Inactive [LP CYOA] Overlord

[Esquilax]

I really don't know, I thought the appeal of the scholar character was that we'd be more deliberate with the decisions we make and think shit through. Now we've got spreadsheets for a pie-in-the-sky goblin horde that we want to grow and train right on the borderlands of at least two kingdoms. Why are we deciding long-term investments without checking out the market, maybe (my money is on 'definitely') there are better options out there than turning an entire species into something they're not.

Please guys? Just this time? Can we not do YOLOWIZARD?

 

[Nevill]

I really don't know, I thought the appeal of the scholar character was that we'd be more deliberate with the decisions we make and think shit through.

Hey, we've got an elaborate breeding scheme for the next 15 years. That's some careful planning, right?

We are kind of fuzzy on what to do when the tax collectors come knocking in six months, though, but that's a minor detain in the grand scheme of things.

I have a feeling that we are doing this backwards. Instead of seeking profits/benefits/power/whatever-is-your-wet-dream and sliding down the villain scale that way (if that's what we want at all) we first want to become a villain, and then look at what goodies become available on that path. Similarly, instead of doing the Empire building and coming to a conflict of interest as some undesireable consequence of thereof, we first want to create a conflict of interest, and then use it as an incentive or means to grow the Empire.

We see a mysterious gauntlet we know nothing about, oh cool let's try it on what's the worst that could happen? We are surrounded by a tiny goblin village and shithole human town in the middle of nowhere, oh cool let's secede from the country.

Here, bro, a pity flop. 4B.

 

[Elfberserker]

Look guys.
I know very well appeal of being your selfmade-empire-builder-man from scratch and I even thought about voting for it, but can't we for just once gather information?
The East sound appealing, there are plenty of monster hordes there and no kingdom ready to response to our actions within days time and as scholar we should be good to lay down basic plans for infrastructures as well farming.

IF east doesn't sound very appealing to you guys, then there are two totally unknown kingdoms, who might have princesses and no princess.
Lets face it, the big problem with methuss is that it has lot of princes and not enought princesses.....Well...I am sure that the are historical evidence that you can rise to top being talented and buttboy for royalty, but I don't think that is what most codexians want...Even, if the prince is kind of dreamy...

Look, maybe we can make Erise village our pet project when we huge ass army and some sort of kingdom, because it does have potential to become trade city between two kingdoms and the east....
The so called easth, where the monsters are is actually in east right? Like literally at the east?
Because we could be making a mistake like asking in china, where middle east is?

 

[Rex Feral]

I'll also flop to 4B, no YOLOWIZARD for me.

 

[treave]

Regarding the Great Goblin Breeding Programme, here are some more serious thoughts:

Although breeding better goblins and breeding a goblin horde are not mutually exclusive, breeding a better goblin horde is, at least for the moment. Out of perhaps 300,000 or so goblins in the count you should have a smaller number of elites from the breeding programme. I think that the by-products that do not express the desired, exceptional traits would still make up the majority, since those traits were not that widespread in the population in the first place. You should be able to get a better goblin horde by isolating the trait, breeding until you can ensure that it is consistently present in a majority of offspring in a litter and then growing the purebred horde from there, but it would definitely take a longer time. Not to mention you would also have to deal with any side-effects from inbreeding, if present.

And of course this depends on how the genetics go, so I'm inclined to have it be a rather difficult pathway to pursue (of course, you can still pursue it if you want to) until you get your hands on two things:
1. A magical laboratory.
2. A bio-alchemist specializing in modifying living things. (Rin has dabbled in this field of work a bit, but is not an expert)

Once you are able to do the magical equivalent of genetic modification and grow goblins in a vat, it will be easier to create a super race of cuddly yet lethal bipedal dwarf-cats.

If the main goal is to create magic-flinging goblin armies, I'm not so sure putting time into breeding is worth it. A lack of aptitude for magic in the race doesn't mean that they can never cast spells, it only means that they would have to work a lot harder to learn how to do so. I figure an item enchantment mass-production line would give quicker results on this front (magic gobbo armies) compared to a long-term breeding programme.

If you want to breed goblins, you should primarily do it out of love for the profession.

edit: removed sperging about genetics.

 

[Esquilax]

Here, bro, a pity flop. 4B.

Thanks bro, but to be honest, I don't feel that strongly about 4). I'm pretty curious too, and who the fuck knows, maybe nothing will happen. I'm just going with B because there's no rush to find out, it's dumb to go in without info, and by far most importantly, I get to feel smug if something horrible happens. "See! I told you that this would happen! Look at you fucking idiots dying in search of shinies!" Without the chance for a smug sense of superiority or a way to rationalize obviously idiotic choices in hindsight, you really lose the a lot of the fun in these LP's.

