Since a small tribe of Orcs in my campaign is Lawful Evil, I had them make a deal with a village to protect everyone from a zombie apocalypse (which they did), in exchange for a wagon full of gold coins and 10 brides, chosen by the orcs. The village broke the deal, and now the orcs want justice. Enter the party with a LG paladin, LG Ranger, a very Lawful Neutral Cleric, and I intend to really push the Lawful aspects of the contract on the party, to see if they will honor the letter of the law, or the spirit of the law.
busted my leg a couple months ago, and haven't had a chance to return to my Friendly Neighborhood Comicbook Shop, where they have a table set aside for gamers. Hopefully soon.
Aren't the letter and spirit of the law both on the orcs' side here? (Although I guess you might be thinking the spirit of the law is tainted here, since they sort of extorted the village and the brides may not be willing.)
My Orc Paladin was adopted by a family with a heavy paladin tradition. The father was part of a raid to get rid of an Orc village and found an Orc baby. He decides to raise the baby Orc as his own to see if Evil is in his nature or maybe Orcs are raised to be evil.
I had this idea I had to drop since my players wanted a more cheesy approach to D&D: So half orcs have the reputation of being more impulsive than humans which makes them less likely to get along with very hierarchical societies. So I wondered: What would happen to half-orcs who wanted to show the other races that they are more than just a bag of pulsions? So I came up with the idea of a samuraï-like order of half-orcs which is essentially comprised of orcs who went through various rituals to become more rational and less impulsive. Of course, due to the nature of half-orcs, very few choose this path and even fewer pass the test to become full members of the order, which makes them a rare, but very cool sight. Most of them (as of 3.0 rules since that's what I play in) are monks or fighters and are lawful neutral. So yeah. just wanted to share the idea and maybe inspire a few of you guys.
+Ryan Muskopf Thank you very much I shall steal the fuck out of that for my campaign. I was gonna have an island off the coast where Dinosaurs live but this will make them so much easier to have them in the game.
@@MrChickennugget360 you shouldn't feel sympathy for orcs in the middle earth universe due to the fact that they are confirmed rapists as Tolkien stated.
Orcs in my world are bright red, 7' tall walls of absurdly strong muscle created by human mages to be supersoldiers and the best meatshields that ever existed. This worked great until they started breeding in the wild outside of the magical controls that prevented them from being uncontrollably violent murderers. While they are usually too violent to organize themselves, the first time they did helped cause the fall of the empire that created them and making the entire school of magic that created them (along with many many other magical creatures) a sin punishable by death anywhere you went. ...Oh, and they can walk through fire, instinctively make forges capable of smelting the best non-magical steel in the setting, and see you in total darkness/behind thin cover because they see in high-detail infrared.
Zorblec Haven't played either, but the wiki-entries don't seem too far off. ...oh, did notice that I forgot to include that they're great climbers due to having thick, horn-like pointed nails on hands and feet that can support their weight, so unless you have a perfectly smooth stone wall, they can climb up it to get to you. (not that a bunch of them with a big log couldn't make quick work of any gate)
i used this in a campaign and it worked awesome, i made the orcs all level 1 fighter class and the "captains" had magic loot they fought with, that's how i got my characters some 3rd level character gear
The orcs in my world were the original denizens of the Underdark, but were driven out by the drow and the duergar and now purge all elves and dwarves for pushing them out of their home.
These videos are so incredibly helpful, I'm about to jump into two campaigns that I'm DM'ing and these are great to brush up on. I would totally watch live plays of your games, you guys are great! -DM Seth
I base my Orcs off of a lot of things, based on their location. If they're in a tropical location, they're Aztec inspired, sacrificing prisoners to appear their God's (maybe it's actually just a demon or something.) If they're up north, they're based off of the Vikings, martial, honor bound warriors who believe that combat is the only way to a happy afterlife. Or maybe even have them based off of Native Americans. Very in tune with nature, tribal, that sort of thing. Depends on the setting and location.
I always liked Orcs as selfish by requirement (they raid or starve because Gruumsh said - fine we'll take if you won't give - to the other gods) and incredibly passionate. The infighting and violence is from their god, the knee-jerk reaction to yell and hit being passed down through generations of culture and breeding, and its resulted in evil but they don't see it that way. They're still sapient. They don't necessarily want to hurt their loved ones but sometimes feel they need to, or its the best way to learn, or they just have too much emotion poored out too fast. (The worst example of "this hurts me more than it hurts you") They care about their tribe and they get angry and solve things from that burning emotion in their stomach first unless they can learn a way around that - a healthier way of self-expression. And anything they do they are 110% in for. Their Clerics aren't just devoted, they're born-again zealous, their romances aren't just heady and rough - they're *the* most passionate teen romance (imagine every relationship or fight being like you're in highschool), and if they raid a caravan or weave a basket then by god that caravan will be wrecked and that basket will be woven if they have to bleed for it. Which is also what scares other races. They raid to survive but they WAAAGH RAID because they have no 50% committal. It leads to this great internally locking cycle - they can't trade with other races because of their pasts and because they are just too much, too fast, and too physical - even for elves and humans - and because they don't have land or resources or trade they have to raid and because they do it so right it continues to prevent them from being peaceful. And that's Gruumsh's "plan", although its more just representative of himself out of his own selfishness. He sleeps harder and fights harder (in his mind) than any of the other gods and that's why he didn't beg for crumbs. So his people institutionally/instinctively are similar. And their kneejerk reaction will land them evil, but they aren't born that way anymore than an elf is 100% born good. Amusingly in my worlds those same facets can make them good allies if you can somehow manage to turn them to your way of thinking and out of their own emotional momentum (like steering a freight train off the tracks) because by god they'll be YOUR ALLIES if you can manage it.
My Orc, Dagh Foghkir (a joke name), was from a tribe of Lawful Evil Fiendish Orcs who migrated from hell, and built a city into a volcano (which they worshiped), and were decent craftspeople. He mastered the shotput and the spiked armor. He was tons of fun to play.
Jim's favorite monster is the orc? Mine, too, actually. I actually have been working on a bunch of orcs... somewhere around 100 stat blocks at the moment... probably will be triple that by the time I finish.
I love these so much. I feel bad for binge watching them, and not caring to give them all a like. One of these days I'll go through the whole list and like them all.
