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One of my favourite random encounters to run is the "Goblin toll booth." The setup is that along a forest path, there is a box labelled "Toll boof. Pay 10 gold peeces." The local goblins have been using this to scam travellers out of their gold. One goblin hides in a tree above the toll booth whilst several other goblins hide in bushes anywhere between 40 and 80 feet from the booth (think the first encounter in Lost Mines of Phandelver). When the players come along, they may see the goblin in the tree but would require a good perception check to see the others. If the players pay the toll, nothing happens. But if the players attempt to walk past the box or ,worse, attempt to steal from it, the goblin in the tree attempts to throw a net over the PC who looks the most heavily armoured (since they cant "see AC" this means he may pick a fighter in chain even though the rogue has a higher AC). The goblins in the bushes attack. Keeping within short range of their bows (40-80ft.), they fire at the party. Being hidden, they get advantage (unseen attacker) when they shoot. They then use nimble escape to hide as a bonus action which will give them advantage on the next attack. Rinse and repeat. If a player gets to a goblin, the goblin disengages and hides (only shooting if it is sure it can kill the PC). The goblins priorities casters as they are scared of BOOYAGH! They place more priority on blasty magic than healing magic. The goblins keep kiting their enemy. They flee if they lose more than 50% of their numbers (unless the players are in a similar state). If the goblins are massacring the players (half players down) then one will tell the players to pay the toll or to otherwise hand over items. The remaining goblins hold their action. Feel free to steal this Goblin Viet-Cong ambush.
I built a squad of goblin rangers using the scout stat block, and mounted them on axebeaks. I was going for a star wars tie squadron feel. Afterwards all my players wanted axebeak mounts
I found a different way to do a find Familiar Spell to summon a mount for small creatures. Goat, pig, and vulture would be awesome option for mounts that could be put away, used as spies or alarms while sleeping. Another spell that goblins could have access to would be plant growth with small trails thru it, so they can travel unimpeded while medium+ use up 4X movement. One last thing small creatures can now wield heavy weapons without disadvantage if their str is 13+. Imagine a group of Goblin Barbarians wielding great axes running towards your group. How you like and have a great one.
Matt, one of my favorite things about your channel is that you go into the lore about the creatures as well as building an encounter. Goblins are amazing and I love that this encounter can be adapted in so many ways. I could even see this working with kobalds as well and introducing a dragon NPC/villain for some foreshadowing if you wanted. Great job as always! Love it!
In the game I was running as a DM I had a main bad be a goblin, but I used the race rules and made a level 14 goblin college of the sword bard. The party felt they were tacking on a simple goblin but he gave them an epic fight for their life. I love using supposedly weak creatures as powerful enemies. In a different game I had a kobold lich. All good times.
I could see a scenario where most of the goblins leave the camp on a mission and Allonis tries to walk out of the goblin camp but is stopped at spear point by 2 goblins. He orders them out of the way but they ignore him because they were told by the shaman to keep Allonis in the camp.
This sounds like such a cool starter quest! One way you could spice it up is to start the first session with the pcs being already be caught and having to get to know and work together as prisoners trying to escape. The rest of the plot would be the same, but adapted slightly for the escape plot to work. There would be three possible progressions: just fight and kill all the goblins, escape and learn the same things as original in the city (and maybe come back to save the magic dude), or wait for the sacrifice and do smtn then.
So im running a campaign artistically based on the anime goblin slayer, and this is super helpful because this is my first time as a dungeon master. I'm two sessions in with three party members now. I decided on GOOOBLLIINNNSSSSSS because i figured with them being so versatile i could design the campaign in a way that party members could come and go. Sessions always start at the guild hall and the party gets to choose between 3 quests and gobos always show up. (Normally the party can complete 2 in a 7 hour session) After they receive their quest they go into town to purchase supplies. Your video has been super great for trying break out of my writers block and I'm ready to keep creating the world I've started! Thanks! I've got two more quests to put to paper. Thanks for the video man
Dude I love the setup , you explain the monsters let up get in their heads/ motivation/stats and provide a encounter to show example. You a hero among men
Thank you! Glad I could help. I think developing both social encounters AND combat encounters specifically to gauge how your party will react to them is crucial early on in the campaign. Particularly with a new group. Good luck running your game!
