Wandering Monsters: Goblinoids

As with the bit on gnolls and orcs, the descriptions provided are apt for each given goblinoid type (I also voted that keeping them related, though not necessarily united). Given that this is how they have been portrayed for over a decade--maybe longer, not sure about 2nd Edition--I am not surprised.

So far (with all of two articles, mind you) I have generally liked the flavor material, such as it is. Yeah they have not really changed orcs, gnolls, or goblinoids in concept, but I am genuinely okay with them; goblins are sneaky and cowardly, gnolls gang up and rip you apart, orcs are really strong and tough, etc. You know, what they have always done (though it took 4th Edition to back this up through mechanics).

Some people are wondering why they are even showing us articles like this, especially if all they are going is pitching us the exact same concepts and flavor as before. I think that they are honestly looking for feedback and/or ideas. I saw comments about how orcs should be neutral (or was it lawful) evil if they wanted to have any sort of society with slaves, and that their flavor should be better expanded to account for it.

Granted, by the poll results it looks like most people are either satisfied or happy with the current monster treatment, but so far all we have gotten is the low-level evil humanoids. I am not surprised, as these are the guys that will most commonly be thrown at wandering bands of murder-hobos, but what about the rest?

What about demons and devils? Elementals? How about zombies and skeletons? I remember pages upon pages of threads where people argued about whether mindless undead should be evil, or neutral (as well if it was okay to animate dead, even if the person allowed it).

You also have vampires, which usually drain life force by touch instead of drinking blood (though that seems to get contradicted) and ghouls that depending on edition--or version within an edition--turn you into a ghoul by killing you or infecting you. I could make a case for dragonborn not having pred-dreds (and I am sure many would like to eschew dragonboobs), and whether tieflings are the result of infernal unions or contracts.

We got awhile until the game is fully released, and plenty more Wandering Monster articles to go (and complain about). I like to think that they are listening to criticism, and if nothing else going with the majority rule--whether I like it or not--instead of just making up polls and numbers to distract us.