Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: Saga of the Goblin Horde

Saga of the Goblin Horde by Richard Woolcock is a role playing game supplement published by Zadmar Games for use with Savage Worlds.

The supplement is available as a 118-page PDF for free from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one the front matter and one the Contents.

The Introduction explains that goblins have been mercilessly hunted down by the civilised humans. Those goblins living near the humans are weak and timid, but those of the western lands are not. The tribes have taken notice of the human invasion. The different factions are covered, which are the goblins, the humans (which appears to be humans, elves, dwarves and halflings), the beastfolk, the ogrekin and other threats. The different breeds of goblinoid – bugbears, goblins, gremlins, half-humans and hobgoblins are then covered briefly, followed by details on goblin society, population and major tribes, with a map showing the tribes’ locations.

Characters is on making characters, all of whom are from the goblinoid tribes. There are concepts then the races are covered in more detail. New Hindrances, Edges and Arcane Backgrounds follow, with a table for creating surnames.

Equipment covers melee and ranged weapons and armour together with a table of knick-knacks.

Saga of the Goblin HordeSetting Rules are rules specific to the setting. It’s intended to be a dark and humorous setting where the protagonists have exceptional luck. The characters start as goblin bosses leading their own gangs. These gang members are given stats; bosses with the Rat Lover Edge can have swamp rats. There are rules on bosses diverting damage onto gang members, some for overland travel and quick skirmishing, shenanigans that gang members can get up to, which may be fatal for the goblin but gains the player Bennies, and some simple encumbrance rules.

Gods and Magic briefly covers the major deities the goblins worship.

Gazetteer covers the various parts of the lands of the goblin horde, all of which information would be generally available, together with a hex map of the lands.

Game Master’s Secrets has the true history of the humans and goblins, which are not what they seem. This is a substantial twist and a sidebar mentions what to do if this twist is not wanted.

Adventures has the Plot Point Campaign for the setting. This starts off with an overview of the 10 Plot Points, followed by a War Clock for the main event. A section on side adventures explain that the Plot Point Episodes are linear as they are specific mission and should side adventures should be inserted between them if needed. These adventures are a couple of pages long and are followed by a number of adventure seeds, which could be inserted between the Plot Points, that cover an adventure idea in a paragraph. The Adventure Generator is a set of five tables, ranging from d4 to d10, for generating adventure ideas.

The Bestiary has a range of creatures, including the different human types and the goblin tribes. Each has a description then one or more creatures in that category described.

The final eight pages of content have 12 Ambush Cards and 12 Forest Cards, which have backs and can be printed off.

Saga of the Goblin Horde in Review

The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Contents is not as thorough. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column full colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are many full colour illustrations, up to full page in size, including one for each Bestiary entry. Most of these are stock, though the covers are custom, but there is a lot of stock that, even though from different artists, does fit nicely together. Presentation is excellent.

The supplement describes a campaign world with a twist. Characters are goblins, who are the good guys defending their homes from murderous hordes of humans, and there’s an unusual backstory too. This has an extensive setting, plus an entire adventure path equivalent, which can be expanded using a decent collection of two page, also free, adventures. This really is an excellent supplement with a level of presentation and thought gone into it that isn’t always seen in fully commercial supplements, and it’s free. Saga of the Goblin Horde is definitely recommended and it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

 

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