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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pacdidj" data-source="post: 5116889" data-attributes="member: 86793">Yes you probably could, but that would require presenting another, legitimate ethical position driving the conflict between humans and orcs. This was exactly my initial point: I think players frequently recast these one-dimensional baddies in a much more interesting, and less philosophically troublesome light than the inherited canon does.You can hypothesize anything you want to, and I'm not trying to attack you here. I think you have a valid and interesting point. My point is that there's a big difference between creating something truly alien to explore an alien worldview, and creating a human-like 'race' just to be the baddies and filling them with all sorts of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism" target="_blank">orientalist</a> stereotypes (as do Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, with the orcs and the Calormenes respectively). The latter to my mind reflects both a degree of authorial laziness, and a somewhat troublesome philosophical perspective.I find it more interesting when an author, or a DM, takes the time to illustrate a realistic source of conflict between humanity and an 'other', as opposed to simply casting the 'other' as inherently evil for no good reason, despite the fact that they think, feel, walk, talk, sing, etc. like us. You did this in your post above, which bears strong resemblance to the conflict at the heart of Ender's Game, one of my favorite novels.</blockquote>

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