Gelatinous Cube

A podcast about creating great encounters in Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop roleplaying games. We're Rosie and Adam, siblings and hard working dungeon masters. Every episode we get forensic on an RPG encounter: why it works, where it could - or did - go wrong and what's cool about it. Whether you play narrative or sandbox, OSR or 5e we want to give you useful tools for thinking about your game. In our show notes, you'll find system neutral write-ups of every encounter discussed, along with an alternative, wild take from the Gelatinous Cube, our squelchy f(r)iend from the depths of the dungeon.

Gelatinous Cube 19 - Oh no! The Map is Wrong! 07/10/2022

Gelatinous Cube 18 - This Boss has Phases! 06/07/2022

Gelatinous Cube 17 - This Party is Dead! 05/13/2022

Gelatinous Cube 16 - This Damsel is in Distress! 04/22/2022

Gelatinous Cube 15 - This Dungeon is Alive! 03/17/2022

Marina Taken by the Mists: The Curse in Curse of Strahd 02/21/2022

Gelatinous Cube 14 - The Spirits are Restless! 02/04/2022

Gelatinous Cube 13 - This Story Seems Familiar... 12/07/2021

Gelatinous Cube 12 - This Thing is Weird! 11/24/2021

Gelatinous Cube 11 - These Mushrooms are Glowing! 11/10/2021

Gelatinous Cube 10 - This Prize Pig Talks! 10/27/2021

Gelatinous Cube 9 - This Cleric is Good! 10/13/2021

Gelatinous Cube 8 - This Egg Has a Fairy in It! 09/23/2021

Gelatinous Cube 7 - This Expedition is Doomed! 08/25/2021

Gelatinous Cube 6 - This Worm is Cosmic! 08/11/2021

Gelatinous Cube 5 - This Mountain has a Witch on it! 07/27/2021

Gelatinous Cube 4 - This Backroom is a Trap! 07/18/2021

Gelatinous Cube 3 - The Moon is Full! 07/07/2021

Gelatinous Cube 2 - This Daimon is Drunk! 06/22/2021

Gelatinous Cube 1 - This Goblin Wears Lipstick! 05/30/2021

Gelatinous Cube #1 - Transcript 05/26/2021

Gelatinous Cube #1 - Transcript GC1_LipstickGoblin [00:00:00] Rosie: hello and welcome to gelatinous cube. This is a show about causing compelling problems in Dungeons and dragons. I'm Rosie, and I'm here with my brother, Adam. Adam: Hi. Rosie: Some of you listening will know me and Adam from Diane, which is a podcast about twin peaks, but before we made podcasts, the thing that we did together was play tabletop RPGs. And we've got very much back into this hobby over locked down, and we're both DM-ing and we fell very deeply into discussion about the ins and outs of game design. So we decided to make a show about. Adam: Each week, we work with a short prompt for an encounter such as this in is suspicious, or this potion smells disgusting. One of us will take the role of the dungeon master and they'll come to the table with an encounter they've designed based on the [00:01:00] problem. And we can discuss that and pull it apart and maybe improve. Rosie: So before we get stuck in with our first prompt, we thought we would introduce ourselves properly. And why we thought we might do that is to talk a little bit about the games that we're both running and our history with Dungeons and dragons. Tabletop RPGs in general, Adam, you've been doing this much longer than me, so you can start. Adam: Yeah. I mean, I won't go very long. I've been playing tabletop RPG since I was probably about seven years old. First time I played with was with our dad, Rosie, probably I think it was basically. Dungeons and dragons, maybe 1982 or 1983. I've been throughout the, I'd say late eighties through, into the nineties. I played a fair bit of RPGs and then stopped in the way that most people do universities and parties and whatever else, beckoned. And I forgot all about it until we returned to playing. I think it was labyrinth [00:02:00] Lord, maybe. Yeah. Well, we started about five years ago Rosie: or so it was longer than that. It was, it was about eight years ago. Adam: Oh, it was it really? And and the sort of inspiration for doing that was, was the old school renascence or OSR scene with its kind of emphasis on kind of personal creativity, rules, hacks just kind of the sheer invention of the community really attracted me. So I wanted to get back here. Playing RPGs. And actually I thought that well, most of the time when I'd played RPGs, it hadn't been Dungeons and dragons. Dunson dragons is the kind of center of the OSR movement. Kind of drew me in and yeah, it's been on the brain ever since then. Although, although we did sort of stop for a few years before ping up again and now I'm running a game. Sets in the Dolman wood setting bind aquatic, Nome, who also published old-school essentials, which is the system that I'm running, which is a very [00:03:00] popular OSR basic DND clone. And yeah, it's going great. And this, this podcast really feels in many ways, like an extension of my game, because it's an opportunity for me to talk about what I'm doing in my game. And maybe as you say, improve on it a bit, what about you, Rosie? Rosie: I obviously started playing. I'm really amazed to hear that you were. When you were so probably before I was born. Oh Adam: yeah, yeah. Playing with our dad. So mental to me. Okay. But yeah, so I played for the first time much, much later eight years ago, when you had that burst of like, right, I want to do this. You put a team together, Adam, you put a crack crack force together. And I was included in that, but that was the first time I'd ever played to that to my late twenties. And really enjoyed it. That was, that was labyrinth Lord, indeed. And we, I think you were running a version of keep on the