Lord of the Rings Orc and Orc-Kind Racial Templates

[Gavynn]

UPDATE!
October 17, 2007

At the suggestion of Mercator, I have chosen to edit my original post to display the most current version of the template so new comers to the board can see where we are right off. If you are new to the board, welcome, and feel free to comment!

Common Orc
Template Cost: -69 Points

ST -2

SM 0 (around 4’9” to 5’0”)
Orcish (Tribal Dialect) (Native/Illiterate) [-3]
Westron (Broken/Illiterate) [2]

Advantages
Night Vision Seven [7]
Fit (only when not in sunlight) [4]

Disadvantages
Unfit (only in sunlight) [-4]
Cowardice (SC 12) [-10]
Total Intolerance (all non-orcs) [-10]

Lesser Orc
Template Cost: -85 Points

ST -3 [-30]

SM 0 (average 4’6” to 4’9”)
Orcish (Tribal Dialect) (Native/Illiterate) [-3]
Westron (Broken/Illiterate) [2]

Advantages
Night Vision Seven [7]
Fit (only when not in sunlight) [4]

Disadvantages
Very Unfit (only in sunlight) [-12]
Cowardice (SC 12) [-10]
Total Intolerance (all non-orcs) [-10]

Black Orc
Template Cost: -21 Points

ST-3 [-30]
DX+1 [20]

SM 0 (average 4’6” to 4’8”)
Orcish (Tribal Dialect) (Native/Illiterate) [-3]
Westron (Accented/Illiterate) [4]

Advantages
Perception +2 [10]
Discriminatory Smell [15]
Increased Speed +1 [20]
Night Vision Nine [9]
Fit (only when not in sunlight) [4]

Disadvantages
Very Unfit (only in sunlight) [-12]
Social Stigma (minority Group) [-10]
Total Intolerance (all non-orcs) [-10]
Cowardice (SC 15) [-5]

Greater Orc (Uruk)
Template Cost: -18 Points

ST-1 [-10]

Orcish (Tribal Dialect) (Native/Illiterate) [-3]
Westron (Accented/Illiterate) [4]

Advantages
Long Arms +1 SM [20]
Night Vision Seven [7]
Very Fit (only not in sunlight) [12]

Disadvantages
Bowlegged [-1]
Unfit (when in sunlight) [-4]
Total Intolerance (all non-Uruks) [-10]

Uruk-hai
Template Point Cost: -43 Points

Westron (Accented/Illiterate) [-4]
Orcish (Local Dialect) (Broken/Illiterate) [4]

Advantages
Night Vision Seven [7]
No penalties to overland movement in night or day [1]
Very Fit [15]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Fearless +2 [4]

Disadvantages
Preference for Dark [-1]
Fanaticism (The White Hand) [-15]
Duty (always on, extremely hazardous) [-20]
Arrogance [-1]
Total Intolerance (all non-Uruk-hai) [-10]

All Orcs, Uruks, and Uruk-hai

Advantages
Less Sleep 4 [8]
Extended Life Span Two [4]
Early Maturation [0]
Rapid Healing [5]
Acute Taste and Smell +2 [4]
Sharp Teeth [1]
Resistance (Disease +8) [5]
Resistance (Poisons +3) [3]
Cast Iron Stomach [5]

Disadvantages
Hideous Appearance [-16]
Callous [-5]
Sadism (SC 6) [-30]
Odious Racial Habits [15]
Incompetence: Art [-1]
Dislike: Elven Artifacts and those of Westernesse [-1]

Half Orcs

Half Orcs can vary tremendously in their appearance and qualities. All but the most unusual individuals are at least unattractive in appearance, but many can hide their Orcish ancestry despite not being exemplary examples of human beauty. Whether or not the Half Orc in question can hide his or her Orcish ancestry determined by whether or not he or she has the “Orc-like Ap-pearance” Quirk [-1]. Typically Half Orcs will be unattractive, ugly or hideous (B.21) but that alone does not mean he or she cannot pass for human. If the Half-Orc takes the “Orc-like Appearance” quirk then the reason the character is unattractive (or ugly, or hideous) is because of distinctly Orc-like characteristic. Those familiar with Orcs would be able to identify such a character as an Orc (or some wicked perversion thereof) and even those people not personally familiar with Orcs would find the character obviously inhuman or monstrous. The reason this “Orc-like Appearance” trait is not worth more points is that those with this trait are rarely put into situations where such would be a major disadvantage. It certainly is not in battle! Those without this quirk are the ones sent to spy on the Free Peoples and are extremely valuable in that role.

