Imagine: Of Magi and Goblins

Having created Kyro, the warrior character, I decided to crack on and create a compatriot. I had in mind the possibility of a magical character and the dice delivered a high Aura – the attribute associated with arcane magic – so that’s what I did.

Because I wanted to see how long character creation would take without interruptions to make my notes, I didn’t record the details. Enter Tanyth, the civilised human mage.

This is Episode 2 of a series playing the Imagine Roleplaying Game solo. You can read about Episode 1 here.

Tanyth the Thaumaturgist

A few points on rolling up Tanyth are worth noting. Firstly, Imagine has a low-power magic baseline and she begins with just four spells, all of them cantrips – minor magical effects. This feels quite old school and fits with my conception of fantasy gaming. I know many of my players would probably balk and feel let down by low power magic, but I find it refreshing to try.

Secondly, Tanyth is a civilised human because of the flexibility of that race over the barbaric human I used for Kyro. I have decided that the village Kyro is from is within the territory of the more civilised city state of Pellembra. I think Tanyth is the daughter of a Pellembral family who have moved onto the land of the more barbaric tribesmen of old and been part of the civilising of the region over recent years. I think it interesting that Tanyth and Kyro would probably not normally spend time together.

Lastly, the process of choosing skills led me down some interesting lines of thought with Tanyth. I envisioned her, a girl from a poor farming family, being apprenticed to the local wise woman and trained in the arcane arts. She has some skill with leeching and can act as a chirurgeon, but she is also trained in fortune-telling and as a courtesan. It makes her much more interesting to me than being just another mage.

You can see her character sheet here: Tanyth the Thaumaturgist

First Steps

I’ve decided to begin with a simple encounter to help me learn the rules. This also fits as a useful origin story for the pair. In short, we imagine the farm where Tanyth is apprenticed to the local wise-woman, Izabel. We picture the young warrior Kyro assigned to watch over the sheep that graze in the fields near the cottage while Tanyth walks the gardens and nearby hedges to find useful flowers and roots. The two have spoken but not become friends, although Kyro finds Tanyth to be a pretty girl (for a Pellembral). From off to the west, a small group of Goblins have been watching and, as dusk falls, aim to creep in and steal a sheep or two.

Before I can run the encounter, however, I meet with the most annoying feature of the Imagine system: there are no traditional humanoid “monsters”. The reason is fairly sound – this is a roleplaying game and the Master’s Manual encourages the GM to treat humanoid non-player characters as more than just “monsters”. Fair enough. The problem is that, to run my quick encounter, I need to figure out stats for the Goblins.

This problem is not unique to Imagine, by the way – it’s same the reason I (rather unfairly) gave up on Palladium Fantasy a few months ago – and this presents a serious barrier to the working GM. That said, I decide to see how easy the process will be before deciding if it’s worth the effort.

Making Goblins

In Imagine, the Goblin is a playable race in the core Player’s Guide. That’s a positive feature for me as a GM because it allows me to have very diverse player character options and feel comfortable that they will work fine in the game. The challenge is how to turn that humanoid species into some basic “average” Goblin stats.

To be fair, Imagine has this covered. There is some basic advice on creating Extras for play and treating the humanoid races with average attributes. Much better, however, is the advice found in the bestiary volume, “Aspects of the Wild”, where there is a one-page summary on how to actually do it. Oh, and yes, Imagine has some bestiaries – “Aspects” deals with threats of the wilderness and includes many creatures, from wild animals through to faerie and some classic monsters such as wyverns and lycanthropes. It’s just that I want to play with some Goblins first.

Stats for the Goblin

First, I note that the Goblin is the Humanoid creature type. The attributes are all set to 13 and then the racial modifiers are applied:

• STR 15; AGL 12; VIT 15
• INT 13; WIS 12; KNW 11
• APP 9; CHM 11; SOC 11
• AUR 13; PTY 13; WIL 13

Then I need to double-check that none of those attributes breach the minimum or maximum thresholds for the race. The minimum is 5 but the maximums vary. In this case, there are no problems.