I just homebrewed a type of orc, that can shapshift into a worg. The thematic idea behind it is that those are kind of like the berserkers in the witcher 3 (who turn into bears upon raging)
I really like this. In a campaign I run, I have a tribe of orcs that resemble the Hun from Ancient China, and most are good, aside from a splinter group. I gave them compact bows, which I ran as longbows, but you can use strength modifiers instead of dexterity. I love orcs, and want to spice up my players perceptions of monsters and certain tropes that I don't want them to depend upon.
That's what I'm doing too! Basically using slightly sized up camels as a stand ins for steppe horses and making orcs the ideal survivalists, being able to live off raw meat. IRL orcs would be infinitely better archers than elves since they could hold a bow fully strung to aim on a normal bow (like most movies with bows show the hero's doing, which would probably injure you unless you were a body builder or something) or just outrange everyone. They would basically just be adapted to survive without water or food for longer than anyone else which would make them impossible to get rid of in the wilderness, but unable to spread out to conquer an empire. Also going to make it so they struggle with complicated abstractions like reading or writing as a neurological difference. Sure they can make a map and plan strategy as good as the next race since it's all there and is a direct representation of the world, smoke signals can be used, as well as a basic ideographic alphabet, but all those squiggles on a piece of parchment coming together to have different meanings gets real confusing. They could breed with humans, but half-orcs males are almost always infertile and females would be too about half the time. Like in the Players Handbook half orcs would often excel as leaders with their better ability to process abstract concepts. Half-Orcs are known to make the best military leaders in all the world. Same with modding longbows to use strength, I'm going to make the range and damage strength dependant with to-hit dex dependent while crossbows only use dex, making them longer range for dex builds. Would also give crossbows a bonus to initiative since they can be fully drawn in preparation for an ambush. This is why crossbows excess at sieges where you want to be able to aim at cover waiting for a target to pop out (like a modern rifle) and fire accurately at the pull of a trigger, a longbow needs you to stand up, pull a massive draw weight and aim without being shot themselves. It was in open battles that longbows firing further and faster volleys was really useful. See mount and blade siege machine Rhodoks winning out over higher DPS bowmen in sieges because of their survivability and that their damage added up to more in situations where you could run out of ammo. I know theres a fine line between trying to add depth and being a realism pedant in a world with dragons, but the crossbow basically only excels for rogues, clerics and builds which can sacrifice their multiattacks for another purpose and I wanted to change that, longbowmen were hench and a crossbow is a better weapon for weaklings. I don't know why I spend so long replying to a comment made 2 years ago.
Another great episode! I too am reworking Orcs in my homebrew campaign. What I'm doing with them is making them more matriarchal like the Drow, but the males have a bit more say. But this episode gave me some good ideas as well to add. Also "WAAAAAAAGGHHH!" xD
That's Awesome! I hope it all goes well for you and your group. Also, since I just picked it up. Will you two be talking about the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide at all in a future episode?
Orcs rule. I will never be bored of them. And I agree, Orcs or Orks from Games Workshop are my favorite interpretations of them. Brutal, badass but also hilarious and even charismatic in a strange way.
My favorite version are the orks of the open, frozen plain of the north east coming in huge mounted hordes. They conquer villages, but any that just surrender they leave undisturbed since they don't have the will or honor to fight. the ones they do conquer can be made into vassels but require some intermarrying. and yes, that should work both ways. I always had in my mind a character that is a human ranger that has elves as his favored enemy because he actually loved his orc mother who was a good person once she got out of the violent orc society, but was killed on sight by an elf.
So speaking about orcs, im running a campaign where they are basicly the "good guys". Basicly they were creted by elves in their mad tries to make the perfect slave race, but their creators turned on them, concidering them to be too much of a risk. The orcs survived the slaughter, the elves lost their magic (That went haywire, letting demons into the world and such. They also created the Terrasqe to stomp down the orcs, and then it went haywire) and since then the orcs are basicly trying to fix the problems made by their former masters. Sure, they may still assemble in large hordes and invade human lands, but then it is to sieze and collect, if not destroy, powerful elven artifacts that can cause mayham, stop a monstersurge about to happen and so on. The orcs societies are the indians, mongolians and amazons of the world (oh yes, a whole tribe of orc females looking for shnu-shnu and a good fight), and the name Orc is in their own language not realy a name, but a virtue they aspire towards. While lacking a good direct translation, it can mean to be Strong, Beautifull, Honorable, Wise, Witty and Generous. The Orcs of the world is also capable spellcasters since magic comes into the world (and bloodlines) through mixed blood and "half-races" (as in half elves, half orcs and so on) since the elves lost the gift, and orcs were one of the earliest civilizations to embrace intermingeling with other races. man i love orcs, but i hate it when they are just the big bad brutes from the mountains that comes down to plunder and rape and murder because all orcs are EEEEEVIL!!!!!
Watching this I just got the idea of having a group of orcs hire the party to escort their villagers as they relocated to a new place to build a village. However the orcs have disguised themselves as humans using white clay, and are intelligent after the source where they drew water from had some kind of weird alignment changing potion or magical effect leaked into it. It might be an interesting take on the whole 'escort mission' job that a lot of lower level adventurers start out on.
Something I really like about 5e, they did a great job giving you an idea of Orc culture and motivations in the Monster Manual. Before 5e I viewed them as boring mindless brutes. Now I really enjoy playing them as more, half native american, half vikings. They have there own internal honor and code that puts them at odds with the rest of the world. Much more interesting.
I like the idea that high rollers aerois have for their orcs. Their orcs live on islands and sail the seas, have dreadlocks, etc. their not necessarily roving warbands, but their just tougher than the normal humanoid
The Orcs in the Elder Scrolls games are an inherinently honorable if more tribal culture and their blacksmiths are prized. I think that's a cool take on the orc and always been my favorite elder scrolls races to play as.
I like the idea of making Orcs basically Ogrillons or Half-Ogres to set them apart more from Goblins. It also can be fun to subvert the standard tropes by having them more likely to ally with humans against more alien or elite races like Elves and Dwarves, etc.
