What would you do with these Orcs?

[Kalendraf]

Did the players have to deal with any Tribe members who disliked their rule or did they make any chances to the way the Tribe(s) works?

Yes, but it needs some explaining...

Though they weren't terribly happy about the arrangement, the females and children under the party's protection didn't object too much. They saw the party as their only hope at that point. The ranking female provided a brief history of the tribe, and it was fairly obvious that if the party could clear the caves, the goblins might be able to stay there again.

In the process of clearing the caves, the party encountered Shard, an earth mephit that the tribe had been paying yearly tributes to for aid and protection. A magical ring given by Shard to one of the previous chiefs had become seen as the badge of office. When the previous chief fell to his death in a deep chasm, the ring was lost, and the tribe splintered into two factions. Shard had found the ring and kept it while he tried to decide which goblin was worthy of it. But before he could reach his decision, the caves had been overrun by troglodytes and the remaining goblins fled. Meanwhile, Shard had retreated to his own secret caverns.

The party helped clear the caves, uncovered information about the leader of the other half of the tribe who had actually been responsible for the fall of the previous chief, and then confronted them. With Shard's help, they exposed the traitor, and helped re-unite the divided tribe. But that left the question of who should lead.

It was apparant to the party that out of all the surviving goblins of the Brokenfingers tribe, the ranking female goblin was the most qualified to lead. Her suggestions were what had kept that portion of the divided tribe alive for this long. However, tribal law prevented females from becoming chief. Without much hesitation, the party changed that rule and allowed females to lead, then made her the new chief. The surviving male goblins from the other half of the tribe weren't very happy about it, but when Shard produced the ring and gave it to her, most of them accepted the decision.

 

[s/LaSH]

I wonder if this is the right time to mention the game I'm currently playing in, where we left town to wipe out a bugbear infestation and clear out some mines - and now we're staying in a hut in the bugbear village, some of us share their meals of human flesh, and we pop down into the mines every so often to visit the barber of the looney cultists while on our quest to help the other band of looney cultists gather Ancient Artifacts (in our defence, my character when he made the deal wasn't the brightest spark). Heck, the most unfriendly people we've met have been the minotaurs, and we're about to have a nice long chat with them about how friends don't chop friends in half.

But it all seems so reasonable...

We're like the antiadventurers, leaving a trail of peace and harmony in our footsteps. It's weird and very fun.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Sounds very Prachettesque, s/lash.

As fer this:

I am presuming a standard D&D world here- not a variant like Sovergien Stone or Dawnforge where Orcs can be 'good guys'

According to the MM, Orcs are "often chaotic evil." This means about 40-50% of them are CE, and the rest aren't.

So yeah, it wouldn't be cool to slaughter them all....the odds are at least an orc or two are generally good guys....with certain exceptions (fiends, in general) Good and Genocide don't go together in D&D.

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip some good stuff) Instead I used it as a nifty plot hook. Soon after finishing the module, I had the highest ranking female approach the party's human bard. "You kill acting chief. He stupid hobgoblin we no likes anyways. But you kill all males too, so none left to lead. By conquerer right, you be new chief of Brokenfingers clan. You lead tribe now." Jaws dropped... (snip more good stuff) Since then, the bard has been visited and aided twice by the goblin trickster god, and the bard has even found a goblin relic - a magical morningstar once used by a famous goblin bard. A seer has twice referred to the bard as "the goblin chief", and there are other clues that more goblin-related stuff is on the way.(snip some more)

That's some really good DMing, if you don't mind me saying so. Very creative indeed.