D&D (2024) Goblins and Orcs Not Being Green

[Kobold Avenger]

In 3e that Goblins were any colour but green, even though in everyone's mind Goblins are mostly green but with a wider variety of colours than Humans typically are. In 5e they stopped mentioning any particular colours for what a Goblin's skin might be.

In the PHB I've noticed that they mentioned that Orcs have grey skin and most Orcs in the PHB are depicted with grey skin, even though I think most people think of Orcs being green. Because I pictured them as green, I mostly pictured Hobgoblins as being anything but green (usually orange) so that there be some more visual distinctiveness between Orcs and Hobgoblins.

Yes I know they aren't green in a lot of live action shows or movies, but still I mostly associate them with Green like in Warcraft or Warhammer.

 

[Morrus]

My go-to would be the Lord of the Rings movies where they weren't particularly green.

 

[aco175]

Almost have a poll now.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I started in 1981, so goblins are dusky yellow to orange, hobgoblins are dark red with bright red faces, and orcs are musky b brown to green with pink snouts and ears. Only the orcs were green.

 

[Laurefindel]

Yeah, green orcs and goblins are a Warhammer thing. I suspect a relatively benign reason behind this, such as "green is more fun/contrasting to paint on minis than grey"

But I'd say that because Games Workshop is a hobbyist company, the image of the "green skins" with a protuberant jaw exported well beyond the relatively hermetic world of 70s, 80s, and 90s TTRPG. Blizzard's Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans (or whichever first instalment of the WoW series) mostly adopted Warhammer/Games Workshop image of orcs and goblins, and the whole series too had a fairly wide marketing and cultural impact. But as far as I know, orcs were never described as green in D&D, ever. Now I'm trying to think of other games that have green orcs...

[edit] little google search shows many images of green-skinned orcs in D&D art, so i was wrong. Interesting

 

[Aldarc]

 

[Steampunkette]

There's four big reasons goblins and orcs are green in the cultural zeitgeist.

1) Games.
Warcraft, sure. But also Warhammer miniatures and stuff. But with an even wider impact, Legend of Zelda type stuff. Original.

Sure, they're more blue than green, but on a crappy old CRT the difference is minimal.

2) Movies.
Hobgoblins, Ghoulies, even Labyrinth had green goblins. Sure, Ghoulies and Labyrinth also had yellow and red and orange ones, too.

3) Comic Books

4) Fabric Dye.

This dress, and dresses like it, killed or injured thousands upon thousands of well to do women and their servants in the 1800s because it used Arsenic to get that particular shade of luscious vibrant green. Culturally we associate this color with death and ugliness, largely, because of it. Sure, there's elements of putrescence with green, or mold and rot, but this? This right here is the good stuff.

This is why Goblins and Orcs are green at the root of it all. In the old folklore they were just tiny ugly people. Often misshapen, hairy, or in some cases 'Too Pale' rather than being green.

 

[Staffan]

D&D orcs have traditionally been somewhere between grey and green (and brown/pink in early editions, but those descriptions are a bit... iffy). However, there really hasn't been all that many color illustrations featuring orcs, so I believe the green orcs from first Warhammer and later Warcraft have crowded out the proper orcs in the public consciousness.

 

[sevenbastard]

These guys from the 80s AD&D LJN toy line always made me associate goblins with green. It's my default when you say picture a goblin.

 

[Kurotowa]

[edit] little google search shows many images of green-skinned orcs in D&D art, so i was wrong. Interesting

Yeah, the art is really not consistent. Officially, D&D orcs are grey and goblins are sort of yellowish with big noses. But they go off-model in both color and design quite often, and IMO a lot of those look better.

The orc Monk on Tasha's Cauldron p48 is definitely more green than grey. But the orc Rune Knight on p45 of the same book is straight grey, as is the tattoo artist orc on p118. I don't think the grey is a very distinctive look, and it's too close to the same shade of grey as the drow, as seen on p18 and p29.

Most goblins are an orange-yellow with big noses, looking like they're out of a classic children's fantasy novel. But the goblin player entry on p20 of MotM is entirely different, being olive green with a small nose and looking far fiercer.