D&D General Handling the Orc Horde as a key setting element

[Shadowdweller00]

Maybe don't decide what's going on with the orcs, but try to make it a mystery (i.e. make them a /sigh mystery box). There are tough organized raiders who it is said destroyed the dwarves and elves in ages past, and who are known to unexpectedly form invasion armies, but who come from an unknown homeland, and have unclear motivations. You can have the evil marauding humanoids, but throw in unexpected signs of greater complexity when the PCs interact with them. Then you listen to the players speculate about them and steal liberally when/if they have good ideas.

Eh, maybe that's a difficult lift given how done to death the evil orc horde archetype is.

Nothing wrong with a mystery box, as long as 1) there actually ARE answers, and 2) the DM/author/screenwriter doesn't keep gratuitously smacking the audience (e.g. PCs) upside the head with it. Sadly those conditions are too much to ask for some.

 

[Yora]

Nothing wrong with a mystery box, as long as there's actually something inside it.

 

[Faolyn]

(source, forgotten realms camapaign setting, DM sourcebook p. 10... why on Earth did you need so much space Ed?)

There are a zillion sentient beings in the Realms, that's why. They all needed their own space.

Seriously. I think Ed was allergic to the idea of having unintelligent monsters. Practically everything was at least Int 5-7 and a lot of monsters were Int 13 or higher.

 

[Yora]

If I remember right, he is Canadian.

I checked today how big The North is, and it's about the same area as Ontario or Quebec. (But also the size of all of Northern Europe.) Probably makes perfect sense as the size for one region.

 

[squibbles]

Nothing wrong with a mystery box, as long as 1) there actually ARE answers, and 2) the DM/author/screenwriter doesn't keep gratuitously smacking the audience (e.g. PCs) upside the head with it. Sadly those conditions are too much to ask for some.

I immediately felt icky after suggesting that a mystery box might be somehow good.

If I remember right, he is Canadian.

I checked today how big The North is, and it's about the same area as Ontario or Quebec. (But also the size of all of Northern Europe.) Probably makes perfect sense as the size for one region.

Yeah, if Gygax can sneak wild west lawlessness into his medieval European elfgame, I guess Greenwood gets a pass for sneaking in the trackless Canadian prairie.