12 March 2020

Goblins and Orcs are Dwarfs

My joke aside that dwarfs are just orcs with shitty fashion, I think should you look back to the past as far as D&D and fantasy rpgs in general treated them, ignoring to an extent actual folklore, fairy tales, and myths, that from goblin to dwarf there is a continuum of dwarfishness.

AD&D
Goblin:"...are fair miners, and they are able to new or unusual construction in an underground area 25% of the time."
Orc: "...are accomplished tunnelers and miners. They note new or unusual constructions underground 35% of the time and spot sloping passages 25% of the time." (surprisingly I cannot find anything that notes orcs are excellent weaponsmiths in the 1e MM)
Hobgoblin: "...are highly adept at mining, and they can detect new construction, sloping passages, and shifting walls 40% of the time."
Dwarf: "...are good (50% to 75% likely) at detecting passages which slope upwards or downwards, sliding or shifting walls or rooms, new construction, approximate depth, or unusual stonework."
Gnome (sigh): Like seriously, they are just shorter better dwarfs.

2e AD&D
Goblin: "They are decent miners, able to note new or unusual construction in an underground area 25% of the time..."
Orc: "...are skilled miners who can spot new unusual constructions 35% of the time and sloping passages 25% of the time. They are also excellent weaponsmiths."
Hobgoblin: " They are highly adept at mining and can detect new construction, sloping passages, and shifting walls 40% of the time."
Dwarf: grade and slope of passage 5 in 6, new tunnel construction 5 in 6, sliding/shifting walls or rooms 4 in 6, stonework traps, pits, and deadfalls 3 in 6, depth underground 3 in 6.




Gnome (sigh): Like seriously, they are just shorter better dwarfs.

The basic versions, Holmes, Moldvay, and Mentzer, omit all but the combat relevant abilities of all these creatures as monsters, with only the Dwarf class as being noted as having mining related abilities.

Orcs of Thar would be the place I expected to have more filled in on these, including kobolds and other monstrous humanoids. But the bits it has on what they are good at are only as far as you use the "optional" skill system, unlike say dwarfs who still get their mining bonuses on top of the optional skill system, should you use it in your BECMI game.

What does this mean? Roughly, goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins are just the same monster, with different hit points. Even though they have significant differences as far as their flavor text is concerned. Likewise you can expand this through to dwarfs and gnomes. I also think that not only did removing mechanical support for them being miners, removing descriptive text of them all being miners sort of was a bad mistake. Now goblins are all sneaky murder babies like halfings; hobgoblins have sort of leaned from the vaguely into a more overt orientalist view of honorable militaristic goblins
 (Pathfinder hobs became mostly "samurai" when that alt class came out), and orcs are savage berserks. I find it interesting is all.