Great video. I love the grim dark back story about goblins and hobgoblins. Nice way to give a fresh look on an old monster. Looking forward to more videos.
Kind of you to say. Keep sharing on youtube, FB groups like "For DMs Only" and eventually the audience will come. In the meantime, I will keep working hard.
I like the "social aspect" of your take but, with my players, nobody is going to be bothered if the doctor calls them "fascists"...this gave me some ideas though. Perhaps I can come up with a socially reactionary character the players would probably like, and that somehow becomes an enemy for the party.
In my long-running game a massive force of 20,000 monsters was approaching the characters' home base city. Even as the PCs were trying to organize a militia, the University students and faculty flooded the streets in protest. Great dramatic irony.
My dads hobgoblins are a result of when a someone get's himself some goblin and orcs and you know... breeds them to create shock troops. Half-Orcs are also created this way, in order to create smarter more mentally capable Orcs groomed for leadership/diplomatic positions. I on the other hand am a special snowflake and as a result almost all races in my world are unique to it. I do have Elves, Dwarves, Satyrs, Merfolk, and Centaurs. But they all have weird twists to make them line up more with their mythological counterparts. For instance my dwarves are called Dokkalfar and are both Dwarves AND Dark Elves and take the idea of Dwarvish tradition so far that it looks a lot like Fascism, Where as my elves or Ljosalfar are all basically crazy childishly immature immortal anarchists with a penchant for hunting humans for their own amusement (Only bound by family ties and a religious devotion to a pantheon of Faerie gods), ect.
Patrick Buckley my elves are spirits from “the dreaming” who are left behind from ancient invasions. It’s good to throw a wrench at your most experienced players.
This is by far the most inspiring and extraordinarily well detailed video I have ever seen! As much as I've learned in the amount of time given amazes me! Your maps, spooky terrain & editing are a masterpiece. If I needed only a handful of favorite videos, this would be one! Thank you professor! THE GOBLINS ARE COMING!
I know my party would kill him right after hearing about this reward, take his body to the family and convince them he is still alive with a god-tier charisma check involving ventriloquism. SJW gone and coin in your pocket, a win-win situation if I've ever seen one.
Love these. Is your group playing these? If so I'd love to hear what they chose to do/ if they survived? Also how do you decide how many grenades the goblins have? 6 gobs with a slim gren each and it's gone from a well equipped char prepared to fight, to; back to town, session over as I'm now naked and that's in the 1st room.
I like the d4 suspense die (ICRPG style), but I recently discovered a variation which could make it even more interesting. The WOIN system uses a pool of d6s which get rolled at the end of each turn. The dice that come up a '6', or a '5 -6' (GM preference) are removed from the dice pool, and the rest are left for next turn's roll. Once the last of the dice are removed, Bad Stuff™ happens. This still features a countdown, but keeps the exact count a mystery to everyone. Potentially even more nail-biting every turn!
👍👍 amazing, as usual. love the slime grenade, spore grenade... My players also carry troll grenades. That is to say, they will catch a troll chop him in pieces and seal those pieces in glass spheres. Find a nice room, open door, cast darkness, and toss in a couple of grenades, wizard lock or bar the door from the outside and d6 rnds later, listen to 2 extremely hungry, full grown trolls, do their work. Of course they always carry plenty of anti troll flask ... Oil & mineral mixtures to reduce the trolls back to grenade material. They are very proud of their recycling grenades....
Grimdark addition: the goblins take who they perceive to be the least religious member of the clan and responsible for the last grubs death and feed them to the new grub thus removing the impure from the tribe and furthering their ability to be freed
Monty Haul dungeons and currencies? How to you jeep this in check/ I don't know if you have done anything on this yet and also how do you handle carrying weights equipment etc? Really enjoy the things you are showing us. Keep up the good work buddy !!
Omg, your hobgoblin goblin relationship is the same exact one as my orc goblin relationship. I don’t have hobgoblin in my world. I do have goblins, half goblins(orcish), and Trolls. The goblins have a 1 minute regen. The half goblins have 1 / hour. The Troll equivalents in my world are a goblins regeneration mutation. It can happen any time a goblin is stressed but it is rare so no one knows that yet.