Half Orcs are also likely to be bad tempered or callous. They may have any of the advantages or disadvantages of full blooded Orcs. They may also have these traits to lesser extents (such have possessing night vision, but to a lesser degree than full blooded Orcs). Additionally, those half Orcs who possess the “Orcish Ancestry” disadvantage are likely to posses more Orcish traits then those who do not. It is possible for some Half Orcs to be built on the unmodified zero-point human template. The Game Master is encouraged to create alf-Half Orc characters individually. In this way, they are a great enemy to keep the player character’s guessing as to their foe’s capabilities.

However, all Half-Orcs (even those which are otherwise entirely human) must take the quirk “Orc Blooded” for -1 point. Because of this disadvantage, all Half Orcs suffer the effects of weapons or artifacts that magically affect Orcs in any way (such as detection, extra damage, “to-hit” bonuses, intimidation, etc.). Characters with the Orc Blood disadvantage are detected by elvish wea-pons that glow in the presence of Orcs, even if the glow is faint.

Suggested Half Orc Template One
Template Cost : 6 Points

This Half Orc racial template is appropriate for use for some of Saru-man’s top captains.

SM 0 (average around 5’4” to 5’9”)

Orcish Tribal Dialect (Native/Illiterate) [-3]
Westron (Accented/Literate) [4]

Advantages
Night Vision Four [4]
Acute Taste and Smell +2 [4]
Resistance (Disease +8) [5]
Resistance (Poisons +3) [3]

Disadvantages
Ugly [-8]
Orc-like Appearance [-1]
Orc Blooded” [-1]
Dislike: Elven Artifacts and those of Westernesse [-1]

Suggested Half Orc Template Two
Template Cost: 3 points

This Half Orc racial template is appropriate for use as Saruman’s spies sent to infiltrate Mannish societies as far from Isengard as Bree, and maybe further.

SM 0 (around 5’4” to 5’9”)

Westron (Native/Litterate)

Advantages
Night Vision Two [2]
Acute Taste and Smell +1 [2]
Resistance (Disease +3) [3]

Disadvantages
Unattractive [-4]
Orc Blooded [-1]

Original introduction:

Hello again everyone. Over the holidays I posted a template for Lord of the Rings Elves and Dwarves (linked in case you missed them and want to see what was going on). So here are the Orc and Orc kind templates - again, just a rough draft for discussion. Please, remember it is my intention to follows the books, rather than the movies. I did include an addition to lesser orcs below to create a movie "Moria Goblin". The template for the Uruk-hai below are for the Uruk-hai of the books, which were almost as tall as a man, not the massive creatures of the movies, although a movies uruk-hai soldier and berserker are going to show up in the appendix to my guide. Also, I have assumed that there is a differnce between the uruks of Mordor and the Uruk-hai of Isengard. I understand that there can be tremendous debate amoung Tolkien fans over whether or not Sauron had Uruk-hai in his service or not (I have participated in the debates on other boards). But please don't let that distract you. I think there is enough evidence that Grishnak and Ugluk were different creatures and should be built on different template, regardless of what they are called.

So, what changes do I think need to be made to these? Well, I want to model the orc aversion to sunlight different, perhaps through GURPS Powers. The weakness disadvantage is not the perfect fit, IMO. I think they should have a penalty to all action in the sun. The longer they stay in the sun, the greater the penalty. Then, after a certain time in the sun, they should become Unfit, and then finally Very Unfit. I just have to sit down and model that.

I want to adjust their appearance rolls. I went back and reread the section on appearance, and by giving all orcs hideous appearance, at adjusts their appearance to all other orcs, and orcs would not care about that. I need a racial feature that applies a penalty to others, but not other orcs and orc-kind. Same way with odious personal habits. Other orcs don't care they have OPH - they all do. Only something interacting with the orc that isn't one would be offended.

EDIT: I see in Fantasy that Trolls have a "Not to own kind" modifier to thier "ugly". That is the same modifier I need to add to orcs.

Finally, their disadvantage "Poor in Art' is supposed to apply to any time an orc would make any "artsy" test where how the final product looked would matter. It is not intended to penalize creating something functional in any way, just apply to how something looks. That may mean that I have it mispriced.

