is a smaller jump than a greater goblin to a goblin dragon).

# Goblin Template

This next section includes a template for your notable goblins that have grids. To use it, copy and paste it into your own doc, and double-click the grid to edit it. You’ll want to use the colour fill button to change the colour of hexes. Official colours seen below (lighter colours for outer hexes, darker colours for inner hexes):

**Name:** [Name of goblin]

**Description:** [Physical and behavioural description of goblin]

**Prominence:** [Runt, lesser, moderate, greater, dragon/near-divine]

**Lump Day:** [Day of the week that they got their grid]

**Outer Hex Benefits:** [List of skills/tricks/scraps of knowledge granted by outer hexes]

**Inner Hex Benefits:** [List of baseline stat improvements granted by inner hexes]

**Scar Benefits:** [List of tricks earned from Scars]

**Trinkets:** [List of trinkets]

**Changelog:** [List of changes]

# Example Goblin Grid

This example grid shows how the Goblin Rules example goblin’s sheet would look.

**Name:** Example Goblin

**Description:** Example Goblin is a short ugly little thing with blotchy green skin and misshapen teeth. It has the annoying tendency to taunt anyone it even slightly succeeds against, which often leads to it getting hurt as a result.

**Prominence:** Lesser Goblin

**Lump Day:** Wednesday

**Outer Hex Benefits:**

* Blue Hex: *Human Weapon Disassembly* skill that allows it to take apart human weapons for parts more efficiently.
* Blue Hex: *Forced Entry* skill that allows it to sneak into human homes more easily.
* Purple Hex: *Climbing Expertise* skill that allows it to traverse climbable structures.
* Purple Hex: *Artful Dodging* skill that renders it more evasive in combat, letting it duck and weave out of the way of attacks more easily.
* Purple Hex: *Travel Routing* skill that allows it to more easily identify a path to a location, cutting down on travel time and avoiding obstacles.

**Inner Hex Benefits:**

* Blue Hex: Substantial increase to intelligence.

**Scar Benefits:**

* Magenta Scar: *Gekkotan Agility* trick that allows it to traverse sheer surfaces and reflexively leap to another surface if its current surface would become hazardous.

**Trinkets:**

* Powerful Trinket: *Grisly Shiv* that can rapidly rot flesh around the wound and causes the wound to ooze contaminated muck; additionally, the weapon cannot be elementally charged and can inflict its effects even against spirits.

**Changelog:**

* [Date]: Example Goblin earnt a name and gained a grid. It rolled a blue Splotch at the 2 position, gaining *Human Weapon Disassembly*, *Forced Entry*, and *Disproportionate Menace* skills. Also gained a substantial increase to intelligence.
* [Date]: Example Goblin escaped a binding attempt and rolled a purple Splotch at the 4 position, gaining *Climbing Expertise*, *Duck and Cover*, and *Travel Routing* skills. Also gained a substantial increase to agility.
* [Date]: Example Goblin taunted a magician and narrowly escaped death at the hands of their familiar. It rolled a magenta Escape Scar at the 2 position, losing *Disproportionate Menace* and *Duck and Cover* skills, and suffering a substantial decrease in agility, but gaining the *Gekkotan Agility* trick.
* [Date]: Example Goblin grew a purple Lump at the 3 position, gaining *Artful Dodging* skill.
* [Date]: Example Goblin sacrificed a magenta Escape Scar hex at the inner 4 position to gain a *Grisly Shiv*.