A Referendum on Goblin Game Mechanics

As you moved a sizable boulder to the side, huffing as sweat poured down your face, you noticed all the Goblins milling about.

"If we keep losing Goblins to hunting accidents, we won't have that many left soon." You asked as Boba organized a brigade line to hand off medium rocks, small melon-sized ones to you.

"Hmm, I wouldn't worry. Goblins breed quickly. It takes about a week to pop one out, and another month to grow up." Boba answered, dodging as a small rockslide occurred.

"Excuse me?" You paused, staring at your female partner.

"Goblin camps grow very quickly; we have to replace the lost." Boba continued, as if that explained everything.

"You mean you don't respawn, I just assumed they would respawn back at your camp!" You argued as Boba shrugged her shoulders.

"We donut respawn like you. When a Goblin dies, they respawn from womb, regrow. Well, technically that's not true either." Boba tried explaining as you listened in curiously, monotonously moving rocks.

"When a Goblin dies, they respawn like you, but differently." She said.

"Differently?" You echoed.

"Differently. They start over. Might have been Bow Goblin before, now they are Spear Goblin. No memories from Before-Life. Strong Goblins like me, remember Before-Life." She explained as you contemplated her words.

"So, when a normal Goblin dies, they get respawned with a new identity and new skills. That could be annoying, but what was that you said about reproducing quickly?" You replied as you hefted another large boulder, but didn't get away in time as a smaller one fell and scratched your leg.

"Old Goblin brain is inside baby, old Goblin muscles inside new Goblin." She explained in a similar tone one would use on an ignorant child. Slowly enunciating each word.

"Still, I suppose that could be useful. If we need a bunch of Bow Goblins, we can put the others on the frontlines and have them reroll on respawn into Bow Goblins." You considered as Boba glared at you, hurling a small rock that peened off your head. "Ow, what was that for?" You whined.

"Besides suggesting we kill all my Goblins to 'fix' them? Just wipe away all their memories for your connivence?" She growled, and suddenly those snagly teeth didn't look so cute anymore.

"Right, sorry." You apologized.

"Besides, it easier to teach old Goblin new trick!" Boba confirmed as she kicked at the wall, dodging backwards again as a small rockslide took place.

"Hmm?" You queried silently.

Boba stood quietly for several minutes, long enough that you thought she had forgotten your question, but finally she seemed to come awake again.

"It takes a month for baby Goblin to grow up, and then they'll be just as strong as dead Goblin, but if you teach old Goblin how to use new trick, he'll be stronger and have same skills." Boba tried to explain, but you could tell she was missing some key points.

"Okay, so what you're trying to say is... having them reroll into Bow Goblins is actually slower because when they respawn, they may be able to use a bow, but they'll be weak, as opposed to taking the Goblin before it died and just teaching it how to use a bow. In the amount of time it takes to get a level 3 Bow Goblin, you can train an already level 3 Goblin to use a bow, and he may turn into a level 5 Bow Goblin in that amount of time." You fired back as you considered the implications.

Boba seemed to get the general gist of what you were trying to say and nodded in agreement.

"I'm still not sure that ties in with all the reproduction talk but..." You trailed off as another thought entered your head. "So, if you died, you would be reset, and a different Goblin would take over?" You asked as Boba tilted her head in thought, throwing a rock over her shoulder that nearly killed a lounging Goblin.

"No, I've died before, but I always come back... I thought I was special because I was Chief, but now..." Boba trailed off as she looked sadly into the distance.

You had a thought, but if it was true, it really made the Goblin species look bad. It sounded like when a Goblin respawned, they just treated their previous life as that, a previous life, and just started over, whereas Boba had a strong enough sense of self to hold on to hers. But could Goblins really be so dumb as to not realize they were literally the same as before?

You turned just in time to see a Goblin throw a punch at a rock on the ground covered in moss, apparently confusing it with a Goblin that was ignoring him. Deciding to ignore the craziness behind you, you turned back to Boba.

"So we have Bow Goblins, Spear Goblins, and Knife Goblins, is that all of them?" You asked, hoping to distract both yourself and her from the intricacy of the previous discussion.

"Hmm, we had a few others, "Cook Goblin, who didn't come, some Breeding Goblins, only one could move due to pregnancies, we had a Shaman Goblin, but he died, and..."

"Any Thief Goblins?" You asked as Boba looked at you once again as if you were an ignorant child.

"All Goblins are Thief Goblins!" She declared as you put your hands up in surrender.

"Okay, so any other Goblins I should know about?" You asked as Boba shyly looked away.

She looked like she didn't want to share, but eventually her will broke as she turned back to you.

"We also had-" Her answer was cut short as the rock wall started shaking, rocks tumbling as you both jumped back in time from it to collapse towards you.