Anywho, as you can see, this is a work in progress, but for now I will shut up and present the drafts of the templates:

[Gavynn]

Uruk-hai
It costs -66 points to play an Uruk-hai.

Ability Adjustment
None

Languages
Orcish (Tribal Dialect) (Native/Illiterate) [-3]
Westron (accented/Illiterate) [4]

Secondary Characteristics

Racial Advantages
Increased Fatigue +2 [6] (B.16)
Acute Taste and Smell +2 [4] (B.35)
Sharp Teeth [1] (B.91)
Less Sleep Four [8] (B.65)
Night Vision Four [4] (B.71)
Extended Life Span [2] (B.53)
Fearless +2 [4] (B.55)

Racial Disadvantages
Odious Personal Habits [-15] (B.22)
Hideous Appearance [-16] (B.21)
Callous [-5] (B.125)
Poor in Art -4 [-20]
Duty (always on duty – extremely hazardous) [-20] (B.134)
Fanaticism (The White Hand) [-15] (B.136)
Intolerance (lesser orcs) [-5] (B.140)

Racial Quiks
Preference for Dark [-1]
Arrogant [-1]

Features
Early Maturation [0]
Cannibalistic [0]
Thick Black Blood [0]

Half Orc

Half Orcs can vary tremendously in their appearance and qualities. All but the most unusual example are at least unattractive in appearance, but many can hide their orcish ancestry despite not being exemplary examples of human beauty. Those half orcs that cannot hide their ancestry must take the “Orcish Ancestry” disadvantage for -10 points. Anyone who looks upon a half orc with this disadvantage will instantly be able to recognize that the character in question is not entirely human and those familiar with orcs might identify the person is being an orc. Those half orcs that do not possess this disadvantage are exceedingly valuable to Sauruman as spies. Half-Orcs are also likely to be bad tempered or callous. They may have any of the advantages or disadvantages of full blooded orcs. They may also have these traits to lesser extents (such have possessing night vision, but to a lesser degree than full blooded orcs). Additionally, those half orcs who possess the ‘Orcish Ancestry” disadvantage are likely to posses more orcish traits then those who do not (and might be built on a straight human template). The Game Master is encouraged to create half-orc characters indivisually. In this way, they are a great enemy to keep the player character’s guessing as to their foe’s capabilities.

[Wedhro]

That's a really good job!

A few considerations...

"Poor in art": -20 points is way too high. Incompetence (Art) [-1] should cover their inability to produce good-looking stuff in a more balanced way.

Duty: every kind of orc should have a Duty, with a low Frequency of Appearance for common orcs, and an higher one for White Hand and Barad-Dur orcs; in any case, it should be Involuntary, 'cause orcs serve only if threatened. No orc borns free, expecially during the War of the Ring.

Intolerance: it should be the -10 points version: "toward everyone not of my own kind". Orcs look down on Men, Elves, Dwarves and even orcs of other tribes.

Why the racial penalties on ST? Even if smaller than Men, orcs are depicted as very strong and tough.

What I'd add...

Very Fit: fleeing orcs can outmarch nearly anyone. A mere +2 Fatigue doesn't seem to cover it enough.

Cowardice (9): only Uruks fight for the sake of it. Evey other kind of orcs doesn't risk death "unless threatened with greater damage".

Sadism (12): orcs really enjoy inflict suffering on their prisoners...

Dread: orcs feel very uncomfortable in the presence of "elvish" beings and artifacts. I don't know how to model this, though.

[GnomesofZurich]

A few comments:

The nightvision applied to these templates seems too low; these creatures were born and bred underground and in the dark, so, if they retain sight, they should be able to deal with darkness fairly well. I would suggest 7-9 levels.

I agree that the ST penalties don't seem to make sense, if anything I would give Orcs a bonus to strength.

The Uruk-Hai are likely to be illiterate in Westron as well.

I'm unsure as to the justification for Less Sleep and Extended Life Span, either; it was my impression that the Orcs did not live longer than humans, but bred faster, and thus were more numerous.

[Wicked Lurker]

Orcs were bred from elves which suggests a longer lifespan I guess..

I agree to the nightvision comment and am sure on the ST either.

[NineDaysDead]

Orc lifespan.

