In Saga of the Goblin Horde, the players take on the role of gang bosses. Each boss has a number of gang members equal to half their Spirit die, plus 1 per rank (except for half-humans, who don’t add their rank). Gang members aren’t particularly loyal, but will usually do as they’re told, and can be controlled by the player as allied Extras.
Once per round, a gang boss who suffers one or more wounds from a single attack may spend a Benny to redirect the damage to an adjacent allied goblin Extra, even if the unlucky fellow belongs to another gang. If the damage comes from an area-effect attack that also targets the gang member, the boss still suffers half damage (rounded down), although they may also attempt to Soak the rest if they wish.
Bugbears are too big to redirect the damage from area-effect attacks, and against other attacks they still suffer half damage (rounded down; the gang member still suffers full damage), but they can try to Soak the remaining damage afterwards as normal.
Fast-Track Promotion
Should a gang boss be incapacitated or killed during play, the Game Master may allow the player to promote one of their gang members to Wild Card status and take over the gang. A very quick way to create a unique character is by using theMutation Deck from Just Insert Imagination, as follows:
1. Start out with the Game Statistics for a regular gang member.
2. Draw three cards from theMutation Deck.
3. Start with three additional skills at d6, usually chosen from Climbing, Intimidation, Shooting, Swimming, Taunt and Tracking.
4. Increase one skill from d6 to d8. If the skill is not linked to Agility, then reduce Agility to d6 and increase the linked attribute to d8.
5. Add theMutant Hindrance for all three mutation cards, one as aMajor Hindrance, and the other two asMinor Hindrances.
6. Take theMutationMastery Edge for one of theMutant Hindrances.
7. Take either a secondMutationMastery Edge, or one of the other new Edges from theMutation Deck.
8. Choose a name, pick up three Bennies, and you’re ready to go!
If you’re not using the Mutation Deck, it’s probably best to skip the Hindrances and Edges, otherwise it can take too long for the player to decide what they want.
The new character takes control of the rest of the gang for the remainder of the session, after which they’ll have to calculate their own gang size as normal.
If the player’s original character later comes back (e.g., perhaps they were only incapacitated), the new character isn’t demoted, they simply leave to start their own gang. Perhaps the player will encounter them again in the future as an NPC!