Pathfinder Player Companion: "Goblins of Golarion" [RPG]

There's been a lot of controversy lately over the planned inclusion of goblins as a core race in the second edition of Pathfinder.  One side of the debate posits that goblins have been consistently portrayed as little psychopathic murdering arsonists and that's not a good choice for a PC, while the other side says there's always exceptions and predicts some sort of canonical event may happen between editions to explain goblins' newwidespread acceptance throughout Golarion.  The debate was definitely in the background of my mind as I read Goblins of Golarion, even though it was just next up in my queue and I'm not here to take sides in the debate.

Goblins of Golarion is a 32-page entry in the Player Companion line of products.  The inside front cover nicely summarizes the racial stats of goblins and includes some other useful details for players, such as favored deities, regions, and example male and female names.  The inside back-cover is a reproduction (sans text) of the cover, demonstrating quite vividly that goblins like fire and hate horses.  The interior of the book is broken into six sections.

The longest section, "Goblins of Golarion" (16 pages) provides a very readable overview of goblins and how the race "fits" in Golarion and what life is like for goblins.  There's a ton of great information here, including particular ways (and rules) for how goblins fight dirty (special rules for tossing angry snakes at enemies!), why they hate dogs and horses so much, why they have a penchant for song and a loathing for the written word, the types of games they play and junk they collect (including the introduction of about ten new pieces of equipment, including "pig grease" and "goblin pickles"), and more.  Background sections like this in RPG books are sometimes pretty bland, but Goblins of Golarion does it right--tidbits here and there are hilarious, and this is definitely a section I'd recommend to a GM or player looking to get the most out of playing a goblin.  There's a useful (and frank) discussion of which classes are suitable for goblin PCs; sorry, Goblin Paladins are right out!  The section ends with about two dozen new background traits (Race, Regional, and Religion), and there's some really fun (and useful) ones like Foul Belch and Pustular.

"Goblin Tribes" (six pages) starts with a map of the Inner Sea annotated with the location of almost two dozen different goblin tribes.  The section talks about named tribes in Isger, Mediogalti Island, The Shackles, and Varisia, but I really appreciate how it explicitly encourages GMs to make up their own tribes as well and not feel restrained by what's presented.  The section is written to show just how varied goblin tribes can be while still staying on theme. The Spelleater goblins of the Mana Wastes were really cool, but I actually even felt a bit sorry for the Isger tribes...

"Combat" (two pages) introduces ten new feats restricted to goblin characters.  They have great names like "Ankle Biter" and "Saddle Shrieker" but the great flavour is matched by solid mechanical effects.  I will definitely throw some of these on NPC goblins if I get a chance.

"Faith" (two pages) provides short write-ups of four goblin hero-gods: Hadregash, Venkelvore, Zarongel, and Zogmugot.  Each entry includes their portfolio, domains, subdomains, holy symbol, and favored weapon along with a one-paragraph description.  The section also introduces four new subdomains, some of which would be viable for other (non-goblin) deities as well: Arson, Flotsam, Slavery, and Torture.  The powers the new subdomains grant, however, are pretty weak.

"Goblin Magic" (two pages) introduces three new spells attributed to goblin spellcasters and four new magic items.  For the spells, Fire Sneeze is hilarious.  The magic items are all very weak mechanically but simultaneously far too expensive to really fit the goblin "scavenger" concept.  A "Devastating Dog Whistle" *might* do 1d6 points of sonic damage to dogs within its radius, but at a price of 1500 gp it's hard to imagine what kind of goblin tribe would have one.

Last up is "Social: Goblin Player Characters" (two pages), a section that explains that "Goblins are first and foremost villains.  They may be comical on some level, but they're also quite evil.  Goblins enjoy inflicting misery and causing pain, and a goblin who doesn't isn't truly a goblin--he's some sort of freak's freak.  Which is precisely the kind of goblin that makes a good nominee for a player character."  The section gives some frank advice on trying to integrate Goblin PCs into a campaign and how to deal with the widespread racial antagonism they would face in civilized areas.  At the risk of perceived bias, I do think the lore, at least as presented here, militates against the idea of goblins becoming a common PC race. The section also introduces some new favored class options, but they're not balanced well--gunslingers get a +1 to critical hit confirmations (nice!), while rogues get an extra skill rank that has to be placed in Ride or Stealth, which doesn't make sense since any character of any race and any class can use their favored class bonus to that get one free skill point (in any skill).

Some quibbles aside, Goblins of Golarion is an excellent example of a supplement that's useful for both players and GMs.  It has buckets of flavour for running goblin characters while adding depth to their role in Golarion as a campaign setting.  I would definitely recommend it.