Love this and going to implement it in my campaign coming up. Ever think about making text versions of these encounters? Make it a bit easier for people wanting to use it and follow along?
Haha yes, that is also an option. It entirely depends on how much information the dungeon master wants to reveal and how they want to roleplay Allonis (and how your players interpret the information given to them). I've run this encounter twice and both times Allonis made it out alive. But even if he doesn't, it can either be a harsh lesson for your players to learn or the DM can spin it as Allonis deserved it his role in leading to the death of civilians! The success of any encounter ultimately is up to everyone, especially the players! And meh, what's one more dead NPC? ;P
I would setup finding the mayors daughter scene with finding the mayors daughter in such a state that shes concious when you find her but that she is so traumatised she does not rember who she is untill you pass by the mayor bringing her back to town. Now thats some motivaton to kill some goblins
Seems a lil' too much like pushing the players towards one assumption. It's better left how it was so players can make their own assumptions about how dangerouns the goblins are or aren't. That then gives far more agency to the group and allows them more choice, puzzle solving, and general IC debate. RP is much more fun when party members of various up bringings and morals get to spin their own ideas, rather than everyone having to accept something is bad or play devil's advocate. The motivation should never be to kill in encounters like these, the motivation should come from players decisions on whether they want to or not. The groups I play with rarely kill humanoids, so being railroaded towards "look how evil they are, traumatising a poor widdle girl" just feels cheap as all heck and would completely cancel out a lot of potentially awesome RP beats and different approaches to the situation.
I'll give you one of mine a man with yellow skin and pointed ears like an elf tells the group "a grate evil threatens this world, if you give me your gold and promise to defeat it I'll make all your weapons and armor magical" when party agrees and checks in on him the next day, the man has left with all the weapons an armor and they find a dead blacksmith in the basement the group now needs to use track DCs to find the man who robed them fallowing the tracks an arriving to the next town they see kids wearing the gear that was stolen they refuse to return it because they bought it fare and square the kids tell them that a man sold it to them an you can find him at the church but it's not him this man has red skin with pointed ears like an elf and tells the group "a grate evil threatens this world, if you promise to defeat it the church will buy you new equipment and more" leads them to a well were the evil sleeps below the city when the last one enters he cuts the rope when the group looks up they see two goblins one yellow one red turns out they pulled the old goblen standing on another goblins shoulders trick the goblins take the horses and cart/wagon (what is left) players fight vermin in the aquafer leading to a crypt were they fight undead leading back to the church were they find a dead priest and back to the town depending on the time it takes to get out will determine the new track DC the point to all this is to get the players to want vengeance plus it forces many different skill DCs including craft DC to at least craft clubs/quarterstaff/sling (0 gold items) the idea is to think of how can you scam these guys even more
Thanks for Watching!
Are you enjoying the Let's Build an Encounter series? Here is the entire playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLN3EWMJpTElMPfoxgFTAMuY3qdC7sGz_7.html
One of my favourite random encounters to run is the "Goblin toll booth."
The setup is that along a forest path, there is a box labelled "Toll boof. Pay 10 gold peeces."
The local goblins have been using this to scam travellers out of their gold.
One goblin hides in a tree above the toll booth whilst several other goblins hide in bushes anywhere between 40 and 80 feet from the booth (think the first encounter in Lost Mines of Phandelver).
When the players come along, they may see the goblin in the tree but would require a good perception check to see the others.
If the players pay the toll, nothing happens.
But if the players attempt to walk past the box or ,worse, attempt to steal from it, the goblin in the tree attempts to throw a net over the PC who looks the most heavily armoured (since they cant "see AC" this means he may pick a fighter in chain even though the rogue has a higher AC).
The goblins in the bushes attack. Keeping within short range of their bows (40-80ft.), they fire at the party. Being hidden, they get advantage (unseen attacker) when they shoot. They then use nimble escape to hide as a bonus action which will give them advantage on the next attack. Rinse and repeat.
If a player gets to a goblin, the goblin disengages and hides (only shooting if it is sure it can kill the PC).
