Yora
Legend
I get it. It's a bit of a pun. It's cute. And they needed to announce something quickly as things were rapidly in motion.
But I think ORC is probably the worst name for any kind of banner to unite medium and small RPG content creators under.
Some people really don't care about it. Other people are offended that others are feeling offended by it. But orcs are perhaps the most controversial and divisive topic in RPGs in recent years. All the arguments for or against orcs being a dog whistle promotion for thinking in hateful stereotypes really don't matter here right now. But the thing is, we have seen that plenty of people having very strong opinions on orcs as toxic stereotypes that they just won't touch.
I don't even consider myself as having a particularly strong opinion on this, but I certainly would not want to release anything that makes it an "ORC license" product. I have some stuff in the works for OSE, and I actually worry that it might chance to ORC, because that might actually make me cancel my plans. And surely I am not the only one in a position like this. I've not been following anything done by Paizo or Kobold Press for at least 10 years, and I have no idea about what channels one might reach them through that don't end up as spam mail. But I think this is a real problem and that whatever the license is going to look like, it really needs a different name before people start releasing material under it.
But I think ORC is probably the worst name for any kind of banner to unite medium and small RPG content creators under.
Some people really don't care about it. Other people are offended that others are feeling offended by it. But orcs are perhaps the most controversial and divisive topic in RPGs in recent years. All the arguments for or against orcs being a dog whistle promotion for thinking in hateful stereotypes really don't matter here right now. But the thing is, we have seen that plenty of people having very strong opinions on orcs as toxic stereotypes that they just won't touch.
I don't even consider myself as having a particularly strong opinion on this, but I certainly would not want to release anything that makes it an "ORC license" product. I have some stuff in the works for OSE, and I actually worry that it might chance to ORC, because that might actually make me cancel my plans. And surely I am not the only one in a position like this. I've not been following anything done by Paizo or Kobold Press for at least 10 years, and I have no idea about what channels one might reach them through that don't end up as spam mail. But I think this is a real problem and that whatever the license is going to look like, it really needs a different name before people start releasing material under it.
People love orcs. They're fun, have a deep history with multiple nerd mediums and genres, and are iconic to roleplaying games. In my opinion it's an effective name that lots of people are already rallying around.
