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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8022036" data-attributes="member: 16814">The fundamental problem here is not leaning into whichever set of tropes you choose.If you pick evil orcs, and then oresent them in any orher way than irredeemably evil, you run into the problems in this thread.  If you don't and instead present them doing evil, you don't.Crosswise, if you pick orcs as people, don't protray them as monsters.I do both, depending on the game I'm running.  Having orcs as monsters is useful if the focus is on aspects of story that require a monolithic evil as foil.  Sure, you could swap, but that changes the tone of tge story.  Sometimes you need a non-supernatural evil.Usually, though, I use Orcs as people.  This ranges from Grummsh influenced orcs, with depth, to orcs wrestling with their nature as engineered people (dwarves made them), to Eberron style free peoples.  Each of these stories is different, and uses the differences in orcs to reinforce campaign themes.  The issue isn't using always evil orcs, it's making sure that you aren't telling a different story when you do.</blockquote>