![]() ![]() Bugbears are another magical mutant of goblins, created by the Eld as shock troops.They're now "independent operators" but still enjoy lording it over goblins when they get the chance. They were magically created by the Eld as taskmasters and "drill sergeants" to keep ordinary goblins pressed into Eldritch service in line. But they're not willing servants of Chaos. Goblins are, in their natural state, not very nice from a human perspective: greedy, selfish, and with a penchant for cruelty.So, I'm going with that, albeit one that complements the "little green men" version of goblins I'm using. Gary originally envisaged kobolds as evil wizened, gnome-like creatures, as in German folklore. While I like the scaly dog-men versions of kobolds a great deal, Gary often said that that version was, like so many other D&D monsters, based on a miscommunication between himself and the illustrator, Dave Sutherland. I'd already decided that goblins are one of the few genuinely aboriginal races of my setting kobolds will be the degenerate mine-dwelling versions thereof. OD&D implies that goblins and kobolds are the same creatures, the only difference being that kobolds are weaker physically.I decided I'd take that idea and find a way to make sense of it. Reading Monsters & Treasure, it's clear that there's a "continuum" of humanoid creatures, beginning with goblin/kobolds and working upwards by Hit Dice. In addition, I decided early on to limit myself only to the humanoids that appear in OD&D and to use their descriptions as the basis for my own, with a couple of exceptions. Being very ancient, intensely chaotic, and amazingly adept at magic, the Eld are my catch-all explanation for many of the monsters in my campaign setting (the other being the Thulians). I've come out of the closet as a Gygaxian Naturalist, so I prefer that the worlds I create make sense, even if that sense is predicated on magic or some other nonsense. I understand why there are so many - the referee wants to keep his game from getting "stale" - but it strains credibility to suppose that there could be so many different types of humanoid creatures in a single campaign setting. I simply don't see the point in having so many variations on the same basic idea. One of the things that has always bugged me about Dungeons & Dragons is the proliferation of humanoid monsters.
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