I like goblins, so naturally I want to do a rework of them to fit into the same setting as these dwarfs, elves, orcs and halflings I made.
The TL;DR is: Combine these lines from a post by Arnold K. on hobgoblins:
'Goblins are right horrible little bastards, and everything that joins
them at their table will also become a right horrible little bastard,
too.
It doesn't take long. A few months of goblin food will do it.'
with this:
and you should get the idea.
Parasitic Fungal Goblins
Goblin is a name given to a variety of parasitic fungi that infect intelligent creatures through ingestion and take over the hosts bodies. Most of the time, the infection makes the host behave erratically, which is why this is the standard image of a Goblin.
After infection is complete, the fungus fruits to create spores to spread out. The Goblin variants that survive the fruiting stage tend to lose their erratic behaviour and are often described with different names like Bugbear or Hob.
Most Goblin fungi are specialised and tend to target only a few specific creatures. Here are a few:
Bursters/Potbellies/the Gaunt
Targets: humans and halflings.
Onset: Emotions of the host become more intense and swing suddenly.
Progression: Host begins losing weight and become restless. Collective memories of the fungus start to torment their dreams or pop into their minds for no apparent reason. Memories of the host start to disappear.
Fruiting: The host's mind is completely supplanted with that of the collective goblin. Their bellies begin to swell as they begin to produce spores. The hunger sets in and goblins will begin to raid, pillage and steal foodstuffs. Once there are too many spores, the belly bursts open slinging the spores far and wide. If a swollen belly is cut or pierced, such bursting happens as well. The spores contaminate food and drink and if ingested cause infection.
Skinners/Beastfolk/Barfers
Targets: warmblooded animals.
Onset: Host becomes sedated, glassy eyed, and stops taking care of itself.
Progression: Skin starts to buldge and come loose from the underlying tissue. The host is incapable of much more than lying around.
Fruiting: All tissue beneath the skin is consumed and replaced with fungus. The fungal body can quickly alter its shape to appear as a person wearing the skin as some sort of costume, or to fit in the skin as the original creature would and move around like it would, or some stage inbetween. They reproduce by feeding creatures on their barf. To prevent persecution and because they often find their bodies uninspiring these goblins almost never pick intelligent creatures as hosts.
Scarabs/Pyros/The Masked
Targets: dwarfs.
Onset: Heat regulation destabalises causing sudden burts of manic activity followed by slumps.
Progression: Duration of slumps increases as manic episodes become more and more rare. Personality starts to deteriorate as the host continuously mistakes their own as well as others identities.
Fruiting: The host dies. Its stone corpse is hollowed out further and filled with a fungal body which is protected by the hard stone crust of dead dwarf that remains. They require heat to create spores but are unable to produce this themselves. For this reason they raid villages, burning whatever they come across and stealing away victims the goblins use as warm bodypillows when they rest. Alongside bodies for warmth they bring back foodstuff to keep their living warm water bags alive. As they tend to live mostly near dwarfs, this is their most frequent target for abduction. And as they shed spores they infect the wood they feed to their dwarf abductees, causing them to slowly turn goblin as well.
Perchers/Dark Elves/The Corrupted
Targets: elves (and orcs, but orcs are a kind of elf).
Onset: Original infection remains mostly unnoticed.
Progression: During liquification prior to elf fission, the fungi in the elf spreads a sweet, musty smell. Unless another infected elf is liquifying nearby, nothing else happens.
Fruiting: If an infected elf attempts to liquify when near another liquifying, infected elf, their liquification is halted. They will attempt to reach a high place where they glue themselves to the surface. Meanwhile, the fungus quickly develops a fruit, which spreads second stage spores. Because elfs tend to only liquify near each other when they merge, this behaviour tends to infect the elves as they are merged, where the fungus quickly takes charge of the fission process. The resulting "elves" lack empathy and self-reflection and are easily aggitated. This almost always results in sudden attack on nearby people. As these corrupted elves die, the first stage spores in their blood end up mixing with pools of stagnant water, where a thirsty elf might accidentally ingest them.
