Orcs of My Greyhawk Campaign

Given the fact that the etymology of the word orc includes such definitions as hell-devil, evil spirit, and underworld corpse (literally, the corpses of Orcus), I (unlike WotC) have no problem calling the orcs in my version of Greyhawk evil. In fact, I have always been attracted to the idea of using Gygax’s suggestions for orc and hobgoblin tribe names to represent various different types of orcs in one of my campaigns. Thus, I am going to take several human(oid) monsters and re-skin them (with a few minor adjustments) as different types of orcs.

For the sake of practicality, every orc tribe is primarily made up of orcs by-the-book:  HD 1; AC 6; Atk 1 by weapon; Move 9; Special: -1 penalty on attack rolls in sunlight. Also for practicality, all of the following variations of orc can be found in any tribe; however, these variations are more likely to be found in certain tribes, described below.

The Skull Smashers are a haven for the Swift Orcs, for which I am going to use the stats of a goblin but up the move from 9 to 12. Thus, they survive by outmaneuvering their bigger cousins and by gathering in large enough numbers.

The Rotting Eye Orcs have figured out a way to overcome their weakness in sunlight. Their strongest warriors are infected with a magical disease that rots out their eyes and increases the other senses. One of the side-effects of this process is a lust for violence that results in a battle-frenzy. Frenzied Orcs use the same stats as berserkers.

The Slow Killers get their name, not just from their talent for torture, but from the fact that they can take their time to move either at night or day because Dusk Orcs do not suffer from the sunlight penalty of normal orcs. The Dusk Orc uses the same stats as a gnoll.

The Flesh Renders get their name from the claw-like hands of Talon Orcs. Like Dusk Orcs, Talon Orcs have no penalty in sunlight; however, they prefer to engage in unarmed combat in order to take advantage of their claws. They use the same stats as an ogrillon.

The Death Moon Orcs have a reputation of being silent killers. This is due to their heavy use of Ghost Walker Orcs, who are surprisingly nimble and quiet on their feet. They use the same stats as bugbears.

The Dripping Blade Orcs are widely feared for their reliance on Rivener Orcs. These huge orcs are strong enough to cut normal troops in half with their large blades. Rivener Orcs use the same stats as ogres.

The Leprous Hand Orcs are notorious for their use of undead. This is made possible by their heavy use of Necromancer Orcs who are able to summon skeleton warriors to bolster the ranks of the Leprous Hand. Necromancer Orcs use the same stats as a Tusken Ogre; however, instead of Mirror Image, they are able to cast Monster Summoning I (skeletons only).

The Flayers are literally feared because they are led into battle by Flagellant Orcs, who use blood magic and self mutilation to cast the spell Fear. They use the same stats as a Tusken Ogre; however, instead of Mirror Image, they are able to cast the aforementioned Fear spell.

The most powerful orcs, the Priests of Orcus, are normally only found within the Vile Rune Orcs, who are fanatic followers of the Prince of the Undead. The Priests of Orcus use the same stats as an Ogre Mage; however, instead of having the ability to shape-shift, they have the ability to cast Monster Summoning II (zombies and skeletons only).

Finally, the Long Spears is a mercenary company made up of orcs, half-orcs, and humans. Normally, their leader types are half-orc and they instill a level of discipline in their troops that make them very dangerous on the battle field. Normal troops of the Long Spears use the same stats as hobgoblins, but also gain the Special Ability that as long as they fight in formation, any damage done to one is distributed among all the Long Spears in the formation. For example, if a PC is fighting four Long Spears in formation and does 8 damage, instead of one Long Spear taking all 8, each of the four in formation will take 2 damage each.

On Gnomes and Halflings

So, over at B/X Blackrazor, JB has an excellent post on Gnomes, doing an historical dive into the origins of the race in search of why they can be illusionists. I, ironically, I have been doing a very similar deep dive into rulesets about gnomes, but for a radically different reason. Whereas JB is working on revamping the Illusionist class using the various iterations from the pre-1ePHB era of the game, I was doing my deep dive because of a curious mention of halflings in Advanced Labyrinth Lord.

For a bit of background, as a joke, I challenged by eldest to run a game of D&D where all the PCs were gnomes. The joke became somewhat serious when she demanded that I provide her with an edition of the game to use to create the campaign. When she settled on Advance Labyrinth Lord, I was forced to read to those rules to create a character.

Therein, I found this quote:

Their habitations often overlap with halflings, and these two races are typically very friendly, if not familial, to each other.

I don’t ever remember that word “familial” being used to describe the relationship between halflings and gnomes, so I started digging.

Lately, I have been finding myself actually trying to play Holmes Basic D&D (putting into practice all of the stuff I wrote about Holmes over the years). I have to admit, having never actually played the game in my youth, I am finding it to be quite a pleasure to use as I get older. One of the conclusions I made about gnomes, given the way Holmes treats them, is that they are (as JB concludes) a variation (or twisting) of dwarves — specifically, a Chaotic Good version.

