On the matter of half-orcs

[Kzach]

I just don't get why WotC are being so squeemish about half-orc origins. Ok, so an orc raped a human woman. Horrible, we get that. But the majority of D&D players are adults, not pre-schoolers. We can deal. Seriously.

 

[S'mon]

Times change, mores change...

 

[vagabundo]

I just don't get why WotC are being so squeemish about half-orc origins. Ok, so an orc raped a human woman. Horrible, we get that. But the majority of D&D players are adults, not pre-schoolers. We can deal. Seriously.

Not compatible with a lot of games - like mine - and not all games are run by adults.

I've never liked half-orcs for this very reason.

 

[fissionessence]

Instead hobgoblins 'bred' humans and orcs together. So . . . how's that better? Seems like basically the same thing, although I guess it frees up every PC half-orc from having to be the child of rape. Still . . .

~

 

[RefinedBean]

So now half-orcs that are a product of rape are the exception, and not the rule. I can get behind that. In my opinion, it just colored the entire race needlessly.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Rape is a special case.

It's a fairly wide spread source of trauma and it's more difficult than most to talk about or deal with socially.

I'm very careful dealing with rape as a subject in class, and though I have a lot more control over my gaming group than I do my students I still apreciate the effort to deal with the subject with increasing discretion.

Plus, the new story is cooler.

A shared group trauma in the distant past is still fairly gritty but leaves a lot more room open to develop individual character backgrounds.

I mean, if nothing else, the child of rape origin story for Half-Orcs was a lot more specific than any other race's background story.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Half orcs are pretty obviously derived from the man-orcs of Saruman.

I've always considered them to be a manufactured race which breeds true (after all, in a world where owlbears and halfdragon-anythings is possible, creating a race which was halfway between man and orc seems trivial).

Eberron had an interesting take on the issue, where the shadow marches had a population of men and orcs who get along just fine and sometime decide to make babies together because of love (just like with half-elves). This is another fine way to handle the situation.

Indeed, the whole idea of rape being behind a whole race seems the most ridiculous concept imaginable, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Midnight Dawns]

Why was it always rape?

You know i never really thought much about the rape aspect. I always thought of orcs as "barbarians" and as such there being a certain amount of interaction between orc tribes and human tribes. Besides there are reasons for coupling between the two races. For example, political (if you really need an example the Orc king has it inthe prologue) and choosing a mate based on strength or athe ability to provide. The concept fo rape rarely seemed to cross my path in play or while reading. Half-elfs on the other hand...

 

[delericho]

Instead hobgoblins 'bred' humans and orcs together. So . . . how's that better?

Yeah, isn't that still rape? I presume the hobgoblins didn't actually give them a choice...

Surely, if they want half-orcs in the game, but don't want to deal with a difficulty origin story for the race, the best way to do it is to simply not talk about the origin of the race? "Half-orcs are an intelligent race found throughout the lands of both men and orcs. They number both men and orcs in their ancestry."

 

[Drkfathr1]

yeah, I've never had a problem with he "rape" background, I never considered 1/2 Orc populations to be that large anyways...

but, I prefer the route of a race that's bred true for a long time, producing a "high orc" breed.