Orcs: How Important Are They?

[Aeric]

For a while there, it seemed like orcs and halflings were the first races to go when it came time to design a "unique" fantasy world. Why dwarves and elves got to stay when their interpretation was as Tolkienesque as orcs and halflings is beyond me. I'm glad to see the industry got over that tendency.

Personally, I love orcs and think they don't get enough screen time. The Warcraft games really show how cool orcs can be if done right. IMO, they should be mankind's primary competition for land and natural resources.

 

[Tewligan]

Orcs are fine. The humanoids I have no use for are bugbears and hobgoblins. They almost never show up in a game I run, while orcs do tend to. I tend to run them as primitive Klingons, personally.

Ooh, now I think hobgoblins are the awesomest bad guy humanoid. Lawful evil and as intelligent as humans - I see them as having potential as basically fantasy Nazis. What decent character couldn't hate humanoids like that?!

 

[Kunimatyu]

I'm generally a fan of orcs, since they have more recognizably human traits than the other PHB races. I think they hit a sort of primal vibe because they might be similar to the hominids(particularly H. erectus) our early ancestors would have encountered as they left Africa.

In any case, they certainly have a less magical vibe than elves/dwarves/halflings/gnomes, who are really more humanoid versions of fey creatures. I have a hard time imagining elves, dwarfs, halfings, and gnomes in a world without magic, but it's a piece of cake to imagine a world with humans and orcs.

 

[Particle_Man]

In alignment terms, it makes for a nice symmetry:

Dwarf LG, Gnome NG, Elf CG

Halfling, Human N

Hobgoblin LE, Goblin NE, Orc CE.

 

[Wik]

At low levels, Orcs are SCARY. I mean, look at the damage they can do! At first level, a single hit is likely to take you DOWN.

I'm always amazed at the difference between an Orc and a hobgoblin. Technically, an Orc is ECL +0, whereas the hobgoblin (a much weaker critter, if you ask me) is ECL +1.

Really, I love the chaotic nature of orcs. Although, I guess I'm nervous using them at low levels (hobgoblins seem a safer bet) - and by the time I know the PCs can take 'em, I'd rather use bugbears or gnolls.

 

[Middle Snu]

I generally take the position that having Orcs in a campaign is a relatively bad staple of fantasy. If you want to have "brutes," then it's much more interesting (IMHO) to make them humans, instead of the faceless cliche that Orcs have become. On the other hand, if you want an alien, barbaric culture, it's probably better to have them be a human culture, which will ironically make them seem more non-human (and thus more interesting.)

Given this, I just don't see a niche for Orcs.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

dem Boys go Waaaghh!

Or more seriously the tolkienesque orc doesn't really mesh well with my homebrew so like most races they get a facelift. They're somewhat toned down Orks with a seasoning of Klingon and a few other influences in their behavior. Appearance-wise they're somewhere between a GW Ork, a bugbear, and an ogre. Mechanically I use slightly modified troll stats.

EDIT: Since the homebrew setting is full of wildly odd races with the standard PHB races taking a backseat this means you don't worry as much about the PC/Monster divide because the PCs would BE monsters in the context of most other settings

 

[Baron Opal]

I feel that you need the disposable "kill-em all" race, and orcs fit that bill well. Other races do too. My current campaign does not have them present; gnolls, troglodytes and goblins are the stomp-on-sight critters currently.

 

[Gez]

There's no option to say they're great classic humanoid monsters yet aren't a necessary fixture of every setting.

They're a solid archetype (and the Gamorreans in Star Wars or the Klingons in Star Trek owe a lot to them) and I put them to good use, but I don't need to have them in every adventure or wouldn't think a setting is diminished by not having them.

Half-orcs, though, I can go without. In fact, I ended up retconning my campaign to say that half-elves and half-orcs just don't exist, after having never used one of either , the players having not been interested to play one either, and them just not fitting right in the themes and society developed for the setting.

 

[cmrscorpio]

Orcs are fine. The humanoids I have no use for are bugbears and hobgoblins. They almost never show up in a game I run, while orcs do tend to. I tend to run them as primitive Klingons, personally.

In my Eberron campaign, I've pretty much given the orcs of the Shadow Marches and Demon Wastes culture like the Klingons.


I think that the importance of orcs in a campaign setting just depends on how important they are to the person creating the setting. Orcs in Eberron are freaking cool with a proud history of having helped save the world from the madness of the daelkyr armies. Orcs in Forgotten Realms are fodder. Orcs in Dark Sun are extinct.