I like the detail of the goblins hating cats. That's the sort of thing that gives texture to the world. I've been playing around with the idea that metahuman races aren't separate species, but the same creature that has regional and environmental differences. Halflings are short elves, goblins are more feral halfings; hobgoblins are "red elves"; orcs are "moor dwarves", so on and so forth. Of course, human beings regard these all as different creatures, just as human beings regarded other human beings from different places and different cultures as different "races".
Hobgoblins were way more organized than other races of humanoids and shouldn't be taken lightly at low levels. I'm going by 1st AD&D as they were Lawful Evil. "Down Down to goblin town!"
I easily watch these 3-4 times each. Specially since I’m running a campaign very similar. So far the greatest feedback I’ve gotten is “I really enjoyed that starting with no armor or weapons”.
I love the use of ICRPG target numbers and the ICRPG suspense die Edit: for the door, I would keep the DC of 10 (or make it hard +3) like the rest of the room but not to open the door in one go. More to damage the door over the course of a minute. Give the door some HP (maybe 20?). Every successful check deals 1+STR mod to the door (1d4+STR with a crowbar or hammer, but not a weapon since swords and even maces are not made for door bashing). Due to space, at most 2 people can work on it at any one time. Every 1 could lead to PC injury (HP or twisted wrist or whatever). Increase the crit fail range to 1 or 2 if not using a proper tool. So, ya, they will break down the door after many minutes. And also make crap tons of noise and possibly suffer a badly sprained wrist.
If goblins can breed with humans to make hobgoblins and hobgoblins are stronger/ dominant over other goblins, then why don't they impregnate the goblin females, creating 1/4 human 3/4 goblins? The only answer I could think of would be that hobgoblins are infertile but I'm not sure how that goes biologically.
They do. It's all mixed up and inbred. I was going to get more into the process and even show a view of the breeding pits--but I try to keep this channel PG-13 or a soft R.
I'm curious, Professor, if players gain insanity points or lose ethos points for killing the goblin young, what do you propose they do instead? Do your players leave the young alone, and in their caves - and if so, isn't that tantamount to killing them since they goblin children will just be killed by their neighbors or wandering monsters. Or do your characters take them out of the caves and release them to the wilderness?
Razor Chuckles Possibly both. I have three groups. Only one group found the grubbling cave. They captured them & sold them to the Munchburger brothers.
I dunno prof... i appreciate your overall philosophy but some of the simplfications go too far in my opinion. I mean rock paper scissors is really fast and the rules fit on a cocktail napkin but I play rpgs specifically for the character building and dynamic complexity which is beyond what even a videogame is capable of.
Thanks for commenting. Everyone has their own tolerance for "crunch." I definitely prefer a rules-light game and I realize it's not to everyone's taste. Take what you find useful and leave the rest behind--just do me a favor and keep watching DungeonCraft!
Now a month wait. Arggghh. I love the grim dark world the Professor has created and I look forward to his campaign diaries. I can’t wait for his take on the ogre
.... That cat thing really got me. That's such a great detail. Your channel constantly delivers so much material, Professor Dungeon Master. I run Dungeon World almost exclusively, my players love it, and I love that I can just focus on the moment and the fiction. But the characters are always fairly powered up. Even without handing out magic items. I feel this impedes a grimdark setting. Anyone from the class have any thoughts about this?
@@emveeay I do! And most of the time, I enjoy that. But after giving it more thought, I arrived at the idea that partial successes need to carry more consequences.