In my campaign, I made a race of Orc/Archmage mistakes called AndroOrcs, A mixture of a androsphinx and orcs, they are often enherently good and have a hate of normal orcs because they were made to exterminate them entirely, but they have made a race for themselves and trade with other races
Orcs are my favorite to. :) In my game they are mostly evil and worship Grummsh but their is one tribe of orcs that have cast themselves out from them and follow Obad-Hai as and are a more Druidic tribe.
Campaign i'm doing right now (homebrew) features Orcs as the main goodguy force, it's basically a region where all the local Orc clans have grouped up under a legendary orc barbarian to free themselves of their slavery and fight back against the Ogres that have been enslaving them and other lesser races, like the Orcs, Goblins, and Dwarves who have banded together to take out this Ogre Empire.
I have the culture of the orcs in my world be very circumstantial and based on environment, which I do with most races, actually. I got the idea from a documentary about the beginning of the Viking Era where the Scandinavians did what was necessary to fend off rivals and feed themselves. Orcs have a reputation for being warlike and brutal because they have to be. Without the resources or legal protection to create a sustainable society, they resort to raiding in order to sustain their own clan or arm themselves against a more aggressive one. But there are also orcs who live in areas with enough resources to build entirely self sufficient villages and trade things like surplus grain and lumber for tools or merchantile goods. Whatever I can do to avoid the entire race being one hat plus a single gimmick per campaign.
I like my orcs like I like my Drow. They're not inherently evil, but they are bred to be, and escaping their society's dark practices for them is a rare exception.
In the campaign about defending the dungeon I think playing a kobold rogue who specializes in making traps instead of disarming them would be really neat, and for the heck of it multiclass into warlock to make a pact with juiblex to control slimes to clean up the mess.
Please do it! We need more good quality DND recordings besides Acquisitions Inc. I think you guys could run a really fun and interesting campaign :) 10 Min shorts are good but learning from a great DM during a session is my kind of learning style
i play orcs like a mix od warhammer and skyrim. so a gruff harsh race that like smashing stuff. but not so rought that they wouldn't help some one if thats the way they are.
I listen to your webcast because the conversation is intelligent and clean. There are several others who usually fail at this second issue, and frankly listening to guys who use four letter words as part of their vernacular gets boorish almost immediatly. Keep up the good work gentlemen.
I like my orcs lawful evil and with a similar social structure to the Orsimer from skyrim. They are very militrisitic, not tribal, so they enslve humans to breed half-orcs and train them as elites.
I go with the Elder Scrolls lore version on the Lore, been playing as a Female orc in Skyrim recently with the last name being based on WoW's Orcs. she is a GreatSword fighter.
You know you mentioned using Klingon as inspiration ive always seen orcs as the fantasy Klingon (i watched star trek long before i even read my first fantasy book let alone play d&d)
+cjcrashoveride to piggyback off of your comment, having an entire video dedicated to the idea and implementation of half-breeds, mongrels and hybrids into campaign settings or as PCs would be awesome.
+cjcrashoveride One DM I played with once combined every PHB and humanoid monster into a master list of half/half PC races. It had 30+ entries and it took forever to work out all the details. Unfortunately because it was 3rd edition I ignored it and played a human.
Im currently running a home-brew setting in which orcs were actually once a respected race of people, intelligent and cultured; and lived on islands magically floating miles above the ocean, held together by a giant tree. Someone long ago destroyed the magic keeping their islands and the tree floating. The subsequent fall to the ocean below destroyed most of their temples and art as well as killed many of them. The dying tree poisoned their water and caused their resources to become scarce. That and conquest from other races led them to eventually become the brutish and violent race they're known to be. Currently, many orcs are enslaved through magic to act as labor for other races. There are certain factions of orcs looking to free their kin and attempt to reclaim their culture.
I use orcs as gehngis kahns in my campaign, not just strong, but smart. I let them show signs of intelligence and agriculture, as well as excellent battle tactics.
3:38 I like that idea of them just being a nomadic race rather than inherently evil and born from evil , just an evil leaning race but more for their own survival and preservation
Speaking of military campaign, and strange Orks, have you read the Malazan Book of the Fallen? High fantasy magic levels, but down in the mud characters, so how does a war run with Archmages and High Priests kicking off? What about Dragons and Demigods in a medieval war? And for the Strange Orks? The Ghost Face Barghast Clans would be a viable Ork society.
In my homebrew setting, my Orcs have a dedicated empire of their own, so they're a bit more laid back, but being Orcs, they still eat other sentient races. Cue Orc farms where they have elf, halfling and gnome slaves that grow crops for them to trade. Then they breed them and eat the older generations. So on one hand, civil and willing to work with other races. On the other, cannibalistic slavers.
In the universe I built, orcs are divided into the peaceful Buddhist-esque Raosworn orcs and the more bog standard black orcs, so I get to have it situated in such a way as to have orcs be just another humanoid race, but also have the classic stuff everyone's used to.
I just made a one shot where a winged kobold sorcerer has a gang of Orcs, goblins, bugbears, gnolls and he just wants to get back at an Ettin who betrayed him
I'm playing an 'ork' in my groups current DnD campaign and I'm trying to make it the warhammer style of ork. Im finding it really handy cos 3 People in the group have these dark heavy tragic back stories and then theirs me shouting Wharrrrrg! and doing stupid stuff to balance them out.
This gave me the idea to have orcs act like Germanic and Turkic peoples on the frontiers of the Roman and Chinese empires - they agree to stop raiding in return for deliveries of food and gold. So there can be peace between the orcs and other people, but it;s always tense.
I think Orcs should be the base player race, Half-Orc (and Half-Elf) shouldn't be their own race but something you can put on top of being a base race. Heck maybe Half-Human should be one as well.
