GOBLINDOM

Goblindom is a game about exploring, discovering, and overcoming trials through the creativity, initiative, and cunning of the players as they interact with the world, while also navigating the need to survive in a hostile ecosystem as utterly insignificant life forms.

• Goblins are not heroes: they are lowly creatures, very weak compared to the rest of the world around them, with no respect for their own safety or that of others. Such is their way of life: always trying to get what they want without giving a second thought to the consequences.
• Violence is silly and grotesque: just as in the Tom & Jerry cartoon, violence is extreme and gruesome, but must never become offensive or disturbing for the rest of the group.
• Play to discover: explore the world, live adventures, weave amazing stories, and let the group experience them together.

Goblins

As magic slowly accumulates in a Dungeon, sometimes the leftover of this eldritch force — the very waste of an unknown energy — can pool in the depths of the earth, forming a wretched, disgusting primordial ooze with rainbow hues and an abominable smell. These formations have had many names attributed to them by scholars: "Generative puddles", "Demi-primordial matter", and the particularly popular "Disgusting garbage", but for the Goblins, it is simply their lovingly despised home.

At random intervals, sometimes spontaneously and sometimes brought about by the bizarre rituals of insane Goblin Shamans, the Generative puddles can be activated, kickstarting a process similar to that which creates all other Creatures, though noticeably flawed. The Goblins, undeniable wastes of magic, are born almost disturbingly amid agonizing gurgles and magical instability, immediately manifesting mutations that perfectly reflect their chaotic, volatile nature. This makes every Goblin unique, though it usually leaves them feeling more miserable than special. When a new generation of Goblins is born, the newborns are often spiteful and violent, possibly because they still must face the terrible reality of being surrounded by Goblins. Said hostility only increases when they finally realize that they are also Goblins.

So, in the most sensible solution the Shamans could think of to placate such tempestuous minds, the cave where the generative puddle is located is sealed for an indefinite period, starting the well-respected traditions of the Slaughterfest. Only the most stubborn and hateful Goblins survive through unfiltered violence, cunningly using every dirty trick they can think of, or tapping into the mysterious thingamagik.

The Dungeons

These complex, nonsensical biomes vary widely in depth and danger. Still, all are composed of different "levels," well-defined areas specific to the local ramification of magic, sometimes determined by a dominating Element, resulting in an ecosystem with nearly unique creatures and characteristics. The dungeons aren't just labyrinthine caves, and though they always appear underground, many levels of a dungeon may appear identical to a forest of the outside world, its "sky" perfectly illuminated by glittering gems on the walls, floating wisps of fire, or by a miniature sun made up of Light magic collecting on the cave's ceiling. Dungeons aren't simple anomalies of stagnating energy but are an essential part of the world, necessary to collect excess magic before it rots. This also means that Dungeons are often rich in magical crystals, arcane fuels and oils, and other priceless resources that any human alchemist would kill for. And indeed, they do.

Dungeonology, the scientific study of Dungeons, is still a young academic field in the Overworld, currently engaging only a handful of curious scholars — too frail to don armor and venture below in search of first-hand knowledge and incommensurable riches. However, when it comes to nomenclature, dungeonologists have already found a name for everything. For instance, the patchwork constellation of caves, tunnels, and ravines most commonly inhabited by goblin tribes is collectively called "Goblindom." A sort of informal state where the ruthless, chaotic rules of the little greenskins reign supreme and bubbling pools of newborns appear with predictable regularity.

Goblins themselves never use this term, mainly because they don't know it. Even if they did, they would find the concept utterly stupid: everywhere they go is part of the Goblin Kingdom.

The Rank

The Rank indicates the difficulty or the level of anything in-game, PCs included. As PC, you have a Base Rank of 0 (you're a Goblin, what did you expect?), but you can use the Keywords on your Character Sheet to increase it while attempting a Challenge to try and succeed in the best way possible.

Non-player characters (NPCs) receive a fixed Rank that they cannot change by themselves unless a Quality or outside effect specifically states otherwise. What follows is a simple table of examples, to give a clearer idea of what kind of Creature usually fits a certain Rank within a Dungeon.

The Keywords

In Goblindom, the words on your Character Sheets are called Keywords, and they're what you will be relying on to overcome Challenges most of the time. There are 3 Keyword Categories:

Goblin Luck

Each player at the table has one coin, called a Goblin Luck Coin, with two distinct faces, one representing Fortune and the other Misfortune. At the start of the session, each player throws their Goblin Luck Coin into the air and begins the game with their coin on whichever side it landed.

