Dragonlance Dragonlance Creators Reveal Why There Are No Orcs On Krynn

Talking to the Dragonlance Nexus, Dragonlance creators Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman revealed why the world of Krynn features no orcs -- in short, because they didn't want to copy Tolkien, and orcs were very much a 'Middle Earth' thing.

Weis told Trampas Whiteman that "Orcs were also viewed as very Middle Earth. We wanted something different." Hickman added that it was draconians which made Krynn stand out. Read more at the link below!

Why are there no Orcs in Krynn? Weis and Hickman give us the answer! - Dragonlance Nexus

Dragonhelm gets the scoop from Weis and Hickman on why there are no orcs in Krynn. Read More

dragonlancenexus.com

 

[Dire Bare]

Oh, boy....

 

[Richards]

There may not be any orcs on Krynn, but the novel Kendermore has a half-orc in it. I'm willing to bet the fact that it was a later novel, written by Mary Kirchoff and not one of the Dragonlance creators, had something to do with that.

Johnathan

 

[Mecheon]

What reason is there to include them, other than tradition?

Non-furry big bruiser race, if you want a big bruiser race and don't just want to go with minotaurs

Plus, well, outside of that, some folks just really like the vibe of orcs

 

[Dire Bare]

No, but the 5e book engendered a lot of anger over adding it to the cosmology of the multiverse allowing gods to be known fact and travel to and from other settings.

A lot of anger? Some, sure. I doubt it was a lot. Probably depends on the circles you travel in.

 

[Dragonhelm]

BTW, I wanted to say thank you to @Morrus for making a news item from this thread.

 

[mamba]

It doesn't make it somewhat unique at all, because there are many fantasy worlds which have no orcs.

It was the first D&D world not to have them, and chances are that is what they were referring to, unique amongst D&D settings (at the time)

 

[mamba]

My son and I go round and round about this. I claim that it's perfectly fine to mix things up by not including every heritable as a player option, never mind just not including them. My son thinks it's "limiting" player options.

You are both right, these are not contradictory

 

[DND_Reborn]

Was there a Dragonlance cartoon?

Yeah, I own it LOL!

 

[GMforPowergamers]

There may not be any orcs on Krynn, but the novel Kendermore has a half-orc in it. I'm willing to bet the fact that it was a later novel, written by Mary Kirchoff and not one of the Dragonlance creators, had something to do with that.

Johnathan

Since I (and a bet a good % of us in this thread) never read Kendermore, how are they treated? is the Half Orc look at odd or are they just a half orc and no one cares?

 

[mamba]

Eh, when it comes to fantasy games, I never play human PCs. I am one in real life, so why the heck would I play a fantasy one?

because it is the only race you are sufficiently familiar with to properly play