 

[treave]

Or it could be something where if you wait till much, much later to discover what it does, you get fucked, like not going to the cult's asteroid to find out their plans. Depends on how you want to gamble.

 

[Baltika9]

2. A bio-alchemist specializing in modifying living things. (Rin has dabbled in this field of work a bit, but is not an expert)

Very interesting, looks like the judgement of her as daddy's little princess who's not very good at anything except killing was premature. What else has she dabbled in?

 

[Nevill]

Thanks bro, but to be honest, I don't feel that strongly about 4

Well that's all I can do for you! Sorry for not being good enough!

I am awfully curious, and I don't think that an immediate disaster will follow, though I do suspect that we will be dealing with the 'result' for the rest of the chapter in one way or the other.

Still, we've got the gauntlet, even though we could have easily missed it. We've got the shard, even though if we optimized our strategy we could have probably missed it as well (and we would have missed it if we ignored the village or kidnapped the Prince). So there are two pieces of the puzzle that we obtained by going through a unique path and making some sacrifices, and thus we are offered an opportunity we would not otherwise have.

It would be a shame if we didn't take it, right?

 

[treave]

Very interesting, looks like the judgement of her as daddy's little princess who's not very good at anything except killing was premature. What else has she dabbled in?

Writing romantic (fan)fiction.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Well, the Barzamites did want to get their hands on something from the ruins. Maybe the glove was it. Or maybe the crystal was it and the glove does something to it.

Of course, we'd know more about this had you all asked about the glove instead of the stupid angel question.

Writing romantic (fan)fiction.

gay fan fiction, no doubt

 

[treave]

It's okay, asking about angels is a time-honoured tradition for Dark Lords.

 

[Kz3r0]

Can we not do YOLOWIZARD?

Why?
It's obvious that people are bored by careful planning, I myself prefer the conceited cluelessness demonstrated by the character until now.

 

[Nevill]

I myself prefer the conceited cluelessness demonstrated by the character until now.

Erdrick tends to overestimate his cleverness, attractiveness, or power, and it shows.

Somehow, Rin has reacted more favourably than you expected. Is she finally warming up to you? Ah, baby steps work after all. You always knew they would.

And anything that could give her trouble would probably attract attention instantly… something like a dragon the size of a mountain, or perhaps a good-looking, popular hero with very flashy lightning magic.

Such a puny object should not be able to stop your mighty spear from penetrating its target!

A flawed character is an interesting character. I just hope we don't take it to the XTREMEs.

Edit: also, the last one is a nice out-of-context quote material.

 

[lightbane]

Jeebus, so much over-thinking for lowly cannon fodders. As cute as goblins may be, in my point of view they remain as Tier 1 scout, completely expendable units. As a proper Overlord, we should aim for better quality for our soldiers, such as the several other monster races we haven't meet yet (plus the angelic transformation ritual, once we get it working, of course). By the way, can we ask the villagers for information as a reward instead of/along with the other options? We could say we're a stranger from a far, far away place and thus we know little about these lands (which is not that far from the truth). Then keep asking until we exhaust the dialogue tree.

Another random question: could we send Rin to be the guard of the village? As a proper lazy asshat, it is essential that someone else does the work for us. Besides, with a little of luck, Rin may eventually change a little her opinion about "these filthy human scum" and thus be friendlier with them. At the very least that would ensure us she's not constantly looking for an excuse to go "HULK SMASH!" whenever we're interacting with humans.

It also would help if we had some sort of indication of how is our relationship with the demon princess progressing (so far I believe we're at 55%, 0% being "absolute hatred" and 100% "total yandere love").

Aura of the Monster Chief
Your strength as a fledgling leader of monsterkind is such that it leaks into the environment and blesses all non-human creatures in your vicinity with the ability to grow stronger at a faster rate.

Hey, that's new. We could exploit this ability by making Rin and/or the children spar with the goblins and let themselves to be defeated, allowing the gobbos to increase their xp to the point they reach Veteran status in little time. But I doubt it will be that easy.

"You try it. But for some reason, just like with the shard not reacting to the goblin, the gauntlet will only respond if you are the one holding it."

Alright then. I vote for 4A. Let's have Rin fetch our protection gloves and glasses, then do it ourselves. I insist on doing it as far away from the village as possible though. Hopefully it won't hurt us too much.

PS: Also, from my interpretation the "B" option is not "research it carefully" but instead "seal both and forget about it", which won't help us at all.

 

[Nevill]

As cute as goblins may be, in my point of view they remain as Tier 1 scout, expendable units.

Yup. A few hit-and-run raids, a few spies in the forests - that's what they are. We want fighter juggernauts, we should seek out trolls and minotaurs; we want rank-and-file, we might want to check orks of humans; we want magic, we should find elves or imps or something. Goblin ubermenschen are probably not going to happen.

