Wanting to practice my Door D&D at home with my partner (who is interested in the puzzle, problem-solving, resource side of gaming) running a party of 4 in an old-school, gamey-tacticky way.
I am thinking of starting with Tomb of the Iron God which I got in a bundle years back (slight spoilers follow for that module). It’s reasonably old but has generally positive reviews, begins with lots of regular, mappable rooms, not too complicated. The one thing I think it needs is a bit more going on with the goblins, who can be encountered quite soon on the first level, and as written feel like they could easily end the adventure due to sheer numbers. I know that encounters don’t need to be combat, and will use a reaction roll, but the module is silent on motivations and I don’t want to too easily softball the challenge aspect away (‘they aren’t hostile so I guess they are… fine with you wandering about?’). My partner hasn’t done a ton of rpg so will be learning good practice through play. A tpk is not the end of the world but I want choice, decisions, information etc rather than just having no good options…
If anyone has played it, how would you handle it? If you haven’t, and happy for a bit more info, SPOILERS follow (NB I tried to add a tag but it didn’t work):
The module states there are two adjacent rooms of 9 and 7 goblins, who can hear commotion from each other. There are more who can be met via random encounters (the module caps the total number in the dungeon to 40). GM notes indicate they are there to rob the tomb and want to dissuade others. There are also lots of undead in the module (including skeletons fairly nearby).
Some thoughts I was thinking could be fun:
clues that some named/distinctive goblins are persuadable to join forces, and could influence others (eg seen in town, have gambling debts, etc)
really having trouble with the undead, if you can clear out x rooms will be favourable
contradict the module and have the two goblin rooms holding animosity toward each other (which the PCs could tip toward warfare)
I think the ideas you’ve listed are all really fun.
Perhaps the old goblin leader has died, and now two subfactions vie for control of the group, which has slowed their progress.
Toss in some dungeon graffiti “FishFang will eat our foes whole!” Or “Grubsnout nose no feer!”
Neither goblin is actually much tougher than the other, so they’re trying to gather a big enough force to convince the other to step down without the typical battle to the death.
We haven’t made characters yet (planning to run OSE) and it struck me that one of the Carrion Crawler zines has an option for Goblins, which could be another spice to add to the mix (I’m sure she would love to have a gobbo in the party)…
One of my recent campaigns that I played in, I played as an orc. By some miraculous dice rolls and a really fun GM, I ended up taking control of an orc clan. Most of them ended up dying to the dragon that had taken over their section of the dungeon, and I ended up retiring to a quiet life in the country raising pack animals.
In sum: yes let the goblin take over the clan, or at least a portion of it!
It seems like you’ve already thought of good ideas for how to handle these goblins so I will offer a different approach.
In a latter re-release of this same dungeon, Finch ports it over to a sword and sorcery world. In this retelling he replaces the goblins with baboons.
So if you get hung up on making the goblins work you could always replace them with something else that appeals more to your sensibilities . The core intent seems to be facing off against weak, badly organized, easily fooled creatures that you wouldn’t want to fight head on.
I’d suggest a pretty wide latitude for players deceiving and tricking these things since more challenges wait deeper in the dungeon.
Sounds like you already have some good ideas! Just to offer my experience of running this module:
I ran the goblins as being a raiding party from the goblin marshes who were just using the ruins as a basecamp. The party overhead them planning a raid on the nearby village, and we then transitioned into a scenario where the party helped prepare the village for the raid and successful repelled the goblins.