Funny how people only bring up whether the coupling was willing with orcs... goddamn specist's. And in all seriousness if you want to get into you could just as easily have a human noble with the same question in their past and It would be more interesting in my opinion. How does it affect your characters view of nobles? Does your character have a tendency to think less of their fellow humans? Have they reacted in a more complex way? I think a perfect example of this is Zuko's mom in avatar, it's not explicit in the show but if you look into it the story there basically started out with the firelord going up to her and saying "Your a powerful firebender and where gonna make some powerful firebender babies. Wouldn't want to have to execute your family or something like that." I'm paraphrasing and he doesn't literally say that but he might as well have given the culture and position of power he's in, plus the fact they literally took to beating them is probably not a sign of anything resembling a healthy relationship... damn that show can get dark if you read between the lines. However it is still for the most part a pretty lighthearted show with plenty of laughs and it's done tastefully to the point a child can watch without you having to worry as a parent. Even if your going full game of thrones make it more like the books not the show, going full on gratuitous and emphasizing those aspects just desensitizes people and ruins the fun of anyone it's advisable to be in a room alone with. Actual rape shouldn't be sexy unless where talking from the perspective of a character who's into rape... goddamnit anime I still love you but... also is it just me or did every american cartoon from the 2000s directed at that age group need to have a "Women can fulfill the creepy ass predator archetype to kids!" episode?
In our game the dm and I are working Gruumsh as a protective father-like diety that is only raged up because he thinks his children have been cheated and are discriminated against by elves and humans for being less beautiful. My tribe has lived in a hidden valley and carry on a ancient tradition of hag like Druid matrons and a warrior chief. We have sacred bronze working traditions and my Paladin wants to bring in other tribes and help educate them in the true way of Gruumsh and get them past their savagery and raiding
I feel like this has probably been asked somewhere and I just don't know where to find it, but is that a DM screen castle and if so, where is it from cause that looks to die for
FatGungan memes maybe but I think being a mix of both races would be really cool for roleplay, and would be funner (if that’s even a word) than just playing as a goblin
I based my orcs on a pseudo scientific characterization of the neanderthal. Some one wrote a book entitled "Them And Us" which was all about how neanderthals were monstrous ape like creatures, covered in thick, black hair and with large eyes suited for nocturnal hunting. Allegedly they hunted humans to eat or rape them. My orcs are pretty much the same, a devolved, carnivorous throwback of a species. They fashion clubs and stone spears, but can also obtain and use better weapons. They don't necessarily care for treasure, only to eat flesh and reproduce. They're easily controlled by powerful magic users because they're relatively stupid.
I use Orcs like Native Americans in my home brew world and the Elves are more like the European Settlers that landed on America. It gives an interesting twist on the setting and making them super spiritual, and tribalistic with out the innate evil inside them actually make them a more respected and fun race to interact with. They also created a race of half or half elf hybrid called the spawn after completely decimating an elven settlement and killing off the men. They kept the women as breeding slaves and created a hybrid that has the ferocity and strength of an orc with the nimbleness and intellegence of an elf. Called the spawn. Elves actually came back and killed those orcs holding that settlement hostage, then left behind the children created by this experiment. The Spawn are now tribal race that veiw Elves and Orcs as Angels and Demons. Calling the elves "mother" and orcs "father." Its fucking awesome. Also Firbolgs are taken as slaves by the elves, like the Africans during the european colonization of America and brought across the sea to be forced into physical labor. Get some pretty bad ass Fribolg Barbarians as run away slaves. It's a fun homebrew setting tbh.
I'd say the reason Orcs are CE is because they have terrible tempers, but they are smart enough to know what they are doing is wrong. So in other words, at least in my mind, they aren't just drawn toward evil, they just can't help it.
Having read Eragon in highschool, I particularly like the way the closing book handled the Urgals (basically orcs), and attempted to bring them into the fold alongside dwarves, elves and humans.
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When you brought up the “fastball special”, was that an obscure wolverine reference?
I gots to know!
I once made a half-Orc, half-Dwarf, his whole deal was that he would constantly be mistaken for a goblin, infuriating him.
my orcs are enraged banana farmers , exploited by the supermarket giants of Neverwinter.
+BraveSirSausage LOL. That's great!
Do the supermarket giants by chance happen to be giants?
JimmyL4ser LOL
i need to know more
OMG THATS HILLARIOUS
Since a small tribe of Orcs in my campaign is Lawful Evil, I had them make a deal with a village to protect everyone from a zombie apocalypse (which they did), in exchange for a wagon full of gold coins and 10 brides, chosen by the orcs. The village broke the deal, and now the orcs want justice. Enter the party with a LG paladin, LG Ranger, a very Lawful Neutral Cleric, and I intend to really push the Lawful aspects of the contract on the party, to see if they will honor the letter of the law, or the spirit of the law.
Now that is interesting!
paul coy those guy's better support the heck out of those orc's and that contract
Have you got a chance to test them? If so, what happened? ^^
busted my leg a couple months ago, and haven't had a chance to return to my Friendly Neighborhood Comicbook Shop, where they have a table set aside for gamers. Hopefully soon.
Aren't the letter and spirit of the law both on the orcs' side here? (Although I guess you might be thinking the spirit of the law is tainted here, since they sort of extorted the village and the brides may not be willing.)
My Orc Paladin was adopted by a family with a heavy paladin tradition. The father was part of a raid to get rid of an Orc village and found an Orc baby. He decides to raise the baby Orc as his own to see if Evil is in his nature or maybe Orcs are raised to be evil.
LordDoom1985 I know a Skyrim Build based on that concept
"Not every monster needs to be killed" -WebDM
I had this idea I had to drop since my players wanted a more cheesy approach to D&D:
So half orcs have the reputation of being more impulsive than humans which makes them less likely to get along with very hierarchical societies. So I wondered: What would happen to half-orcs who wanted to show the other races that they are more than just a bag of pulsions? So I came up with the idea of a samuraï-like order of half-orcs which is essentially comprised of orcs who went through various rituals to become more rational and less impulsive. Of course, due to the nature of half-orcs, very few choose this path and even fewer pass the test to become full members of the order, which makes them a rare, but very cool sight. Most of them (as of 3.0 rules since that's what I play in) are monks or fighters and are lawful neutral.
So yeah. just wanted to share the idea and maybe inspire a few of you guys.
Very cool idea.
Thank you for sharing.
I'll probably use it as inspiration.
I run my orcs like Klingons. They are still brutal but not evil.
I freaking love this idea!!!
I’m in the same boat. My orcs look like Jacksonian orcs, act like Klingons. Complete with an Empire
That's... Not bad. Hmm not bad
My Orcs domesticated Dinosaurs!
+Ryan Muskopf Thank you very much I shall steal the fuck out of that for my campaign. I was gonna have an island off the coast where Dinosaurs live but this will make them so much easier to have them in the game.
