Goblins occupy an uneasy place in a dangerous world, both as the monster's civilization sees them as and the grubby underclass of the same world. And they react by lashing out at any creatures they believe they can bully or steal from. Cunning in battle and cruel in victory, goblins are fawning and servile in defeat, just as in their own society lower castes must scrape before those of greater status and as goblin tribes bow before other goblinoids.
Beast Masters and Slave Drivers
Typical forest goblins know they are a weak, unsophisticated race that can be easily dominated by bigger, smarter, more organized, more ferocious, or more magical creatures. Their god was conquered by Sanguinius, after all, and now when the goblin god Vesharoon calls for it, even their souls are forfeit to the Blood God. It is this realization that drives them to dominate other creatures whenever they can — for these goblins, life is short.
Goblins seek to trap and enslave any creatures they encounter, but they flee from opposition that seems too daunting. For miles around their lair, they employ pit traps, snares, and nets to catch the unwary, and when their hunting patrols encounter other beings, they always look for ways to capture their foes instead of killing them. Goblins that run up against the fringes of a society first test its defenses by stealing objects, and if these crimes go unpunished, they begin stealing people.
Virtually any kind of creature that can be browbeaten into service might be found with a goblin tribe, but rats and wolves are nearly always present. Both have lived in concert with goblins for at least as long as humans have worked with dogs and horses, and in goblin society those two animals serve similar purposes.
Family Matters
Goblin tribes are heavily organized into a caste system while their city-dwelling brethren organize themselves into gangs or fold into thieves guilds. Outsiders who don’t understand the goblins’ social system are sometimes surprised by how different castes and gangs interact with them. With the forest goblins, a single human warrior might frighten away a dozen gatherers, only to be shocked when two hunters viciously attack. For the city dwellers, a rival gang may run off several goblin thugs only to find they were framed by the same gang of a crime and have the city guard breathing down their necks.