It's time for creatures
Kobolds
Crafty - Cowardly - Obsessive
Theme: Weak foes who use traps and inventions to overcome their foes. The inability to trust your surroundings.
Kobolds are wretched, pathetic things. They are weak and easily killed, most seemingly survive because people take pity on them. Do not be fooled. Kobolds are not naturally threatening, so they use their environments to do their killing for them. They build the most devious and brutal traps in the realm. A confident kobold is a terrifying sight, because it means you've already fallen into their snare.
I think you can tell how much I love a foe by the amount I bully them. It's the same with my friendships. Kobolds rule. They are worthless in combat, but turn the entire session into Home Alone with the players as the burglars. I had compared Goblins and Gnomes before and think I got it wrong. Goblins are the counterpart to Halflings (stealth, fondness with food/wealth, little guys). Gnomes are the counterparts to Kobolds(crafting, fixated on their goals, freaks).
Questions
- Kobolds are capable of crafting some useful kit. Why keeps the settlement from trading with them?
- Traps have claimed the life of many careless heroes. What is the closest you've come? What sort of trap did you fall for?
- Getting your opponent to underestimate your capability can shift the tides in your favor. How have you done this in the past?
- While they have the own unique fixations, all kobolds seemingly share a common obsession. What is it?
Moves
- Flee deeper into your territory.
- Lead your opponent right where you want them
- Use a trap against your foes
- Fire off a contraption as likely to hurt you as your enemy
- Trigger a barricade that splits the party (2 doom)
Good spread of questions, I'm happy with what they are doing but don't really have much to say about them. The fun thing I just realized about Kobolds is that, they are pawns(chess, not dragon's dogma). Completely trash. But you can use them to maneuver the board and shape it. Their traps and gizmos are the real pieces- and they can be sacrificed to get the enemies in the proper place for the traps to go off... Except for that cowardly trait. Kobolds aren't big on heroic sacrifice, so instead expect everything to blow up in the worst way.
Tactics
With the way this system works, you don't have to plan out traps in advance. When a consequence hits, when you spend doom, you can just fire one off. This is a nice thing where you let the kobolds seem incredibly prepared. In this way, setting off traps can quickly feel no different than having them swing around a longsword. So get creative with your methods. Send poison needles flying at them, arcs of mystic energy, giant sawblades. And it doesn't have to be damage- throw them down pit traps they need to escape, weighted nets, cold spells that freeze them in place. You can both threaten the players and aggravate them as needed with the tension at the table.
Kobolds on their own will generally be found as either bait for a trap they are luring you in, or as too pre-occupied with their project to stop working. In the later case, embrace the cowardice- they want to live. However, you should also play deeply into how frustrating being around kobolds are. Bait the players into snapping and then reveal the trap.
Variants
Kobolds have been known to modify themselves alchemically. They will frequently use this to take on the traits of the the Overlord they serve, gaining abilities from the other faction. Over time this let's them negate their weaknesses. Modified kobolds will have the defenses and any appropriate moves from that foe. However, they keep their traits- just because they might gain claws or fire breath, doesn't mean they will be good at using it.
Some nice simple tactics. I felt like a genius when I realized doom can be spent to trigger traps. I wound up deleting a whole section because while i want the kobolds to be wretched and pathetic, I don't want to push tables in directions of how that's portrayed. However, I do know players will learn towards sympathy so I want to put my thumb on the scale and make sure the GM knows to make them an aggravation. The variants were a concept I just had where, I knew people really like the whole dragon-blooded kobold thing. But also kobolds aren't always lizards, sometimes they are weird dog-things. And the idea that oh, they have a weird, pale little base form that they modify was really interesting. Like, everyone's kobolds are going to start off looking different and then over the course of the campaign, change even more. It's great.