Besides, with a little of luck, Rin may eventually change a little her opinion about "these filthy human scum" and thus be friendlier with them. At the very least that would ensure us she's not constantly looking for an excuse to go "HULK SMASH!" whenever we're interacting with humans.

Now, now, I would not trust Rin with any mission that involves any prolonged interaction with humans we want in one piece just yet.

I think that making Aria her apprentice might do the trick, though. The princess might appreciate the sheer ferociousness and the fiery and stubborn nature of the kid that is not unlike her own, and she would be much less likely to accidentally axe her since she is not a random peasant, but our personal peasant.

On the other hand, our loli needs tutoring. It does not befit our henchwomen to be merely 'passable' with a weapon.

I had this idea where we lock the kids up in a basement with 50 gobbos and do not let them out untill they defeat them all. The Maniac training is not limited to a single session!

 

[Elfberserker]

We could level up our gobbos and kids by destroying the bandit camps. The twins and some goblins could get a level or two there and we could step in, if it goes too dangerous....It's perhaps best for Rin to not take part in bandit hunt, if we want our gobbos and twins to level up.

 

[lightbane]

True. Destroying the "bandit lairs" would quite certainly solve the problem by going straight to the root of the problem, but we don't know where are these. Perhaps we could ask the villagers and go there for a quick visit before going towards Methuss to cash in that reward.

Also, it might be that this world allows the "Pokemon xp trick" and we can use both the twins/gobbos and Rin as long as we first set the weakest party in the front line, then recall and replace them with Rin. Granted, she may be hurt in the process due the enemy's free turn, but I'm sure her defenses are tough enough to survive it.

 

[Azira]

Aura of the Monster Chief
Your strength as a fledgling leader of monsterkind is such that it leaks into the environment and blesses all non-human creatures in your vicinity with the ability to grow stronger at a faster rate.

Barzam Ecclesiocracy: -50 (Disliked)
Erise Village: +30 (Accepted)
Methuss Kingdom: +15 (Neutral)

A new ability and some changes to reputations. Seems we definitely want to keep non-humans around.

 

[Elfberserker]

I am hoping that Gobbos have good idea where the bandit camps are.
I mean this is their area? Even, if they didn't know where they are right away, they should know some good possible defensive or hideout spots?

Lets use gobbos the way they are meant to be as tier 1 scouts to find bandit lairs.

 

[Jester]

"Aura of monster chief" huh?

Sounds very interesting. Always liked wining with underdog, so goblin emperor route is tempting.

As for bandit problem. Find them, kill some and recruit rest. Start sending bandit raids to non-human hating oppressors.

 

[Bibbimbop]

As fascinating as it's to see you guys planning to turn gobbos to super warriors or mages via euganics, shouldn't we wait and see if there are another monster race to breed to be warriors or mage caste?
You know like orcs?
Usually very big, strong and bloodthirsty humanoid monsters?

Look I know that gobbos are cute and lifting them from underdog level species to ubermensch level does has it appeal, but can't we wait till we see better candidates?
Goblins are fine as they are; as good scouts with some martial ability as well oddball mage or two.
Lets see, if there are fucking Orcs, trolls, dark elfs,gnolls, lizardmen or minotaures before we begin our breeding program

Those monsters can be used for what they are, and they'll have their strengths, for sure. However, I doubt any other creature has the only really valuable traits of goblins, and they won't be breedable on timescales that you would endure. Essentially, if you don't want to breed creatures that gestate in three months, have five in a litter, and mature in five years... then what do you want to breed at that point? Nothing.

Rare Gobbo Traits
1. Unquestioning loyalty
2. Fast breeding rate
3. Large litter size

Being a "good scout" is no where close to being on the list. Scouts aren't needed in large horde-sized numbers, so you're wasting the large litter size. Why shape a breed of quick-growing beasts to perform a role that dark elves... or gargoyles... or evil bats could do better in small numbers? You know, without being spotting like a large group of goblins?

The only truly unique trait of gobbos, though, is their unquestioning loyalty and willing sacrifice. It cannot be measured in value. Especially when you are a carnage pigeon that doesn't want to make the entire world into an all-singing, all-dancing happy camp. If you run the high chance of pissing everyone off, choose the most loyal group to strengthen and form the base.

The next best traits are their ability to reproduce in large numbers and mature quickly. That's also pretty rare. You don't get that with orcs, gnolls, trolls, and minotaurs. Maybe lizardmen. Once we give the juggernaut of exponential growth a little push on goblins, however, we will have hundreds of thousands in short order if they can remain well-fed.

Those traits are indisputably good. The rest is a matter of taste and opinion. Make them better somehow. I think magic is the most lopsided way, for reasons below.