Simple, elegant, stolen.
Ryan Muskopf Thats awesome and Im stealing it
The thing is, everyone does sympathetic Orcs these days, so having just straight up evil Orcs is unusual now.
So true.
orcs are supposed to by sympathetic evil. That is how Tolkein envisioned them
I like my orcs evil with the potential to be good.
@@MrChickennugget360 you shouldn't feel sympathy for orcs in the middle earth universe due to the fact that they are confirmed rapists as Tolkien stated.
I mean compared to how long the stereotypical orcs have been around I'd say sympathetic is still relatively recent
SPEEEEHHHSSS MARINES?! GET EM' BOYZ!
Jean Seed Stains ! WAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!
Orcs have a big grudge for elves and that is REALY saying something
Orcs in my world are bright red, 7' tall walls of absurdly strong muscle created by human mages to be supersoldiers and the best meatshields that ever existed.
This worked great until they started breeding in the wild outside of the magical controls that prevented them from being uncontrollably violent murderers.
While they are usually too violent to organize themselves, the first time they did helped cause the fall of the empire that created them and making the entire school of magic that created them (along with many many other magical creatures) a sin punishable by death anywhere you went.
...Oh, and they can walk through fire, instinctively make forges capable of smelting the best non-magical steel in the setting, and see you in total darkness/behind thin cover because they see in high-detail infrared.
Reminds me of a mix between Krogans and Shadowrun Trolls.
Zorblec Haven't played either, but the wiki-entries don't seem too far off.
...oh, did notice that I forgot to include that they're great climbers due to having thick, horn-like pointed nails on hands and feet that can support their weight, so unless you have a perfectly smooth stone wall, they can climb up it to get to you. (not that a bunch of them with a big log couldn't make quick work of any gate)
DynamicWorlds reminds me of Super Mutants from Fallout
My Orcs while still evil are sea fairing pirates assaulting port towns then returning to their volcano home.
cooooooooolllll
i used this in a campaign and it worked awesome, i made the orcs all level 1 fighter class and the "captains" had magic loot they fought with, that's how i got my characters some 3rd level character gear
Ahoi! "There is a way for everybody to have the kind of fun they like at D&D." You nailed it. Thank you for all the passion you put into this.
The orcs in my world were the original denizens of the Underdark, but were driven out by the drow and the duergar and now purge all elves and dwarves for pushing them out of their home.
These videos are so incredibly helpful, I'm about to jump into two campaigns that I'm DM'ing and these are great to brush up on. I would totally watch live plays of your games, you guys are great!
-DM Seth
I base my Orcs off of a lot of things, based on their location. If they're in a tropical location, they're Aztec inspired, sacrificing prisoners to appear their God's (maybe it's actually just a demon or something.) If they're up north, they're based off of the Vikings, martial, honor bound warriors who believe that combat is the only way to a happy afterlife. Or maybe even have them based off of Native Americans. Very in tune with nature, tribal, that sort of thing. Depends on the setting and location.
I always liked Orcs as selfish by requirement (they raid or starve because Gruumsh said - fine we'll take if you won't give - to the other gods) and incredibly passionate. The infighting and violence is from their god, the knee-jerk reaction to yell and hit being passed down through generations of culture and breeding, and its resulted in evil but they don't see it that way. They're still sapient. They don't necessarily want to hurt their loved ones but sometimes feel they need to, or its the best way to learn, or they just have too much emotion poored out too fast. (The worst example of "this hurts me more than it hurts you") They care about their tribe and they get angry and solve things from that burning emotion in their stomach first unless they can learn a way around that - a healthier way of self-expression. And anything they do they are 110% in for. Their Clerics aren't just devoted, they're born-again zealous, their romances aren't just heady and rough - they're *the* most passionate teen romance (imagine every relationship or fight being like you're in highschool), and if they raid a caravan or weave a basket then by god that caravan will be wrecked and that basket will be woven if they have to bleed for it. Which is also what scares other races. They raid to survive but they WAAAGH RAID because they have no 50% committal. It leads to this great internally locking cycle - they can't trade with other races because of their pasts and because they are just too much, too fast, and too physical - even for elves and humans - and because they don't have land or resources or trade they have to raid and because they do it so right it continues to prevent them from being peaceful. And that's Gruumsh's "plan", although its more just representative of himself out of his own selfishness. He sleeps harder and fights harder (in his mind) than any of the other gods and that's why he didn't beg for crumbs. So his people institutionally/instinctively are similar. And their kneejerk reaction will land them evil, but they aren't born that way anymore than an elf is 100% born good.
Amusingly in my worlds those same facets can make them good allies if you can somehow manage to turn them to your way of thinking and out of their own emotional momentum (like steering a freight train off the tracks) because by god they'll be YOUR ALLIES if you can manage it.
My Orc, Dagh Foghkir (a joke name), was from a tribe of Lawful Evil Fiendish Orcs who migrated from hell, and built a city into a volcano (which they worshiped), and were decent craftspeople.
He mastered the shotput and the spiked armor. He was tons of fun to play.
My GM added a tribe of orcs that were all werewolf druids...really glad we did not have to fight them.
I knew someone who did a campaign where Kobolds were at the top of society and Elves were at the bottom. Also Dwarves were a seafaring race.
Jim's favorite monster is the orc?
Mine, too, actually. I actually have been working on a bunch of orcs... somewhere around 100 stat blocks at the moment... probably will be triple that by the time I finish.
I love these so much. I feel bad for binge watching them, and not caring to give them all a like.
One of these days I'll go through the whole list and like them all.
I just homebrewed a type of orc, that can shapshift into a worg. The thematic idea behind it is that those are kind of like the berserkers in the witcher 3 (who turn into bears upon raging)
I really like this. In a campaign I run, I have a tribe of orcs that resemble the Hun from Ancient China, and most are good, aside from a splinter group. I gave them compact bows, which I ran as longbows, but you can use strength modifiers instead of dexterity. I love orcs, and want to spice up my players perceptions of monsters and certain tropes that I don't want them to depend upon.