The Challenges

In Goblindom, Dice are rolled only when the outcome of a PC's specific action is uncertain and the situation may have consequences. These situations are called Challenges. Some examples of challenges can be:

• Discreetly sneak into an adventurer's camp.
• Try to cave in the adventurer's head with a rock.
• Lockpick a chest stolen from the adventurer.
• Lose your patience and try to break the chest open.
• Properly medicate your injured hand after angrily hitting a chest.

All Challenges have a Rank, indicating the complexity of the action that's being attempted and how plausible it is for the PC to succeed. Clearly state what you wish to obtain from your actions and how, and the GM will declare the Challenge's Rank they deem most appropriate for the context. After all, cutting down an ancient oak tree with just your teeth or with a fireball is two very different actions. Then it will be up to the player to describe how the PC uses their characteristics, Proficiencies, mutations, and other special resources to try and make a Challenge as little painful as possible.

Defining the PC's Rank

After the GM has declared the Rank of the Challenge, you'll need to apply the Keyword that will help you overcome it. Each properly used Keyword increases the PC's Base Rank by 1, unless something like an enemy's Quality explicitly prevents it. Keep in mind that you can use only one Keyword from each Category (you cannot, for example, use both Vigor and Instinct in the same Challenge). With a solid strategy and thorough preparation, it's possible to earn an extra rank increase in a specific Challenge.

The Hardships

As GM, you can apply some effects, called Hardships, to increase a Challenge's Rank by +1 for each Hardship. Hardships can be, for example, Status and Disgrace that afflicts the PC, or Environmental effects and Qualities of enemies. Even a PC's Mutations can be used as Hardships if deemed fit for the situation, if the Challenge is in a situation in which that specific mutation would become more of a hindrance than an advantage — for example, a character with particularly sensitive ears might fail to focus on a task while a horde of screaming monkeys wail at the Bunch.

Making The Roll

Each time a PC faces a Challenge, you must roll 2d8 and as many additional d8s as the difference between the PC's Rank and the Challenge's Rank. If the higher Rank is the PC's, then the roll is at Advantage; therefore, you take the two highest rolls. If the higher Rank is that of the Challenge, then the roll is made at Disadvantage; therefore, you take the two lowest rolls.

Consequences

When the roll causes Consequences, the GM determines exactly what happens. In case of a result of 7 or less (referred to as 7-), the players who made the Challenge choose between: the Action causing Mild Consequences but yielding no results (so the action fails), or the Action causing a Dire Consequence but achieving the desired effect, resulting in a success.

Getting Hurt

Each Goblin has a Health Counter composed of 4 Pieces, representing how much physical and mental damage the Goblin can take as a result of a Consequence, and 2 Statuses that describe more specific conditions that might hinder him. Except for particular circumstances, you mark your first Status when you fill the first Piece, and the second Status when you fill the third Piece. When the Health Counter is full or when a PC receives a third Status due to a special effect, the PC Leaves the Scene.

When determining the Rank of a Challenge, the GM can use one of the PC's Statuses as a Hardship: a broken arm may render handiwork drastically more difficult, or a terrible migraine will break a goblin's concentration, and so on.

Leaving The Scene

There are many ways a PC can Leave the Scene, chosen based on the context of the current Scene and the Challenge that prompted the PC to Leave the Scene. When a PC Leaves the Scene, the GM agrees with the PC's player what characteristic would be most impacted between Vigor, Instinct, or Cunning, and rolls 1d8. On a 1-4, roll on the first Disgrace table for the chosen Characteristic; on a 5-8, roll on the second, and mark down the result.

After the Scene ends, the PC re-enters the Scene with their Health Counter half full. Most of the Disgraces consist of a simple description of the damage that has befallen the PC, and from that moment, the GM can use it as a Hardship during a Challenge.

Some monsters can inflict Special Disgraces thanks to their Qualities. The Special Disgraces aren't listed in the tables below, but are described in their stats. They follow the same rules as the normal Disgraces.