The goblins priorities casters as they are scared of BOOYAGH! They place more priority on blasty magic than healing magic.
The goblins keep kiting their enemy. They flee if they lose more than 50% of their numbers (unless the players are in a similar state).
If the goblins are massacring the players (half players down) then one will tell the players to pay the toll or to otherwise hand over items. The remaining goblins hold their action.
Feel free to steal this Goblin Viet-Cong ambush.
I built a squad of goblin rangers using the scout stat block, and mounted them on axebeaks. I was going for a star wars tie squadron feel. Afterwards all my players wanted axebeak mounts
This is hella professional for a Channel with less that 1k subscribers. Consider yourself subbed.
You're too kind. Thank you!
I love your content! As a beginner dm, the explanations of quest ideas are perfect!
Thanks for the kind words!
I found a different way to do a find Familiar Spell to summon a mount for small creatures. Goat, pig, and vulture would be awesome option for mounts that could be put away, used as spies or alarms while sleeping. Another spell that goblins could have access to would be plant growth with small trails thru it, so they can travel unimpeded while medium+ use up 4X movement. One last thing small creatures can now wield heavy weapons without disadvantage if their str is 13+. Imagine a group of Goblin Barbarians wielding great axes running towards your group. How you like and have a great one.
Matt, one of my favorite things about your channel is that you go into the lore about the creatures as well as building an encounter. Goblins are amazing and I love that this encounter can be adapted in so many ways. I could even see this working with kobalds as well and introducing a dragon NPC/villain for some foreshadowing if you wanted. Great job as always! Love it!
Funny you say that because I almost did this exact encounter using Kobolds! Haha.
Thanks as always for the kind words!
@@HiddenNerdySide anytime, good sir!
When in doubt, have a goblin civil war over the color of their goblin armor. Lol.
fell into the rabbit hole of your vids and theyve been such a big help as someone who just started playing, so thank you! Instant subscribe
In the game I was running as a DM I had a main bad be a goblin, but I used the race rules and made a level 14 goblin college of the sword bard. The party felt they were tacking on a simple goblin but he gave them an epic fight for their life. I love using supposedly weak creatures as powerful enemies. In a different game I had a kobold lich. All good times.
I could see a scenario where most of the goblins leave the camp on a mission and Allonis tries to walk out of the goblin camp but is stopped at spear point by 2 goblins. He orders them out of the way but they ignore him because they were told by the shaman to keep Allonis in the camp.
Definitely something you can mix in!
This sounds like such a cool starter quest!
One way you could spice it up is to start the first session with the pcs being already be caught and having to get to know and work together as prisoners trying to escape.
The rest of the plot would be the same, but adapted slightly for the escape plot to work. There would be three possible progressions: just fight and kill all the goblins, escape and learn the same things as original in the city (and maybe come back to save the magic dude), or wait for the sacrifice and do smtn then.
So im running a campaign artistically based on the anime goblin slayer, and this is super helpful because this is my first time as a dungeon master. I'm two sessions in with three party members now. I decided on GOOOBLLIINNNSSSSSS because i figured with them being so versatile i could design the campaign in a way that party members could come and go.
Sessions always start at the guild hall and the party gets to choose between 3 quests and gobos always show up. (Normally the party can complete 2 in a 7 hour session)
After they receive their quest they go into town to purchase supplies.
Your video has been super great for trying break out of my writers block and I'm ready to keep creating the world I've started! Thanks! I've got two more quests to put to paper.
Thanks for the video man
Glad I could help. Keep on keeping on!
Dude I love the setup , you explain the monsters let up get in their heads/ motivation/stats and provide a encounter to show example. You a hero among men
So glad I found this channel. Very helpful
Great video, gets the mind thinking in the correct direction.
I think I have used like all your videos now. You are amazing thank you
Absolutely great, loved it, and always coming back for more 👍
Thumbnail reminds me of Chizel and Motel from World of Io
Really nice job. This opened my eyes to make my first game as a tool to see how the party works. Thanks.
Thank you! Glad I could help. I think developing both social encounters AND combat encounters specifically to gauge how your party will react to them is crucial early on in the campaign. Particularly with a new group.
