Dungeons and Dragons: Verdan

Super based

Awesome video mate! Just curious, are you speaking brummie?

Making them have permanent cultural amnesia seems like such a cop out to to me by WOTC. It would have been so simple to make them a branch of the goblin / hobgoblin/ bug bear lineage that had escaped Maglubiyet would have simple. Give them an archfey that was annoyed at how sad they were and lures them through a portal to the Material Realm, and bam.

Do 2 and 3 edition monsters that no longer appear in any other edition

Just to let everyone know if you want to play any race you can you can always change the character backstory to your own liking that the great thing with D&D. I don't have issues people playing guy character or girl character or whatever to me I still with female character because it easier for me. But I can do different changes instead if really want to play this race. Their so many ways to play has long has the players and The Dm is having fun then it great game.

What is a direhin?! I love haflings and must know

This would make for quite the interesting interactions as a NPC, I imagine.
Have a friendly, young "Goblin" NPC they meet early on in the game, have them away on adventures for a few levels/months, and when they return, have that tall, well endowed, beautiful Girl/Woman greet them in a friendly, familiar tone, ask how they've been, etc. They will be so confused, even more so once they ask the obvious "Excuse me, but who are you? Do we know you?" and get the (possibly somewhat hurt) answer "Don't you remember me? I'm (insert Name)!" If the PCs knew them as a kid, maybe they brush it of as simply 'ups, mistaken them for a boy', especially if they have a unisex name.
Then the next time they return there after being adsent for a long time, they encounter that stereotypical Lumberjack looking fellow, going "come on, you seriously forgotten me?" at the question "who this?"
And the verdan simply forgetting every single time that they are permanently changing their appearance.

On the other hand, I imagine a romantic relationship between a verdan and another race as quite difficult. For example, having to deal with the prospect of the Girl you fell in love with possibly turning into a man, etc.

I throw my hat in the ring with the theory, Correlion Larethian, head deity of the elves, got very drunk one evening and then decided to turn that random colony of Goblins into something else, creating the verdan, and then the next morning was like "welp, let's forget this ever happened".

A very creative way to be the sexy (or just plain fun) goblin in a all-goblins-are-evil campaign.

I'm so happy with how you made this video.

The release of the Verdan was what really finally pushed me into character creation and diving into DnD in the first place. I'm primarily a DM now for a group where I roll roguelike One-shots, but the very first character I made was Asphodel, a verdan bard/necromancer. My concept for him was that on the travel from the Underdark to the surface he was separated from his family and became mute from the trauma and adopted by a colony of myconids. Since the myconids also communicate through telepathy via rapport spores he remained mute through most of his childhood but learned their gray neutrality to all things and a fondness for the idea of decomposing and recycling things which have grown too opulent and concentrated, to recontribute to the cycle of life. When a traveling group of adventurers visited the village he was fond of their bard's music and through their songs found his voice again and eventually departed with them to the surface. Now in the world of Toril he travels as an extremely charismatic bard, though speaks confidently with the wrong word choices. He received a lyre and a hat crafted from the flesh of the Sovereign of the myconid colony as a parting gift which allow him to meld as he used to with them. He is driven especially to identify locations which have an incredible concentration of magic where he seeks to seed spores from his village, a village which had been growing in the corpse of an eldritch ancient creature. The myconids that took him in specialized in consuming, absorbing, and returning magic to Toril.

As a fun bit of flavor however I decided long before I made him that if I ever made a necromancer that their summoned minions would be extremely passive aggressive towards him. If they have mouths they make it known they aren't happy to be back/mock him, and if not make it quite clear through body language, but still obey. Just a humorous foil to his high charisma.

I'm late to this video, but I am curious about an aspect of this race. Why do the Verdan not also exhibit shifting and morphing personalities? Whatever force has altered them (my initial thought was Aboleth tampering) has clearly shown the ability to manipulate and restructure their mind. If the affliction they are under is ever present throughout the remainder of their lives, I see no legitimate reason they would not be subject to fluctuations in their cognition. Unless they have excluded this simply for social integrity standards, seeing as how destabilizing and dissonance inducing it all would be.

I do however enjoy that they included lore about how psyche shattering this all would have been, though I'm sad to imagine all the newly awakened, panic stricken Verdan who couldn't handle the madness of the change and didn't make it out. Perhaps there will be a future race that is even more antithetical to the Verdan than the goblins themselves and spiteful of their brethren who were able to escape the psychosis. That would be an interesting dynamic to see play out in world lore.

Sorry for the ramble, but I'm a psychologist and it has weighed on my mind.

Any thoughts?

