We Be Savage Goblins! Part 1: The PCs.

A few months ago I played Paizo's We Be Goblins, which was really great fun - it's a fantastic adventure, and free, I strongly recommend taking a look. But I couldn't help feeling it would work better with Savage Worlds instead of Pathfinder. Last weekend a friend came to visit, and joined my group for the weekend game, so I finally had the chance to put my theory to the test.

The first step was to create a goblin race, which was fairly straightforward, as I already had a prototype race converter and access to the Pathfinder goblin stats. The only thing I changed was the flat +1 Stealth bonus to a d6 starting die:

Goblin (+2 race)
• Agile (+2): +1 die step to Agility.
• Darkvision (+1): No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
• Stealthy (+1): Stealth starts at d6.
• Size -1 (-2): Three feet tall; Toughness -1.

For a long-term campaign I'd probably also restrict their Strength to d10 and rule that their Agility can be increased to d12+1, perhaps also give them a Charisma penalty and a Riding bonus, but for a one-shot I wanted to keep things simple.

The four pre-generated PCs were created by feeding their stats into my NPC converter and then fine-tuning to balance them against each other and make sure they each excelled in their own way. They're all 10 exp characters.

Reta Bigbad
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d10, Riding d10, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Shooting d10
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 6 (1)
Gear: Leather armour, dogslicer (Str+d6), shortbow (range 12/24/48; 2d6), potion of cure wounds (automatically restores 1 wound), potion of spider climb (grants Wall Walking for the scene)
Hindrances: Risk Taker (loves taking risks to scare her enemies), Big Mouth (LIKES TO SHOUT ABOUT EVERYTHING), Quirk (enjoys tormenting small animals)
Edges: Dog-Sniff-Hate (can detect and track canines by scent; +1 attack and damage against canines), Balloon Head (trapping for Alertness)
Special Abilities
• Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
• Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

Chuffy Lickwound
Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d8, Climbing d6, Lockpicking d6, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Riding d6, Throwing d6
Charisma: -2; Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6 (1)
Gear: Leather armour, dogslicer (Str+d4), 6 darts (range 3/6/12; 2d4), potions of cure wounds, potion of jump (gain the ability to jump d6" as a free action for the remainder of the scene)
Hindrances: Bloodthirsty (loves stabbing people), Quirk (enjoys fires and explosions), Ugly (face covered in pimples and boils that have a tendency to pop at inopportune moments)
Edges: Thief, Weapon Finesse (roll Agility instead of d6 for bonus damage on a raise)
Special Abilities
• Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
• Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

Poog of Zarongel
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Repair d4, Riding d6, Notice d4, Stealth d8, Faith d8, Healing d6, Throwing d6
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (2)
Gear: Chain shirt, dogslicer (Str+d6), 2 javelins (range 3/6/12; Str+d6), wand of cure wounds (roll Faith, on a success it heals 1 wound, on a natural 1 the wand is drained and the roll cannot be bennied)
Hindrances: Overconfident (particularly in combat), Quirk (loves setting things on fire), Vow (sworn to kill a dog)
Edges: Arcane Background (Miracles), Quick, Power Points
Powers: Healing (cure wounds), Bolt (firebolt), Burst (burning hands)
Special Abilities
• Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
• Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

Mogmurch
Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d8, Spirit d4, Strength d4, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Healing d4, Repair d6, Riding d6, Survival d4, Notice d4, Stealth d8, Throwing d12
Charisma: -; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 (1)
Gear: Leather armour, club (Str+d4), bomb (range 10/20/40; 2d6; SBT; 1 PP), 2 potions of cure wounds, smokestick (range 3/6/12; obscures a LBT for a couple of minutes)
Hindrances: Curious (always likes trying things to see what happens), Deranged (mentally unstable and prone to doing crazy things), Quirk (loves blowing things up)
Edges: Power Points, Arcane Background (Alchemy), Bouncy (halve falling damage)
Powers: Blast variant (bombs: increase to MBT/LBT for +1/+3 PP; increase to 3d6 damage for +2 PP)
Special Abilities
• Darkvision: No vision penalties for darkness (range 12").
• Size -1: Reduces Toughness by -1.

The potions were intentionally kept very simple for the one-shot, requiring a normal action to consume, and granting an automatic benefit. I also made sure to write all of the other gear from the module onto each of the character sheets, such as the half-drunk perfume bottle, the child's doll with the eyes removed, the eye patch with a hole cut in it, and so on - lots of humourous items that really helped set the mood for the game.

I also took some liberties with the Edges and Hindrances, renaming and customising a few to better fit the characters, but I made sure I kept them easy to understand. Mogmurch's bombs were handled as an Arcane Background - effectively Weird Science (thus he could use Throwing), with a weakened variant of Blast (reduced range, although with the option of using a Small Burst Template).

In We Be Savage Goblins! Part 2 I will cover the NPCs.