borderlands. Yeah. It was just a hacked version of it. I'd taken the basics of keeping the borderlands and [00:04:00] did what so many DMS do these days and, and made it mine. Rosie: Yeah. So that was super, super fun. Anyway, really enjoyed that. And then we did play for several years and then stopped, as you said, because we were making a podcast about twin peaks, which took up a lot of our free time. And then again, it was you, you were the impetus this year. You were like, Playing again. And I was actually playing in your dorm and would gain for a bit, but then, because I'd already, then I started DM-ing myself. Because I was sort of obviously a lockdown here in the UK has been quite. Long and harsh. The pandemic hit us very hard over here. And particularly over the winter, it was very difficult. And I had a group of friends who we were doing regular zoom meets with, but zoom is quite boring unless you have something to focus on or it can be, yeah. So when you started talking about playing D and D and I was playing in your game, I very quickly kind of wanted to DM with this group as well. Anyways, that ended up taking up loads of my [00:05:00] time. So now I'm not in Adam's game anymore, which is helpful because you can talk about your design a little bit behind the scenes. I'm running my own game for the first time. I'm also using old school essentials. And I have it set in the fog book, which is my own invention and. It does exactly what it says on the tin guys. It's a foggy book. There's a lot of goblins. It's a real shithole. That's about it. Adam: Yeah, you must show it. It needs to be ran Rosie: all it needs to be. Yeah. It's extremely slapped together. I am brand new, as I say, I've, I've DMD about 12 times at this stage. So, so all the design stuff is, is new to me. But I've figured, you know, there's lots of people coming to the hobby for the first time right now. And so lots of people be in the same boat as me. So maybe that'll be interesting. Adam: Well, you're playing with pretty much all new players. Aren't you? I am, Rosie: yeah, I'm playing with my boyfriend and a couple of our good friends. We all like the four of us all used to work together and stuff like that. So we're quite an established [00:06:00] group of people, but we are not established a presence in Dungeons and dragons. My boyfriend's played a little bit before, but other than that yeah the other two have brown. So, so let's yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm getting away with it. I think because of that logic stuff, Adam: I think that's the feeling we all have is Deanna. So we get away with it. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Rosie: Right. So that's us, let's get into the cube. I am DM tonight. And our first prompt is this goblin wears lipstick. Here's my encounter. You near the village at Twilight, suddenly you were set upon by a group of four goblins and there's something strange about them. But before you can think about it, one lunges at you bearing it's horrible teeth. You do notice it teeth in its mouth. Because this goblin wears lipstick. Adam: So Rosie let's go behind the screen of what's actually going on with this encounter. [00:07:00] Rosie: Okay. So this is a combat encounter. That's what it's designed as I love combat. So we're not giving the opportunity really for you to negotiate whatsoever. You're going to go straight in roll for initiative. The Goblin's launching itself at you. But what is going on? Why is the goblin wearing lipstick? This is it. That has been transformed. What is going on here is that there is a city, some distance up the road about a day's travel away. And that city is in the throws of a plague in which people transform into goblin. We can go over the inspiration for this in shortly. I did not come up with this concept myself, but anyway, as it, as it turns out, anyone attacked by a goblin in, as part of this plague is going to turn into a goblin themselves. If they don't kill that guy. So basically this was a group of people who were fleeing the city and one of them was a noble lady wearing makeup or wearing lipstick. And and she has been [00:08:00] transformed along with her son and two gods and they are attacking the party. Adam: Right. Okay. So what was the inspiration then? Why did he go with this? Rosie: Okay. So yeah, so the idea behind this is. Some people may recognize it. It's a really, really good module. What I'm doing is I'm using the goblin grinder, which is a MacBook module. I was not familiar with mark Borg at all before kind of finding this module basically, but I understand they're sort of, it's been a very big successful property within Dunton. Adam: Yeah. It's the, the metal theme setting. Isn't it? Right. Well, I mean, I don't know how much it can be metal themed, but certainly metal, metal inspired. Should we say I've not actually read more books myself. I'm well aware of its popularity? Rosie: Well, I thought this was just such a brilliant brilliant module. It's by let me get this for second Ripley called well, the government grinder it's you can get it for free on the Mort [00:09:00] bog website and yeah, this is a Module in which there is a city called Galvin Beck and it is in the grip of a plague where yeah, as I say, people are getting transformed into goblins. I just really liked it as the idea for. And early encounter what I actually ran this, I should say that this is something that's happened in the folk bulk. Now this is, this is part of