Hey all.

Just wondering how you use orcs in your games. When I played Pathfinder, my campaign's orcs were just normal creatures like everyone else in the world, with some offshoots and tribes being totally devoted to violence and war. I've also played campaigns where orcs are pretty much evil, Tolkien style, and if you want to be a "good orc" you have to be a half-orc, and even then NPCs totally distrust you. 

I think in the world I'm creating, the Orc homeland just so happens to border a void where demons have spilled out from since the beginning of time, so they naturally have developed to be warlike due to the constant threat of anhelation.  The Orc diaspora embody these deep seated traits and generally revere violence and strength  but plenty shun that way of life and live normally in society.

I want to hear your thoughts. How do you treat orcs? 

I don't play orcs to their CE alignment as in D&D, but instead NE. That way, they're still somewhat wary of powerful foes and won't fling themselves into battle just because there's a good pile of loot if they win, but they're still evil enough that if characters come across them, they will fight, but not to the death.

It varies in my games from campaign to campaign. Depending on the setup if there are orcs around they take on a culture that fits the setting and adds to the overall story.

Of all the variants I've ever tried, the most entertaining one was having orcs be an Aztec culture. Everyone really took to incorporating Aztec art and architecture into how they saw the world and they weren't simple 'evil' orcs or 'sacrifice everyone for God' Aztecs. I did my best to honor the culture and it really worked well for the brief campaign.

My Orcs aren’t necessarily evil (though a good number are), but they’re isolated, violent, and mistrustful, and they’ve often warred with the other races, though they’ll band together against greater threats. In the present day, with humans in control, they’re more focused on keeping their own lands than conquest. Aesthetically, they’re Tolkienesque, but often more barbaric than malevolent.

In my Wild West setting, the orcs are native to the land. No one knows how they got there, because the place is untraversable by normal means. I don’t even have a canon idea for how they got there, though I’m probably gonna say that they are the remnants of the ancient elven civilization that once lived there, before a cataclysm turned it into a vast desert. They have built up a fairly advanced society, and while they did not initially have firearms to defend themselves when dwarves first came to their land, they have an unusually high number of storm sorcerers. In fact, their society is ruled by a council of these powerful sorcerers known as Lahi’Gaur, and they believe that they were created from the blood of a great storm spirit mingling with the sand. Most of them live in one city, Anth’Tkur, a city full of massive spires that stretch to the clouds.

Quote from TortleDude >>

Hey all.

Just wondering how you use orcs in your games. When I played Pathfinder, my campaign's orcs were just normal creatures like everyone else in the world, with some offshoots and tribes being totally devoted to violence and war. I've also played campaigns where orcs are pretty much evil, Tolkien style, and if you want to be a "good orc" you have to be a half-orc, and even then NPCs totally distrust you. 

I think in the world I'm creating, the Orc homeland just so happens to border a void where demons have spilled out from since the beginning of time, so they naturally have developed to be warlike due to the constant threat of anhelation.  The Orc diaspora embody these deep seated traits and generally revere violence and strength  but plenty shun that way of life and live normally in society.

I want to hear your thoughts. How do you treat orcs? 

In my current campaign world, the usual evil humanoids (orcs, goblins, kobolds etc, plus dragonborn as draconic cousins to kobolds) are effectively the "indigenous" races and the usual PC races (human, elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome) were refugees who arrived about 700-800 years ago.

There was an awful lot of propaganda depicting orcs in the traditional D&D 'war-crazed and bloodthirsty' way in the early days (Volo's Guide to Monsters in an historical in-world tome you can find on certain bookshelves that's maaaybe 20 percent accurate) rather than simply as the clannish nomads they are, and those attitudes still hold sway in some circles, but there's been peace for decades now and slowly the two groups are integrating -- at least, closer to the frontier they are.

The current party I'm DMing for is a mix from both groups -- human sorcerer, elf ranger, halfling rogue, orc warlock and kobold paladin.

My world's Orcs are fairly similar to the Orcs of Eberron, as in they're more nature-connected, but they have a few major differences. First off, Orcs worship nature and nature spirits/deities. The main one that they worship is Ubtao (formerly just the God of Chult, but became the God of the Wilds and History), but they also worship King Oberon (consort of Queen Titania), and powerful nature-spirits like Archdryads and Treants. 

They're typically Druids and Rangers, but quite often also have Nature Clerics and Oath of the Ancients Paladins leading the communities. 

My orcs have their own warrior culture.  They are the D&D equivalent of Klingons.

There are two main orc nations on my main continent.

The Northern Orcs -  mainly live in the Eotenland Peninsula, but they have long established colonies in the Skye and Widderzee Islands.  They actually had a massively wealthy society about 1500 years ago, after they broke away from the Giants, but then they essentially got knocked back to the stone ages by the plague.  During the lean years that followed, the people of Akershus started dabbling in diablerie, with a twofold effect: 1) This was the introduction of tieflings into the world; and 2) the cult of Baphomet began to infiltrate and corrupt the native orcish worship of Gruumsh.  The effects of this are felt to this day.

Akershus is a sort of neutral trading city between the Eotenland Peninsula Orcs and the Beneficent Empire of Cardendos.  It marks the southernmost point of what could really be called Orc lands.  Further north there are the wooly rhinoceros herders of Thunderheim and (god help us) the real hicks of the City of Glory.