Vigor Disgraces

Instinct Disgraces

Cunning Disgraces

Resting

Scaling Results

Some Qualities make the result of a Challenge more or less effective. There are two ways to Scale a Result:

Using Goblin Luck

Supporting

After having rolled a Challenge and seen the result of all the dice in the dice pool, other players may decide if they want to offer Support: whoever's participating enters the Scene by describing their PC's actions and rolls a single die, which replaces the die with the lowest result from the original dice pool (if the Support die's result is lower than any other die in the pool, then no die is replaced). During combat, the Supporting PC must expend their Reaction to offer Support.

All PCs that choose to offer Support are subjected to the Action's Consequences, regardless of their own die's result. It's not possible to offer Support during a Quick Challenge, nor while a PC is casting a Thingamagik.

Pass The Buck!

Among the options Fortune can offer, you can also make a very tactical, very unfair, and very amusing choice: forcing a friend to help you out, with the additional effect of subjecting them and only them to the negative Consequences of the Challenge. If the target of Pass the Buck also has Fortune to expend, they can choose to Pass the Buck to a different allied PC present in the Scene, forcing yet another Support and making this new participant the only target of any Consequence. If a Challenge in which Pass the Buck has been used results in a 7-, it's up to the last Goblin included in the Scene (and thus the one subjected to any Consequence) to choose whether the Challenge succeeds with Dire Consequences, or fails with Mild Consequences. It's their hide on the chopping block, after all!

Jackpot

With a result of 12+, your PC achieves complete success in whatever silly thing they'd set off to do — but there's an even more successful success than that. If a Challenge results in a 12+ and, in addition, the result Scales up, then it's called a Jackpot. When a Jackpot is achieved, the PC's action has the desired effect, and, in addition to it, a further advantage is obtained. Some examples of a Jackpot are: reducing the Rank of a Prolonged Challenge by 1, immediately defeating an enemy whose Health is at half, or adding narrative elements that play in the PCs' favor. Imagine a Jackpot as a "Success AND…"

Quick Challenges

There are moments when not even all the dirty tricks in the world can help you, and you simply have to follow your gut, such as when dodging an explosive trap you failed to notice or escaping the ambush of a giant mole. When the GM calls for a Quick Challenge, each Player is allowed a single Action and cannot offer Support, although Pass the Buck is still allowed.

Counters

A Counter, sometimes also called a Clock, is a circle usually divided into 4, 6, or 8 pieces, each marked at determinate intervals. When a Counter is filled, the connected effect is obtained, whether that's a ceiling collapsing, an attack by enemy goblins, or the defeat of a dangerous enemy.

Counters are tools used to handle situations that require more than a single Challenge to resolve, to mark the PCs' progress, or to track a given situation. Counters are usually publicly displayed so all participants can see them, but the GM may start one or more secret Counters, either because a treacherous enemy is preparing a nasty surprise, or because the PCs simply failed to notice whatever's about to happen.

Threat and Danger

Partial Effects

A Counter may also have partial effects, triggered once the Counter has been filled to a specific portion, such as halfway.

Interacting With The Counter

• If the Counter represents the time until a magical item runs out of energy, the PCs may reset it by fully recharging it.
• If the Counter indicates the passage of time during a time-sensitive Scene, the PCs might take actions to reduce enemy alert by adding more Pieces to the Counter.
• If the Counter tracks the progress of something, like the grueling end of a Blood Ritual, the PCs can freeze it with appropriate actions even if the Challenge is not resolved, resuming exactly from where it was left off.

Prolonged Challenges

Some Challenges can't be overcome immediately; they often require the characters to take more than a single action or face more than a single conflict to achieve their goals. In cases like this, the characters are facing a Prolonged Challenge: they'll have to fill a Counter with segments equal to the number of successful actions they need to overcome the Challenge. If Rank indicates the general power level of an enemy or the difficulty of a Challenge, the size of a Counter suggests the complexity of the task ahead.

If the situation goes awry before the Counter is filled up — too many Consequences piling up, or the characters forced to retreat — the Prolonged Challenge may ultimately be considered a failure. Prolonged Challenges may also have different ways of failing: lockpicking a complex lock allows for a couple of failed attempts, but a series of riddles to gain audience with a Fairy matriarch will fail with just a single failed riddle.

Alternative Solutions

Directly attacking an enemy isn't always the best route. Counters are a helpful reminder that the enemy standing right in front of you isn't necessarily the target you need to strike down to win. In cases where the opponent outmatches the entire bunch, or has Qualities that make open combat difficult, players can ask the GM to open a new Counter besides the one tied to the current Challenge, and use their actions to carry out their own plan instead of reacting to the direct threat. This kind of Counter is called an Alternative Solution.