These sound like they are based on the actual Native American stories of The Little People.

you know what's funny about this? I had a dream about goblinoids being an embodiment of vitality itself like a troll and evolving into an adaptable and vibrant people of their own and while I was dreaming someone asked me who I was and so I thought about how to name myself. I remembered the way that I've suffered in silence, the way that through determination I've simply continued regardless of what happens to me, with experienced but unspoken complaint. I am that which endures.

I’ve been into dungeons and dragons lore for about seven years now I’ve only read the dark elf Siri‘s in a few were the older books but I’m always looking for more and it never ceases to amaze me how often I say to myself when I’m looking up dungeons and dragon lore that I think I just found my new favorite race

Great video! I'm playing a Verdan Cleric atm and I'm about to grow and change gender... Can't wait to see my parties faces! They still think I'm a female goblin... :D

The Verdan are a great opportunity for an alternative to many assumptions and actions (often combat), they are always going to be "should we/i be doing this?", "are these so call foes trapped as my ancestors were?", "what is a good life?", "am i trapped in another railroaded life?" .. it may be too heady and such for most games. But its a opportunity for a question of play style and problem solving.

I would play this with a lot of flaws and conflict, imagine a Tyrion Lannister like character ... dealing with baggage, a raw, evolving, and conflicted sense of right and wrong. Some really bad days. I would be a shame to play them as a pure philosopher, they have so much baggage and therapy.

Perhaps their origin is due to intervention of goblin jester god. Just a little prank of mutating race and a freedom given to goblin souls seems like his portfolio

I love the concept of the Verdan they sound amazing to play and write for.

Aj mentioned The Hin 👀

The idea of the high goblin race appeals to me but I've found so little about The Hin.

I have been playing a verdan for a few months now, I have always wanted to because they just seem so open and curious about the world. Currently playing one as an Oath of the Anchients paladin. I love it.

I identify greatly with the Verdani perspective.

I absolutely loved the way this one was written. Read like a journal entry? Chef's kiss

In a few ways they remind me of Leshay, far less livespan and inate power of coarse. The fluid personality and appearance, the loss of culture, the feelings of not belonging and being an outsider... I'm sure if a Leshay and a Verdan sat down and had a long chat they'd find quite a bit in common.

Sounds like it's about time for all those variant goblinoids to get their own little series

I was watching the stream where The Verdan were made.

I wonder if this species has some relation to fey trickster gods. A heavily protean species of righteous telepaths that originated in one of the crawling hordes of evil screams of fey meddling to me.

"It would be easier to change yourself then to change the world"

Gengus Kahn would beg to differ lol

Seeing so many people upset by this is... concerning. Let's remember folks: what lore is canon in your game is ultimately up to your own decision. If you're truly upset by well meaning goblinoids, just don't use them. Other people using them doesn't hurt you.

Amazing! Love these new story grounded uploads. Deeply nerdy and deeply fun 🤓 keep up the great work AJ!

Bless the Mighty GlueStick

To all the haters: new races are fun. I am an old school player - and I mean OLD SCHOOL - that was resistant to new, more-or-less non-Tolkien races for a long time.

But! The universe of D&D isn't vast enough even now. There are unlimited crystal spheres and an unlimited number of doors between a whole lot of places. In the context of head canon: it absolutely works. More importantly: the more players there are at tables the better. I remember when being a DND player was something only a brave few of us would admit to at a bar. I like it better this way.

I love how so many people think that a race of freedom loving gender fluid goblins are “SJW”. There’s nothing “SJW” about them except that they don’t tolerate prejudice behavior.

great video

Goblin + halfling + weed? = Verdan

Lovely

I feel this is an over correction.

AJ, you probably ought to do some on the Bhuka which are another Goblinoid species that's extremely interesting and different from them in a lot of things.

They were fun to play in 3.5

Grogu!!!

Is it possible to play the verdan as a player char? The verdan are able to achieve tens or even hundreds of years of evolution in a single lifetime. Has anyone been able to determine when their individual evolutions will or even if they will plateau?

AJ, I just gotta say thanks man. You don't know me, likely never will. But being able to finally come home from a long week out at work, stretch out on the couch, and tune in to your latest lore vids so that I can just forget IRL for a few moments and let the imagination wander through your lore thinking of the possibilities of an upcoming DM session, that my friend, is just the bestest.

So an entire race of sjws?

I can now role a Yoda-esque Eldritchknight.

No mention of the Mind flayer or C Team, so sad...

where can I download this New race Lore?

My opinion. The name is stupid. ITS JUST A VARIATION ON THE WORD GREEN.

I love the point of view of this as that of a researcher. That made for a much more engaging experience, even through the content was largely similar to your other videos.

The positive response to these guys is a nice change.

I just found my favorite race in d&d x3