Dark fantasy is hard to make and even harder to maintain. Keeping that feeling of danger, mistrust and abandonement is challenging even for the greatest authors. It is rewarding, though, as it makes the joyful moments all the more satifying because of the heavy contrast. Some tips for a darker setting: Add more filth to the scenery, describe bad smells and sensations in cities, such as piss and shit; increase agressiveness and mistrust of the townsfolk. They are hard people, and the players always feel like outcasts; Increase crime rate in the form of bandit raids, murder, rape, domestic violence and drug trade; Decrease the overall hope of the people by adding plague, famine and nobles that abuse their power; Increase tension by making the lord of the province declare war on a neighbor, or even war between kingdoms. As for the combat: You can increase the number of enemies, make them employ group strategies and traps, use items, run and regroup, etc. Anything can be done with creatures that seem "basic" at first glance, but everyone has potential for redesign. The best dungeon masters don't need dragons and beholders. They can turn everyday goblins into nightmares (as demonstrated by the Professor). Weak creatures use the environment to their favour. An example would be " Blinking through the irritation of the disgusting smells, you see a goblin turning his back. He will leave the room and call for reinforcements, but another three goblins will attack your mage and the paladin is vomiting profusely. What do you do?" One more thing: Traps need to be DANGEROUS. They need to handicap the players (sleeping darts, beartraps that chop off the foot) or injure them (heavy harpoon coated with poison that nails them to the wall) in case they don't look for them.
I think halflings are played out at this point. I encourage players to play humans. I think it's more interesting for players to create authentic personalities, not personalities based on a racial stereotype. However, if someone REALLY wanted to play a halfling, I would let them. My way isn't the "right" way.
Literally, my only concern is that you assume the Player Characters will trust Snare in the first place. To battle their suspicions, I think a raw incentive needs to be placed. A stacked party with good heads on their shoulders won't really need a tag-along for directions. (Maybe grant them advantage on perception/observation-based rolls as long as he's around. As it is now, I'd leave him locked up/kill him the second his use was up. For me-- if I was a player, it'd be an argument for pure survival in a campaign like this. Anything that's a potential threat to that must be eliminated.) Besides that-- freaking awesome!!!
I think they're GW Crypt Ghouls. Join the Facebook group. There's a lot of that talk on there. I don't know where all my models come from....but someone always does!
I have one detailed question, but it requires a bit of context. I am a player in my DnD campaign, but occasionally get questions from the DM regarding situational rulings, since often times they can be argued in either direction. The main question that keeps coming up is whether it's reasonable/safe/etc. to be able to rest in a high tension location or scenario. Often times, the party tries to reinforce a room they've recently taken control of, and make it safe to rest to take advantage of abilities to gain health and spells. This makes dungeons take excessive amounts of time, while causing their difficulty to plummet. So, to get to my question, can resources be regained in your campaign by players simply stopping and resting during a dungeon crawl? If so, how do you prevent them from pausing after every encounter and refreshing themselves? If not, are they instead rewarded for careful management of their only available resources?
He has an NPC in town that can heal you but that risks gangrene and limb loss. His clerics cast 1 spell per level per day. I am willing to bet his healing is slow. He doesnt have hit die (see his character sheet), so I doubt he has short rests. Long rests may only give 1 HP a night like older editions.
Hi Evan! Thanks for watching. This is a great question for the Facebook group. Ask them about it and if they'd like an entire episode dedicated to it. The short answer is--sometimes yes and often no. If the characters are resting in a disused part of the dungeon where there are not patrols or sentient being, fine. If it's in the hobgoblin caves--no. Within the hour another 6 goblins will arrive. This is their home. It's busy. In my game, resource management is important. My players are very conscious of the food they have and the torches, etc. I'll talk about this more in the next update. Thanks!
"Once all the hugging and hopping on beds was done, he enslaved the hobbits...which is pretty much what historical kings did." I can't help but feel like some glossing over and oversimplification of history was done here....
Same, I always feel goblins are like lesser ogres and work for them and hob goblins. sometimes they live by themselves but they can often be found forced into labor under something more powerful. This might benefit them like possible protection or profit. Kobolds act the same way.
In my setting Hobgoblins are this race of proud hyper authoritarian xenophobes who have absolutely massive empires and trade networks that are completely ignored by all of the other races. They're constantly at war with the rest of the world but it's a very one sided war. A legion of Hobgoblins will take over an abandoned windmill only to get kicked out because the local Lord wants to build a new vineyard. They'll take this one sided conflict and write epic poems and plays and construct statues and memorials to events that everyone but them doesn't even realize happened. They're like the Dozers of Fraggle Rock only more religious and less effective. Here's a better example; around 4th level, my players cleared out an abandoned military outpost that was being used by the Hobgoblins as a stronghold after they started demanding a village not too far away started paying them taxes. They did it in like one or two sessions and completely forgot about it. Until level 17 where the Hobgoblins showed up to help the BBEG to get revenge on the party only for neither the party nor the BBEG knowing who the hell they were.