The Scuffle: Combat Rules

The Scuffle, also often called Combat, is the way your PC, your friends, and the various enemies you meet usually choose to resolve your diverging opinions in the most practical way you can find: by the use of extreme physical, magical, and sometimes psychological violence. A Scuffle is divided into Rounds and Turns. During a Round, each participant takes a turn. Once everyone has taken their turn, the Round ends, and a new one begins until the end of the Scuffle. The order in which each participant acts depends on the Initiative, determined at the start of the Scuffle.

The Structure of a Scuffle

• Establish the Scene: the GM describes the area, positions, and whether any participants are surprised or otherwise in a particular condition.
• Determine Initiative: all participants roll to determine the order in which each acts during a Round.
• Take Turns: each participant acts in the order determined by Initiative.

Initiative

At the start of a Scuffle, the GM rolls 1d8. On a roll of 1-4, the Enemies act before the PCs; on 5-8, the PCs act before the enemies. The GM chooses the order enemies take their turns in, while the PCs act based on their carried Weight, from lightest to heaviest. Qualities of PCs, enemies, or items might alter this order. If both an enemy and a PC would act first or last due to a Quality, the enemy takes precedence.

Actions

Your Action represents the main activity of a PC during their Turn: attacking, leaping over a difficult obstacle, or analyzing an enemy for weaknesses are all Actions.

Reactions

The Reaction is always used outside the PC's turn: the most common way to spend it is by giving Support to another character, but some Qualities can offer more options.

Enemy Actions

Given that the GM never rolls, on an enemy's Turn the GM declares what they will do and whether the Action targets someone specific.

If the enemy targets a PC, the targeted PC makes a Challenge to respond — counter-attacking, leaping behind cover, or trying to flee are all sensible responses. If the enemy has no target, their Action doesn't involve any specific PC (such as fleeing combat): no PC is forced into a Challenge, and the enemy's Action is automatically successful unless a PC steps in and declares a Challenge against it.

PVP

Sometimes players find it easier to solve a problem by having their goblins violently gore each other for a few minutes. You start a Scuffle as usual, but whoever attacks first describes their Action, using their Keywords to build up their Rank, while the opponent rolls the dice as if facing a Challenge of that Rank.

• 7-: the defender chooses a Mild Consequence with no further effect, or a Dire Consequence that also causes a Mild Consequence to the attacker.
• 8-11: both PCs inflict a Mild Consequence on each other.
• 12+: the attacker chooses a Mild Consequence with no further effect, or a Dire Consequence that also causes a Mild Consequence to the defender.

Once the exchange is complete, the roles of attacker and defender reverse, and the Scuffle continues until one combatant is defeated or both agree to stop. If more than two PCs are involved, the role of Attacker rotates equally among them.

Equipment Basics

Weight

You must keep in mind the weight of all that useless junk your PC is carrying around.

• Every object that can be firmly held and used with one hand usually weighs 1.
• Objects that require two hands to be carried and used typically weigh 2.
• Bigger objects weigh up to 3, and some may be too large or heavy to carry in a single Goblin's inventory.
• Smaller items meant to be kept in larger amounts, such as Rations or torches, have a weight of 1 for every five pieces.

Weight influences a PC's ability to react quickly when in danger: Initiative order is determined by currently carried Weight, from lightest to heaviest. A PC with 10 or more carried Weight is Overencumbered: they always act last in Initiative (even after enemies) and suffer an automatic Hardship on every Challenge related to physical effort.

Weapons

A Weapon is anything that can be handled with one or two hands and has the capacity to cause deadly injuries to a Creature. Aside from abnormalities such as Magical Weapons, there are no immediate differences between weapons — their utility comes from synergy with the PC's Qualities. One-handed weapons weigh 1; two-handed weapons weigh 2.

Armors and Shields

Armor and Shields grant Armor Points (AP), spent to deny 1 damage you would otherwise take. When an Armor or Shield reaches 0 AP, it's irreparably destroyed unless a Quality says otherwise.

• Armors: Light [L] weighs 1 and offers 1 AP; Heavy [H] weighs 2 and offers 2 AP.
• Shields: weigh 1 and offer 1 AP one-handed. You may crack a Shield with at least 1 AP over an enemy's head instead: +1 Rank for that Challenge, and the Shield is destroyed.

