Say for a moment that you're planning on running an orc-centric campaign, in the sense that all of the players are orcs, and the setting is basically the orcish homeworld. How would you go about building this world and populating it? Over the top brutality is a must but I'm drawing blanks beyond that.
Is the world stuck in the stone age? Have orcs or ogres or some other race achieved dieselpunk? All very important things to consider.
Help me, /tg/. And discuss orcs while we're at it.
>dieselpunk orcs
So, Fury Road?
>>46458523
By making everyone a brutal orc you're taking away the fun thing about playing a brutal orc: sticking out like a sore thumb among civilized settings and characters.
I don't see what the upside is from a normal setting or how you'd make it interesting if you can't even get started without the fa/tg/uy brigade.
>>46458523
Orcish homeworld? What're you talking about, Warcraft?
>dieselpunk
No.
>>46458722
pretty much this: an orc-centric campaign would be cool, especially if you can put nuance into orcs while still keeping them obviously orc-y, but they still need to be contrasted with non-orcs otherwise what's the point?
>>46458523
Okay, here's my concept.
ESCAPE FROM HELL CITY. The players are orcish savages, but the overworld is ruled by the drow. They're the scary kind of drow, not the sexy kind - Lots of body horror, cutting instruments, basically the Dark Eldar. They're into freakish shit and have even scarier armor.
They hunt the savage peoples for sport, and have a dark city that exists perpetually beneath a black sun.
War is coming.
>>46458722
Mm, I have a different opinion on that. Orcs are generally always portrayed one of two ways in fantasy: bloodthirsty brutes, or forcibly honourable and shamanistic. The idea behind this setting is a means of humanizing them - you know, beyond simply making them assume the role that humans normally take in fantasy - while still holding on to the traits that make them orcs.
I've been playing a lot of FarCry Primal, and that's kind of what inspired the idea. I like the thought of a mesolithic-style campaign, and I feel like that era and orcs are a good fit. But that still raises questions, like what the megafauna would be like on an orcish world.
>>46458523
If I'm running an Orcish campaign, this is what the average Orc would be like.
>Pic related.
>>46458722
One angle could be for the players to stand for a more organized kind of brutality, which, while potentially superior, is so culturally frowned upon that they struggle to stay alive despite their proportional superiority. I mean, historically speaking, there have been many attempts at unifying or optimizing aspects of society, which failed not because they were badly implemented but because people and powers weren't ready to let it happen.
>>46458834
Hm, I can feel, but with the magical elements toned down. I like the idea of orcs definitely not being at the top.
>>46458875
>megafauna
>Massive wolves (worgs)
>huge mushroom forests
>harsh, deadly environments everywhere (think Dark Sun)
>other animals: scorpions, rocs, manticores, mammoths, boars
>>46458875
>>46459061
That sounds immensely dull.
>>46459147
Different strokes for different folks, my dude.
>>46459237
I can definitely see the appeal, but it seems like something that just doesn't provide much excitement once you step out of the bubble of expectations and get to rolling. Pretty in pictures but not in play.
Orcs would be master woodsmiths and at best, average blacksmiths.
Their strongholds are ayrroumded by long trunk pikes with pointesd tips.
The houses are very log cabin and viking guild hall like.
They honour strength and leadership above all else, and forge truces with other Orc strongholds and sometimes other race settlements. This might make the Orc Stronghold a mixed blood settlement,where you see plenty of half orcs and humans living with Orcs.
Outside their hold there farms, where they practice horticulture, and qithin the century might progress to full blown agriculture.
Orc skin colors range from gray to green, but there are rumors of blue and red skinned orcs to the east called Onis.
They pracrice ancestral magic, and use the ability for their community and work
Durring the spring, with allied Orc strongholds, and other race rribes that dare keep up, they travel and raid. This is their only interaction with the outside world, where they pillage ans rape. So of course othera see them as horrid brutes.
Pic related. My average orc, but less tusky
>>46459689
On mobile. Ignore spelling errors please
>>46458909
I kind of see the dark elves as being exceptionally cruel fae. Sometimes, in their hideous armor, they head off to hunt the primitive tribes for sport. If you don't flee in time, you're stuck with black-fletched arrows or thorn-spears, while the nobles mimic your distress with hideous fluting cries.
Some of them wear cloaks of skin.
