Orcs: How Important Are They?

[Li Shenron]

Ultimately orcs are the nemesis race of humans in the world.

Humans build, orcs destroy.
Humans advance, orcs regress.
Humans make plans, orcs follow their instincts.
Humans care, orcs just don't.

There is always a place for such thing in almost every setting.

 

[Wik]

There's no option to say they're great classic humanoid monsters yet aren't a necessary fixture of every setting.

They're a solid archetype (and the Gamorreans in Star Wars or the Klingons in Star Trek owe a lot to them) and I put them to good use, but I don't need to have them in every adventure or wouldn't think a setting is diminished by not having them.

Half-orcs, though, I can go without. In fact, I ended up retconning my campaign to say that half-elves and half-orcs just don't exist, after having never used one of either , the players having not been interested to play one either, and them just not fitting right in the themes and society developed for the setting.

I went the opposite way.

While half-elves aren't big in the campaign I'm working on (although, I'm thinking of transporting something like Eberron's House Lyrandar into the game, to give half-elves something to do), half-orcs are a huge part. They are, essentially, bred to be soldiers.

In fact, a huge part of the imperial armies consist of specially-bred half-orcs, supposedly "owned" by the empire (although really free after their eighteenth birthday). These orcs, by the way, are lawful neutral in alignment (due to their raising in state-run martial academies), although they have a reputation for tempers.

I haven't found a spot for plain jane Orcs yet, though - I'm thinking I might make them into a mariner people, or rough mountain men. I might just fold them into the goblinoid races, although that seems weak.

 

[VirgilCaine]

IMC Orcs are semi-civilized nomadic fugitives from the ocean. All the giant turtles they lived on dove to the bottom and they moved west towards land. As you want dwarves in dungeons and mines, you want Orcs on ships.

Orcs are a staple creature. Most campaigns have something that can pop up anywhere and provide an easy-to-justify threat to civilization, orcs are usually it.

Orcs are a happy medium between hobgoblins and gnolls. Orcs are organized enough to be a long-term threat and have armies, etc., but are primal and brutal while still (probably) understanding the value of prisoners or treaties or whatnot.

 

[ivocaliban]

The cop out answer? Depends on the setting. They featured quite heavily in my Greyhawk campaign that took place mainly between Furyondy and the Uleks. With Iuz to the north and the Pomarj to the south it was hard to avoid an orc/half-orc overload. In my current Wilderlands campaign that takes place in Elsenwood (Viridistan) I can avoid orcs for a while.

In my old homebrew orcs were essentially coastal raiders, much like vikings in our own world (or the Skandiks of the Wilderlands come to think on it). Half-orcs were the products of these invasions and were never allowed to join their true orc kin aboard ship. Nearly all half-orcs had descended from these raiders as there were no orc tribes on the mainland (there were a handful of exiles and outcasts, however).

 

[bento]

I'm not using the Orcs in the DCC-setting game that I run and raised the visibility of goblinoids. The hobgoblins have the Scourgelands, so that inspired me to think they were the top "bad-ass" bananas in this world.

It's also nice that The Lazy GM: Goblinoids came out this past year, as I have 360+ stat blocks I can pick from!

 

[Thurbane]

I've found that in 3E im using goblinoids more and more and orcs less and less...

 

[smootrk]

I love Orcs, although I fancy them more like the LE 1st Edition variety, battling goblins on Acheron in their afterlife. Roger Moore's old articles really formed the basis for my Orcs.

 

[DM-Rocco]

Orcs are a staple of D&D. In my current world, evil flourishes and a good many evil races run most of the cities. Orcs have a strong presence and rule many of the cities and towns with an iron fist.

I always get tired of seeing towns with 90% human, 5% halfling, 2% elf 3% other. The current world has many cities with at least 80% orc or higher. It is a lot of fun because it puts the character off guard and makes then jumpy.

Not too long ago there was an adventure in Dungeon that was very excellent. I can't recall the issue since I am at work, but the adventure dealt with the PCs having to go to a burial mound infested with Orcs. Not just your typical MM orcs, all of these orcs had characters levels and it drove the party nuts when the wizard cast a fireball expecting to kill a large cluster of them. Little did the wizard know that not only did they have enough hit dice and hit points to survive the attack, but they had evasion from rogue levels too.

It is all in how you present it.

 

[the Jester]

Meh, no good choice for me.

I would say that orcs can be a central part of a campaign, or you can run a campaign completely without them. Heck, I play in a game where they are extinct, and I have run an orcish campaign, and both were mad fun.

 

[Drowbane]

Orcs: Hell yeah! Ugh SMASH, and all that.
Half Orcs: Here is a race dependant on rape to exist, I don't need that in my fantasy.

Goblinoids: I'm kinda tired of them. Pathfinder's goblins could bring me back into the fold though.

edit: Orcs are a "standard PC race" IMCs.