How have you made ogres more interesting?

[mythusmage]

The ogre is a creature of the far north. Descendents of neanderthals, they first appeared in the forests of Karelia about the same time as the elf. Ogres are ten feet tall and bear over 1500 pounds of weight on a hyper-robust frame. Hill giants throw boulders. Ogres throw hill giants.

Of all the other races ogres get along best with gnomes. Largely because gnomes had the good sense to make friends with anybody who could offer them serious protection. (With the exception of kobolds, but gnomes do admit it wasn't a calculated decision in that case.)

Ogres are surprisingly agile, can move very quietly, and all have perfect pitch. It is rare for an ogre to lose his temper, mostly because most people have the great good sense not to push them that far.

Ogres are very popular in heavy industry and construction.

Popular health books to the contrary ogres suffer from low cholesterol instead of high cholesterol. They need a high fat diet, otherwise they suffer from a condition akin to multiple sclerosis. Lack of fat also leads to low blood pressure and a condition known as "Ogre Anoxia" wherein an ogre's brain is deprived of blood and is damaged by the lack of oxygen.

Ogres are prone to muscle calcification, and to a condition known as "Ogre Rage". A form of anxiety disorder marked by panic attacks most often expresed through violent assaults. The most effective medication for this condition is, of all things, caffeine. In high doses caffeine has been known to put ogres to sleep. In flu cases ogres are always hospitalized and placed on life support. People have been executed for deliberately exposing an ogre to influenza. Ogres always get priority for flu shots and flu charms and talismans.

Ogres are big on meditation, self hypnosis, and tall tales. Ogres never work in the sex industry. Not that they won't have sex on film, more that they wil not appear in videos and movies where the purpose is to record people having sex. The sex had better be important to the story.

Ogres were the first to adopt the domestic fox, and are responsible for saving the animal from extinction.

And that's a brief look at my ogres. Adopt and adapt as you see fit.

 

[Warren Okuma]

I prefer my Ogres to be a bit more metallic...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogre_(game)

And armed with Saturation Nuclear Clusters (SatNuC's).

 

[airwalkrr]

Made ogre-magi, advanced ogres, and ogres with class levels important antagonists. Ogre hulking hurlers and war hulks tend to mess PCs up.

 

[Malhost Zormaeril]

I enjoyed Dragonlance's take on them: Takhisis's Firstborn, with an ancient civilisation the ruins of which are still on the mountains. Not to mention Ogre Irda, for whom I have a soft spot (one of my first characters was one, and gotta love shapechangers).

 

[delericho]

Nothing at all. IMC, Ogres are the bruiser race used by all the other humanoid races as muscle, pack animals, war-machines, and all sorts of other nasty roles. No-one knows their origins, because no-one cares enough to ask.

 

[DaveyJones]

Trolls and Ogres are related. they share the same Maker. they are struggling for their Maker's affection. Brutually struggling. They hate each other. And themselves.

Trolls have magic in my world. Troll Shamaness. Troll Witchdoctors. All female.

Ogres with magic are a rare thing. i have Ogre Clerics/Shamans. plus the even more lost arts. Ogre Mage/Witchdoctors. All male.


for a new Ogre or Troll to be born is a very rare event. Both races are very long lived if they survive being hunted by the other races of the world.

Trolls can mate with Gnomes to make Gnolls.
and Ogres can mate with Orcs, goblins, or humans to make half races.

 

[BullMarkOne]

Sometimes I'm cheap and I recycle monsters. But only because I've completely redesigned them (or recycled something else into them).

Ogres pretty much always get to be recycled as male hagspawn (female hagspawn are hags of course). As such no two ogres ever really end up alike. Templates, and class levels abound. I mess with the stat assignment a lot too. I'm not sure if I've ever actually used a 'base' ogre. They certainly haven't existed as such in any setting I've ever produced.

My last campaign setting did include an extinct race of Ogres. They were a sort of ancient Greek'ish empire, which had long since been wiped out by younger races. Many of the more monstrous humanoid races (minotaurs, goat men &c) were descendants of the 'Ogres.' In appearance 'ogres' were nearly identical to humans, only slightly more physically developed, better looking, and having six fingers and toes (per hand and foot respectively). Polydactyl humans were considered to have ogre blood. Statistically Ogres were humans, with a +1 to Strength, Constitution, and Charimsa. The only presence that ogre's maintained in campaign era was as undead, normally shadows or wights.

 

[Aramax]

I gave them special armor to fit human babies into the chest to skeeze out the pcs,one of my players was VERY upset by this personally,I thought they were just being evil(the practice soread to the skavan and gnolls,but babies are hard to come by)

 

[pawsplay]

I like to stick one of those 4th level barbarian ogres in a gang of ogres every so often, keeps the PCs on their toes. I like to use ogre adepts, also, just for flavor.

In one game I've run, there was a gang of ogres who were descendents of a hag, who ruled them as queen and grandmother.