Fun ways to do a "warlike" people [+]

[Bagpuss]

This is brilliant. Cocaine instead of adrenaline.


This, not so much. The frontline is a great place to lose the smartest Kafers. How about the frontline commanders, instead?

If you are interested I highly recommend the Kafer Sourcebook for 2300AD.

. . . but this isn't far from human truth. Hence the brilliance.

Very much. Necessity breeds invention. The necessity being to win.

If Kafers somehow survive the first portion of the fight, this is a recipe for TPK.

Kafer's were the enemy not a PC race. But yeah it did encourage the players to act fast, and withdraw quickly.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Having a warlike culture or species isn't a problem . . . it's when being "warlike" is a trait every member of that species or culture shares.

Klingons are a great example, as they started out as fairly cardboard cartoon villains with racial coding. but over the many years of Trek shows and movies, Klingons have been developed and become a more well-rounded alien culture. First was the pairing of war and honor . . . and later we get non-warrior Klingons including scientists and diplomats. There was even a recent episode of Lower Decks that introduced us to Klingon farmers!

Klingons have developed into a culture dominated by the warrior class . . . but not with all members being warriors. Non-warriors are second class citizens, but are important and vital parts of Klingon culture. Klingon culture is no longer monolithic and not all Klingons agree on how things should be done!

We can do the same with orcs. If orcs are a warlike culture of "barbarians" . . . sure, why not? Orc culture could be dominated by the warrior caste, but are all orcs warriors? Are orcs warlike because they are savage, bloodthirsty, and innately evil . . . or are they warlike like the Romans and plenty of other human cultures, to expand territory and acquire resources at the expense of their neighbors. Do all orcs agree with this aggressiveness? Or are orcs responding to colonialist humans, elves, and dwarves infringing on their ancestral territories?

We don't have to change orcs so much as develop their culture deeper, like Star Trek has done with the Klingons over time.

Heck, even the orcs in Tolkein's Middle-Earth get a smidge of development in this manner in the new Rings of Power TV show.

I don't disagree with what you're saying but it's not the purpose of this thread.

 

[Dire Bare]

I don't disagree with what you're saying but it's not the purpose of this thread.

It's not? This is a fun way . . . for me, at least . . . to create a warlike culture or species in D&D . . . take what we already have and deepen it, broaden it.

Apply the "Klingon Effect" to D&D orcs. Which is essentially what WarCraft did however long ago.

If I'm missing the point, sorry.

 

[Guest 85555]

Of course you could have a warlike culture, like the Dothraki in Game of Thrones. But what if instead of being a culture of conquerors, they were self-proclaimed liberators, freeing common folk from the yolk of service? A horde of anarcho-barbarians converting serfs to their cause could be a lot of fun.

This is a pretty common reason people have given for war and conquest, and tends to go off the rails quickly. So I think it could be interesting to explore. Imperialism has been done in the name of liberation

 

[TheAlkaizer]

For me it's a matter of motivation. Having a specie, culture or group that are very warlike and declare war on others for no reason except to be warlike is kinda boring. It can only become interesting through a very clear goal, preferably in opposition to the players.

For example, having a tribe of orcs rampaging through the countryside because they aim to recover an important relic to their culture that was buried in the site of new blooming town is interesting. It offers good motivations, something to uncover, maybe other ways to deal with the issue.

 

[Tonguez]

It's not? This is a fun way . . . for me, at least . . . to create a warlike culture or species in D&D . . . take what we already have and deepen it, broaden it.

Apply the "Klingon Effect" to D&D orcs. Which is essentially what WarCraft did however long ago.

If I'm missing the point, sorry.

Avoiding the inevitable debate that the particlar species tends to invoke is advisable but I do see your point

For mine I made them Matriarchal then took inspiration from Sparta (pushed to an extreme). The Camps are semi-nomadic groups where females and young live and survive by hunting and trade. They have helot (slave-caste) to do menial tasks, goblins attached to the camps serves as helots. These Matriarchal camps are generally Neutral in behaviour, but can display the full range of alignments and behaviours.

However one practice they do have is that at the age of 7 male whelps are forced out of the camps and must survive on their own in the wilderness. They often trail after the camps but are not permitted to enter them. Male whelps left in the wilderness often form scavenging and raiding mobs which tend to be violent with larger members bullying the smaller ones. These Mobs are the reason the species gets a bad reputation as they wontonly raid more agrarian settlements and are willing mercenaries to Dark Wizards or Chaos Warlords.

So if you do ever get to visit a camp you'll find it very settled and functional, but with very few males

 

[AnotherGuy]

For me it's a matter of motivation. Having a specie, culture or group that are very warlike and declare war on others for no reason except to be warlike is kinda boring. It can only become interesting through a very clear goal, preferably in opposition to the players.

For example, having a tribe of orcs rampaging through the countryside because they aim to recover an important relic to their culture that was buried in the site of new blooming town is interesting. It offers good motivations, something to uncover, maybe other ways to deal with the issue.

I think this misses the mark.

The whole point of this thread is to investigate lore for a warlike culture or species not a reason to rampage during a summer. Posters have provided examples for the motivation you refer to.

 

[BookTenTiger]

If possible let's try to focus on new ideas and not drag up the o-word. Thanks y'all!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Maybe a warrior culture with a very formalized, ritualized form of combat usually.
They know "might makes right". if you have the better argument but the other guy can beat you up, your argument means nothing. So they created a ruleset of duels and formal fighting for conflicts. (Kinda like the Battletech Clan's Zellbrigen for example). They might use impractical weapons, and strange fighting styles.
Maybe their bodies are more resilient to damage, or they really have good medical technology and doctors (that can also beat you up if you refuse to take your medicine or get proper bed rest.)
They might solve even small disputes with a formal fight.
Unfortunately, this often leads to severe misunderstandings with other cultures, other cultures only see an attack, but then do not perform the correct ritual counter-attack, the fights escalates a lot before the losing side gives in. It never really went too badly for the warrior culture, no other culture so far was able to use "might makes right" to impose a new conflict resolution system onto them.

 

[Necropolitan]

A culture that values constructs and those able to create them over anything else.

They get the raw materials for their creations by invading their neighbors.