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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 328295" data-attributes="member: 4937">I don't have Orcs in my campaigns, and haven't made consistant use of them since early in my D&D days.  Various sorts of goblins fulfill the same role, and I'll address this question on the ways I've handled it in the past for goblins.1) I tend to (unlike say the Forgotten realms) have all half-breeds as quite rare.  Half-X would be unusual anywhere, and would tend to be mistaken for one parent or the other by one group or the other.  For instance, a half-hobgoblin would probably taken for a goblin by a strange human, and for a human by a strange hobgoblin - especially by beings with little experience with the other race.  There no populations of half-breeds out there breeding true.  If the PC is a half-elf, he or she can almost certainly count on being the only one he will ever meet.2) It's sad but true that the vast majority of the half-breeds occur because of violent interaction of the races - usually after or during war.  In some cases, bearing a child of a different race is considered fortunate, depending on the region and the species in question.  In others, it is considered misfortunate.  In chaotic areas (especially CN and CE) half-breeds are likely to be aborted through herbal, alchemical, or magical abortiflects.  In many cases, these work only sufficiently enough to have the child born defective and/or unviable.  Whether healthy or unhealthy, they are often murdered shortly after birth (typically by drowning).  Half-hobgoblins are common enough that they are (in lawful areas) not considered to be any more shameful than any other bastard, and can more or less get along in society.  Cynically, this is probably because they consider abortion and murder the lesser of two evils.3) Members of two races will occasionally have erotic (relatively) non-violent encounters.   For instance, it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that a human prostitute would accept a hobgoblin or bugbear john, and vica versa for a human sailor returning to port.  In some areas, such deviance may even be common or even celebrated.  (There are no areas yet that have what we would considered 'enlightened' attitude toward the other races, though there are some where the races mingle on the edges of society, and even some where particular races are accepted in specialized roles)  It is also not impossible that a given chaotic member of any race might dally with another race just to see what it is like.  However, in all of the above encounters, abortion and murder is the likely result in the rare event congress between two races results in an offspring.4) Occassionally, ambitious members of a race considered to be unusually attractive to another race (almost anything to humans, humans to goblins, humans and elves to orines, fairies to anyone) will use thier sexual advantage as a political or social advantage and acquire power by errm positioning themselves close to throne or other powerful figure.  In such a case, begatting offspring carries tremendous personal and social advantage, and offspring birthed in this fashion are likely to be very well treated, even pampered (even if one of the parents secretly detests or at least looks down on them).  It is not impossible also that slaves/runaways/outcasts raised outside thier race come to think of themselves as being of that race, and tend to acquire that races standards of beauty.  A slave of a Bugbear chief may well come to see the chief as his people see him, large, powerful, virile, and well proportioned.5) Most rarely still, there are actual romantic attachments between two races.  And even rarer still, some of these don't involve insanity or sociopathy on the part of one or both partners.  There are elves of both sexes who find themselves attracted to particular humans, and humans who find themselves attracted to just about anything.  The result can be fairly stable homes (though in the case of human/elf partnerships, the human parent dies well before his children reach adulthood.)</blockquote>

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