The example of Azog and Bolg show that Orcs live quite a long time (Bolg succeeds Azog in 2799, when Azog is killed. Bolg is killed in 2941; 142 year after his father dies.) There some evidence in the Silmarillion that Orc are corrupted elves, and some people interpret the “shagrat & gorbag” conversation to mean they were at the last alliance thousands of years ago. So you could just give them Unaging [15] (They mostly seem to die of violence anyway).

[JAW]

They might also hawe high HT and/or resistance/immunity to disease.

[Gavynn]

Originally Posted by Wedhro

That's a really good job!

Thank you very much! All of this has been a labor of love.

Originally Posted by Wedhro

"Poor in art": -20 points is way too high. Incompetence (Art) [-1] should cover their inability to produce good-looking stuff in a more balanced way.

Noted. I had just reversed the point value of the artistic talent as a racial incompetence, but since the effect has nothing to do with functionality, your way feels better.

Originally Posted by Wedhro

Duty: every kind of orc should have a Duty, with a low Frequency of Appearance for common orcs, and an higher one for White Hand and Barad-Dur orcs; in any case, it should be Involuntary, 'cause orcs serve only if threatened. No orc borns free, expecially during the War of the Ring.

I hear you on the involuntary. That needs to be added. I am wondering about all orcs have duty though. Do you mean that all orcs everywhere should have duty to something or all orcs should have duty to Sauron or Sauruman? I would think that there would be a lot of “free” orcs running around at various times. The orcs of Goblin Town (from The Hobbit appear to operate largely on their own. I get the feeling that there are lots of those types of orc hideaways around Middle-earth, particularly in mountains an forests. I would not necessarily give them a duty (unless some of them have it on an individual level to their tribal masters – such as The Great Goblin). Or, are you saying that they should have duty to Sauron at a low level since he could exert his influence and draft them into his service? If I were creating templates for orcs around the War of Jewels, I would certainly give them all duty to Morgoth, but after his fall and the surviving orcs scattered, I would think many more independent orc tribes were created.

Originally Posted by Wedhro

Intolerance: it should be the -10 points version: "toward everyone not of my own kind". Orcs look down on Men, Elves, Dwarves and even orcs of other tribes.

True that.

Originally Posted by Wedhro

Why the racial penalties on ST? Even if smaller than Men, orcs are depicted as very strong and tough.

I knew I was going to have to argue the reduced ST point. Well, it goes like this… (IMHO)

The strength of the orcs is not in any one individual orc (that is what the elves are about), but rather absolutely endless numbers of them. They took horrendous casualties at Gondolin, but were undeterred. (Speaking of which I need Orcs to breed very quickly – either with short gestation times or with very common multiple births – or both, as racial features.)

I cannot see orcs having a bonus to strength. I’ll start with looking at Sauron’s Uruks, like Grishnakh. The Uruks are taller than orcs, but smaller than the Uruk-hai of Isengard. Even these Uruks cannot use “man-sized” weaponry, such as longbow. At first one might be tempted to explain this away as a matter of size (like their bows being smaller than the bows of men since their arms are not as long) but Uruks, we are told have long ape-like arms that almost reach the ground as they walk, so they certainly have the arm length and so forth to pull a man-sized bow. They must not possess the strength.

However, most critical to my argument is that the Uruk-hai are repeatedly specifically mentioned to be able to use man-sized weapons and their bows of yew (longbows??) are mentioned more than once. To me that means that the Uruk-hai are tall enough and strong enough to use longbows (requiring strength 11 in GURPS mechanics). I say that the Uruk-hai who use longbows would be trained in its use, like English Longbowmen, and therefore might individually have strength 11 – but not necessarily all of them. They are almost as tall/strong as men (not the surging masses of muscles depicted in the films). So I think human strength would be appropriate racially for an uruk-hai, although individuals can of course, vary.

Twice we are told that the uruk-hai fight with “broad-bladed swords” (although admittedly shorter) and not the curved scimitars usual for orcs that are presumably smaller. If the sword of the Uruk-hai were modeled as GURPS broadswords, then they should have a racially the strength (minimum strength 10 for broadswords) to use them. If other lesser orcs typically had the racial strength to use broadswords, there would be nothing remarkable for the Uruk-hai to use manish weapons. So, I think that it is justifiable to give the Uruk-hai just enough racial strength to use Manish weapons – with the ability for individuals to go higher than that to use longbows and such.