Ugh! My perfectly written 1st comment didn’t go through!? In brief; love your stuff, heck I even love a lot of the comments people write. I like the limited HP idea, how do people survive more than one encounter? You have so much stuff coming at people, I would think that people would need to go back to town after every fight!
Notice that his monsters mostly just do a die of damage unless its a boss that does a 1d8+1 or something. Also, enemy HP is way lower and most are 1 shotted. Basically, you are fighting hordes of minions.
They approach fights very carefully, using caution and stealth, and they DO return to town after every cave.One group made it through an entire cave without taking a single hit--and they DON'T have a magic user!
Ahh so that would make sense. With regard to Data Lore, I realize the monster HPs and damage are lower as well. Pardon me though Professor, perhaps I am missing something in how you do your combats? I wonder if I am just missing something in how you run things? Is it sort of like Dungeon World where the monsters hit only if the players miss? Just by numbers, I would think, clearly I must be wrong, that the monsters would get in some lucky hits, and at 10hps, it would only take 1 or 2 to end a PC.
@@Astartes36 If you look at his "no initiative" video, everything goes at once (except for ranged and magic who are not adjacent to melee - who go first) after a movement phase. This means you can't parry a blow or prevent an enemy from going by killing it first (unless you surprise it or take it down from range). Even if hit by a melee strike that would kill it, the enemy will get to attempt to strike since it all happens simultaneously. Also, since it seems that he does not use proficiency (see his character sheet in the insanity video) and he is going off older equipment lists, I am willing to bet his AC numbers might be a bit lower. When I playtested this, the highest AC guy had AC 15. One thing I did with crits was the ICRPG method of making crits just be a d12. So, if you crit with a d4 dagger, you deal d4+d12 damage. I might change that (I am curious what PDM uses) but even with that, the PCs didn't TPK (no deaths actually). The key thing is that the first and second round of combat are scary. How the PCs approach that round is super important. After that, the pressure is off slightly since enemy damage drops off. This is why he keeps having enemies join the fray. In one combat I ran, I threw 6 goblins at the party. 2 goblins and 2 wolves joined in after 3 rounds. That was our first go at the system. The fighter went down but the party made it through. A key thing to remember is that certain things are not used in his combats. There do not appear to be attacks of opportunity (possibly no reactions) - but there may be (this is unclear). I also do not think he uses bonus actions. Its seems like just a single move and a single action (though he might be using them - its not clear).
@Data Lore, thanks a lot for your response! I think you may be on to it exactly or at least pretty close. Currently I am trying to figure out how to finish one campaign in order to start up a new one inspired by the Professor. I’ve actually been writing a number of rules and am mixing bits from several systems, Professor DM, and my own ideas. I think it will be a lot of fun, but just want to avoid demoralizing everyone by beating the snot out of them, because I haven’t really thought it out completely enough. Thanks for your thoughts and sharing your experiences!
Im interested in your comment that human interest in lore concepts are "hardwired into our DNA", do you have a source or some terms I can google for more information on this?
OKAY. I do not mean it can be scientifically proven. I mean audiences REALLY seem to enjoy putting together puzzles with characters. That's the primary attraction of say, Sherlock Holmes stories. I know when I lay the seeds for plot points and the characters recognize patterns or put 2+2 together, they get excited. If there are enough hints, it feels satisfying. Not enough hints? Disappointing. EVERYTHING is Dickens' work comes together in the end. It's why the film "The Shawshank Redemption" is so good. At the end you go, "Oh.....THAT'S why he wanted the rock hammer!" So that's just the English teacher in me preaching.
Dungeon Craft Ohhhh okay, thanks for the reply. It is interesting to see how humans mythify the environment and contextualize history within some usually metaphysical narrative. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this tendency for categorization of phenomenon in such a way might be genetic somehow, but I suppose it's less primal than that, being a semantic expression. Anyways it got me to thinking, so that's good. I enjoy your videos, have a good day.
