D&D General What have you done with Orcs in your games?

[Charlaquin]

My orcs are pretty much straight from Dungeon Meshi. Mesomorphic pig-nosed people with a history of conflict with the Common Folk, largely driven out of most habitable territory aboveground by these conflicts.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

My orcs are pretty much straight from Dungeon Meshi. Mesomorphic pig-nosed people with a history of conflict with the Common Folk, largely driven out of most habitable territory aboveground by these conflicts.

oooouuuuhh...I like those. They are somewhat like the goblinoids from Legend of Zelda and the Seeq from the Ivalice world of Final Fantasy.

 

[Jaegermonstrous]

I really don't go in for the Gruumsh-style Orcs, and instead tend to go for Orcs much more in the vein of how the Elder Scrolls video games deals with them. They're a part of the world, and while many of them live in their own settlements and they have their own culture, plenty of them also live among humans and other peoples.

 

[jgsugden]

I've made no change in recent days. I see any stereotypes and racism that exist in my campaign world as something to be challenged and explored within the game, not outside of it.

Orcs were created by Gruumsh, who is an evil God, and the majority of them still follow his teachings and benefit from the clerics that worship him. They tend to live in tribes, and they tend to take what they can from society. These tribes tend to believe in Strength being all that matters, and Gruumsh makes them stronger. Not every member of the tribe is identical, but they tend to follow their leadership or be driven out, so the tribes tend to have a singular voice in the end.

However, while the majority fall in this pigeon hole, there are many orcs that do not. There are orcs that break from the tribe and find other ways to live. You might have orcs joining a settlement with no other orcs, orcs moving to a new region and starting a farm, or orc tribes that worship Rao and peace. I've had orc PCs in my games for decades. One of the most infamous clerics of my campaign world was a cleric of a Trickery God - certainly not evil, but the most chaotic PC I have ever seen.

 

[Voadam]

In my last face to face campaign I was doing a homebrew Carrion Crown pathfinder campaign in 5e. One player was a half-orc secretary (barbarian) in Ustalav (think Ravenloft) that borders the Orcish Holds of Belkzen. She worked for Professor Lorrimor Jones in the archaeology department of Lepidstadt University as a background.

She was a big Trek fan and went all in on Orcs are Klingons so I went with it for her home tribe and cultural background. "I have battled the academic bureaucracy many times, it is a worthy foe that will be the death of me. Stovokor!"

 

[Charlaquin]

oooouuuuhh...I like those. They are somewhat like the goblinoids from Legend of Zelda and the Seeq from the Ivalice world of Final Fantasy.

Japan really seems to love their pig orcs. Also their dog Kobolds (I like mine to be more rat-like, personally).

 

[aco175]

They largely remain unchanged in my game. They tend to be monsters for killing. The PCs did frighten a group of them and ended up having one scout for them and then gave the sky tower to them after they killed the air cult, but were not surprised when the scout lost the tower to his chief. The PCs thought that the orcs could trade with the town, maybe having some merchants meet them partway and not have the orcs in town. They never came back to town to find the orcs raiding from the tower and in need of dealing with, but they are mostly raiding cult areas and acting as river pirates right now.

 

[Minigiant]

Orcs in my main world are different.

1. Orcs were created by High Elves to fight a war. They were to bolster elven numbers in the frontline.
2. Orcs are a mixture of human, elf, dwarf, and goblin blood. This explains spontaneously or breed half orcs and orogs.

Basically they are several groups of angry mongrels. They aren't neccesarily evil but they are violence first for everything.

 

[Arvok]

The orcs in my worlds are vary similar to the 1e version: large, stupid, fecund, brutal, and evil (LAWFUL evil--they're a primitive tribal society and don't have the luxury of being chaotic). There are mountain orcs that are even bigger and tougher and a group of them can present a challenge to mid-level parties.

Where the interest lies is with the half-orcs who live in most larger towns and cities. They are viewed with suspicion and hatred (since they serve as a reminder of orc raids which are always a fear in the back of people's minds) and often live up to those notions. There are more than a few, though, who are more good, caring, and humane than most the humans among whom they live.

 

[Count_Zero]

I really don't go in for the Gruumsh-style Orcs, and instead tend to go for Orcs much more in the vein of how the Elder Scrolls video games deals with them. They're a part of the world, and while many of them live in their own settlements and they have their own culture, plenty of them also live among humans and other peoples.

I do a little of both. The majority of orcs are closer to Elder Scrolls (or, for that matter, Earthdawn) style Orcs - they exist in the world and have their own culture. Grummush (if I decide to use him) instead is basically a companion deity of Hextor, one of his generals in his quest to conquer all the worlds, with Hextor as a sort of ur-God of Fascism. That or Grummush as an aspect of Hextor.