Nobody is forcing a narrative; you’re welcome to use orcs as you like. Evil is just no longer the “default”.

@Thursaiz: There is nothing written here that prevents or negates you from having your boring, bland, uninspired angry evil Orcs. The only thing being "forced" here is more creativity. 

@Thursaiz: Actually, literally nothing on this page implies that Orcs are 'peaceful', as you imply. That word doesn't appear on the page. Neither does anything even resembling it. That's a value judgement that you've injected into the article all on your own.

In reality, this page is extremely neutral towards Orcs. It says that Gruumsh was a powerful deity and that he gave his people gifts that made them adept travelers. That's... I mean, that's also true of other versions of Gruumsh, no? Was your version of Gruumsh neither powerful nor interested in the flourishing of Orcs?

Recent D&D publications have made an effort to be more setting-neutral, which is to say, they want to give people a basic outline of what this species is without ascribing any one setting's assumptions onto it. Orcs in Faerun are the same creatures as the Orcs in Eberron, but their histories and allegiances are gonna be different. In your game, maybe Orcs are maligned, evil creatures that worship a vengeful god, but now instead of that being the default, it is one of many options.

I find it strange that you'd choose to be [like this] about this roleplaying game giving players more room to be creative.

Because they're peaceful now, their Savage Attack is now gone. Got replaced with a skill that let's you run away better.

They lost Savage Attack which was only useful in combat, for an ability that that is extremely useful in combat (If I am playing an Orcish Cavalier, I am going to want to be able to tank hits better and temp hitpoints let me do exactly that), you are intentionally trying to paint this change as bad, when you're just upset you deal one less damage dice....in exchange for being able to take a hit better.

Actually, ORCS never had Savage Attack. You're thinking of Half-Orcs. Please double-check your manuals, as ORCS always had Adrenalin Rush.

If anything, they made orcs better by doubling their darkvision's range.

Their only detriment now is that they no longer have the Powerful Build trait that allows them to carry more stuff.

Not forcing anything. Evil is just not the default anymore.

Quote from Thursaiz >>

Why are all of these races peaceful now? Why is Hasbro now forcing a narrative about everyone just getting along? Do they forget the entire point of why Orcs are in fantasy settings to begin with? Here is the description from 2014 versus now. I know which one most campaigns will use...

 I'll be curious to see if Gruumsh is changed from being an evil god when the DMG drops.

@RinSigua: That's more on you if you're choosing to run away like a coward. Instead, I see a fearless Orc rushing into battle, shrugging off hits.

I love it. I've always loved orcs and this is a solid race. My orc paladin can now almost always reach his foes. No running away from me! 

Bonus action dash plus temp HP sounds like charge INTO battle to me, not run away. 

I'm kinda glad they did away with the lifespan thing for races. Sure, I do like having some races that live on average longer or shorter lives. But I think most people want to make characters that don't have to neccesarily fit into that. Also glad they did waya with the maturity rate. Sure, it's more realistic. But it could get weird if you're playing a 10 year old who's techically 21 in whatever years, or someone that's 200 years old but looks like a child.

The reason I'm saying all this is because I'm about to play an orc sporcerer who I'd imagine would live past 45 unlike what older books said about orc lifespans

I'm a fan of the new changes. It feels like this new edition is more character oriented when it comes to species. Before, making an orc wizard would be a stupid decision because they have nothing to do with intellegence, and all to do with big muscles.

Now, orc wizard is more than viable! And I think that is a step in the right direction. Sure, people have grown attached to making big dumb hulking brutes, and that's perfectly viable too! Just because they've made it so you can make whatever type of character you want, doesn't mean you can't make Testoterone Mcbicep the Bulky. They simply made the different species have a wider arrange of viable choices, and made them more than what they originally could be in previous editions!

They want more people to try races that don't seem too violent, so if they want to be peaceful it does not seem to be against the race's nature and violence could just have a meaning. That is my take 

I like the idea of a half orc more than a full orc for role-playing. But I like the orcs abilities better. If you were a DM would you care if your players called them selves a half orc but used orc stats?

Wish you can make an orc character in the character builder....

You can if you buy the new player's handbook

     As I have been playing half-orc druids who don't enter battle but out-heal clerics instead, I find this change refreshing and long overdue.  Just because Tolkien assumed all orcs were savage warrior brutes doesn't mean I had to.  It's nice to see the gaming community begin to move past the stereotypes.   

While I personally think of Orcs as more savage in nature, I feel the changes were really made to give players more freedom without judgement. Often were the times where I'd meet DMs and/or players who stuck strictly the lore written in the handbooks. A paladin who let their party members engage in any law bending was at high risk of breaking their oaths, even if they didn't participate. Dark Elf and Orc players were forced to deal with distrust or downright persecution in towns and rolled with disadvantage when engaging in conversations. These practices of course are not the norm, but they're common enough that now people can't as easily point to the handbook as a reason to mistreat/typecast PCs based on their race.

Can I get a version of the PHB with picture of the ORCs, that actually shows ORCs and not half-orcs, since they no longer exist?