Given this Holmesian background where I conclude that the languages of Gnomes, Kobolds, and Goblins are all dialects of Dwarvish, I find it fascinating that Gnomes in the MM1 and Gnome PCs in the 1ePHB are able to speak the language of halflings. It should also be noted that in the Racial Preference Table from the 1ePHB Gnomes have goodwill toward Halflings. The only other race to get such treatment are dwarves.

Thus, while Advanced Labyrinth Lord’s use of the word “familial” is not found in the original material, it is, nonetheless, not unwarranted. It also has my brain going in (what I consider to be ) a really exciting direction.

I must note that despite my use of Bilbo Baggins as a literary inspiration for my understanding of Thieves, and my love for Jeff Dee’s cover of T1: The Village of Hommlet, I am not a fan of Tolkien, Hobbits, or halflings.

Conceptually (as a race inspired by Hobbits), halflings just don’t fit in D&D except as a curiosity or a group if interesting NPCs. However, this word “familial” has me re-thinking the halfling’s place among the PC races.

What if “familial” implied the “half” part of the name “halfling” didn’t refer to their size, but rather to their parentage? In a game world where half-elves and half-orcs make regular appearances, why are there no half-dwarves? Unless, of course, they have always been there in the form of the halfling (which sounds better than “half-dwarf” and is something the dwarf kin probably would use anyway).

If one begins with the assumptions that gnomes are smaller, skinnier dwarves and that gnomes live closer to humans and other races than regular dwarves do, and that halflings have similar saving throw bonuses to dwarves, it is not a huge leap to imagine that halflings are to result of some relationships between the odd gnome and human here and there.

Such an understanding of a halfling makes much more sense to me, and explains that cover of T1 a whole lot better than Tolkien ever did.

OKW: Half-orcs

This post is going to be a bit convoluted, but bear with me it will eventually make sense.

One of the major challenges of doing a campaign in OKW Cezavy (at least as I have conceived it) is that Thyatis isn’t really available as a source of ancient ruins. In my normal background scheme of Ancient, Old and Present, the Thyatis Empire really only becomes relevant in the present, even though it no longer exists.

Thus, in order to make any kind of dungeon-delve interesting via a multi-layered backstory (especially a center-piece dungeon), I’ve had to wrack my brain for other possible ancient civilizations that could litter the high steppes of Cezavy with ruins. Again, I have to credit Matt Lynch and his Tome of Adventure Design, because rolling on the various random tables found there-in gave me a very interesting idea with several ramifications for the campaign.

Since it is already established that Tharks roam the southwestern regions of the OKW, I figure that it is plausible that other barsoomian races happened to find their way to the OKW as well. My first choice would be the Lotharians due to their decadence and mental powers. This decadence would have lead to their downfall and possible extinction.

It also introduces the possibility that the various ruins that dot the Cezavy landscape have incubators and other reproductive devices, since all the various humanoid races of barsoom reproduce by laying eggs. This also allows me to put a twist on the reproductive antics of the Quastogs. According to Lawrence Schick, the Quastogs suffer from a curse that results in a very high rate of still births. This necessitates raids far and wide of other races to kidnap children to bolster their ranks.

Given the amount of risk and effort such an endeavor would entail, I postulate that the Quastogs would leap at other reproductive options. One of these could very well be a birthing chamber used by the Lotharians before they passed into the mists of forgotten history. The problem with using such a device is that orcs are not egg layers like the Lotharians. Thus, their use of the device tends to end in various mutations; however, these are successful births and the mutation rate is far less than the stillbirth rate.

Mutations, however, are still seen as a stigma and most are culled in infancy. Some do survive, however. Either rescued by their mothers (who may have been kidnapped in their youth) or their mutation didn’t manifest until they were able to escape on their own, these “half-orcs” can occasionally be found on the fringes of Cezavy civilization.

In order to represent the various mutations exhibited by these half-orcs, I decided to take the Replicant class from Mutant Future and run it through the custom class creation system found in the ACKS Players Companion. Here is what I came up with:

Half-Orc

Prime Requisite: STR
Hit Dice: 1d6
Damage Die: 1d8
Maximum Level: 14

Half-orcs are the mutated off-spring of the Quastog orc clans. Rejected by their own people, they live on the fringes of civilization.

Upon creation, the player rolls on the following table until three mutations (or the equivalent) are rolled. Duplicates may be re-rolled or stacked, depending upon player/Referee desire. The mutations are expressed as a mechanic. An example of how that mechanic might be expressed in game play is given; however, players are encouraged to create their own “special effect” for each mutation, thus making their character unique.

