D&D 5E Orcs and Drow in YOUR game (poll */comments +)

[Azzy]

Currently DMing an Eberron campaign, so any alignment is the order of the day. In my homebrew setting, hardcoded aliglignment got kicked to the curb, too. My drow (or "not-drow") have a morally ambiguous, isolationist natition and run the gamut of alignments on the individual level. I haven't done much with orcs yet.

 

[Laurefindel]

I answered « remain typically evil », but what I mean is « remain typical enemies of the alliance of human, dwarves and elves ».

I play very loosely with alignment; I usually see it as blue team/red team and little more, but the orcs of the sword coast and savage frontiers will remain the enemies of the dwarves, eleven, and human nations, from whose perspective they game is played. Their respective civilisations have been at war since their founding, and it will remain so in my games.

Ditto with drow; hunting parties out of Menzoberranzan are there to cause harm. They did so for so long that this is all of what people know of drows.

And then I play in another setting (mainly Eberron) and it’s all different, and would likely deserve another answer in the poll.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I’m my homebrew world, Orcs can be any alignment and have societies that are viewed with the same respect, legitimacy, and caution as the other Demi-human societies (Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, and Orcs are the big five races on the main continent of my world) though they are a bit more fierce and intimidating then the rest. They have even integrated many goblinoids into their society as equal members, calling them Orc-Kin (the goblinoids can also be of any alignment).

Drow meanwhile are “basically” evil. They are a race of demon worshipping cultists that mimic the current interpretation of gnolls as irredeemable defilers who love carnage and destruction. While it is occasionally possible for a Drow be born without the overwhelming taint of demonic influence and be anything other then evil, if their society and the demons they worship don’t corrupt them they are killed. And even if they somehow escape, they tend to integrate into either the Shadar-Kai or Twilight Elf societies and cease to be a Drow (these two plus the current Drow used to make up of the original Drow race, but spilt off shortly after the end of the creator Wars when Lolth and the other gods abandoned the world).

Admittedly I’m not entirely sure how I would answer this poll with the above text.

 

[Oofta]

In my campaign orcs are not a natural race, much like the LOTR movies they come into the world full grown. Drow that are not evil leave the underdark become gray elves; the underdark in my campaign effectively radiates evil which is what causes their skin coloration.

I guess there's a bit of a gray area with the transition of drow to gray elf, but the influence of the underdark is pernicious.

 

[DarkMantle]

I’m my homebrew world, Orcs can be any alignment and have societies that are viewed with the same respect, legitimacy, and caution as the other Demi-human societies (Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, and Orcs are the big five races on the main continent of my world) though they are a bit more fierce and intimidating then the rest. They have even integrated many goblinoids into their society as equal members, calling them Orc-Kin (the goblinoids can also be of any alignment).

Drow meanwhile are “basically” evil. They are a race of demon worshipping cultists that mimic the current interpretation of gnolls as irredeemable defilers who love carnage and destruction. While it is occasionally possible for a Drow be born without the overwhelming taint of demonic influence and be anything other then evil, if their society and the demons they worship don’t corrupt them they are killed. And even if they somehow escape, they tend to integrate into either the Shadar-Kai or Twilight Elf societies and cease to be a Drow (these two plus the current Drow used to make up of the original Drow race, but spilt off shortly after the end of the creator Wars when Lolth and the other gods abandoned the world).

Admittedly I’m not entirely sure how I would answer this poll with the above text.

If Orcs OR Drow are evil, and that sounds like what you've got going there with Typically Evil?

(Since there's no separate orc vs drow evil surveying)

 

[Lanefan]

OK, to capture accurate results, new option added at the bottom.

Thanks! Vote re-cast.

 

[Lanefan]

Would that just mean voting that they are currently either always evil or typically evil and then not voting for any other options?

That's what I did at first (typically evil, not always). Now the "will remain" option's been added I ticked that one too.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

(Since there's no separate orc vs drow evil surveying)

Thanks, that was what I was having issue with figuring out.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Outside of Eberron, my drows and orcs are always evil -- they are effectively built that way by their respective creator gods. If one renounces their god, he would no longer be a drow or an orc, much like a druid who wear metal armour is not a druid, so I didn't vote "typically evil", but I'd understand if it was the expected vote in this case and ready to change it. I don't need help from WotC to err... change nothing.

 

[DarkMantle]

Thanks, that was what I was having issue with figuring out.

Ya, I did foresee that being an issue

If there was a separate questions for Orcs and separate questions for Drow, it would've been crazy long.

Plus it didn't feel right to make it an orc vs drow thing IMO. It's more a question of: Typically Evil humanoid races or not, with orcs and drow being the prime ones that WoTC was focusing on in the press release.