What screams "the author didn't think of the implications"?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I've begun reading the Goblin Slayer manga (up to chapter 16 now).

I really have to wonder about how society is able to function given the prevalence of goblins. So far, the story seems to have taken place over the course of a week. In just one week, the Goblin Slayer has killed 200-300 something Goblins. And he has come across like 3 dozen women who were taken captive by the goblins. This was all in the span of a week, in his little corner of the world.

Napkin math time

If we low ball the numbers, ie 200 goblins and 30 women, and multiply that by 52 weeks in a year, there must be like 10,400 goblins and 1560 women taken captive and raped every year. In his little corner of the world. They seem to be in a pretty backwater area so these numbers have to be the minimum annual statistics for a region. Let's lowball the number of regions to 10. So we're looking at something like over a hundred thousand goblins, an 15,600 women taken captive. Every year. Imagine how many villages have been completely wiped out, and how many thousands of people have been killed. Even if we try to lowball it (again) and say that "oh, the Goblin Slayer just had a week of unusually high activity" and cut those numbers in half, it's still pretty horrifying.

How on earth are Goblins treated as "low level" threat by the countries? These aren't a handful of bandits; this is a fullblown invasion. Why on earth is the adventurer's guild not paying enough money to have competent adventurer's parties deal with these Goblins?

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that there are so many other threats to the world than just Goblins that the adventurer's guild and the military really cannot spare the resources and manpower to deal with the Goblins... in which case I'd think society would have been overrun by now.

Another alarming statistic seems to be the number of 6.6 Goblin offspring per woman captured. And given how seemingly easy it is for the goblins to find women and to sack villages unopposed... really it seems like it should be very, very easy for the goblin's numbers to snowball until they have armies in the hundreds of thousands, to possibly the millions and they just completely overrun society.

Yes, goblins seem to be fodder, but we've seen how easily they can learn, and given how many hordes pop up every year, it seems like statistically speaking society should have encountered several hordes that were smart enough to seriously damage humanity, or possibly even establish a goblin kingdom. All it takes is for the goblins to figure out that they should keep a human male and female pair, force them to breed (either through force, drugs, or perhaps even placating the couple to do on purpose by giving them plunder and because the couple is evil) so that the pair produces more human daughters so that the goblin numbers can swell even more.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that there are so many other threats to the world than just Goblins that the adventurer's guild and the military really cannot spare the resources and manpower to deal with the Goblins... in which case I'd think society would have been overrun by now.

That's actually canon, plus aside from Goblins, people die to all sorts of things. Hell, an entire village of rabbit people was being eaten alive by Yeti's lead by some sort of ice-vampire-queen.

It's discussed that there are many nameless villages that could disappear within a year, with no one the wiser and never really being or becoming part of the map, said villages are of the poorer variety

GS and CG's home village was turned into a training camp for newbies, with the remains of the houses having been taken over by nature. Goblins STILL went and tried to go off and attack said new training camp for newbies and the only Hobgoblin around got killed by a BFS before it could hurt anyone

Those really big numbers are relatively rare.....still haven't seen a Hobgoblin, a Goblin Paladin, a Goblin Champion, a Goblin Priest, a Goblin Lord in many volumes....mostly just the poorer ones

 

[CarlManvers2019]

I’ve talked about it before with some other GS fans

But more than half the time in the series, the Goblins are mostly only ever going after poor villages or civvies in small numbers

If they have big numbers, it’s because they have either guys from the other Non Prayer Races acting as “bosses” or “sponsors” or the bigger and/or smarter types of Goblins who may as well not exactly be Goblins anymore due to being harder to kill and packing an actual punch

Otherwise, them killing someone or kidnapping a woman, is treated like a wolf killing some of your livestock or something because apparently a wolf killing your cow is “rare”, because it’s relatively easy to kill them. Particularly the dumber ones who actually come into the area.

 

[Culsu]

BTech is a fascinating setting full of intrigue, warfare, and feudal shenanigans. That, and cool dudes and ladies fighting in big stompy robots. But you have to turn off your brain for the overall military and economical aspects of the universe, or you can't really enjoy it.

 

[Bear Ribs]

I haven't read Goblin Slayer past the first issue, didn't like the themes, but from reading discussions I'm under the impression that the setting makes no sense. The author is aware of this, and the gods of the setting who are using it as a personal DnD game are deliberately altering the universe whenever they feel like to make sure there's always more monsters and humans fighting each other so neither side can really win.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

I haven't read Goblin Slayer past the first issue, didn't like the themes, but from reading discussions I'm under the impression that the setting makes no sense. The author is aware of this, and the gods of the setting who are using it as a personal DnD game are deliberately altering the universe whenever they feel like to make sure there's always more monsters and humans fighting each other so neither side can really win.