It's very Elric of Melbione-ish, utterly decadent, utterly cruel. They have slave galleys manned by eyeless slaves with their legs removed, so all they can do is row. Any prisoners on their black ships eventually meet their deaths in the arena, their hands carved into bone-axes and forced to fight for the cruel amusement of the masters.
Basically, it's the closest thing to hell you could possibly imagine.
>>46459796
Replace Drow with Illithid mindflaying wizards then we've got a deal
>>46459880
Either works, but I was thinking savage primitives versus degenerate sophisticates. Also, evil elves and fey (Evoking images of the Wild Hunt) don't have to be very magical. They just have to be insanely cruel.
Mindflayers have all the psionic stuff 'built in' to their concept.
>>46459983
Yeah, but they also have that "we use to be the dominant species and its only a matter of time before blah blah blah"
Also they straight up eat sentient creatures
Not saying these drow wont be canibalistic
Also more Orc artwork
>Ctrl+f
>No Orc Stain
Get your shit together guys
>>46460371
I was literally about to post it. Stokoe's orcs are vastly superior to any other orcs in fiction.
I actually ran a rogue trader ork campaign with 6 players. 5 orks and one inquisitor ( basically DoW II shill). Funnest campaign I've ever ran.
>>46458607
Almost
>>46461186
>Funnest campaign I've ever ran
How so?
>>46461271
Not him, but I'm willing to bet it's because it was more fun than the other campaigns he's run.
>>46461271
>implying WAAAGH!=\=fun
>>46461297
>>46461308
Hmm I see.
>>46461189
Good taste.
>>46461327
Thanks.
>>46458898
Orc wizard? All the brutality, nine of that sexy strength Stat orcs love so much?
In the end orcs learn a valuable lesson, that not everyone needs to be a barbarian to bring ruin to their foes, and the wizard wins the respect if the barbarian status quo, and they sing Kumbaya around the gentle glow of bonfires made from the bodies of their enemies?
>>46459689
The Viking thing is a good idea. Classic Vikings were farmers, who understood horticulture, and also had a season where they'd go raiding, like a vacation or extended business trip.
>>46458885
Like a retard than his parents have put in a suit for a photo? That's mean.
>>46460537
This is the only answer too.
>>46461521
I was more thinking more coordinated group tactics, more efficient delegation, less focus on leaders being the biggest and baddest, more long-term strategy, shit like that. Basically just taking warfare to the next level of efficiency in a time and place where few are going to accept it, leaving you with many enemies and few allies, hanging on by a thread by using the methods you're being hunted for using. Fuck wizards.
>>46461721
Addendum: these changes would be contingent on re-distributing power within orc society, which is why it's perceived as a threat. Orc wizards feel threatened because their power hinges on them being the most educated and intelligent, orc chiefs feel threatened because their power hinges on individual combat ability. Orc wizards and their puppet muscle-heads oppose small group of orcs who promote more meritocratic forms of government, basically. Which doesn't mean they have to be less brutal, just that they're more sophisticated in their brutality.
>>46458523
I think absurdism is your friend in an orc centric setting.
Technology and culture should be completely out of sink, and in general very backwards.
Everyone wears leather 80s style clothing and has big over the top hairstyles, but technology is medieval-ish.
Despite the technological and cultural advancements all orcs still see themselves as members of small tribes, it is frequent for tribes to work together and form large conglomerates, with dozens or potentially a hundred or more tribes being members. Nonetheless almost every Orc considers their loyalties to be to their tribe before to any conglomerates.
A town in this universe could be home to 2-4 different tribes who generally get along but still have their disputes with one another, usually a council of leaders would try to keep the peace, with varying degrees of success.
A city in this universe may be home by as many as ten different tribes who sometimes settle disputes with gang like warfare. A council of leaders would try to settle disputes without violence but there would always be individuals who would be dissatisfied with terms and turn to violence regardless.
Magic is underdeveloped, and used by select few who prefer to keep the methods secret and are rarely willing to teach. Distrust of magic differs from tribe to tribe, a tribe with resident caster(s) would obviously be more trusting of magic, especially of the particular kinds of magic used by said caster(s). But if a rival tribe had caster(s) the kinds of magic used by those casters would be more distrusted.
As a matter of irony any non orc races should be severely distrusted by the largely orc societies, and usually have to live in small oftentimes isolated villages, they sometimes have to raid orc villages just to get by. As a result non orcs have a reputation for being "evil" and are frequently slain by orcish heroes. Non orcs living in orcish society are low in the social hierarchy and orc-hybrids are just as low.
