What do your Orcs look like?
- Thread starter Tuzenbach
- Start date
The_Universe
First Post
I don't think so, although maybe I'm just out of touch.
GW orcs have enormous (and somewhat porcine) heads, tiny stubby legs, and obvious pot bellies, if I recall my last trip to the FLGS.
Warcraft Orcs, on the other hand, are reasonably more man-shaped. They're big, brutish humans with green skin, tusks, and slighly pointed ears. I'd say they're all recognizable as "orcs" but I wouldn't lump them in the same visual category, exactly.
GW orcs have enormous (and somewhat porcine) heads, tiny stubby legs, and obvious pot bellies, if I recall my last trip to the FLGS.
Warcraft Orcs, on the other hand, are reasonably more man-shaped. They're big, brutish humans with green skin, tusks, and slighly pointed ears. I'd say they're all recognizable as "orcs" but I wouldn't lump them in the same visual category, exactly.
edemaitre
Explorer
In my campaign (http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DnD3VanishedLands/), Orcs look like what one role-player once jokingly called "green gorilla lizards." Descended from Ru'ulok, the same root stock of Ogres and Bugbears, the Orcs of Zuromm are about 6 feet tall, muscular, with simian build and facial features. They have greenish skin and sparse black hair, as well as red eyes with yellow slit pupils, pointed ears, and fangs. They tend to wear black Roman-style armor and carry scimitars (thanks, Ral Partha), although they aren't always evil.
I was never a fan of the "Star Wars" Gamorrean guard-style porcine Orcs that have appeared on and off in various D&D editions, and the Orcs in my setting are somewhat more reptilian, although not as much as the doglike Kobolds or Sleestack/Scarran-like Lizard Men.
The "high Orcs" (inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's Uruk Hai), not unlike Half-Orcs or Hobgoblins, are more human in posture and are more organized and clever, using things such as ambushes and blasting powder in their strategy. In general, Orcs are still a twisted reflection of Elves, while Goblinoids are more the opposite of the hill peoples (Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings) in my world.
I agree that Claudio Pozas' art is excellent, and I was also inspired by early Larry Elmore posters for D&D, as well as the evil green humans mutated by the Loc Nar in the original "Heavy Metal" movie. As for "Star Trek's" Klingons, their combativeness and sense of honor has been more of an influence on my Mountain Dwarves or Hobgoblins than on Orcs... In my "Vanished Lands" setting, Ogres have tusks, and Bakemono (eastern Goblins) look like pigs.
I was never a fan of the "Star Wars" Gamorrean guard-style porcine Orcs that have appeared on and off in various D&D editions, and the Orcs in my setting are somewhat more reptilian, although not as much as the doglike Kobolds or Sleestack/Scarran-like Lizard Men.
The "high Orcs" (inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's Uruk Hai), not unlike Half-Orcs or Hobgoblins, are more human in posture and are more organized and clever, using things such as ambushes and blasting powder in their strategy. In general, Orcs are still a twisted reflection of Elves, while Goblinoids are more the opposite of the hill peoples (Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings) in my world.
I agree that Claudio Pozas' art is excellent, and I was also inspired by early Larry Elmore posters for D&D, as well as the evil green humans mutated by the Loc Nar in the original "Heavy Metal" movie. As for "Star Trek's" Klingons, their combativeness and sense of honor has been more of an influence on my Mountain Dwarves or Hobgoblins than on Orcs... In my "Vanished Lands" setting, Ogres have tusks, and Bakemono (eastern Goblins) look like pigs.
jerichothebard
First Post
Ok - my orcs are a little strange. They look, physically, like the 3e MM orcs, I think - hairy, bestial features, tusky/fang teeth, a little slouched over, big hands, long arms...
But their culture... oi.
Imagine for a moment, if you will, what would have happened if the Norse, at the height of their civilization, had invaded the Polynesian/Hawaiian islands, at the height of theirs.
Yup - orcish barbarians in grass skirts, sailing square-sailed outriggered boats around a huge archipelago, and crushing heads.
Boggles the mind, doesn't it?
But their culture... oi.
Imagine for a moment, if you will, what would have happened if the Norse, at the height of their civilization, had invaded the Polynesian/Hawaiian islands, at the height of theirs.
Yup - orcish barbarians in grass skirts, sailing square-sailed outriggered boats around a huge archipelago, and crushing heads.
Boggles the mind, doesn't it?
Desdichado
Hero
Yes, they absolutely are.Faraer said:
Knight-of-Roses
Historian of the Absurd
I have always rather liked the Shadowrun orcs, well, depending on who they were drawn by. But the slightly more bestial humanoid with tusks and lots of muscle.
Wombat
First Post
In the current campaign, no orcs (or goblins or bugbears, etc.)
In the last campaign, they looked like the gargun of Harn -- short, furry, only nominally intelligent, etc. In other words, a major variant
In another game they looked like LotR (movie) orcs, uruk-hai, and goblins (depending).
So our group is all over the board
In the last campaign, they looked like the gargun of Harn -- short, furry, only nominally intelligent, etc. In other words, a major variant
In another game they looked like LotR (movie) orcs, uruk-hai, and goblins (depending).
So our group is all over the board
Klaus
First Post
As one might have guessed, orcs in my campaign look like the ones I put into my artwork. Here's the original orc counter from Counter Collection 1:
In this one, half-orc paladin/monk Xiopho Sunmoon is telling paladin Berratag Strensworth "Gimme that thing, boy, before you hurt yourself!": http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hosted/Pozas/Pictures/Interiors/xiopho_and_berratag.jpg
There's also my one-time PC, the half-orc barbarian/sorceror Leksy, seen here with a big sword :http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hosted/Pozas/Pictures/Wallpapers/tendaria_wp.jpg
With a Charisma of 14, he's, like, the George Clooney of half-orcs
One thing I did add to orcs in my campaign was this: I gave ogres the "orc" subtype, making half-orcs, orcs and ogres into "orcoids", much like goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears are goblinoids.
In this one, half-orc paladin/monk Xiopho Sunmoon is telling paladin Berratag Strensworth "Gimme that thing, boy, before you hurt yourself!": http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hosted/Pozas/Pictures/Interiors/xiopho_and_berratag.jpg
There's also my one-time PC, the half-orc barbarian/sorceror Leksy, seen here with a big sword
:http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hosted/Pozas/Pictures/Wallpapers/tendaria_wp.jpgWith a Charisma of 14, he's, like, the George Clooney of half-orcs
One thing I did add to orcs in my campaign was this: I gave ogres the "orc" subtype, making half-orcs, orcs and ogres into "orcoids", much like goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears are goblinoids.
