Goblin

Goblins are mythological creatures of unclear origin and contradicting descriptions. They are small humanoids of a mischievous nature, possibly belonging to the fey family (along with creatures such as redcaps, brownies, leprechauns, kobolds, etc.)

In modern fantasy, the term "goblin" has been very much determined by the Tolkienian use of the word - as in, a smaller variant of the orc species. Goblin appearance has been further shaped by both video- and boardgames, as well as various artists. They are universally smaller than humans, although the exact size varies, and often have large pointy ears (larger and more animalistic than elf ears) and either long, crooked and pointed noses or orc-esque noseless features.

The typical goblin stereotype is that of a savage warrior and raider that attacks villages and ambushes unwary travelers; being one-dimensionally evil, they can be (and are) killed without remorse in large numbers (unless you read G:LTTE, or Terry Pratchett's Snuff.) They act and move in smaller groups as they don't pose a large threat by themselves, and are commonly the first combat encounter for a young adventurer. Goblins tend to live in caves and gang up with orcs and similar races, to whom they are sometimes described as belonging to the same family or species.

Because of the comedy potential, players have always liked being goblins, and they were one of the three most-popular races requested for an add-on to 5e as of a recent survey.

In /tg/ Media

In the Iron Kingdoms, Warcraft, and Magic: The Gathering (sometimes), goblins have a penchant for technology and love to tinker with machinery (especially steampunk contraptions and the like), somewhat propagating the "mad scientist" archetype.

In Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000, they hang out with (and get beat up by) their larger greenskin relatives and are generally bullied into being servants (although there are a small handful of exceptions, like the Night Goblins and Gretchin Revolutionary Committee).

In Eberron, goblins are the descendants of a once mighty kingdom instead of simple savages.

In Pathfinder, they're stupid little freaks with all manner of strange quirks (good singing voices, fear horses and writing, like fire and pickles,) sort of a cross between Gremlins and a baby-eating Stitch. They are also very funny and (somewhat) lovable, and even have their own comic series. Surprisingly, despite being described as naturally inclined towards a mixture of Chaotic Stupid (easily distractable to the point of stopping combat mid-swing to chase a frog or pick their nose) and Stupid Evil (love of torturing anything smaller than them) behaviors, they have no mental penalties. Pathfinder also has a goblin variant called the Monkey Goblin, which is even stupider than regular goblins, but much stronger and more agile, using a rat-like prehensile tail to aid it in a life in the trees.

Goblins (The Webcomic)

This is a /co/ related article, which we allow because we find it interesting or we can't be bothered to delete it.

"This is the arc that will not end, it will go on and on my friend..."

Goblins are the stars of a webcomic called Goblins created by a man known as "Thunt" (real name Tarol Hunt) in 2005, which claims that #GoblinLivesMatter and all the bad stuff comes from evil clans but most monsters are totally bros and it's all just a misunderstanding or a result of the ignorant sadistic humans, with those of the monster who ARE bad only being a product of human oppression.

Even so, only half of the arcs even have goblin protagonists - the other focuses on two adventurers, the, well, min/maxed human named Minmax and his dwarf cleric partner Forgath. Originally they were in an adventuring party (back when the comic was actually still a parody of an RPG world, complete with characters confusing the first person and meta as well as the cleric praying to the DM) who were at first all Drizzt clones then a bad weeaboo crew although the joke of the characters all dying at the same time due to their incompetence shortly after being rolled was dropped after the second time, and the parody plot was entirely dropped later on as well.

The supposed main characters are a group of goblins who were supposed to be just your average quick skirmish that was guarding a treasure chest full of magic gear they weren't allowed to open for reasons none of them knew. After surviving the attack by Minmax, Forgath, and their idiot friends that suffered a TPK, the Goblins decided to commit the ultimate act of heresy against their race and become player characters by adopting classes.

Then the story starts getting convoluted, going through a human city that is mostly just built on torture-killing monster races, having Minmax and Forgath go on a subplot that involved a Lamia that lead into a seemingly unending dungeon arc involving parallel realities before a misunderstanding forced the two characters to separate with her, while at the same time the Goblin group attempted to escape from a paladin who has taken the Lawful Good definition into "an omnicidal maniac who enslaves the souls of those he has killed while maintaining a personality straight out of a Warhammer 40000 fanfic". While having side stories involving ANOTHER insanely complex dungeon. While a third group, made up of one of the Goblins plus an evil Goblin who's really tragically misunderstood product of her situation going through ANOTHER unending dungeon.

The common points that are inevitably mentioned on /tg/ when Goblins is brought up are both the lack of an improvement of art over the course of the comics decade of history and the meme "IMSAD", the latter of which is a good summary of most of the plot of the comic. After a small breakdown caused by backlash from SJW fans taking issue with the torture-rapist ex-adventurer governor villain, the creator revealed that the reason the villains are written so absolutely edgetastically hammy in their evil is he was using the comic to work through some emotional trauma caused when a man raped his mother before he was born and the story of it scarred him. He also later revealed he had a history of domestic abuse. Somehow he thought this would make things better.

Thunt is currently supported exclusively through the webcomic, which goes on hiatus from time to time.

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  Congratulations, you now know the basic plot.
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  An actual page, from when it was still a parody.
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  A piece Thunt made during his breakdown. Feel free to insert your own reference to Chaos corruption here.

Monstergirl Depictions

When depicting goblins as monstergirls, unless doing rule 34 of Warcraft goblins, designers tend to focus on either of two aspects as the "root" of their design. While either design may or may not include their famous mechanical skill, both tend to add in a certain amount of short-sightedness and focus on momentary pleasures over long-term gains.

The first option is to focus on their reputation as small, annoying creatures, defined by their love of mischief and thieving. These goblins are usually lolis, going for a "mischievous child" sort of motif. This is most prominently the case in the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.

The second option is to focus on their famous skill for breeding quickly and enthusiastically. A more western-focused archetype, this depiction usually makes them short but stacked and extremely lusty. The more outright fetishistic interpretations actually give them breeding fetishes, so they actively enjoy being knocked up and are always after your cock to fill them full of more babies.

Gallery

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  A more "player character" variety.
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  Most goblins tend to throw pumpkin bombs and use flying crafts to annoy superheroes.

See also

• Unified Setting/Goblins Yet another take on a classic concept.
• The most common reaction to Goblins