Pathfinder Module: "We Be 5uper Goblins!" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

We Be 5uper Goblins was Paizo's 2018 entry for Free RPG Day.  It's a sixteen-page module that again casts the players in the role of goblins for a few hours' of silly adventure.  This time around, Chuffy, Mogmurch, Poog, and Reta Bigbad have reached sixth level.  Each gets a full-page entry in the back of the book along with a description and special abilities that are pretty funny in their own right.  The production values are up to Paizo's usual high standard, with a gorgeous cover and interior artwork; the only map is rather confusing, however, as it blends (without clear borders) an area map and specific location maps.  I think the module gets off to a really rough start, but then settles down and offers some fun and creative encounters.  I wouldn't rate it as highly as some of its predecessors, though.


SPOILERS

The module starts with the goblin PCs as chiefs of the Birdcruncher tribe.  Three younger members of the tribe have just done something they shouldn't (enter a haunted forbidden swamp) and returned with a prized magical artefact: the bag of eating everything real good.   The PCs are to decide whether to praise or punish the disobedient youths.  Regardless of what happens, that night, while everyone is asleep, the tribe's pig mascot (Squealy Nord) disappears into the bag, and the three youths go in after it and disappear as well.  In the morning, the module assumes the PCs will go in as well on some sort of rescue mission.  I found, both as a player and as a reader, that the beginning sequence is really poorly done.  There's very little information for the players to figure out what's going on, the railroading is extremely heavy (the disobedient goblins have to be free to go into the bag at night--whereas my group had devised a punishment that would make that impossible), and the module assumes that a bunch of evil goblins will want to go on a "rescue mission" into what, as far as anyone knows, is a bag of devouring.  The table I played at didn't roll along the rails so neatly, and the GM had a lot of trouble dealing with it.  Really, any adventure involving goblins shouldn't be written with a lot of required plot-points in order to work.

The bulk of the adventure takes place in a suitably bizarre setting that requires some explanation: it's a very small demiplane that, for most of its existence, was occupied only by a kid with some magical paints (magical pigments).  The kid, now grown into an adult because time passes differently with the demiplane, has used the magical paints to bring to life a sort of (Golarion) fairy tale representation of reality.  The PCs need to navigate this setting (and its threats) in order to find the three goblin youths, who are have split-up, as well as Squealy Nord.

Encounters include some familiar Pathfinder monsters (yeth hounds, a giant bat swarm, a pit trap) as well as some unique monsters like the "King of Hammers" and, my favourite, Squealy Nord who has been mutated into a "razorback dragon."  The latter serves as the big boss to the adventure and is actually pretty tough.  The adventure has a plot element of the PCs recovering two blades of golden shears and having the original resident of the demiplane fix them into scissors so everyone can cut their way back to the material plane.  Again, required plot elements are a poor idea with maniac goblins running around.  GMs that run this should be prepared for a lot of improv and just go with the flow.

I think maybe We Be 5uper Goblins! tried a bit too hard to be whimsical, but I also understand it was trying to offer something different and memorable.  It definitely succeeded in the latter.  Despite some flaws, chances are you'll still have a lot of fun seeing what happens at the table.