Surprisingly, after that first issue or chapter, pretty much everything afterwards is pretty light hearted and ends up being sort of about GS gradually opening up to everyone else and getting on the possibility of being a regular adventurer as he wanted, when he was a kid

Priestess even becomes a temporary leader for other rookies and shows innovation and quick thinking without GS' input

At the end of pretty much every volume, they go home or go to a bar or something

But yes, the "Gods" are actively screwing over both sides, they even once had an Eldritch Horror from the stars appear for a sort of event

Plus, Goblins are from another planet, possibly transported via a lost magical art like those dimensional mirrors that adventurers of thousands of years back used to go from place to place. So probably on occasion, they slip through these few remaining mirrors.

 

[Battlegrinder]

Goblin Slayer is clearly a setting where the author came up with the core idea of the Slayer and his character first, and then contorted the setting around him, even if that meant his character could only be consistent with that vision at the cost of the world being less consistent.

 

[Typhonis]

Goblins in GS are what, 1 hd creatures? How many cloud kill spells would be needed to wipe a nest out?

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Goblins in GS are what, 1 hd creatures? How many cloud kill spells would be needed to wipe a nest out?

In the first chapter, we see a mage oneshot a goblin with a basic fireball spell, but before the mage could cast another she got taken down by more goblins.

In another chapter, Goblin Slayer says one of the ways he takes out a nest is to kill them with smoke or burning it down.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

In the first chapter, we see a mage oneshot a goblin with a basic fireball spell, but before the mage could cast another she got taken down by more goblins.

In another chapter, Goblin Slayer says one of the ways he takes out a nest is to kill them with smoke or burning it down.

Said mage's younger bratty brother who looks like Negi Springfield but a jerk, was told "you have more than one spell" or "Your fireball spell is composed of some parts, you may only be able to do a fireball once per day, but you can do others too" and as such later whilst the rookies were running away from lots of Goblins in the dark, he figured out how to "shout loud" if only to temporarily stun them

So at most they do their spells as AOE or use them strategically, like with that Holy Light or that Purification spell

Just so you know, I consider spells that can only be used a limited number of times per day, to not be practical. Which is why, in Soulsborne, I didn't bother with the stats to use magic. Just hit em with pointy sticks and things go well.

 

[Battlegrinder]

Goblins in GS are what, 1 hd creatures? How many cloud kill spells would be needed to wipe a nest out?

The pathfinder version autokills anything with 3 or fewer HD, so the answer depends on how densely the goblins are packed.

But citing cloudkill kinda underscores the idea behind Goblin slayer. That's a fairly high level spell, players with access to that are well past the point where they're running around fighting a couple goblins in a tiny cave.

And really, most of the time low level adventures are easy and safe because GMs don't run the monsters with the intent of getting the most out of them. Because we know what happens when GMs do, and it's not terribly fun for most people.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

And really, most of the time low level adventures are easy and safe because GMs don't run the monsters with the intent of getting the most out of them. Because we know what happens when GMs do, and it's not terribly fun for most people.

Funnily, one of the Gods “playing” this “game” LOVES to do just that

Hell, if everything goes well and everybody even prepares for everything and are extra paranoid.

He fucking gets them all killed by a sudden avalanche or suddenly makes it that they get eaten by this thing

As they’re exiting the cave

 

[Battlegrinder]

That's more of just being an evil GM bending the rules to try and kill the players. Tucker's Kobolds is more just making the monsters fight smart against the party and using every advantage they can get against them.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

That's more of just being an evil GM bending the rules to try and kill the players. Tucker's Kobolds is more just making the monsters fight smart against the party and using every advantage they can get against them.

Truth does both admittedly

Illusion on the other hand, kinda gets people killed with “bad rolls”

 

[LifeisTiresome]

I haven't read Goblin Slayer past the first issue, didn't like the themes, but from reading discussions I'm under the impression that the setting makes no sense. The author is aware of this, and the gods of the setting who are using it as a personal DnD game are deliberately altering the universe whenever they feel like to make sure there's always more monsters and humans fighting each other so neither side can really win.

Yes. But you make the mistake that this is a GS issue when its more a DnD inspired fantasy or Dragon Quest inspired fantasy issue.

Read the below. It explains the issue but replace Goblins with any monster that can attack and ruin villages.

I've begun reading the Goblin Slayer manga (up to chapter 16 now).

I really have to wonder about how society is able to function given the prevalence of goblins. So far, the story seems to have taken place over the course of a week. In just one week, the Goblin Slayer has killed 200-300 something Goblins. And he has come across like 3 dozen women who were taken captive by the goblins. This was all in the span of a week, in his little corner of the world.

Napkin math time

If we low ball the numbers, ie 200 goblins and 30 women, and multiply that by 52 weeks in a year, there must be like 10,400 goblins and 1560 women taken captive and raped every year. In his little corner of the world. They seem to be in a pretty backwater area so these numbers have to be the minimum annual statistics for a region. Let's lowball the number of regions to 10. So we're looking at something like over a hundred thousand goblins, an 15,600 women taken captive. Every year. Imagine how many villages have been completely wiped out, and how many thousands of people have been killed. Even if we try to lowball it (again) and say that "oh, the Goblin Slayer just had a week of unusually high activity" and cut those numbers in half, it's still pretty horrifying.