Mutations (d20):

1. Cast Scare 1/8hrs (Xenomorphism)
2. All saving throws at +2 (Extra Organs)
3. Cast Invisible 1/hr takes 1 turn to cast (Chameleon Epidermis)
4. Equivalent of Infravision: 30’ (counts as 1 mutation); 60’ (counts as 2 mutations) (Echolocation/Nightvision/Thermal Vision/Ultraviolet Vision)
5. Lay on Hands — heal 2hp per experience level once per day (Epidermal Photosynthesis)
6. +1 damage w/TH weapons; may use w/shield (Gigantism)
7. +1 surprise and initiative (Prehensile Tail)
8. 1d2-1/1d2-1/1d4-1 (counts as 2 mutations); 1d3-1/1d3-1/1d6-1 (counts as 3 mutations) (Spiny Growth/Natural Weapon)
9. Flesh Runes — When not wearing armor, the character receives +2 AC and reduces damage from non-magical attacks by 1 hp per die; this increases to +4 AC and 2hp per die at 7th level and +6 AC and 3 hp per die at 13th level; damage from creatures of 5HD or more are considered magical attacks (counts as 3 mutations) (Energy Retaining Cell Structure)
10. Glamorous Aura — +2 to reaction rolls to impress and/or intimidate; if the result is 12+ the subject acts as if charmed (Fragrance Development)
11. Climb Walls as a Thief (Increased Balance)
12. Cast Strength 1/hr takes 1 turn to cast (Increased Physical Attribute)
13. Cast Jump 1/hr (Increased Physical Attribute)
14. Cast Resist Fire 1/8hrs (Increased Physical Attribute)
15. Detect Traps — may detect traps, false walls, hidden construction, and notice if passages are sloped with a roll of 1-4 on a d6 (Increased Sense)
16. +1 AC (Natural Armor)
17. Cast Blindness 1/8hrs (Optic Emissions)
18. Cast Deafness 1/8hrs (Shriek)
19. Cast Magic Missile 1/hr (Toxic Weapon)
20. Arcane Dabbling — 15% chance of being able to use Magic-User-only-type magic items (like wands); increases by 10% each level to a max of 90%. Failure may have unindented consequence if Referee so desires (Mystic Sense)

Half-orcs fight and save as fighters and may use any weapon and any armor.

Reaching 9th: At 9th level, a replicant may build a stronghold.

XP         Level
1700         2
3400         3
6800         4
13600       5
27200       6
55000       7
110000     8
230000     9
350000   10
470000   11
590000   12
710000   13
830000   14

Saintly Saturday: St. Eugenia of Rome

Christmas Eve is the Feast day of St. Eugenia the Nun-martyr of Rome. Though born in Rome, St. Eugenia actually grew up in Alexandria because her father was sent there to be the Prefect of Egypt by Emperor Commodus (A.D. 180-192).

During a period when Christians were banned from the city, she encountered the Epistles of St. Paul. This made her wish with all her heart to become a Christian — something she kept secret from her parents. Under the pretense of enjoying the countryside at a family estate outside the city, she arranged to be taken to a monastery to learn more about Christianity.

There she was baptized by the Bishop Elias who learned of her coming through a vision. He then blessed her to pursue asceticism at the monastery disguised as the monk Eugene.

Having a gift for healing, she garnered the attention of a rich young woman named Melanthia. Wishing to lure what she thought was a young monk away from the ascetic life, she threw herself at the saint. When spurned, she accused St. Eugenia of rape. The trial went before her father, the Prefect, where she was forced to reveal her true identity.

Eventually, the rest of her family came to believe in Christ and her father (as Prefect) was shortly thereafter martyred. The family then moved back to Rome, where St. Eugenia was eventually arrested and martyred herself.

Personally, this is one of my favorite stories among the lives of the saints. I think it has to do with the fact that I have a soft spot for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and stories like it. I love the drama created by mistaken identity — especially when that mistaken identity is one that is chosen rather than forced. As I have been meditating upon this story this week, it occurs to me that this is one of the reasons why I also have a soft-spot for half-orcs — the demi-human race I prefer over all others.

I have to admit, though, that I am not overly fond of the various iterations of half-orc that came out after 1ed AD&D. The reason I like this version better than all others can be found in the description of half-orcs in the PH:

Orcs are fecund and create many cross-breeds, most of the offspring of such being typically orcish. However, some one-tenth of orc-human mongrels ore sufficiently non-orcish to pass for human.

Furthermore, because of this affinity towards humanity, half-orc player characters are able to be all of these various classes. The implication is that the other 90% of half-orcs are functionally orcs — 1 HD monsters.

Thus, half-orcs (if played according to their description) do not go around proudly declaring their orcish heritage, but rather hide it choosing, rather, to disguise themselves as humans so as to blend into a society in which they believe they can eek out a better life. This could also be true of half-elves (those that choose to live in human society — which brings up the very interesting question as why they chose human over elvish society).

Unfortunately, our tendency as role-players is to play half-orcs and half-elves as full-blooded orcs or elves with a different set of mechanical advantages (I am guilty as the next guy). This can be seen in the fact that 3ed half-orcs look and play like orcs in virtually everything except name. Personally, I think the source of this tendency is the Racial Preferences Table, which all but declares that half-orcs despise just about everybody, lending credence to the idea that they are open about being an orc.

How much more interesting would it be, though, if all of that antipathy were kept secret? What if there was a real incentive to pretending to be human and avoid detection as a half-orc (or half-elf)? This is when stories of mistaken identity of our own creation can become part of play — where we can make our own Eugenias and Violas.