04-23-2011, 11:18 PM | #41 | |
Dog of Lysdexics
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Melbourne FL, Formerly Wellington NZ
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
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BTW you seem to have fallen in this trap: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/...them-15938.php |
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04-23-2011, 11:22 PM | #42 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
Moderator: Well, this generated complaints. It is fairly clear that this community does not deem digs about mental deficiency and retardation acceptable. Please drop the topic at once.
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04-24-2011, 12:08 AM | #43 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
That is a pretty good way to do it, actually.
There are plenty of historical precedents for cultures as violent and predatory towards outsiders as FRPG orcs. There are plenty of historical precedents for folks who hated their neighbours like FRPG folks hate orcs. In many FRPGs, orcs are fully inter-fertile with humans. So yeah, the orcs can be just an race of humans in a rather vicious and racist conflict with their neighbors. As long as the players are ok with grey and gritty RP, this can be fine fun. When your culture vigorously expects you to treat an entire race as vermin, there is room for great heroism. |
04-24-2011, 12:12 AM | #44 |
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Belém, Pará, Amazônia, Brasil.
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
I disagree with the above (Icelander's post). And by the way: I really like spiderman and comics in general and consider it a good entertainment.
Not everybody wants diversion to be complicated. Some people want to reserve this role for work, study and other parts of personal life. There are normal people, not retarded ones. I know many intelligent people that like to have fun with simpler things. But it seems a waste of RPG (especially Gurps) to play only with bidimensional orcs and elves. It does not make orcs work as only ugly humans. (Sure, since humans, orcs and elves can breed, They are actually the same species from biological point of view, even with the bidimensional approach, they could be considered only ugly humans. I actually considered a setting with this configuration with humanity splitting in true biological races inspired in fantasy races). Last edited by BaHalus; 04-24-2011 at 12:15 AM. Reason: Bad timing |
04-24-2011, 12:19 AM | #45 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
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04-24-2011, 12:32 AM | #46 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
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And why would Spider-Man not be a valid form of entertainment, or one that people don't think about? I'm active on forums where people put a lot of brainpower to work critiquing comic book stories, Spider-Man ones among them. |
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04-24-2011, 12:34 AM | #47 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! |
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04-24-2011, 12:40 AM | #48 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
The statement that everybody is scum in real life seems contradicted by even cursory observation, the idea that amorality equals depth seems more than a little suspect, and always remember that you're not playing with the player characters, you're playing with their players.
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04-24-2011, 12:41 AM | #49 |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
so to sum up.. some people like an enemy who is clearly an enemy.
in many popular genres, orcs are such a clear cut enemy with no redeeming qualities or "human" rights. in gurps, orc stats usually define them with many more redeeming qualities... more complicated characters... if you have players telling you they want to play in a game with clear good guys and bad guys... make sure than any orcs that appear are one or the other unless there is some very clear exceptions... (i.e. all orcs are evil.. except the one the players are told beforehand is a spy for the good guys who may or may not have a special backstory to support it...) if you have players telling you they want to play a game where the sentient races are all redeemable and worthy of "human" rights..... then make sure to make it clear in your world history you hand out or tell the characters outright clealry states that although the players are on team blue - which is a human / dwarf / elf club; and the orcs are in many little bands...some that are allied with team blue... some orcs team up with team red (which is mostly dark elves and those the dark elves have enslaved, which include humans, and some half-elves, goblins and kobolds).... defining it in this way means a character should be built before hand with their thoughts about orcs... they may have intolerance: orcs... or delusion: orcs are all evil - and figure any orc is better off dead.. If it is a military campaign, such a character will get to face many in story opportunities to show off his beliefs.... and probably get a chance to see that orcs aren't all so bad... as long as they are on your side... This puts orcs more in line with the tribes of north america during the occupation of their land by the evil Europeans... where they are considered savages...but are used and often abused to further one nation's expansion or the greed of individuals usually at the expense of another tribe... In this genre, one character maybe intolerant while another character maybe an orc working for the "good guys." Of course even a black and white campaign can say "northern orcs are good... southern orcs are evil..." so once you know how to tell the difference, you can kill the southern orcs at will and still have an occasional "mixed mission" where you are siding with northern orcs to fight the southern orcs... Lots of possibilites.
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04-24-2011, 12:43 AM | #50 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: [Fantasy] When not to kill the Orcs
The moderator's comment you reproduced seemed directed at accusations of mental deficiency and retardation in particular, not more general questions such as the role of escapism in fantasy role playing, but if you feel you've been warned off the whole topic, sorry for bringing it up.
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