I use to run goblins loosely as a caste system.  Think different body forms for different jobs like some ant colonies have.  Goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and a few made up ones whose names I can't remember because I haven't played that campaign in a while.  Been running MgT2e for two years.  Good luck.

Quote from: jeff37923;1127457I've used bugbears as the heavy component of the Union of Greater Goblinoid Socialist Republics. The hobgoblins are mostly party leaders (although exceptional goblins and bugbears can be as well), the goblins are the proletariat (along with many bugbears and hobgoblins who have lost status), and the bugbears are the frontier sentinels or heavy foot soldiers of the state. Mainly I came up with this because it seemed to be the natural, logical evolution of a group of related humanoids whose primary threat comes from organized human and demi-human civilizations.

(Yes, this has led to the introduction of the Babushka Bugbear.....)

I once played a Marxist Bugbear character. Coincidence? Or is there something to these creatures that is rather... Communist?

Quote from: Vic99;1127536I use to run goblins loosely as a caste system.  Think different body forms for different jobs like some ant colonies have.  Goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and a few made up ones whose names I can't remember because I haven't played that campaign in a while.  Been running MgT2e for two years.  Good luck.

I always thought it was unnecessary to have a bazillion different "races" of goblinoids when you could make goblins a physically diverse species. Like the goblins in Disney's Sleeping Beauty or Jim Henson's Labyrinth.

Never done much with bugbears myself.

I've always used them as cannon fodder, but in my mind they should really be mounted reavers a la Genghis Kahn and the Mongol hoard.  That was my reaction to their description in the original Monster Manual, which IFRK describes them as lawful, evil, feared, organized, good warriors and (maybe?) mounted.  Unfortunately that idea has never really fit into any of my campaigns.

Quote from: SHARK;1127460I love the Bugbears, too! *Laughing* They are cool and interesting!

Yes, I don't know what it is, but ever since the 1e MM, I've found them cooler than most goblinoids.

 

Quote from: SHARK;1127460You have a marsh culture of Bugbears? oooh! That offers some interesting possibilities! Do Bugbear shamans make alliances with alligators, giant dragonflies, and giant snakes?

Sounds like an interesting take and I can see running with that but no I never went that way myself. In my setting they have no magical abilities or obvious religion, and no shamans as such, although it does seem like they may have shamanistic beliefs. For instance, it is known that when bugbears break camp they gather up the remains of everything they killed there - bones, feathers, fur, skin, teeth, clothing, etc. and hang them up in the trees in curious patterns. It is widely believed that once they do this, bugbears will never return to that campsite until all these tokens have fallen to the ground or been carried off by scavengers. It sure looks like a shamanistic practice, although why they do this, and what it "means" to them is a mystery.

Quote from: SHARK;1127460Bugbears paddling around the marshes in special, flat-bottomed boats, a lantern hanging from a pole...Bugbears armed with large axes and spears, watching for intruders...*laughs* Bugbears make a strong threat in your campaign, huh Zirunel?

Well, as you said they can become cannon fodder as PCs level up and get powerful, but they do remain a threat longer than many goblinoid mooks, and yes they are a persistent danger in the marshlands.

Quote from: SHARK;1127460Are they heavily involved in trading slaves?

They trade a bunch of stuff across the marshes but when they raid marshland villages, captives are one of the few kinds of loot the villages have to offer. Captives and dried fish. The bugbears themselves have no use for slaves, but they can trade them off to underworld goblinoids for many useful things.

In my AD&D games I just use them as written in the MM. Kinda like bigger, more formidable goblins. Loose tribal bands. Et cetera.

In my original D&D campaign I've divided humanoid monsters in two broad categories: faery and non-faery. Non-faery humanoids include things like beastmen, serpent-men, gnolls, minotaurs, lizard-men, et cetera. Faery humanoids are all related, rather than being distinct cultures and races, and could be subdivided into "dark" and "light" (like the Seelie and Unseelie Courts). Faery humanoids include things like elfs, dwarfs, kobolds, goblins, gnomes, hobgoblins, bugbears, changelings, brownies, pixies, etc. (I've removed orcs from the campaign -- beastmen are the stand-in for orcs. No halflings, either. And I should note that all the demi-human races are considered monsters rather than PC-races. All are alien to human culture, and even the "light" faeries can be dangerous to humans.)

So in that campaign bugbears are a variety of faery, and are part of the faery culture (and the "dark" court), rather than a distinct race. Like all faery varieties in the campaign, they possess some natural magic affinity and potential (which varies according to the type of faery "race" and also by individual).

Of course, the Other World Miniatures Bugbears look a lot like the Wild Things from Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are. (yes, the older versions all had their junk hanging out but we'll just discretely ignore that for now)  Now that raises an interesting question but we'll go with the book (the movie's great but the Wild Things become symbolic of adults in a child's life) anyhow, so we've got dreadful child eating monsters that can be tamed by the magic trick of looking them right in their eyes without blinking.  Imagine a group of PCs encountering the wild rumpas under a full moon.  That could be some weird mythical shit if they don't catch on.  I think everyone in the universe has read the book at least.  Nothing dismays me more than players who don't get my dated references.

I too like my Bugbears as predatory 'squatches. Incorporating them into a goblinoid caste system robs them of their solitary, lurking menace quality.

I always preferred the "Fantasy Counterpart Culture" approach to campaign setting designs.

In fact, I am designing my own campaign setting that will include bugbears as one of the antagonists.

Quote from: Mjollnir;1127994I too like my Bugbears as predatory 'squatches. Incorporating them into a goblinoid caste system robs them of their solitary, lurking menace quality.

I'm not sure why those two are incompatible. Lions and leopards are both big cats despite the latter being far more solitary. Bugbears being the more solitary members of the goblinoids grouping can be much the same.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1128004I'm not sure why those two are incompatible. Lions and leopards are both big cats despite the latter being far more solitary. Bugbears being the more solitary members of the goblinoids grouping can be much the same.

Hmmmm, bugbears as medieval KGB......I hadn't thought of that.....

They work for the evil king Vladamir who resents association with vampires or impaling.

Quote from: HappyDaze;1128004I'm not sure why those two are incompatible. Lions and leopards are both big cats despite the latter being far more solitary. Bugbears being the more solitary members of the goblinoids grouping can be much the same.

I mean socially, not taxonomically.

Quote from: Mjollnir;1128074I mean socially, not taxonomically.

Same example still applies.