What makes orcs

Unlike But I DO like his Orcs. I like how they're the manifestation of the "other" — of the foreign "oriental" horde that has an "unreasonable" and undeserved power and competence when they should be mentally deficient at the very least and mentally, morally, and physically deformed to the point of weakness.

However, they're not. People are individuals and feel and express and experience life in exactly that way. Orcs are a threat that threatens to overrun us and not culturally assimilate with us as actual conquerors do in real historic terms… they'll just roll over and destroy everything of value we have and treasure.

Their horde has no place for things of value or worth, so we can project everything "bad" on them and also justify our own inhumanity and disagreeable acts and antics by denying their humanity further.

They're basically, ugly, deformed, stupid, evil barbaric warriors who are cursed by nature to rape and pillage and be orky. Of course in fantasy you can have a redemption story which generally either results in an orc being special and basically becoming a human Sometimes the message is that of: were it not for Christ, civilization, tupperware, workers consciousness etc.

That's just pornography and while comforting in how easy it is — it sucks and isn't at all interesting and makes for terribly banal stories. Anyway, morality tales are for church sermons and afternoon specials not for fantasy story telling. The punks who came out of their poll tax riots, workers striking because their government was attempting to shut down their places of employment, an economy that was smaller than Italy's and threatened to drop down to fight Franco for poorest most miserable European country that wasn't currently hosting Red Army divisions at least had a literary tradition of biting amazing brilliant satire that had produced everything from convincing arguments to encourage the consumption of infants to prevent starvation and overpopulation in Ireland to fun music being played while a fat man on a small bicycle topples over.

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It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Thread starter Micah Sweet Start date Jul 17, Status Not open for further replies.

Micah Sweet Hero. It's in the title. If we want to avoid racially charged languages in our descriptions of intelligent humanoids and I sure think we should at least try , what does a "race" write up look like in the PH? Lore and mechanics, what differentiates an orc from a human, or an elf, or a gnome? Is it just physical appearance and lifespan? What are the mechanical widgets we're ok with, and how are those widgets explained in the lore?

I don't really want to take a side, as I have all the material I need to play any way I want if the future isn't to my liking, but I am curious. This would work with any race that people might want to use for PCs, so Kobolds, Goblins, Gnolls, et al are all on the table.

FrogReaver As long as i get to be the frog. Micah Sweet said:. Click to expand Guest Guest. Elfcrusher said:. I hate to sound glib, but for example Tortles and Centaurs both get the exact same racial bonuses, and I don't think there's any danger of those two races feeling undifferentiated.

In fact, of all the variables that make races "feel" different to play, I would say racial bonuses contribute the least. Racial bonuses for PCs are a hot-button topic, but they are entirely unnecessary.

Oofta Title? I don't need no stinkin' title. Well, obviously orcs are Not a niche already filled by half-orcs, no-sirree. In other words, I have no clue. Seems to me that we have orcs as playable races because of WoW, and that's about it. Doug McCrae Legend. Oofta said:. Downloads Latest reviews Search resources. Find Us! YouTube Facebook Twitter. Log in Register. Search titles only. Search Advanced search…. Post new thread. Create wiki page. Community supporters. All threads Latest threads Hot threads New posts.

Search forums. Log in. Install the app. Level up your 5E game! The standalone advanced 5E tabletop RPG which adds depth and diversity to the game you love! JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.

Thread starter Micah Sweet Start date Jul 17, Status Not open for further replies. Prev 1 … Go to page. Go to page. First Prev 6 of 31 Go to page. Campbell Legend. Helldritch said:. And a lot of these were introduced into the hobby by the old grognards themselves.

A good bunch of the newer players are, in fact, returning to the hobby after years of hiatus. They are using the newer setting because WotC does not wish to update Greyhawk and other old settings. You might be surprised at how fast boxed sets of Greyhawk are selling on eBay. For some reasons, old grognards like me are allergic to PDF files. This bugs me to no end but yet, I do have a gaming computer that a lot of young gamers are jealous about.

I have two tablets for PDF and a portable computer for faster references. And guess what? My group composed of old players like me do not use the tablets. I had to print out every documents I had to translate while my players that are in their mid thirties have their own tablets with the translated files. PS: I am a French speaking person and so are my players. I had to translate a lot of the books for them so that we could use all classes and spells.

I don't like to wait for translated books. Click to expand Helldritch Hero. Charlaquin said:. Maybe if you want races with mono cultures, you should play settings that specifically accommodate that, and let the core rules be as inclusive as possible. MGibster Legend. Micah Sweet said:. Unequivocally false. People have been pointing out this stuff for decades. This has been answered a dozen times in the threads related to orcs in dnd. I don't know about anyone else, but I am tired of having this same argument over orcs and drow.

Do we really have to have it in every thread? Now it feels like a witch hunt. The description of orcs fits the racists description of black people by racists. This approach has been hammered onto me time and time again. Just as drows are a racist depiction of black people too. Go read those thread, you will see.

Charlaquin Goblin Queen. A lot of people do not see this as you do. We do not deny their feelings. We do not agree as to why they have these. Unfortunately, the feeling and the origin of what leads to these perceptions can't be argued with because feelings and perceptions can't be argued with.

Am I a bad person for not seeing things as you do? I don't think so. But this is how some people try to make us feel. For me it is perfectly fine.