D&D 5E What Makes an Orc an Orc?

[doctorbadwolf]

Not that poly-racial cultures are a bad thing, but poly-cultural races seem to me like they'd do more on the avoiding-monolithic-stereotypes front. "The dwarves of Tharagund are isolationist but true allies to those in need; the dwarves of Mizinthur bully their neighbors and extort them for protection money."

I think we strongly need both, tbh.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Not that poly-racial cultures are a bad thing, but poly-cultural races seem to me like they'd do more on the avoiding-monolithic-stereotypes front. "The dwarves of Tharagund are isolationist but true allies to those in need; the dwarves of Mizinthur bully their neighbors and extort them for protection money."

That all sounds good. Where would the information about those dwarves reside? In the PH? Do we provide a list of different cultures and what they're like for every race? At what point does space become an issue?

 

[Doug McCrae]

1) Humans with tusks.
2) Very alien, similar to trolls in RuneQuest.
3) Remove all race flavour text.

 

[Redwizard007]

If we make every culture composed of multiple races, we are radically altering the dynamics of virtually every D&D setting (although I sure someone can come up with counter-examples). Not only does that seem weirdly homogeneous, I don't think WotC could sell it to the broad audience they want.

It doesn't need to be exclusive. It needs to have options. I guess you could achieve the same result by giving each race multiple cultures of their own, but with the bloated number of race options that could get old quick.

Example from one of my campaigns:
1.) Northerners are pastoral farmers and woodsman that spend the summer raiding the coasts and rivers to supplement their subsistence farming. They are largely made up of humans, orcs and half-orcs but a smattering of tritons, goliaths, and even firbolg are represented as well.

2.) eastern dwarves are fairly standard with monarchies and a lust for wealth. Western dwarves are the ultimate comunist system and a tendency towards isolationism.

Edit: ninjas by like 5 people.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I'm all for dropping penalties; they're not much fun, and we have to err on the side of the "G" sometimes. But, we don't even know if ability bonuses tied to race are going to ok at all.

The ability bonuses are a hot topic, but I am in favour of keeping them, especially for physical stats. Hell, I'd be willing to give a strength penalty for small species such as gnomes and halflings. I know that D&D is far from realistic but I guess this is the hill my suspension of disbelief has decided to die on. It just can't handle orcs not being stronger than gnomes. YMMV.

Also, strong and primal sounds right to me, but I think we need to define the word "primal". Close to the earth, shamanistic, nomadic, lacking technology?

All of those sound fine to me. Also I don't think the 'strength' is just physical strength, it is also strength of character. Orcs are courageous and they respect personal risk taking. Though they also are physically more powerful than humans, and they can live in conditions humans might find difficult. For this reason they're also less reliant of technology though they do not shun it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That all sounds good. Where would the information about those dwarves reside? In the PH? Do we provide a list of different cultures and what they're like for every race? At what point does space become an issue?

I'd rather have to make hard choices about space in the PHB (which literally could just be a bit bigger than it is), maybe lose a couple pages of spells, some other stuff, and have more interesting entries on the peoples of the multiverse.

OTOH, I don't think we will ever* have to worry about it, because 6e isn't coming.

*It's more likely now than ever before, but still very unlikely that wotc will ever make a new edition of dnd again without first having a prolonged loss of sales for 5e, and instead they will work on things like the crossovers, different styles of DnD as side projects, etc.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

2) Very alien, similar to trolls in RuneQuest.

This one gets my vote!

 

[VelvetViolet]

I think a good way to distinguish races would be to give them extreme biological differences.

For example: dwarves are all male and are carved from stone by their father. Elves are talking plants. Orcs pop put of holes in the ground as adults holding weapons. Etc.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'd rather have to make hard choices about space in the PHB (which literally could just be a bit bigger than it is), maybe lose a couple pages of spells, some other stuff, and have more interesting entries on the peoples of the multiverse.

OTOH, I don't think we will ever* have to worry about it, because 6e isn't coming.

*It's more likely now than ever before, but still very unlikely that wotc will ever make a new edition of dnd again without first having a prolonged loss of sales for 5e, and instead they will work on things like the crossovers, different styles of DnD as side projects, etc.

I think you're right. Unless the money goes away, there's no good reason and many bad ones to make 6e. Especially considering how much they've pushed to keep the options in the PH the same in the face of much discussion regarding their comparative mechanical effectiveness, supplements and more options is the path to take. More things to buy, without invalidating previous books.

 

[Haldrik]

@doctorbadwolf

In my setting,

Orc + Elf = Grugach

Choice of +2 and +1, to either of Str and Dex.