Everyone Likes Dogs, Right? Right.

  There are a lot of different ways to start an article like this - A mechanical breakdown of doing a whopping five subraces, an examination of what inspired me to tackle a dog race, what the heck does ‘groosehound’ mean, a really obvious joke about there being two whole feline races but not a single canine one.

All of these are solid ways to begin an article like this, and I can answer all of them really quickly.

“Why five subraces?” - Dogs are a varied kind of animal and I wanted Groosehounds to support a variety of playstyles and archetypes.

“What inspired you?” - I have a friend who likes cute dogs and wanted to play their character in D&D. 

“What is a Groosehound?” - A hound known for groosing.

“Haha Cat Joke.” - No.

But what I really want to talk about is the value of documents like this. Articles examining homebrew and talking about the reasoning behind it. Why do we write these? Doubtless they’re less popular than the actual homebrew content we produce. So - what’s the point?

Growth. Growth of the creator, and growth of the viewer. These articles are a place to reflect, to put to paper what matters most about our work, and what we took away from the process of making it. It’s also an offer for other people to benefit from our reflections. You don’t always get a chance to peek into the thought process of a creator. I’m not saying any of us on the GelCubicles team are masters of the craft or anything like that, but I genuinely believe the best way to learn is collaboration, and failing that, examination of other content you think is good.

Groosehounds are an example of that methodology paying off for me - of a robust and very fun set of subraces that each feel distinct and flavorful without feeling shoe-horned together. Speaking from experience, that is not an easy thing to do. It is a very simple thing to overcomplicate, overdesign, or underbalance something like this, and speaking humbly, I think I did a pretty good job (with help and feedback from the team and playtesting backing that up, obviously).

And if you’ve come to this article to take a peek at why I did what I did - great! I’ll cover that in a moment - but I wanted to give you a proverbial thumbs up, and a thank you. I sincerely hope these articles help you out, because if even one person gets something out of any of our self-indulgent explorations of our own work, I think they’re worth it.

So! Doggies. Everyone likes doggies.

Groosehounds are a diverse race just as dogs are in our world - sizes vary (small and medium) and skillsets vary. Not every dog that can chase down a wayward sheep is equipped to charm a caring owner’s heart. Not every alley stray that can climb fire escapes is capable of hunting in the wild. Dogs do a lot, and fill a lot of niches, and Groosehounds needed to do that too.

Now, for me, Races are chiefly defined by their mechanical options and their flavor aspects. The base Groosehound race gets an average natural weapon with the benefit of potentially using dexterity to attack. Always armed with a finesseless dagger - and cable to bite with their hands full. Good, but nothing earth shattering. 

As for flavor, we have speak with small beasts - a nice little feature that is almost exclusively used for light roleplay, but a load of fun either way. It emphasizes the part-beast nature of these doggy friends, the same way sharp senses gives a limited scope bump to perception.

Now, the subraces, one at a time!

House is the smartest and most social of all the Groosehounds - they’re designed to be cute and that is abundantly clear mechanically. A reflavor of the Kobold Grovel, Cower, and Beg based on an urge to protect the pooch and skill proficiencies that fit the role of a studious butler or a cherished home companion. Finally, Groosehounds can employ the age old canine trick - the Puppy dog eyes! No better way exists to get what you want.

Labor groosehounds fill the niche of the hard working everydog. Strong, but not brutal, they use tools and bulk to get things done. There isn’t too much to say here except to not underestimate a simple hard working dog.

Strays are the fast scavenging sort and as such take a lot of inspiration from criminal and urchin themes. Naturally, they needed an edge as getting around urban landscapes - so they can climb and jump better than most. 

Moving out towards more rural themes, Watch Groosehounds are like sheepdogs - fast, perceptive, and presumably good with other animals. They’d doubtless make great rangers or druids.

Now for what might be the most controversial one of the bunch - Wild Groosehounds are the jackals and wild dogs of the set, and they have the tribal themes and raw power to back up a vicious reputation. The use of nets and natural weapons makes them quite dangerous hunters to be sure - and making their natural weapons light allows them to be very dangerous even when unarmed. Watch out for those teeth!

Now you might see why I didn’t lead with a breakdown. That wasn’t too complicated, and probably not all that interesting to go through - if it was, great! Glad to be wrong when pessimistic - but I think that’s wonderful as well. It means I’m very satisfied with the whole of what Groosehounds are, and I don’t have any one thing in particular that I like more than the rest. It feels very well rounded, balanced, and complete to me, and if you’re a creator yourself, you might know that feeling isn’t always easy to come by.

As such, I’m going to wrap up here and cherish that vibe for a little while. Maybe have a snack.~

-Jon the Wrangler of Kobolds and also Groosehounds.