Just to be clear, I am not going to be doing any more official questions for RPG A Day. Hence I am going to give a little space here to one of the player characters that graced my Reign of Winter campaign. Many characters came and went in that game but Gobbo will fall under the irritatingly memorable of them. So, because a reader wanted to hear more about Gobbo I decided to do this piece. Also, I started watching Disenchanted (the animated series on Netflix) and there is a character that is eerily reminiscent of Gobbo. Elfo even has a scene in the first episode that made me wonder if Matt Groening actually watches my YouTube channel. If you want to watch the many hours of Reign of Winter it is recorded on YouTube here. If you watch it, Gobbo was also known as Knobby da Gorgeous…
The Birth of Gobbo
The player that ran Gobbo joined later in the series. He took over a character, Corvyn the Paladin, from an outgoing player. Push came to shove and Corvyn perished in a major battle. Collapsing dead to the ground was the end of one session and the player, Kevin, made up his character before the next game. Gobbo was to be a Goblin Skald. A warrior-bard of the small annoying green race. Introducing Gobbo was fun, and here is where it gets weirdly familiar with Disenchantment. In Disenchantment, as we are learning about Elfo he stumbles across a war. It is a war between gnomes and ogres. The first ogre he encounters has a massive hole right through his chest and back. The ogre falls over toward Elfo and conveniently the hole surrounds him and he crawls from it.
In my campaign, Gobbo is introduced to the party in a very similar way. You have to realise that Reign of Winter has many flaws, especially if a character dies so many new characters were introduced in weird and wonderful ways. As the party started mourning the loss of Corvyn his body jolted, twisted and erupted as Gobbo burst from the old character’s chest! This, of course, drew the ire of many in the party. Largely the cleric, Jack Churches, who refused to heal the goblin for much of the campaign.
Resourceful Gobbo
Gobbo integrated well into the group and was super helpful to the game. The abilities of a Skald allow for the buffing of companions crossed with a lethal combatant. He even had the ability to heal so he played up to the ire of Jack Churches. In spirit, Gobbo took on the role of the motivator of the party. His high pitched annoying voice and impetuous nature got the party into a great deal of trouble. Without him, perhaps the game would still be happening!
Why I Hated Gobbo
It was a love-hate relationship! Kevin found a soundboard that had a squeaky goblin voice on it. He loved that soundboard. I did for around eleven seconds. But it was a feature in many games. It created lots of humour in the game and for the players. Unfortunately, I think Kevin had a computer meltdown and the soundboard died with it? Not sure. I know it disappeared somewhere along the line. My $20 USD to those Russian hackers was terribly effective.
Gobbo Was There To The End
Gobbo made it all the way through what was left of the campaign when he joined. In the end, he had given himself many titles which I would be remiss if I did not mention. They were…
- Hero of Ancient Glory
- Dragon Slayer
- Master of Sound
- Runelord
- Disco Dancer
I wince when I think of Gobbo. He was the party clown but developed long-term friendships with all of the group in the end, even Jack Churches. His personality was brilliant though and as much as I wince I can’t help to smile afterwards. Gobbo was a player character to remember. Keep rolling!