Goblinville - Rules of Play

Issue One of the Goblinville Gazette · By Narrative Dynamics

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Pit of Mirrors (Spoilers)

A topic by Narrative Dynamics created Apr 11, 2019 Views: 589 Replies: 10

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Narrative DynamicsDeveloper5 years ago(+1)

RyanMcRae asked about this in another thread: "In the first adventure, I'm super unclear how the goblins are supposed to defeat the ooze. "

Me too! I wouldn't say the goblins are "supposed to" defeat the ooze. In fact, I haven't seen it happen yet. That said, it could be possible.

It is clearly weakened by light and the site is full of mirrors and the bright coruscate orb. If the ooze was drenched in enough light, the goblins could attack from a 'good position' and do pretty well.
The runed axe that Blance the warrior is carrying does say: "Does one additional harm to magic creatures (such as the Tenebrous Ooze) and cannot be conven- tionally destroyed." It could be very useful if the Goblins get hold of it.
Parts of the ooze were stored in runed jars in a cold safe. The ooze's cell walls are coated in runes. If the goblins copied the runes, they might be able to re-imprison it.

There are opportunities for clever approaches, and several groups have used them to flee with minimal losses. None so far have 'won'. This tone is carried through other adventures as well. Goblins are small and scrappy and won't always solve huge, inscrutable problems like the ooze. So far groups who have run through the Pit of Mirrors have enjoyed what victories they've earned.

Vi Huntsman5 years ago

Having not run the game yet, I didn't realize the outlook is so bleak! I'm excited to try it out.

I mostly just wanted to post here to say that while reading this adventure I had the coolest idea for a magic item, which is a mirror from which the very end of a thick vine grows (yes, out of the mirror). However, when looking into the mirror, it appears as though the vine extends into your world, because you can see it "in the mirror". When you break the mirror, the vine appears in the 'real world' in that direction, which is different depending on where you were looking, and at what angle you were holding the mirror. HAD to share.

Narrative DynamicsDeveloper5 years ago(+1)

Neat! I like any item that encourages strange, specific problem-solving.

wooodsman5 years ago(+2)

Wafflebunny, we don't think of it as a bleak outlook! Goblinville is about goblins going into crazy dangerous places, grabbing what they can and escaping with their lives (and loot) intact. It's not about "winning" in the traditional fantasy RPG way, by killing everything in the dungeon. From the ground up in our adventure designs (and in our adventure design guidelines), we try to instill that monsters aren't just obstacles in the way of the treasure, and that's something important for both our players and GMs to embody.

If the goblins don't kill the ooze, good! That means they were probably smart enough to not go near it in the first place! It also means that it's going to escape, and that's much more valuable as a recurring story in the persistent world of your Goblinville game.

Vi Huntsman5 years ago

On topic, I couldn't find a reason that the spider folks would be leaving their nests. I know they can't communicate much in the first place, but is there a written reason I missed that they would set fire to the lab and run away?

Narrative DynamicsDeveloper5 years ago(+2)

On the previous turn, the ooze collapses the floor of their living quarters and begins its escape. The Weavers are fleeing for their lives.

Vi Huntsman5 years ago

RIGHT. Thank you, I knew I missed something in there.

Sarah Nibs5 years ago(+1)

Just finished running this one yesterday. The goblins did not defeat the ooze, there will be fallout. But they did get away with quite a bit of loot! For goblins, that is. Some chalices, everything the porter was carrying, and miscellaneous human adventurer campsite salvage. And fond memories of an oven they really wanted to drag upstairs. And nightmares of a great cat running from a darkness even scarier.

Narrative DynamicsDeveloper5 years ago

Curious to hear how you play out the ooze's escape into the broader world!

Capt_buck4 years ago

Hey I ran this in a session for the second time a bit ago and I have a few comments/questions/ points of confusion. I'm about to run it again so I'd like to keep improving it.

Something I only realized after my second running is the "The Adventurers" is not a reference to the goblins, but a reference to the NPC adventuring party that is entering the temple! I think I'd only read the lowercase adventurers as the NPCs for some reason.

I don't understand the pacing, in terms of how many actions should be attempted. The group very quickly entered the tower by breaking and window, looked around each room, but kept going down. They successfully broke or picked the door to get down. By the time they were down with the spider people it was probably only turn 3. They also made it back up by turn 5. Perhaps I wasn't throwing them enough obstacles, but it seemed like they wanted to go up or down steps in a room really shouldn't be an issue or even a roll.

Also a more general question is how should we treat fairly simple actions that have the chance of not working? I ended up mostly saying they risked breaking it, or the item they were using, but that felt very uncreative after a few times. It also because confusing whether they could reattempt things. Particularly in the firey lab, they kept failing to escape, but it felt silly to just kill them for failing to leave a room, but there wasn't any other way out. I ended up saying they had to burn away an item each time, and then the fire died out. I guess I could have injured them, but I think that would have wiped the whole party.

As a twist/ mistake I made the orb a bit more magical and the ooze was a bit afraid of it when they waved it or the replica. They didn't linger long, but I think if they messed with the ooze it would have attacked the item it was once afraid of. In the moment I couldn't describe the runed chamber well, so the orb became the most important device for containing the ooze.

As a funny note, one of the goblins drank the ooze in the runed bottle. I had to talk to a friend not in the game to figure out something for the next session. We decided to cause the stomach ooze to drag the player to the big ooze. That ended up being funny. A leg was lost.

Thanks for your creation by the way! I've been enjoying it and trying to get more people to play.

Narrative DynamicsDeveloper4 years ago

Hi Capt_buck!

Good questions, and it's cool to see you really diving into the system.

In terms of scale, I've found that the Pit of Mirrors can vary a lot. Sometimes actions spiral out of control and twists introduce new dangers that need to be resolved. I've had folks get lost on the way there or stalked by the jungle cat, or caught in the vines. I've also seen groups come up with clever ways to avoid problems and they fly through it in a few turns.

One thing that can slow the pace of a game without adding obstacles or forcing a roll: taking more time for questions and descriptions. Really dive into the sounds and smells of the abandoned lab, ask about goblins past experience with weird creatures, about how they do something, about what they want out of a situation. I find that spending more time 'in the fiction' can add a lot to play.

When players fail an action more than once, it can be useful to add new threats. The danger for fleeing a burning lab could be that the acting goblin gets pinned under falling debris, or the adventurers come down the stairs to attack. Ideally failing means that you aren't in the same position as you were before the roll. That can keep a desperate scene lively and dynamic.

I agree that small things, without meaningful stakes (like going up and down stairs) doesn't need to be a roll. Save it for the big stuff.

The orb making light/ the ooze being harmed by light is an intentional relationship. Cool to hear you found a dramatic moment there.

I love the image of the tiny ooze dragging a goblin around from inside its guts.

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Goblinville - Rules of Play

Pit of Mirrors (Spoilers)