Hi All! I have a quick shot today with Michael Dunn-O’Connor about Goblinville, which is available on PDF and in print! Check out what it’s about below!
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What is Goblinville, both as a product and as your vision?
Goblinville is a character-driven dungeon crawler that works for short, punchy sessions and long campaigns. The town itself is the key source of adventure and improving it is a core part of character advancement. The requirement that all player characters are goblins has shifted the tone of play (compared to other fantasy adventure rpgs). All the characters are from the same community, so there is an assumed shared interest. And the community is in peril, in a way reinforced by the procedures of play. The resulting spirit of underdog collaboration makes it stand out from other games in an often fraught genre.
Finally, the element of fantasy adventure games that I most take issue with is the portrayal of heroic player characters killing and stealing from subhuman, monstrous enemies. Goblinville subverts this by casting the goblins as protagonists, with cares and motivations and a distinct society. It doesn’t guarantee thoughtful dissection of the genre, but it intentionally avoids reasserting the worst of its cliches.
What are the basic mechanics like in Goblinville and how do they support the character-driven focus?
The character-driven focus of Goblinville starts during Goblin creation, the first step of a new game. When each player is creating their goblin, the rules tell them to choose or roll for a few aspects of your character. These aspects give a lot of texture to the character (rather than being a set of numbers): your job, your boss, a formative experience, and a notable physical trait and personality trait.
Then, all the players pause. In turn, they introduce their Goblin to the table. The other players ask questions and discuss. Then they agree on a Title for that goblin: a unique moniker that sets them apart from the rest of the town while affirming their place in it. They also decide on an ‘Esteem Trait’ for that goblin. How do they fit into the adventuring group, what sets them apart from the other goblins at this table?
These Titles and Traits are the most important part of a character, because they are the only (limited) source of bonus dice for a roll. Rolls in Goblinville are always full of compromise; getting to add a die for a relevant Trait or Title (and drop your lowest result) lets you mitigate those compromises.
At the end of a session, every player shares their goblin’s defining moment. This could be a notable accomplishment, a new insight, or a significant struggle. The other players at the table grant them a new Title based on their actions. Traits can change over time in a similar way.
The result of these design choices is that advancement (gaining and changing Titles/ Traits) is linked to what is important to your character in the fiction, and to your character’s dynamic with the rest of the group. Every session ends with: how did you (as players) see my character change? And the answer matters, because it’s tied to the dice mechanics that come up every time the goblins take a risky action.
What is one of the most important ways you show goblins to be different than the standard portrayal, beyond their role as protagonists?
The humanizing details of being a goblin in Goblinville seep in through play. The first things that become clear are the character aspects in goblin creation. You have a job and a boss. You have traits that goblins notice about you and a reputation (for good or ill). You are part of a community. At the beginning of a session, you also commit to an outlook and a goal. You have motivations that are distinct from the other goblins. The prompts don’t push you toward creating a stereotypical goblin, every prompt suggests that your character has an inner life and relationships.
Some players still initially play up greedy or bloodthirsty goblins. And this is maybe a style of play that folks are looking for. Where this tends to become more nuanced is related to the improvement of Goblinville itself. Character specific advancement is fairly limited. You can only have three Traits and three Titles at a time. You can advance in rank a few times, but the added benefits are marginal. The most meaningful advancement over time comes from ‘unlocking’ new locations in town. To do this you need to find missing goblins, or convince goblins with a particular expertise to join your community. You need to repair broken equipment or go adventuring to find alternatives. The game repeatedly rewards you for caring about and investing in the town where you live. There is no reward for being greedy, selfish, or “evil”.
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Thank you so much Michael for the interview! I hope you all liked it and you’ll check Goblinville out in print and PDF!