Is it me or the video was more complete before or was the video already edited in this odd way? I really had a strange feeling that there were more info previously in this video.
I'm curious if your using the advantage/disadvantage system from 5e combined with the EASY/HARD system from ICRPG, or if you simply have dropped the aforementioned 5e system for just the EASY/HARD system?
You know, I've watched your videos way more times than is healthy, but one question that comes up is: Exactly how right or wrong IS Brynner? When the PCs meet him for the first time, he is remarkably one-sided in his love of the goblins, and completely insensitive to the fact that he's talking to a bunch of (at that point) unarmed civilians who were caught in the crossfire of the conflict between goblins and humans, and he even sells them out so the goblins can kill them, rather than try and win them over by helping them. Of course, the odds that the good professor is simply acting selfishly to satisfy his curiosity towards the goblins is that he pretends to be a monster around them and never reveals his true identity to them. There's something to be said about the goblins so quickly and viciously turning on Brynner, their greatest advocate, when they learn his true identity, as well. But, this is the core of the question: Do they do it because their mutations and harsh new environment have turned them into completely different creatures than the peaceful halflings they used to be, ....or is it simply because Brynner is a coward and a liar who never actually opened up to be their friend, and only ruled them like a king while promising them whatever he needed to in order to keep living with them and exploiting their hospitality...so when the goblins learn the truth, they are so shocked, hurt, betrayed, and paranoid of "spies" that they skin Brynner like he's cat #30?
Here's how I see Brunner: he is selfish insofar as he's obsessed with goblins and thinks nothing else is important. He isn't the goblin leader. He does not interfere with their culture. The goblins mutated centuries ago and now only dimly remember their surface-dwelling heritage. They ARE evil (they're cannibals!) but there is a reason for it. The goblin's willingness to turn on Brunner is their nature--which he won't accept. It's kind of like the relationship between Timothy Treadwell and the Grizzly bears that he lived with, that eventually ate him (See the documentary Grizzly Man).
I'd be willing to take a quick look at it. However, my general belief is world doesn't need any more RPG systems other than the basic D&D framework. What it needs is scenarios. There is an episode coming up about this.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 well on sticking to the basics we agree. would you prefer a quick video about 5 minutes explaining the jist of it. Or a rough draft of my write up with the important bits? Eithers fine.
sweet. here's the google doc link for you. sorry, i know google doc can load slowly sometimes and be jittery. docs.google.com/document/d/15SXZPDSuBCODfzc85uTjQK_qLo9AFWpGlJdezOgTq7k/edit?usp=sharing and the character sheet if you'd like to gander: drive.google.com/file/d/1bDlg8JcpOFXcq9HzZnobF6z21Th5Bbf6/view?usp=sharing
I have the next 2 eps for this playlist marked as [Private Video]. Professor DungeonMaster my addiction to this series is quite real. Any information on when more eps will manifest publicly or why they aren't accessible would be massively appreciated. Cheers!
THANK YOU! For some reason those videos were not listed on the DungeonCraft or The DungeonCraft Campaign lists. Sometimes this is because of human error (mine) and sometimes RU-vid fails to save information. Meanwhile, I've spent two months scratching my head as to why those videos were not getting many views, even though I thought they were good! Here's a link to the next one, the Manskinner. Then you can check out the Owlbear. A new campaign update drops this upcoming Thursday. Thanks again! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rt-xXpf7XXY.html
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Hey thanks. And I look forward to Thursday - your campaign updates are my favorite RU-vid content this year by a mile. Hugely inspirational.
I wish you had a playlist of videos just on the GMing side. The crafting videos are cool but most of my video consumption happens while I'm working on cars, so I'm just listening. Then I have to manually skip the craft videos. If you already have a playlist like this, I'm gonna feel like a doofus. Love the videos.
It was removed to remix the terrible audio. The remixed version airs tonight 6pm Eastern. Sorry for the inconvenience. We want to make the best videos possible.