football history, this particular goblin encounter. Because I liked it as an early level Module or adventure, because I liked the idea of this threat of goblin transformation hanging over people. Yeah. So it's kind of like dealing with something that's a bit like death, but not death. Yeah. So, Adam: so it's that element of peril, but without it being, you know, Rosie: Yes exactly. You can you turn into a goblin who knows what happens at that stage? There are kind of goblin, cures hanging around it is possible to get cured. So, so yeah, so I really liked it. And I wanted to use that [00:10:00] the encounter that I've just described where you're down the road from the city isn't included in the goblin grinder, this was kind of something I wanted to do. It's a bit of foreshadowing before people got to the scene. The God and grinder, the module itself just sort of kicks off with your potty in the city already. So, so yeah, so that's, what's going on? Noble lady. She's fleeing. That was another part of the inspiration, I guess, is that the folk bug is a frontier territory. Right. And lots of. It's basically. Yeah, it's a, it's a bug it's really big. It's a shithole it's rubbish, but it has been discovered recently that there's that the mushrooms of the book have medicinal properties. Of course they do. So people are starting to come into the region because there's money to be made in trading and stuff like that. And some Nobles are setting up in the large ruined city. That's kind of the biggest, the biggest sediment in the, yeah. And I kind of liked the idea that it's that frontier idea when people [00:11:00] go to the frontier, the frontier comes to them, do you know? Adam: Yeah. And of course the frontier is you know, it's absolutely bread and butter for RPGs. You know, we talked about how I ran keeping the borderlands earlier as compared in same territory. Rosie: Yeah. Yeah. What was the borderlands on Cape of borderlands? Was it just between civilized society and like awkward. Adam: I think I has an idea of it being the borderline between Do you know what I cannot remember exactly. But I do know that what was beyond there was very perilous, but you never, you didn't go in that direction. You went the other way. I didn't focus on that. Anyway. We were talking about something else, but it Rosie: is that it is that board land. I, because I was thinking as well, Domine word, which you were playing in at the moment. He did kind of a border land is kind of a frontier territory because you've got ferry absolutely. Sort of pressing in. Right. Adam: Yeah, I think of Tolman woods is actually bordering a number of spaces, both ferry, which, because Ferry's big part of the setting, but there's [00:12:00] also this kind of. Animal kingdom within the woods which hasn't been fully fleshed out by the setting details yet, but I've certainly got a clear idea of what it is in my mind. And there's another element to do with the drone who these mysterious sorcerers, who I can't say too much about in public, but I gain have my own ideas about dream, which does differ a little bit from, I think, what the official setting would want to do. But all of these Factions control their own space and their spaces perhaps deeper than it might at first appear the wood is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Rosie: Yeah. So there was that borderlands idea. There was the sense that yeah, these Nobles have come to the fog BHAG and the fog bog is like in a really come to them. And so we're going to get Nobles transformed into goblins. And the other thing I liked was. Just dressing up, just goblins dressed up as people that's, that's inherently quite funny. One of the goblins, I [00:13:00] should say, actually the one that was the son of the Nobel lady. Was wearing a sailor suit. And that was of course, and that was great as well because the party actually was so taken with this sailor suit that because they have a dog with them, they actually late during the combat, took the silence off the goblin, put it on the door. And like, that was the main thing. That was the main thing they were trying to coordinate with one another while I'm trying to run calls. It's just like, right. That God is dead. Can I take off his data suit? How Adam: long would that take? Yeah, exactly. One of the logistics of dressing in the dress of the dog. Rosie: Yeah. Well, they did manage to do that. So the dog is wearing a cyber state now permanently. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. No, they haven't. Well, Adam: oh my companion, Rosie: Peter, Peter, Peter, the secret boy. Yes. [00:14:00] He's a corgi. He started off as a spoon count, which was something I'd stolen from Darwin wood. But but then he's being turned into a corgi because they all kind of insisted. That's what he was. Yeah, he's still wearing a sailor suit. He's got a spear welded to him. Like it's just, it's Adam: ridiculous. Rosie: He's wearing leather armor and they've liked tied to spirit. They had to, they had to commission the arm all day fucking day. My party is worried about that dog and try and get it better equipment and get it like covered in weapons Adam: anyway. Right? Yeah. Creative solutions to problems. That's what I noticed in your notes that you've sort of mentioned Gremlin's too. And I have to say, I mean, I, when I think of goblins in the fog bulb and actually the kind of goblins that I like, I often think of gremlins too. And of course, the thing about gremlins too, is the