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

[Lanefan]

I don’t think many people run natural races as always evil. There are almost always individual exceptions. I think at the heart of the alignment debate is a disagreement over the utility of the “typically” label.

And-or whether "typically" means 99.99+% of the species, or a simple majority of the species, or just a general slight trend.

Orcs in my games typically trend evil as a society, though there's certianly individual exceptions; and otherwise-evil Orc captives can often be made at least somewhat friendly (though maybe not always trustworthy) by kind treatment, food, healing, and-or payment.

Drow - well, that one's complicated. In my old games where Drow were a common enemy they were generally evil to the core, and exceptions to this (which, though rare, did exist) stood out like sore thumbs. In my current setting the Drow are almost extinct, wiped out by a Mind-Flayer-backed invasion that's swept through the Underdark and is now starting to bubble up to the surface; and those very few who remain have largely abandoned evilness etc. in favour of sheer survival, which tends to mean co-operating with the surface folk whether they like it or not. It's led to some interesting RP now and then.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Technically I don't even use alignment, but I voted "any alignment" and "will remain any alignment" as that seems to be closest in the spirit; one's species has no bearing on their 'evilness'.

Though my current setting doesn't have the drow. There are underdark elflings though, so they're somewhat analogous and are not particularly evil either, or at least not more than anyone else. Orcs are somewhat aggressive perhaps, but not really evil. They're honourable warrior people, rather like the klingons.

 

[Zardnaar]

They're usually evil if I'm going default but it's nurture not nature

Usually they're not that prominent. If I've built my world from the ground up they might be whatever. Normal elves more likely than be evil/imperialist.

Barely use the Drow outside of themed games once a decade or so.

 

[Divine2021]

The attempt to “humanize” Orcs and Drow is just a type of imperialism that refuses to accept difference in a froth of revolutionary universalism. Embrace difference, think different. Let Orcs be Orcs. Let Drow be Drow.

edit I can’t keep a straight face, this is patently ridiculous.

 

[Scribe]

Embrace difference, think different. Let Orcs be Orcs. Let Drow be Drow.

This is where I'm at. I dont need things to be more human like, I want different races to be different.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The results make sense in the context of the wording of the poll, however, I would wonder if there's really a big difference between "any Alignment" and "typically Evil", and indeed, what people meant by that. It also excludes "always Evil". My experience is that some people will say "any Alignment" when 90% of a race in their game is one moral alignment, and others will say "typically Evil" when actually a large faction of the beings who are non-Evil play a huge role in the campaign.

Personally I barely use Orcs, because they've always had issues in D&D and aren't interesting to me, but I've always made heavy use of Drow and they've pretty much always been of all alignments. Even if the bulk of the society was "Evil" I wouldn't think of the race as "typically Evil".

So I think any awful lot of this is perspective.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This is where I'm at. I dont need things to be more human like, I want different races to be different.

He's taking the piss mate.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

When I run Eberron, Orcs run the gamut of moral and ethical stances. I tend to concentrate on Khorvaire, so Drow haven't come up.

In my homebrew world, there are no Drow. Their is only one type of Elf, wood elemental-kin with green skin.

My world's Orcs are strait up pig Orcs. Naturally inclined toward being gluttonous, lusty and violent. This often leads down a dark path, but a few have channelled their passions toward the good. Think Zhu Bajie from Journey to the West.

 

[overgeeked]

I handle orcs and drow the same way I handle all races. Any race can be any alignment. Lawful good orcs. Lawful good drow. Chaotic evil drow. Lawful evil orcs. Doesn’t matter. I tend to have lots of factions so there’s plenty of examples of different races from most every alignment.

 

[Mecheon]

My orcs come in the full gammut of alignments and always will. Plus, most of the people I play with have a Warcraft background so, the idea of orcs being always evil is just completely foreign to us

My drow are just an excuse to put on my maximum Australian accent and, honestly, I'd just make them any alignment because I don't like how flanderised official ones are