Orc variation: As orcs can no longer fission after they are born, only their broodmothers can become infected, causing them to spread the same musky smell. If an infected elf happens to fission nearby it will trigger the same effect on that host: it will move up, stick itself down, and begin to grow a fruit with second stage spores. If these spores infect the broodmother, they will produce new orcs using all the mass available, dying in the process. These orcs suffer from the same lack of empathy, lack of self-reflection, and aggitation as infected elves.
Snatchers/Bugbears/Shedders
Targets: humans (preferably children)
Onset: Host loses their sense of decency and inhibitions.
Progression: Hairloss. Elongation of limbs and ears. Sensitivity to sound, which combined with lack of decency and inhibitions in general causes them to behave increasingly erratic.
Fruiting: Most of the body becomes covered in 'hair' which sheds fungal spores. A new personality replaces that of the host, the host's original life only remembered as some sort of weird dream. They will continue to live until the hosts body would normally die, aging the same way as well. This is why would be bugbear parents prefer to infect children, as it means their own offspring will have a longer life as a bugbear. Because they continuously shed spores, all food prepared by bugbears will cause humans to get infected.
Ettin Fruit/Hobs/Vestigials
Targets: humans, halflings, elves and orcs.
Onset: A small head grows out of the neck of whomever ate the fruit. It has a mind of its own and remembers all the previous times this particular fungus infected someone. The same fungus always reincarnates as the same hob.
Progression: Over time the head grows and as it does the goblin gains more and more control over the host's body below the neck.
Fruiting: Once the host body has been completely taken over, spores are stored in the body. When the body dies, the spores either linger in the dirt waiting to infect a nearby fruit tree, or disperse on hot air hoping to land on a nearby fruit tree. From the spore, a false limb grows on the fruit tree, with a fruit similar to the host tree but shaped odly like the Hob's face. Eating the fruit causes infection. For some reason, pests and unintelligent animals all ignore the goblin fruit.
Implications
Everyone hates goblins. They rely more directly than any other creature on the death of someone else in order to exist. But once they do, some are perfectly normal individuals. I feel like this creates interesting dilemma's and adds some shades of grey to what most inhabitants of the world would understandably consider to be horrid monsters that the world would be better for if they died.
It also creates a strange potential for goblins as biological weapons. Especially if war breaks out between different fantasy creatures, allying with goblins that don't infect your people seems like a valid strategy. I especially imagine elves might do this, as they don't like to get their hands dirty and seem the most likely to be weird isolationists.
From a gameplay perspective I like that some of these goblins not only attack the bodies/HP of the players, but also part of their inventory. If you get goblin on your food or water, it is practically wasted, dead weight you might want to cling onto if you want to risk infection to stave of starvation.
I think I would let players play as Hobs, Beastfolk or Bugbears if they really wanted to, but the other goblins are too erratic to be playable I think. A hob's body isn't really anything special, they basically get the body of their host and wisdom way beyond their years. A Bugbear has better hearing and longer arms. Honestly I think that is a valid distinguishing feature. When two weapons are of equal length, arm hits are equally likely, but when one person has longer arms they can hit the torso or head of their opponents way more easily, so that is something I might consider. Beastfolk seem like they are the most interesting, as they are basically a wildshape that are limited to a single beast form. Probably a bit strong, but I imagine they aren't particularly strong or fast in their humanoid form. I mean, imagine trying to fight while wearing a heron suit. Seems cumbersome.
Finally, I really like mechanics that take PCs away from players without killing them. Something about reintroducing a fallen friend as an enemy is fun to me, even if it is also super campy. It is something I would want to telegraph and use sparingly though. Goblin food is basically a save vs slow death mechanic, which feels bad to spring upon unsuspecting players. Maybe I'm just a softy though.
