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<blockquote data-quote="Omand" data-source="post: 8208443" data-attributes="member: 14344">I started playing with a combination of Basic/Expert D&amp;D and 1E AD&amp;D so Orcs were originally LE in my original conception (yes, Chaotic in Basic, but that really just meant Evil).Tolkien was/is a great influence for me as well, so in my homebrew work I generally group all of the goblinoids and orcs together as one lineage/race/people.&nbsp; Just different sizes and shapes and colours like humans.&nbsp; All are usually called orcs, but in different areas of the world the local name of goblins may be used for the little ones, etc.I have never used Half-Orcs.&nbsp; Not sure if my young self realized without really realizing the implications of half-orcs right off the bat and that caused the rejection or if it was because there was really no interest amongst my early player groups in anything other than Humans, Dwarves and the very rare Elf or Halfling.&nbsp; I mean, until later 3.5E about 90% of all characters in campaigns I ran were human, dwarf was in second place, halflings were third (distantly) and only slightly ahead of Elf or Half-Elf.&nbsp; It took the 3.5E Environment books to bring in a few other options like Hadozee (monkey people) and then 4E brought Shifters via Eberron.Back to topic.&nbsp; Traditionally, orcs (and goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears) have all been fodder for the PCs to fight/defeat.I have never been able to settle on an origin story for them.&nbsp; They serve great evil lords in the setting, forming large armies/hordes.&nbsp; But are they created by the big evil god of the setting?&nbsp; Maybe, maybe not.One thing they definitely are not is 3E or 5E Gruumsh-centered rampage orcs.&nbsp; Can they rampage, yes, but that is not their entire reason for being.With all of that said, I am looking at what I want to do going forwards.&nbsp; My gaming has been interrupted for a few years due to work (first) and then COVID.&nbsp; That has given me some time to think about how the world fits together.&nbsp; What are the origins of things?Certainly all of the recent online chatter has made me examine where I should have things end up for world design.Cheers <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Omand, post: 8208443, member: 14344"] I started playing with a combination of Basic/Expert D&D and 1E AD&D so Orcs were originally LE in my original conception (yes, Chaotic in Basic, but that really just meant Evil). Tolkien was/is a great influence for me as well, so in my homebrew work I generally group all of the goblinoids and orcs together as one lineage/race/people. Just different sizes and shapes and colours like humans. All are usually called orcs, but in different areas of the world the local name of goblins may be used for the little ones, etc. I have never used Half-Orcs. Not sure if my young self realized without really realizing the implications of half-orcs right off the bat and that caused the rejection or if it was because there was really no interest amongst my early player groups in anything other than Humans, Dwarves and the very rare Elf or Halfling. I mean, until later 3.5E about 90% of all characters in campaigns I ran were human, dwarf was in second place, halflings were third (distantly) and only slightly ahead of Elf or Half-Elf. It took the 3.5E Environment books to bring in a few other options like Hadozee (monkey people) and then 4E brought Shifters via Eberron. Back to topic. Traditionally, orcs (and goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears) have all been fodder for the PCs to fight/defeat. I have never been able to settle on an origin story for them. They serve great evil lords in the setting, forming large armies/hordes. But are they created by the big evil god of the setting? Maybe, maybe not. One thing they definitely are not is 3E or 5E Gruumsh-centered rampage orcs. Can they rampage, yes, but that is not their entire reason for being. With all of that said, I am looking at what I want to do going forwards. My gaming has been interrupted for a few years due to work (first) and then COVID. That has given me some time to think about how the world fits together. What are the origins of things? Certainly all of the recent online chatter has made me examine where I should have things end up for world design. Cheers :) [/QUOTE]

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