The ancient Indo-Europeans spread so far because they were the first to discover agriculture in west eurasia. In east asia, the Han culture pushed all other cultures out of the fertile Yellow River and Yangtze River basins because it was the first agrarian society there. In Africa, the Bantu did the same for most of south africa. In a magical world, creating a new race of quick-breeding magelings that can use rudimentary magicks to enhance their food gathering is about the same scale of advantage. Mages rarely condescend to aid farmers in fantasy settings, but if you can create a race of quick-breeding magical pests that can get food with ease, you basically have a swarm of locust at your disposal, and that beats slow-growing minotaurs when you can either replenish 1 new minotaur or 10,000 new little magical pests. Select for the magic-attuned in a race this easy to shape, teach these gobbos how to use their basic magic instead of slings to hunt deer or to fish in lakes, and you've changed the balance of nature and set them on the path of exponentially overloading their ecosystem. And when the ecosystem is nearly hunted bare by a horde of gobbos, we burst outward. All without pestering humans for extra crops.

I figure an item enchantment mass-production line would give quicker results on this front (magic gobbo armies) compared to a long-term breeding programme.

That was my other angle, but C is losing.

 

[Elfberserker]

Yeah, but the time it takes to create super goblin horde that can take down four diffrent kingdoms, who not only have technologigal advantage over us, but also defence advantage is too long for my taste.
Those human mages, armies and castles are nothing to laugh about even with magical fur clad goblin hordes.

In my humble option it's just better and quicker to amass and weld together diffrent monster races with diffrent strenghts and weaknesses than focusing at making super goblins.
Who says we can't get undying loyalty of orcs, trolls and lizardmen? Sure those guys aren't magical breeding machines, but they make it up by sheer muscle or mana mass compared to goblins and we aren't even talking about more exotic beasts yet like slimes, nagas, undeads and dragons.

Gobbos are cute, but they don't make cut as meatshields and magical ability seems to be pretty rare amongs goblins compared to sayyy...Humans?
Humans seem to have ability to produce children quickly who are capable of being jack-of-trade from what we have seen...Well demons can too, but they are slower at reproduction and seems to be bit chaotic.

If you want massive horde that can grow quickly then I suggest that you vote for every necromancy option for that zombie and skeleton army.
We wouldn't even have to feed those guys or bother any other infrastructure things.

Edit: I am not against breeding better Goblins, but I don't think it should make the cornerstone of our grand plan.
I am totally in favor for making goblin breeding our main hobby thought, that way we can put together our mad scienc joy feeling as well as making our army better.

But only as hobby.
A mad joyful hobby playing with gobling euganics

 

[Bibbimbop]

magical ability seems to be pretty rare amongs goblins compared to sayyy...Humans?

Humans massively fail at the only thing that really matters: loyalty.

Greater ability turns into greater liability in zero seconds flat, when it won't do what you want. Erdrick was a human mage of great ability, for example. How many Erdricks do you think our army can handle?

Until there's a better option with loyalty that's equally rock-solid, may as well dabble at goblin-breeding to the extent that we can. Whether that's magic or making them a little stronger. Definitely making them more numerous. And don't underestimate the power of being cute and furry until you've watched swarms of ewoks destroying AT-ST walkers.

If you want massive horde that can grow quickly then I suggest that you vote for every necromancy option for that zombie and skeleton army.
We wouldn't even have to feed those guys or bother any other infrastructure things.

Choosing the Lich would have been much better for that.

 

[Elfberserker]

humans may be backstapping sons of bitches towards other humans and other humanoids, but there is funny thing about humans. Humans can be immensively stubborn and loyal defending their own tribes or faith againsts other bastards.
I mean all we have to do is shape up as some sort of lighting god of outcast/fundemalists or just gather large amount of very impressional younger people and have a lecture and magic show
All we have to do is some lighting tricks and write our own holy book and maybe split oceans or mountains.

After all Goblins are loyal to us because they worship us, because we are their deity and I don't see how humans/orcs/gnolls/lizardmen couldn't worship us as shining one....Well other older something 50-year old scholars might see past our bullshit, but that's why we got Rin, while we speak to some 15-20 year olds who yearn change world for better place.

That being said, I wouldn't be opposed gathering goblin horde and then beginning breeding program, after we have lab and equigment to do so smartly....We defninately could use some flesh enchanters before we even try.
I mean we have only about something 50 warriors and perhaps something like 50 goblin villager? Lets think about breeding programs when we have 1000 or so, because what use are minions when they are constantly fuccking around.

Losing our dick wasn't worth for lich option.
We got shitload of mana as well one very bright mage, so I am confident that we can make great strides in necromancy.
All we have to find some damn books, so we won't waste time reinventing the wheel, so to speak.