sheer variety of goblins. That of gremlins, sorry that [00:15:00] exist. In the movie, they're not simply the kind of slightly. Monstrous killers that they are on the first one, although they do have a bit more personality than that. And gremlins to their personalities are much bigger, much more fleshed out very two dimensional, one dimensional, but but, but, but a much kinder, they stand out much more clearly. And you know, when, when I picture a goblin wearing lipstick, I picture the, the the rather Oh, it filmed worldwide. I'm looking for probably not, no. But sexually charged female goblin in gremlins too. Right. And I think that when I thought about the this encounter, you know, when, when you, you, you came up with the prompt, this goblin wears lipstick. That was the first thing that I thought of. And I thought of maybe Developing it along the lines of you've got a. This female goblin in the mold of this Gremlin's to goblin [00:16:00] is kind of very sexually aggressive and perhaps a bit of a stalker. I quite like. Yeah. I love that. Well, I quite liked the idea that what you could do there is you could have somebody who is being stalked by this goblin. Who'd be, he escapes from them, but they counted the PCs and threes. Position exposition. This character informs the PCs various things that they must not do to attract this goblin. But then you create a situation where it's a question of, they feel compelled to do those things for that. Goblin is what. It's how you create a tension whereby it's like, we want to do it and we kind of have to do it. It might be something to do with combat. It might be worrying something. It might be both. But in demonstrating their prowess, at least one of these characters would find this goblin character irresistibly drawn to them. And they liked the idea that they'd be tremendously difficult to shake this goblin [00:17:00] character. And we just kind of pursued. Rosie: This is fantastic. So like fatal attraction, but with a goblin. Adam: So thinking of Ms. Peggy as well. Oh yeah. And I looked at a whole bunch of cards. I looked at TV tropes and it looks at the tropes associated with Ms. Peggy. And like, one of them was something called something like one punch. And it's like, miss piggy has this thing where she could just take people out. If, if they're getting in the way of her. You know, Cami, if she wants to, she's trying to get to Kermit the frog somebody in her way. She can take them out with one punch, one punch, but I love the idea of got with a mechanic where you could just, you know, basically like, In effectively a spell really where this kind of fatal attraction goblin would also have this capacity to just take people out if they were anyway. Sorry, this isn't my thing, but but yeah, I saw Grandin's too and it brought all of this into my head. Rosie: I know, you know, I just [00:18:00] absolutely love all of that. We should actually, we should note we, we were discussing and hashing out goblin. With our friend, Tim, who you play with Adam, and he mentioned and linked us to a fantastic key and Peele sketch on gremlins two, which I would highly highly recommend for anyone who would like to see some examples of different flair that goblins or indeed gremlins might have a good time. We Adam: can put that in the show notes. We'll put Rosie: that, we'll put that in the show notes, because honestly, I was just howling with laughter. It was like the most, most funny thing I'd seen all week. Adam: Yeah, so, so what, what did you sort of expect to come out of the encounter? How did you expect it to play out? Rosie: So this was a combat encounter. A lot of what we do in the fog book is combat and still not very. I feel like this is probably quite common for newish DMS. I kind of, I know how to run combat, because I felt the need to like, get that down. But knowing what else you can do and what else you can run. [00:19:00] Sometimes I find a bit tricky. So a lot of things do end up being combat. This is one of them. I will say my, my party enjoys combat as well, but again, we're all sort of new, we're all sort of feeling our way. So, you know, combat is a thing where we all know where we stand. And I wanted it to be a fairly easy combat encounter. Right. Anticipating this being particularly a struggle for them whatsoever, because it's more like the combat is kind of like a clue as to what's going on. Right. It's kind of Adam: like exposition, isn't it. You kind of using this to clue people into what's actually happening and maybe you know, with the plague and maybe set up that feeling of, of threats, you know that perhaps the players could get transformed into goblin. Rosie: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, and to be honest, I should have made that more of a possibility because as, as I said, the mechanisms of the plague or that if you as, as written, the goblin grinder is that if a government attacks you and it gets away, essentially, if government attacks you and it doesn't die, [00:20:00] you're going to turn into a goblin. Wow. It's really, really good. And I didn't give that a chance to actually happen. I think it was another thing where I was slightly nervous or slightly pulling my punches. Yeah. Terrible, terrible habit I have. But again, yeah, fairly common. And I didn't, because that would have been a brilliant motivation to get them to the... /episode/index/show/gelatinouscube/id/19967744

Gelatinous Cube

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