How on earth are Goblins treated as "low level" threat by the countries? These aren't a handful of bandits; this is a fullblown invasion. Why on earth is the adventurer's guild not paying enough money to have competent adventurer's parties deal with these Goblins?

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that there are so many other threats to the world than just Goblins that the adventurer's guild and the military really cannot spare the resources and manpower to deal with the Goblins... in which case I'd think society would have been overrun by now.

Another alarming statistic seems to be the number of 6.6 Goblin offspring per woman captured. And given how seemingly easy it is for the goblins to find women and to sack villages unopposed... really it seems like it should be very, very easy for the goblin's numbers to snowball until they have armies in the hundreds of thousands, to possibly the millions and they just completely overrun society.

Yes, goblins seem to be fodder, but we've seen how easily they can learn, and given how many hordes pop up every year, it seems like statistically speaking society should have encountered several hordes that were smart enough to seriously damage humanity, or possibly even establish a goblin kingdom. All it takes is for the goblins to figure out that they should keep a human male and female pair, force them to breed (either through force, drugs, or perhaps even placating the couple to do on purpose by giving them plunder and because the couple is evil) so that the pair produces more human daughters so that the goblin numbers can swell even more.

That's actually canon, plus aside from Goblins, people die to all sorts of things. Hell, an entire village of rabbit people was being eaten alive by Yeti's lead by some sort of ice-vampire-queen.

It's discussed that there are many nameless villages that could disappear within a year, with no one the wiser and never really being or becoming part of the map, said villages are of the poorer variety

GS and CG's home village was turned into a training camp for newbies, with the remains of the houses having been taken over by nature. Goblins STILL went and tried to go off and attack said new training camp for newbies and the only Hobgoblin around got killed by a BFS before it could hurt anyone

Those really big numbers are relatively rare.....still haven't seen a Hobgoblin, a Goblin Paladin, a Goblin Champion, a Goblin Priest, a Goblin Lord in many volumes....mostly just the poorer ones

Surprisingly, after that first issue or chapter, pretty much everything afterwards is pretty light hearted and ends up being sort of about GS gradually opening up to everyone else and getting on the possibility of being a regular adventurer as he wanted, when he was a kid

Priestess even becomes a temporary leader for other rookies and shows innovation and quick thinking without GS' input

At the end of pretty much every volume, they go home or go to a bar or something

But yes, the "Gods" are actively screwing over both sides, they even once had an Eldritch Horror from the stars appear for a sort of event

Plus, Goblins are from another planet, possibly transported via a lost magical art like those dimensional mirrors that adventurers of thousands of years back used to go from place to place. So probably on occasion, they slip through these few remaining mirrors.

You have monsters running around in the wild, some of whom can form groups and they can attack and devastate villages and even do so so that an MC can come into being to save the world like in Fable 1 where the MC comes from a village attacked by bandits. GS has it that such villages are attacked even if they don't have MCs.

Its just a staple of the genre.

Fundamentally, villages that are barely defended in the wilds shouldn't be a thing.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

Samurai Jack

Why hasn’t Aku just blown up the Earth in the hopes of killing Jack or killing him from orbit?

Hell, why not sadistically “punish” the many people Jack’s saved in over 50 years of operation, there were enough to form an army

Aku’s consistently shown to be an evil douche who’s not above stuff that causes harm to children

 

[Bear Ribs]

Fundamentally, villages that are barely defended in the wilds shouldn't be a thing.

Pretty much this. From my limited exposure to Goblin Slayer the biggest thing that stood out to me was how you had so many goblins, yet the houses and towns had no walls, no pungi sticks, no apparent effort to make any kind of static defense that would help protect from them. At the least I'd expect Bastle Houses to be standard living quarters outside major walled cities, with even small towns having a palisade around them.

 

[LifeisTiresome]

Pretty much this. From my limited exposure to Goblin Slayer the biggest thing that stood out to me was how you had so many goblins, yet the houses and towns had no walls, no pungi sticks, no apparent effort to make any kind of static defense that would help protect from them. At the least I'd expect Bastle Houses to be standard living quarters outside major walled cities, with even small towns having a palisade around them.

Yes. Forget about the goblins, you could have rampaging orks or giants, etc. I could go on. This is an issue with a lot of the fantasy genre.

 

[Firebat]

Let's lowball the number of regions to 10. So we're looking at something like over a hundred thousand goblins,

Maybe goblin populations that grow that fast simply starve to death after pillaging all undefended villages and exhausting the entire available food supply.

 

[LifeisTiresome]

Goblins live in the wilds which may also have creatures more fearsome the goblins, likely they get eaten or killed by some of the creatures?