Next there is a table referencing the racial resistance modifiers to give a rough range for the Resistances. For example, Goblins have Disease +20% and this gives a range of 81-85%; I give the Goblin an 85% Disease Resistance, largely because it’s a round number but also I do think that Goblins are hardy folk. I do this with the other resistances:

• Magic Resistance 45%
• Control Resistance 25%
• Illusion Resistance 20%
• Poison Resistance 85%
• Disease Resistance 85%

Endurance is the average of the physical attributes plus the racial starting bonus. My Goblins get Endurance 18 (14 + 4). I note the average height, weight, and frame: 6’ 0”, Heavy, 247 lbs. This in where I notice that, given the height of Goblins, they are what many games would call Orcs too (as per traditional fantasy). The movement rates are worked out as usual:

• Walk: 5 miles (per hour); 35 ft (per 10 secs); 5 ft (per second).
• Jog: 10 miles; 90 ft; 9ft.
• Run: 14 miles; 135 ft; 14 ft.

The combat modifiers are all derived, as usual, from the charts in the Player’s Guide. Alignment is determined from the racial description: “Goblins can be of any alignment but most are evil.” – I choose Evil (Passive) as my default because the description fits quite well.

The Goblin’s attack skill is derived from another quick chart in the guidelines. I need to combine the average physical and mental ratings into a single number. The physical average is 14 and the mental average is 12. Those average to 13 and that gives the Goblins a Novice attack skill. For the specific attacks, I get to assign some weapons so I’ll do that as I build the encounter.

For skills, the creature gets Racial skills as listed in the race entry and the skill chance is based on the racial skill bonus. Knowledge of 11 gives Goblins three racial skills. From the list I choose Smell because it has a massive +30% bonus and will be key to the race. I also select Climb and Track because it suits my basic conception of the species. That said, I can see the advantage in having individuals with alternate skills such as Set Traps or Berserking. These thoughts make me smile as a GM because I can easy tweak the baseline Goblin to have some cultural types like Berserker Goblins and Trap Setters. Thoughts aside, I end up with:

• Climb 30%
• Smell 75%
• Track 30%

For Powers, we take across the Goblin’s Night Vision.

Last step is to work out the creature level and experience value, both of which refer me back to the Master’s Guide section on designing creatures. The Base Level will be 1, because it’s a medium humanoid. For experience, Goblins have a base 50 points and add +6 for having three skills above 20%, and +15 for having three resistances above 30%. Thus, Goblins are worth 71 XP.

Done. Here’s my stat block for Goblins:

GOBLIN

Climate/Habitat: Anywhere
Body Type: Humanoid

STR 15; AGL 12; VIT 15; INT 13; WIS 12; KNW 11; APP 9; CHM 11; SOC 11; AUR 13; PTY 13; WIL 13.
MR 45%; CR 25%; IR 20%; PR 85%; DR 85%

END 18; Shock 54
Melee +0; Missile +0; Damage +2; Defensive +0; Initiative -2
Height: 6’ 0”; Weight 247 lbs.
Movement: Walk 5 / 35 ft / 5; Jog 10 / 90 / 9; Run 14 / 135 / 14
Alignment: Evil (Passive)

Attacks (Novice Attack Skill)
By weapon.

Experience Value: 71
Skills: Climb (30%); Smell (75%); Track (30%)
Abilities: Night Vision

Reflections

How did that feel? It’s not too bad.

Typing it all up as I went along obviously made the task slower but the basic process is ok. You only have to do it once for each race, I suppose, but I would have preferred it if the designers had simply included the baseline humanoids in the rule book.

It is a psychological barrier to have to convert racial details into creature details for low-level play. That said, along the way I have thought of some interesting variants Goblins for my game and it’d be trivial to write them up now I have the basic profile done.

Now I’m ready to give this game a whirl.
Game on!