Working backwards from the Uruk-hai, the great orcs from Mordor should be not quiet as strong as the Uruk-hai. So I went with strength nine. Individuals, of course can be stronger. Grishnakh is described as being pretty strong, so he might not be strength nine personally, but then again he is the leader of the Great Mordor Orcs sent to secure the Ring, so, especially in orc-society where might makes right and leaders are those that can intimidate the others, it would make perfect sense for Grishnakh to me personally stronger than the average uruk. So I went with nine for the racial average of uruks.

So, then it just falls into place, I think anyway. Uruks are stronger than the common orcs, so common orcs get strength eight. Common orcs are stronger than the lesser orcs so they get strength seven. To me that works out well, as strength seven, according to GURPS is the least ST you can have and still be “able-bodied”. I happen to think that the body structure of the Moria Goblins happens to be appropriate for a lesser orc. If I human had the muscle mass and build of a moria goblin from the movie, he might very well be regarded as on the lowest end of able bodied. So me that works.

So I am open to arguments either way, but to me the lynch-pin is knowing that Uruk-hai are only orcs that can regularly use man-sized bows and melee weapons.

Originally Posted by Wedhro

Very Fit: fleeing orcs can outmarch nearly anyone. A mere +2 Fatigue doesn't seem to cover it enough.

Under consideration.

Originally Posted by Wedhro

Cowardice (9): only Uruks fight for the sake of it. Evey other kind of orcs doesn't risk death "unless threatened with greater damage".

I mentioned that many orcs have cowardice in the notes section, but stopped short of making it a racial trait only because I did not know how loosely “unless threatened with greater damage” was interpreted. I’d love to hear other people’s opinion on this. Are the orc captains (who presumably themselves do not have the cowardice disadvantage) sufficient to threaten greater danger? Or, are the captains also cowards, but just threatened by the Nazgul or The Eye? Over what kind of distance can the Nazgul and The Eye exert their influence over the orcs? To me the text was a bit ambiguous, so I left it out, but as I am tying this out, I am tending to lean toward adding it and just working out the threats a bit more.

Originally Posted by Wedhro

Sadism (12): orcs really enjoy inflict suffering on their prisoners...

Of course! How did I miss that??

Originally Posted by Wedhro

Dread: orcs feel very uncomfortable in the presence of "elvish" beings and artifacts. I don't know how to model this, though.

True, true. My idea was to model this as an elvish ability to intimidate checks. Elvish artifacts could also provide a bonus to intimidating orcs and orc kind when brandished before them.

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

A few comments:

The nightvision applied to these templates seems too low; these creatures were born and bred underground and in the dark, so, if they retain sight, they should be able to deal with darkness fairly well. I would suggest 7-9 levels. […]

The Uruk-Hai are likely to be illiterate in Westron as well.

I'm unsure as to the justification for Less Sleep and Extended Life Span, either; it was my impression that the Orcs did not live longer than humans, but bred faster, and thus were more numerous.

Thanks for the comments. I think the Uruk-hai would be illiterate. I’ll look into the night vision. Anyone else have an opinion on that? I think orcs do have a rather indefinite lifespan, but their violent nature just doesn’t allow many orcs to live to any great age.

Originally Posted by JAW

They might also hawe high HT and/or resistance/immunity to disease.

I have considered a higher HT. Come to think of it, Orcs would be great candidates for High Pain Threshold. That needs to be added. Resistance to disease! That is another one that I cannot believe I overlooked. Orcs live in such filthy conditions they should be immune to the disease such filth breeds. Good catch!

[Gavynn]

While I was out for lunch, I was thinking about Sauron's Great Orcs having long ape-like arms. Since their arms would be proportionally longer than a humans, that might be an advantage - perhaps qualifying them additionally reach. I looked up reach in the index and did not see anything. Is there an extended reach advantage? I looked in the ape template in the Basic Set and did not see the apes having such an advantage though.

[Sam Baughn]

Originally Posted by Gavynn

While I was out for lunch, I was thinking about Sauron's Great Orcs having long ape-like arms. Since their arms would be proportionally longer than a humans, that might be an advantage - perhaps qualifying them additionally reach. I looked up reach in the index and did not see anything. Is there an extended reach advantage? I looked in the ape template in the Basic Set and did not see the apes having such an advantage though.

See Extra Arms, notably the Long enhancement and Modifying Beings With One or Two Arms. I'm not convinced that an orcs arms would be long enough to justify such an advantage though; from the effects, it seems as though it would increase the arm length by a couple of feet.