“Commandeer.  We’re going to commandeer that ship.  Nautical term.” ~ Jack Sparrow

So everyone likes Pirate Movies, right?  I mean, c’mon, after Johnny Depp starred in Pirates of the Caribbean, all I saw the following Halloween were little Capt. Jack Wannabes running all over the place.  Pirates are fun, and they can add a lot to a campaign setting.

But Pirate… Goblins?

Well, sort of…  but not exactly.  This week’s Friday Freebie is a campaign sourcebook from Role Playing Public Radio called The Goblin Hulk – a massive fortress-ship housing an entire goblin horde!

The Goblin Hulk Campaign Sourcebook is a free download in PDF format consisting of 48 pages, and contains descriptive information regarding the nature of a Goblin Hulk, 5 new monsters with stat blocks and illustrations, and 2 new templates. 

The Goblin Hulk reminds me a bit of the town of “Tortuga” as depicted in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie – a massive sprawling mess of buildings and ships all lumped together and filled with pirates, pirate, and more pirates – and the occasional seedy character that are willing to trade with pirates.  Just keep that image in mind, and substitute goblins for pirates, and then make the whole town sail around and commit acts of maritime aggression.  And that pretty much sums up a Goblin Hulk.

The authors describe the creation of a Goblin Hulk in their introduction:

Goblin hulks typically start as a normal ship, often built by another race, but piece by piece the ship grows like a floating cancer on the oceans. The goblins acquire a ship through theft or brute force and use it for piracy and smuggling. If the ship isn’t destroyed quickly, it grows as the crew lashes on smaller ships or builds new decks and sections. Normally such a ship would quickly fall apart under the weight of its unplanned additions.

Every once in a while, the engineers and shamans actually work together to transform a ship into a fully fledged hulk. This is a lengthy ritual taking many months and tens of thousands of gold pieces worth of supplies and labor. But once the ritual is completed, the magic of the ritual ensures that the hulk will remain seaworthy until completely destroyed or until the hull sigils are removed.

In the campaign book, the example given of one of these massive floating ship-fortresses is divided into seven distinct areas, and each area is given its own distinctive flavor.  Obviously, each Goblin Hulk is different, and areas can be added of removed to the individual taste of each DM.  In fact, the ‘Hulk is not mapped out at all, but more of a free-form encounter areas, because each of these massive horde ships is in a constant state of flux, with new areas being added or demolished given the whims of the goblin horde at any moment.

The areas given in the sourcebook for this ‘Hulk are:

• The Bazaar Deck
• Exterior Docks (yes, the ship is so big it has docks of its own)
• Dragon Skeletal Siderigging
• Orlop Deck
• Prison Deck
• Crew Deck
• Shamanic Engineering Deck

Each area is described in detailed sections such as “Who Lives There”, “Getting Around”, “Notable Features”, and “Encounters”.  What was particularly enjoyable was the additional information given in the sections labeled “Observations” and “What’s Going On”, which give DMs flavor blurbs to describe to their Player to bring each area to life.  Here are some examples from the “Observations” and “What’s Going On” sections on the Bazaar Deck to add atmosphere to the Goblin Hulk:

Observations
Sight
• A crowded shantytown built on the top deck.
• Dozens of wooden shacks and tents vie for space on the hulk.
• Swarms of goblins hurry through the narrow openings between each shanty.

Sound
• The roar of a crowd as they watch a knife fight to the death, somewhere out of sight.
• The clanging of a blacksmith fixing a damaged sword.
• Merchants and hawkers yelling out to the crowd, advertising their goods for sale.

Taste/Smell
• The ocean air, still fresh as a strong breeze wipes through bazaar.
• The scent of a gourmet feast prepared for a VIP visitor, heavily spiced.

What’s Going On

Currently, the goblins on this hulk are acquiring as many slaves, plants and animals from the New World as possible in exchange for poisons, weapons, alchemist-made potions and livestock from the old world. They deal primarily with unscrupulous natives and a few rogue merchants from the colony although a few undead from the new world have struck deals with the merchants.

In addition to possible Encounters in each individual area, the sourcebook also gives three adventure arcs to be used with the source material, to take your adventurers on a mission all over the ‘Hulk.  While I don’t think that adventures aboard a floating goblin fortress/city would fit into every campaign, and the supplement does offer some fresh ideas, and of course it is FREE.

I think that DMs running overtly “good” campaigns will find this product hard to utilize at low levels, as the Goblin Hulk is a seedy and evil city floating on the high seas, but Unaligned parties should have no problem at any level seeking work or adventure on board.  At higher tiers, Good aligned parties can partake of adventures to actually destroy the ‘Hulk by destroying the magical ‘sigils’ holding the thing together, or search and rescue missions to free captive slaves.

Overall, a lot of thought went into The Goblin Hulk Campaign Setting and it is well worth the download.  And you can’t beat it when the price is FREE.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

Tags: D&D 4e, free, goblin hulk, monster, world-building

This entry was posted by Editor-in-Chief on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 9:16 am and is filed under Dramatis Personae, Dungeonmasters' Insider, Monsters, Organizations, Personalities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.