@@lucbouchard-pigeon1363 No problem. You can thank me by watching the video between 6-6:30pm Eastern and letting the entire video play through. That's how youtube determines how it will promote videos.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Will be busy doing groceries but will religously watch it after. Question : is the character named Søren a reference to Søren Kierkegaard? Have you ever thought of having a vilain who is also a philosopher? A few of them would make good vilains. I enjoyed very much the goblin scholar. I rexycled some of these ideas for my own game.
While working on other tasks and listening to youtube in the back ground then suddenly Dungeon craft! full screen ok im ready for class professor. I really do get a lot of edutainment (im sure its a word) out of you videos. I like how you put a refreshing spin on a classic module. I also enjoy the dioramas you make for your videos.
Such an awesome campaign concept. Like you said... I'm going to have to steal this one When I have more time I'll have to share one of my campaign ideas.
i love your work as a GM. however, in retrospect, you lost me with that episode about game of thrones. i thought you to be one of the intelligentsia, but devoting a show the that millennial waste is like devoting a show to linkin park- the former lacks the basic elements of a story, the latter lacks the basic elements of music. both are entirely senseless! there is nothing i would want to learn from either- not as a GM and not as a person.
Uh oh. You're definitely not going to like my Avengers Endgame review. Here's the thing. In order to grow on RU-vid you need to upload a video every week. GOT is the most popular fantasy show ever and a LOT of D&D players are into it. Join the DungeonCraft FB group and you can suggest topic and respond to my posts when I ask what people want to see. Thanks for your response--and I mean that seriously, not sarcastically. Cheers!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 thanks for YOUR response! more popular than harry potter or lord of the rings? well, those are not episodic. linkin park was/is also very popular. i guess that was my point- current/millennial culture is not very informed in my opinion, and if that is your niche, i respect your marketing strategy. and i respect you. their storm is coming. i feel sorry for them, but when that storm hits... when they figure out what the world has done to them, it will get very messy. i would not want to be on that wave- though i hope to live long enough to watch the show- from a safe distance, he he he! they will need people like you to lead them out. after all, you are their professor. educate- from educare: "to lead forth." lead them to a better day, a better way. frodo versus sauron, sherlock versus moriarty, hector versus achilles- those are stories which INSTRUCT- the hero with a thousand faces... they will need much instruction!
Professor I have a question. Do I remember correctly that you like to keep your players characters restricted to 15 HP or less to keep the grim dark feeling?
Do you limit the total number of goblins available to show up on d4 rolls in groups of six? Considering a party of 4 it seems they would quickly become overwhelmed by a couple d4 results of 1 or 2 on goblin responses to noise. Even if the goblins only do d4 damage vs 15 HP sheer volume of rolls would send the party to Dr. Shakes a couple of times it seems.
Great question. In the final room I limit them to one extra group. But normally the goblins keep spawning more goblins--ad infinitum until forced away by light. They're a swarm. That's their bag. 1hp. But terrifying. (hornets work like this)
You should have the students protest the Gender inequity that the goblins practice... but they(students) might overlook that and see the goblins as an oppressed species who need reparations. It really depends on the who has the greater Intersectionality claim. I think the students would not be able to judge the treatment of goblin females...that is culturalism. The Goblins win that one: they had their land stolen, they are goblins, the are grubists, they are poor. Clearly the human women in the breeding pit should be empathized with on an individual level but condemned on a cultural level. The women could serve as part of the reparations, along with booze, and boogers(from the women). In fact some radical female students (Example: ISIS brides) might volunteer. Wow... I am scaring myself. I could right a book on just this. Some questions to ask: Do the Bandits deserve some of the profits of the merchants? Should the bandits even be prosecuted? After all they are being repressed by being keep out of the political process. What about the orcs and others? Perhaps the adventurers should be doxxed, de-platformed, protested(like you said), and prosecuted. Lastly, would the characters lose alignment if they just killed the students...or at least beat them up?
Slime balls, Spore Grenades and Poop. This is SO much better than the usual "Short bow + hide/disengage". The caves and the world trully feel alive with all the background and unseen things that happens on them, and all the grimdark makes it even more realistic. Amazing as always, can't wait for the next episode!
Fernando Lougon Filho there’s tons of ways to make life difficult for players. Forcing them to use their brains is a great way to make the game more fun.