That's what I'm doing too! Basically using slightly sized up camels as a stand ins for steppe horses and making orcs the ideal survivalists, being able to live off raw meat. IRL orcs would be infinitely better archers than elves since they could hold a bow fully strung to aim on a normal bow (like most movies with bows show the hero's doing, which would probably injure you unless you were a body builder or something) or just outrange everyone. They would basically just be adapted to survive without water or food for longer than anyone else which would make them impossible to get rid of in the wilderness, but unable to spread out to conquer an empire. Also going to make it so they struggle with complicated abstractions like reading or writing as a neurological difference. Sure they can make a map and plan strategy as good as the next race since it's all there and is a direct representation of the world, smoke signals can be used, as well as a basic ideographic alphabet, but all those squiggles on a piece of parchment coming together to have different meanings gets real confusing. They could breed with humans, but half-orcs males are almost always infertile and females would be too about half the time. Like in the Players Handbook half orcs would often excel as leaders with their better ability to process abstract concepts. Half-Orcs are known to make the best military leaders in all the world. Same with modding longbows to use strength, I'm going to make the range and damage strength dependant with to-hit dex dependent while crossbows only use dex, making them longer range for dex builds. Would also give crossbows a bonus to initiative since they can be fully drawn in preparation for an ambush. This is why crossbows excess at sieges where you want to be able to aim at cover waiting for a target to pop out (like a modern rifle) and fire accurately at the pull of a trigger, a longbow needs you to stand up, pull a massive draw weight and aim without being shot themselves. It was in open battles that longbows firing further and faster volleys was really useful. See mount and blade siege machine Rhodoks winning out over higher DPS bowmen in sieges because of their survivability and that their damage added up to more in situations where you could run out of ammo. I know theres a fine line between trying to add depth and being a realism pedant in a world with dragons, but the crossbow basically only excels for rogues, clerics and builds which can sacrifice their multiattacks for another purpose and I wanted to change that, longbowmen were hench and a crossbow is a better weapon for weaklings. I don't know why I spend so long replying to a comment made 2 years ago.
Another great episode! I too am reworking Orcs in my homebrew campaign. What I'm doing with them is making them more matriarchal like the Drow, but the males have a bit more say. But this episode gave me some good ideas as well to add. Also "WAAAAAAAGGHHH!" xD
+blahlbinoa Thanks for your continued support. Let us know how your orcs/campaign turn out.
It's going to take awhile. So far it's coming along nicely, but I have way to much stuff to hash out for the time being.
+blahlbinoa definitely know what you mean. Just started the Spelljammer campaign and there's still so much to do.
That's Awesome! I hope it all goes well for you and your group. Also, since I just picked it up. Will you two be talking about the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide at all in a future episode?
+blahlbinoa I don't have my copy yet, but once I do, we'll certainly incorporate it into a show.
"The Elf plucked it out, PRUITT!"
"You don't want to be a Britta about it"
I love that reference.
I am so fucking Britta, brah.
Orcs rule. I will never be bored of them.
And I agree, Orcs or Orks from Games Workshop are my favorite interpretations of them. Brutal, badass but also hilarious and even charismatic in a strange way.
Since 5e has cyclopes right in the Monster Manual, I might like to have them as another of Gruumsh's races.
My favorite version are the orks of the open, frozen plain of the north east coming in huge mounted hordes. They conquer villages, but any that just surrender they leave undisturbed since they don't have the will or honor to fight. the ones they do conquer can be made into vassels but require some intermarrying. and yes, that should work both ways. I always had in my mind a character that is a human ranger that has elves as his favored enemy because he actually loved his orc mother who was a good person once she got out of the violent orc society, but was killed on sight by an elf.
OMG, it's a beardless Pruitt!
This must the first season of TNG.
So speaking about orcs, im running a campaign where they are basicly the "good guys". Basicly they were creted by elves in their mad tries to make the perfect slave race, but their creators turned on them, concidering them to be too much of a risk. The orcs survived the slaughter, the elves lost their magic (That went haywire, letting demons into the world and such. They also created the Terrasqe to stomp down the orcs, and then it went haywire) and since then the orcs are basicly trying to fix the problems made by their former masters. Sure, they may still assemble in large hordes and invade human lands, but then it is to sieze and collect, if not destroy, powerful elven artifacts that can cause mayham, stop a monstersurge about to happen and so on.
The orcs societies are the indians, mongolians and amazons of the world (oh yes, a whole tribe of orc females looking for shnu-shnu and a good fight), and the name Orc is in their own language not realy a name, but a virtue they aspire towards. While lacking a good direct translation, it can mean to be Strong, Beautifull, Honorable, Wise, Witty and Generous.
The Orcs of the world is also capable spellcasters since magic comes into the world (and bloodlines) through mixed blood and "half-races" (as in half elves, half orcs and so on) since the elves lost the gift, and orcs were one of the earliest civilizations to embrace intermingeling with other races.
man i love orcs, but i hate it when they are just the big bad brutes from the mountains that comes down to plunder and rape and murder because all orcs are EEEEEVIL!!!!!
Watching this I just got the idea of having a group of orcs hire the party to escort their villagers as they relocated to a new place to build a village. However the orcs have disguised themselves as humans using white clay, and are intelligent after the source where they drew water from had some kind of weird alignment changing potion or magical effect leaked into it. It might be an interesting take on the whole 'escort mission' job that a lot of lower level adventurers start out on.
My Orcs are similar to the super-mutants from Fallout. They're tanky, big and dumb, but they can be good friends.
Love the idea of celts/orcs with red warpaint!
This was a really good video. Yeah I think the orcs have gotten a raw deal. I like them as a group that's just trying to do their thing and survive.
Man! I could listen to you guys talk about breeding orcs all day long.
Something I really like about 5e, they did a great job giving you an idea of Orc culture and motivations in the Monster Manual. Before 5e I viewed them as boring mindless brutes. Now I really enjoy playing them as more, half native american, half vikings. They have there own internal honor and code that puts them at odds with the rest of the world. Much more interesting.
Community reference, you guys rock. Great videos
I like the idea that high rollers aerois have for their orcs. Their orcs live on islands and sail the seas, have dreadlocks, etc. their not necessarily roving warbands, but their just tougher than the normal humanoid
The Orcs in the Elder Scrolls games are an inherinently honorable if more tribal culture and their blacksmiths are prized. I think that's a cool take on the orc and always been my favorite elder scrolls races to play as.