The Chorzhoi Orcs - Occupy a big chunk of the central part of the continent.  Open prairieland.  These orcs are master horsemen and serve as the right hand for the (human) Kniaz of the Kyrghan Autocracy.  They spend much of their time terrifying the serfs, but remain in a near-constant state of warfare keeping Cardendan forces from striking west into the Amber Lands.  Their raiding parties are also a constant thorn in the side of the Dwarven Kingdom.

In my world, Orcs are one of the 5 original races, each created by either the goddess of light or one of the 4 elemental gods. And because my world is heavily tied to the elemental planes and the 4 elements as a whole, I decided that orcs were created by the goddess of water and the ocean. This means that my orcs are heavily tied to the sea, becoming seafaring nomads and sailors that travel across the waves, instead of the roving bands of land based nomads they are usually presented as. Also, I wanted to get rid of the idea of completely evil races in my world, because I prefer the idea that anyone could be good or evil, and so orcs are typically viewed normally. As a result, orcs have a large amount of their populations near the coasts, heavily inspired off of a mix between Polynesian cultures and Spanish/Portuguese cultures. Many orcs have become some of the best traders, explorers, and pirates the world has to offer.

 I do have a subrace of land based orcs, and there are a few evil, more traditional orcs who have been swayed into worshipping the god of darkness. But for the most part, I treat orcs the same as every other race. 

My orcs are barbaric chaotic evil spieces, savage and aggresive in nature, that rarely co-exist peacefully very long with other races living near them. Most encounter involving them quickly turn to violence.

The orcs of my homebrew world differ from the typical ones by a lot. Gruumsh doesn't exist, and instead they were created by the giants as a means to interact with the "small folk." Most of orcs operate in tightly knit tribes that are born, live, and die together. Due to colonization and several other factors, many orc tribes have some number of humans and half-orcs, who are treated equally to the full orcs. Their traditions revolve around the land, and they take only what they need, as to preserve the wilderness in all its beauty. Due to being created by the giants, most orcs have an innate prejudice towards dragons and dragonborn, who they view as tyrants doomed to extinction (though the second part is true of dragons). 

In my world, all humanoids come from humans. There were just humans, but then magic was discovered. This resulted in a magical elite who later were named the Tyranno.

The Tyranno enslaved the people and genetically modified them to better perform their jobs... so that's how you get metal oriented dwarves, wood oriented elves, pastoral giants, rock oriented goblins, animal taming halflings, and clay/ceramic based Orcs.

The Orcs are just another kind of normal person, though they do have their own customs built around clay, glass, and ceramic. They have long forearms and legs, but abnormally short thighs and arms. They also have very strong jaws which ever since the word's liberation have started sprouting huge fangs.

If you need a bad stereotype to play one, think about the Creoles living down in Florida and Louisiana.

In my homebrew world orcs were once nomadic tribes, a couple of them established cities with smaller villages around them. But most tribes eventually dispersed and you can find orcs in most diverse countries, but they are definitely fewer in numbers.

I always like the crazy idea that "Orc invaders" are just emissaries and explorers who simply look brutish and have traditions that might seem brutish to delicate societies. The Orcs entered a neighboring realm that is default-hostile towards Orcish ways without known cause to the Orcs. This would be troublesome for an ultimately peaceful but strength-focused nation.

Bad assumptions all around.

Essentially, anyone else starts something, they finish it. Usually, someone else starts something.

One caveat: Very few Orcs know Common. It is exceedingly difficult for them to tell their side of any encounter.

There are places dotted around where everyone has found enough common ground to coexist just fine, but the majority of the non-Orc realm focuses mostly on what makes people different. That focus on what's different is too alien to Orcish society to understand. Only actions matter... and the actions of those they encounter tell a bad story to them beyond their known "borders" (as it were - they don't understand that concept, either).

I don’t have orcs but there is a race called “orcs”… they are half orcs mechanically and are much closer to humans, just a little bigger, stronger etc.  They are isolationist and have a culture that venerates strength and individual freedom… as a result the keep getting conquered so they are becoming more and more distrustful of the other races.  Currently their homeland is under the control of my version of high elves.  There is a vast diaspora of refugee orcs across the rest of the lands… some are mercenaries but there are traders, priests, etc.  

Dwarves hate them because they helped the humans overthrow the dwarves back when the dwarves were controlling the orc lands… now humans are trying to manipulate the orcs as a proxy against the high elves.

Basically, orcs are just another PC race… and not monsters.

Goblins, OTOH, I ratcheted up to make both more monstrous and more dangerous.  And someone got them all hooked on magical meth.  Goblins are a mess.

Brutal raiders from beyond civilisation. They murder and butcher and eat the settled people. They represent an existential threat to civilisation. They aren't friendly, cuddly orcs. They will skin you and wear your skin as a prize.

Quote from Verenti >>

Brutal raiders from beyond civilisation. They murder and butcher and eat the settled people. They represent an existential threat to civilisation. They aren't friendly, cuddly orcs. They will skin you and wear your skin as a prize.

You rarely see a more perfect match of post and avatar

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Quote from Verenti >>

Brutal raiders from beyond civilisation. They murder and butcher and eat the settled people. They represent an existential threat to civilisation. They aren't friendly, cuddly orcs. They will skin you and wear your skin as a prize.

 

You rarely see a more perfect match of post and avatar

 Field Marshal Joachim Murat?

I admit I mostly use orcs for sort of random violence roving bandit kind of enemies.

But the one half-orc that appeared in my campaign was a law-abiding, hardworking guy, if a little rough around the edges. A fair and jovial guy. Anyone would be happy to count him has a friend. I think in general half-orcs in my world are urban working class up to lower middle class.