Curiosities

In a world subject to the whims of Magic and Goblin stupidity, it's only natural to stumble into strange artifacts of uncertain usefulness. An item marked with a [C] is a Curiosity — born or transformed by Magic, technology, or Human Alchemy, but rendered unstable, worn down, or simply misunderstood by Goblins. During a Challenge, a PC with a Curiosity may use it, describing how, to increase their Rank by 1 for that Challenge. Each Curiosity is single-use and destroyed or rendered permanently unusable upon use. Weight 1.

Rations

A Ration is anything a Goblin might consider food — which is to say, anything that isn't actively toxic or poisonous. A Ration provides enough food and water to gain the benefits of a Nap or a Full Rest, and has 1 Weight per group of 5 Rations.

Pets

Another kind of "Item" is Pets: any small living being the PCs have tamed. Pets have no Weight, as they can walk on their own and may assist their master in Challenges suited to their abilities — offering Support by rolling 1d8 to replace the lowest die, as the Pet aids them. Pets can be damaged or destroyed as a Consequence of a Challenge, and can be used as 1 Ration if it comes to that.

The Thingamagik

Each Shaman can instinctively delve into the depths of what Goblins know as the Thingamagik, the raw force of Magic. The field of expertise of all Shamans is limited to a single aspect of it, known as a Sphere — an understanding of each element of Magic through the point of view of a Goblin. All Shamans who bind themselves to a specific Elemental Sphere always know the same 3 Thingamagiks before learning any others.

The Magistick!

Goblins aren't particularly great at focusing on anything, and that's a terrible thing when it comes to Magic — so Shamans have long learned to channel their powers by keeping them bound and ready inside an object commonly called the "Magistick": a staff, the rock they killed their first Goblin with, or a silly-shaped potato that made them laugh. This object is subjected to a super-secret ritual, so hidden that no living Shaman actually knows it — they improvise it each time, imbuing the item with a portion of their power.

While taking a Full Rest, the Shaman sticks several prepared Thingamagiks they know into their Magistick, equal to 3 + the Bonus granted by their Level. Each unit of preparable spells is called a Thingamagik Slot. A Thingamagik prepared and kept in a Magistick is consumed when used; to use a spell more than once, the Shaman must prepare it in multiple Slots. Once all Slots are expended, it's no longer possible to cast until a Full Rest.

Casting a Thingamagik requires a Cunning + Thingamagiking Challenge. Spells that aren't Instantaneous last only as long as the Shaman stays focused on them — if hit, they automatically lose the spell. While a Shaman is focusing on a Thingamagik, any other Thingamagiking Challenge incurs an additional Hardship of 1.

Make It Up!

The Goblin Shamanic arts aren't an exact science. Despite that, the natural Goblin aptitude to improvise when needed makes them forcefully grab Thingamagiks kept in their Magisticks and mess about with them until they reshape into a new, sometimes powerful effect — the noble art of Making It Up.

This allows a Shaman to expend a Thingamagik to temporarily gain a new spell, as long as it makes at least a little sense within their chosen Sphere's field of expertise. When you choose to Make It Up, you expend a prepared Thingamagik as if about to cast it, but instead explain to the GM what new effect you want, based on the description and themes of your Sphere. Agree with your GM on a Rank between 2 and 4 for a Thingamagiking Challenge based on the effect (a Death Ray is not the same as a Tickle Spell). To the chosen Rank, add these modifiers:

Making Up random Thingamagiks isn't exactly a game: a Shaman who attempts it always suffers a Mild Consequence, in addition to any other Consequence they cause in the Challenge.

During a Challenge to Make It Up, a Shaman who gets a result of 12+ while they have access to Fortune may flip the Goblin Luck Coin to permanently add the Thingamagik they just cast to their repertoire, able to prepare it in advance without Making It Up. Otherwise, the Shaman instantly forgets what they just did, and has to improvise it again to repeat it.

Objectives

• Main: Collect at least 5 Rat Tails per group member.
• Secondary: Get the tail of Yellow Fang, the king of the rats.

"Adventure's Rank" appears throughout the encounters below; set it to 1 or 2 once, depending on your table's appetite, and then use the same number for all scaling references.

The Map

Souvenir Table

Roll whenever the goblins search a room they've passed through. Results marked * occur only once; subsequent rolls of that result count as 1.

Inconvenients Table

If a result is marked with a *, that event may happen only once; any further rolls of that result are treated as a 1.

The Rooms