I like the idea of making Orcs basically Ogrillons or Half-Ogres to set them apart more from Goblins. It also can be fun to subvert the standard tropes by having them more likely to ally with humans against more alien or elite races like Elves and Dwarves, etc.
In my campaign, I made a race of Orc/Archmage mistakes called AndroOrcs, A mixture of a androsphinx and orcs, they are often enherently good and have a hate of normal orcs because they were made to exterminate them entirely, but they have made a race for themselves and trade with other races
Orcs are my favorite to. :) In my game they are mostly evil and worship Grummsh but their is one tribe of orcs that have cast themselves out from them and follow Obad-Hai as and are a more Druidic tribe.
Campaign i'm doing right now (homebrew) features Orcs as the main goodguy force, it's basically a region where all the local Orc clans have grouped up under a legendary orc barbarian to free themselves of their slavery and fight back against the Ogres that have been enslaving them and other lesser races, like the Orcs, Goblins, and Dwarves who have banded together to take out this Ogre Empire.
That dungeon orc campaign sounds really cool actually, I'm gonna try and use it too.
I have the culture of the orcs in my world be very circumstantial and based on environment, which I do with most races, actually.
I got the idea from a documentary about the beginning of the Viking Era where the Scandinavians did what was necessary to fend off rivals and feed themselves.
Orcs have a reputation for being warlike and brutal because they have to be. Without the resources or legal protection to create a sustainable society, they resort to raiding in order to sustain their own clan or arm themselves against a more aggressive one.
But there are also orcs who live in areas with enough resources to build entirely self sufficient villages and trade things like surplus grain and lumber for tools or merchantile goods.
Whatever I can do to avoid the entire race being one hat plus a single gimmick per campaign.
8:14 Orcs as Bonobos vs the traditional Orcs as Chimps.
I like my orcs like I like my Drow. They're not inherently evil, but they are bred to be, and escaping their society's dark practices for them is a rare exception.
In the campaign about defending the dungeon I think playing a kobold rogue who specializes in making traps instead of disarming them would be really neat, and for the heck of it multiclass into warlock to make a pact with juiblex to control slimes to clean up the mess.
When I hear "Web DM", I keep thinking "Web MD" :)
I think that's kind of the point.
I love you guys.
We love you too!
Are you guys streaming/recording any of your campaigns? I think i'd watch it.
We are working on it.
Please do it! We need more good quality DND recordings besides Acquisitions Inc. I think you guys could run a really fun and interesting campaign :) 10 Min shorts are good but learning from a great DM during a session is my kind of learning style
JPruInc steam spelljammer
i play orcs like a mix od warhammer and skyrim. so a gruff harsh race that like smashing stuff. but not so rought that they wouldn't help some one if thats the way they are.
I listen to your webcast because the conversation is intelligent and clean. There are several others who usually fail at this second issue, and frankly listening to guys who use four letter words as part of their vernacular gets boorish almost immediatly. Keep up the good work gentlemen.
I like my orcs lawful evil and with a similar social structure to the Orsimer from skyrim. They are very militrisitic, not tribal, so they enslve humans to breed half-orcs and train them as elites.
I go with the Elder Scrolls lore version on the Lore, been playing as a Female orc in Skyrim recently with the last name being based on WoW's Orcs. she is a GreatSword fighter.
You know you mentioned using Klingon as inspiration ive always seen orcs as the fantasy Klingon (i watched star trek long before i even read my first fantasy book let alone play d&d)
Web DM I would like to see a few more tactical combat tips, like in the Red Dragon videos. Keep making those vids :)
I'm curious with all the talk of interbreeding races, what are your thoughts on Mongrelfolk?
+cjcrashoveride to piggyback off of your comment, having an entire video dedicated to the idea and implementation of half-breeds, mongrels and hybrids into campaign settings or as PCs would be awesome.
+ZaidZilla We'll put it on the show idea list.
+cjcrashoveride One DM I played with once combined every PHB and humanoid monster into a master list of half/half PC races. It had 30+ entries and it took forever to work out all the details. Unfortunately because it was 3rd edition I ignored it and played a human.
Im currently running a home-brew setting in which orcs were actually once a respected race of people, intelligent and cultured; and lived on islands magically floating miles above the ocean, held together by a giant tree. Someone long ago destroyed the magic keeping their islands and the tree floating. The subsequent fall to the ocean below destroyed most of their temples and art as well as killed many of them. The dying tree poisoned their water and caused their resources to become scarce. That and conquest from other races led them to eventually become the brutish and violent race they're known to be.
Currently, many orcs are enslaved through magic to act as labor for other races. There are certain factions of orcs looking to free their kin and attempt to reclaim their culture.
Interesting that you mentioned real-world "barbarian" societies as the inspiration. Monguls are the inspiration for my orcs!
just found your channel. love you guys. btw orcs for life!
Jim's English orc accent was actually really good! (Sorry Pruitt)
I use orcs as gehngis kahns in my campaign, not just strong, but smart. I let them show signs of intelligence and agriculture, as well as excellent battle tactics.
Let's play 2e AD&D Reverse Dungeon!
3:38 I like that idea of them just being a nomadic race rather than inherently evil and born from evil , just an evil leaning race but more for their own survival and preservation
Speaking of military campaign, and strange Orks, have you read the Malazan Book of the Fallen? High fantasy magic levels, but down in the mud characters, so how does a war run with Archmages and High Priests kicking off? What about Dragons and Demigods in a medieval war? And for the Strange Orks? The Ghost Face Barghast Clans would be a viable Ork society.
In my homebrew setting, my Orcs have a dedicated empire of their own, so they're a bit more laid back, but being Orcs, they still eat other sentient races. Cue Orc farms where they have elf, halfling and gnome slaves that grow crops for them to trade. Then they breed them and eat the older generations. So on one hand, civil and willing to work with other races. On the other, cannibalistic slavers.
you get ENTIRELY too much satisfaction out of saying "Hot DQ"
It's my safe word.
The correct term for painted naked orcs throwing each other around is: fast *balls* special
My current orcs aren't necessarily evil, but they are brutal and shrewd, brought about by years of needing to survive in harsh conditions
A buddy of mine had a pirate character who captured a goblin/orc pirate ship... Instead of killing them all he let them surrender and join his crews
I don't like to have every goblin to be neutral evil or every ogre chaotic evil but they can be a little good and can help the party
In the universe I built, orcs are divided into the peaceful Buddhist-esque Raosworn orcs and the more bog standard black orcs, so I get to have it situated in such a way as to have orcs be just another humanoid race, but also have the classic stuff everyone's used to.
