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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brother MacLaren" data-source="post: 1584407" data-attributes="member: 15999">I don't like the idea of half-orcs at all.  To me, orcs should be alien and monstrous, not merely mean and dumb humans with funny makeup.  In fact, half-anything makes the species too close together when one of the biggest challenges is making the various species distinct from humanity.  (Part of my problem with Star Trek.)  Even in a world without DNA or mitochondria, PCs and NPCs will still understand that a dog and a bear can't produce offspring, even though they look and act similar in some ways (unless, because it is a fantasy world, you wish to change that too).  I'd be more open to magical creatures such as dragons or angels interbreeding with the PC races, but orcs are too mundane to just hand-wave and say "It's magic."  One way around this is to postulate reasons why the species can interbreed.  Perhaps elves are humans touched by the Realm of Faerie, so they can interbreed with humans.  Perhaps orcs were a tribe of humans who experimented with demon magic to give themselves great strength.  The ability to interbreed hints at this relationship.A second way is to develop alternative mechanisms for the half-breeds.  Perhaps a "half-elf" in the above example is a human who was altered by the faeries but chose to live in the world of men.  Maybe "half-orcs" are produced when orcs feed human flesh to the gargantuan Orc Mothers (think Aliens) during the breeding cycle, thereby producing smarter offspring.  This one is my favorite.  Or maybe "half-trolls" are produced when a troll's blood enters a warrior's wounds during combat... and the trollish characteristics slowly start to take over.Finally, a third way is to whole-heartedly use the "it's magic" explanation and really let the players know that you are throwing biology out the window.  Reproduction is governed by magic and the will of the gods.  The relationship between the gods of the humans and the gods of the dwarves determines whether or not they can interbreed.  But the point is, make it fantastical.  If reproduction works just like it does IRL, and humans can breed with orcs, then you have just said "Orcs are simply a stronger, dumber race of humans."</blockquote>

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