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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Don Durito" data-source="post: 8189246" data-attributes="member: 6687260">It's necessary to understand that the portrayal of Orcs in 5e isn't actualy a conservative (in the basic sense of the word) portrayal.  It's actually reactionary.  The treatment of Orcs in 3rd Edition Eberron (which was already late then - go back to the 90s and read Earthdawn - although you can also find portrayals of non-evil orcs and goblins tucked away in some 2e products).  There was also as already discussed the Kingdom of Obould Many Arrows in 4e.For some reason, WOTC decided with 5e to try and put the genie back in the bottle and that Orcs (and other things like Gnolls) needed to be evil again (Why?  Who can say for sure - no doubt they saw it as part of restoring the 'feel' of D&D).  It was never going to work.It's interesting that despite the fact that WOTC took inspiration from the OSR in some ways, if you look at all the best and most influential stuff from the OSR there's nary an Orc to be seen.  (maybe in some of the duller more nostalgic stuff).  That's not necessarily because Orcs are viewed as 'problematic' in a political sense, but because they are just fundamentally uninteresting.The village is being attacked by Orcs who are evil because they evil - boring!  Almost anything is better than that.  Bandits who are cultists who need sacrifices to take to their high priest who lives in a mountain cave complex?  It may be cliched but you've got something to work with.</blockquote>

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