I just made a one shot where a winged kobold sorcerer has a gang of Orcs, goblins, bugbears, gnolls and he just wants to get back at an Ettin who betrayed him
lol i made orcs in my world like mongols mounted on armored bulls they lived on plains near the hobgoblin kingdom that was based on rome
I'm playing an 'ork' in my groups current DnD campaign and I'm trying to make it the warhammer style of ork. Im finding it really handy cos 3 People in the group have these dark heavy
tragic back stories and then theirs me shouting Wharrrrrg! and doing stupid stuff to balance them out.
I like orcs that have a cross of Mongolian horse/samurai culture.
This gave me the idea to have orcs act like Germanic and Turkic peoples on the frontiers of the Roman and Chinese empires - they agree to stop raiding in return for deliveries of food and gold. So there can be peace between the orcs and other people, but it;s always tense.
I love my orc-kind, and are as varied as humans in setting. I treat them similar in ecology, economy, regionally, inter-racially, the whole sh'bang.
I wish you guys would play d&d on youtube.
I think Orcs should be the base player race, Half-Orc (and Half-Elf) shouldn't be their own race but something you can put on top of being a base race. Heck maybe Half-Human should be one as well.
Funny how people only bring up whether the coupling was willing with orcs... goddamn specist's. And in all seriousness if you want to get into you could just as easily have a human noble with the same question in their past and It would be more interesting in my opinion. How does it affect your characters view of nobles? Does your character have a tendency to think less of their fellow humans? Have they reacted in a more complex way? I think a perfect example of this is Zuko's mom in avatar, it's not explicit in the show but if you look into it the story there basically started out with the firelord going up to her and saying "Your a powerful firebender and where gonna make some powerful firebender babies. Wouldn't want to have to execute your family or something like that."
I'm paraphrasing and he doesn't literally say that but he might as well have given the culture and position of power he's in, plus the fact they literally took to beating them is probably not a sign of anything resembling a healthy relationship... damn that show can get dark if you read between the lines. However it is still for the most part a pretty lighthearted show with plenty of laughs and it's done tastefully to the point a child can watch without you having to worry as a parent. Even if your going full game of thrones make it more like the books not the show, going full on gratuitous and emphasizing those aspects just desensitizes people and ruins the fun of anyone it's advisable to be in a room alone with.
Actual rape shouldn't be sexy unless where talking from the perspective of a character who's into rape... goddamnit anime I still love you but... also is it just me or did every american cartoon from the 2000s directed at that age group need to have a "Women can fulfill the creepy ass predator archetype to kids!" episode?
Nice show.
Grey Orcs :) Smarter and more cohesive.
In my current game thereis orc tribes from west that rase and breed the bigest and thougest war horses in the realm.
sense you guys are modernizing the class episodes lately, will you do the race/monster ones evemtually???
In our game the dm and I are working Gruumsh as a protective father-like diety that is only raged up because he thinks his children have been cheated and are discriminated against by elves and humans for being less beautiful. My tribe has lived in a hidden valley and carry on a ancient tradition of hag like Druid matrons and a warrior chief. We have sacred bronze working traditions and my Paladin wants to bring in other tribes and help educate them in the true way of Gruumsh and get them past their savagery and raiding
I feel like this has probably been asked somewhere and I just don't know where to find it, but is that a DM screen castle and if so, where is it from cause that looks to die for
When you guys we talking about the orca breeding it gave me an idea.
What about a PC who’s half-Halfling and half-orc?
Patrick Beach wouldnt that be like a peacful more intelligent goblin
FatGungan memes maybe but I think being a mix of both races would be really cool for roleplay, and would be funner (if that’s even a word) than just playing as a goblin
Patrick Beach are you thinking of playinh as thischaracter?
As someone of Celtic heritage, I'm offended that Jim couldn't be bothered to offend me
I based my orcs on a pseudo scientific characterization of the neanderthal. Some one wrote a book entitled "Them And Us" which was all about how neanderthals were monstrous ape like creatures, covered in thick, black hair and with large eyes suited for nocturnal hunting. Allegedly they hunted humans to eat or rape them. My orcs are pretty much the same, a devolved, carnivorous throwback of a species. They fashion clubs and stone spears, but can also obtain and use better weapons. They don't necessarily care for treasure, only to eat flesh and reproduce. They're easily controlled by powerful magic users because they're relatively stupid.
didn't the Neanderthals have larger brains than Sapiens?
Yeah but Larger brain doesn't actually equal smarter.
I use Orcs like Native Americans in my home brew world and the Elves are more like the European Settlers that landed on America. It gives an interesting twist on the setting and making them super spiritual, and tribalistic with out the innate evil inside them actually make them a more respected and fun race to interact with.
They also created a race of half or half elf hybrid called the spawn after completely decimating an elven settlement and killing off the men. They kept the women as breeding slaves and created a hybrid that has the ferocity and strength of an orc with the nimbleness and intellegence of an elf. Called the spawn. Elves actually came back and killed those orcs holding that settlement hostage, then left behind the children created by this experiment. The Spawn are now tribal race that veiw Elves and Orcs as Angels and Demons. Calling the elves "mother" and orcs "father." Its fucking awesome.
Also Firbolgs are taken as slaves by the elves, like the Africans during the european colonization of America and brought across the sea to be forced into physical labor. Get some pretty bad ass Fribolg Barbarians as run away slaves. It's a fun homebrew setting tbh.
I'd say the reason Orcs are CE is because they have terrible tempers, but they are smart enough to know what they are doing is wrong. So in other words, at least in my mind, they aren't just drawn toward evil, they just can't help it.
So you want to run Dungeon Keeper as a DnD campaign.
...I would actually love to see if I could pitch that exact kind of campaign to my players... I loved Dungeon Keeper!
I much prefer the pig snout to the Peter Jackson approach.
Having read Eragon in highschool, I particularly like the way the closing book handled the Urgals (basically orcs), and attempted to bring them into the fold alongside dwarves, elves and humans.