Good luck running your game!
Nicely put sir
Excellent! Great ideas in your videos. I’m a new subscriber
Thank you and welcome to the party! It's open bar so go nuts!
Great encounter !
Love this and going to implement it in my campaign coming up. Ever think about making text versions of these encounters? Make it a bit easier for people wanting to use it and follow along?
Stay tuned - enhanced written versions are on their way!
Amazing encounter! I love it
Thank you!
absolutely love this
Thank you! More to come soon!
Ngl, I clicked this because the goblins in the thumbnail look Mottle and Cheezle from World of Io
I get the pleasure of unleashing goblins mounted on wolves upon my players I look forward to seeing how they manage
Can you do a video about lizardfolk?
They could also kill Allonis thinking he was someone working alongside the goblins:(
Haha yes, that is also an option. It entirely depends on how much information the dungeon master wants to reveal and how they want to roleplay Allonis (and how your players interpret the information given to them).
I've run this encounter twice and both times Allonis made it out alive. But even if he doesn't, it can either be a harsh lesson for your players to learn or the DM can spin it as Allonis deserved it his role in leading to the death of civilians!
The success of any encounter ultimately is up to everyone, especially the players! And meh, what's one more dead NPC? ;P
I needed this
Really good ideas love it 🤔👌
Thank you, Duke Konig!
In your opinions are goblins or kobolds better for low level parties?
Tbh, they are basically the same thing and can be used interchangeably haha. And I will look into a lizardfolk video!
Wow. Good shit
Interesting video
TFS
Thank you! Glad you like it.
SKREEEE!!!!!! Wait, wrong goblins.... Hmmm. Well, SKREEEEEEEE ANYWAY!
You are always welcome to SKREEEE here, my friend!
You sound familiar. Are you the sandwich guy??
Goblins help big human goblin fight bug people with human
I would setup finding the mayors daughter scene with finding the mayors daughter in such a state that shes concious when you find her but that she is so traumatised she does not rember who she is untill you pass by the mayor bringing her back to town. Now thats some motivaton to kill some goblins
Seems a lil' too much like pushing the players towards one assumption. It's better left how it was so players can make their own assumptions about how dangerouns the goblins are or aren't. That then gives far more agency to the group and allows them more choice, puzzle solving, and general IC debate. RP is much more fun when party members of various up bringings and morals get to spin their own ideas, rather than everyone having to accept something is bad or play devil's advocate. The motivation should never be to kill in encounters like these, the motivation should come from players decisions on whether they want to or not.
The groups I play with rarely kill humanoids, so being railroaded towards "look how evil they are, traumatising a poor widdle girl" just feels cheap as all heck and would completely cancel out a lot of potentially awesome RP beats and different approaches to the situation.
I'll give you one of mine
a man with yellow skin and pointed ears like an elf tells the group
"a grate evil threatens this world, if you give me your gold and promise to defeat it I'll make all your weapons and armor magical"
when party agrees and checks in on him the next day, the man has left with all the weapons an armor
and they find a dead blacksmith in the basement
the group now needs to use track DCs to find the man who robed them
fallowing the tracks an arriving to the next town they see kids wearing the gear that was stolen
they refuse to return it because they bought it fare and square
the kids tell them that a man sold it to them an you can find him at the church
but it's not him
this man has red skin with pointed ears like an elf and tells the group
"a grate evil threatens this world, if you promise to defeat it the church will buy you new equipment and more"
leads them to a well were the evil sleeps below the city
when the last one enters he cuts the rope
when the group looks up they see two goblins one yellow one red
turns out they pulled the old goblen standing on another goblins shoulders trick
the goblins take the horses and cart/wagon (what is left)
players fight vermin in the aquafer
leading to a crypt were they fight undead
leading back to the church were they find a dead priest and back to the town
depending on the time it takes to get out will determine the new track DC
the point to all this is to get the players to want vengeance
plus it forces many different skill DCs including craft DC to at least craft clubs/quarterstaff/sling (0 gold items)
the idea is to think of how can you scam these guys even more
I'm a nerd
I'll be ur friend B)