[RPG] Are there “Good” goblins

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Plain and simple:

Are there "good" goblins?

Every goblin I've seen is always evil aligned in the DnD 4e Monster Manuals. I know this could apply to other RPGs but as DnD is what I'm familiar with, I'm tagging it as such.

In the group I DM for, the goblins of my world are outcast. There are three main islands which encompass what the PCs know, each with different races originating from there.

How it works in my homebrew

On Ethis, the island where goblinoids, orcs, and dragonborn are from, the orcs and dragonborn are constantly at war and use the goblins as slaves and for other things (minions).

Many goblins fled the island to get to Camaros (where dwarves and elves originate, but humans had made there way there a while back), where they are viewed as lesser beings. Because of the racial stereotypes and prejudices they face, they either live as peasants and beggars or search for whoever will hire the, which is bad people most of the time.

Back to the point

This is a homebrew world so obviously it's up to me, but in the terms of an official "world", could there be good gobies?

By the way, this goes with orcs as well (not half-orcs, mind you). I mean, why are all their dieties evil (though that is probably for another question altogether).

Best Answer

It really is up to you. There's nothing in the rules that'd prevent it - 4e doesn't enforce alignments. That's a departure from earlier editions, where alignments had mechanical meaning. In 4e, they are there purely for flavor and you don't need to worry about breaking something by changing them.

There's nothing in the nature of goblins that makes them evil, and even if there was you could change that as it's your world. Even in some other editions, when they say "Always Evil", that's meaningless. If that line bothers you, make up goodlins. There are, after all, good undead in D&D 3.5.

Not everything is quite as variable, though. Demons are usually beings of pure evil. Saying demons can be good has ramifications. No one cares about the goblins.

So why are goblins evil? Because that's the stereotype, and a game has to fulfill stereotypes before it can deviate from them, or at least that's the approach D&D tends to follow. In the world you describe, most would perhaps be evil because those are their cultural norms, reinforced by social injustices of others. A goblin's strive for goodness against such forces would make for a compelling story.

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