New Culture - Orcs of the Misty Mountains

[Michebugio]

... Just let me know if you want to make any alterations. I'm also happy to read through and do a bit of an edit to clarify points - I didn't get the chance last night as it took me longer than expected; I'm a little out of practise!

I just read it through, and except for a typo under Languages ("the" instead of "their"), the work is impeccable! The picture choices are very appropriate as well as their distribution in the document, and I was very happy with them!

Just one thing, the expanded list of names is a bit too... well, expanded! Maybe it's just my impression but such a long list is a bit "threatening" to the reader, so to say. To avoid the wall-of-text effect I would keep my original list if you don't mind, since players already tend to split up name syllabes and rearrange them when the standard choices do not satisfy them

Regarding game rules, maybe some playtest will make me revise something (Orc-poison, probably), but I'm happy with the current rules.

Rich, I would gladly see this added to your much appreciated rules, to achieve a better spread and availability of the document itself. Would you mind to add it to the same dropbox folder and share it here? I'm myself an avid user of your contents, and I have no shame in asking you to make my creation benefit from your greater popularity.

[Rich H]

That's really nice of you, thanks. I'll make those changing and get the pdf uploaded. Will also send you a copy.

I'll try and get this done tonight but we have the architect coming around soon so I'm not sure how long we'll be talking.

[Rich H]

Here you go: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/795 ... ntains.pdf

[jacksarge]

Cool!
Perhaps I could have my players being orcs in some bizzare dream sequence adventure?
Could it be used to create orc NPCs with more detail who may be recurring foes for my adventurers? Perhaps an Orc Chieftan who gets tougher each time the players encounter him?

[Michebugio]

Cool!
Perhaps I could have my players being orcs in some bizzare dream sequence adventure?
Could it be used to create orc NPCs with more detail who may be recurring foes for my adventurers? Perhaps an Orc Chieftan who gets tougher each time the players encounter him?

Hi Jack, thanks for commenting!
When I wrote the rules, I had in mind several adventure ideas for an orc party:

1) Typical starting adventure (good for a one-shot or a convention): the orc war band (i.e. the "fellowship") is formed and is assigned a task (raid a Beorning village, patrol the High Pass, spy upon a Woodmen fortification, ambush a guarded caravan, kidnap somebody or steal something etc.). Make the orc adventurers do encounters (with orc chieftains, wargs or even great orcs), journeys (underground or above ground) and battles (write some stats for warriors of the Free People, differing from one culture to another).

2)"Change of perspective" scenario: take one or more adventures from Tales from the Wilderland where the orcs engage in battle the PCs. Invert the roles and make the orc players do what they think they should do to make things difficult for the adventurers. Think about a chase, a siege, or an infiltration mission.

3) "What if?" scenario: the same as the previous one, except that the orc players actually have the opportunity to succeed at stopping, or even killing, the adventurers! Make appropriate combat stats to roughly translate your original Fellowship into adversaries for the orc party.

4) "The enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend" scenario: write an adventure where the opponents are other orcs (a rival tribe, perhaps), or even other servants of the shadow.

5) "Recurring enemies and final showdown" scenario: combine the Change of perspective scenario in a chain of small adventures, up until the final confrontation of the two parties. Each player is forced to control both his characters (the orc and the hero) during the battle, making reasonable combat choices. The heroes decide the stances each turn, but the orcs use their PC statistics for the fight and can spend Hate to improve rolls just like their heroic counterparts. Who will win in the end?

[Glorelendil]

Cool!
Perhaps I could have my players being orcs in some bizzare dream sequence adventure?
Could it be used to create orc NPCs with more detail who may be recurring foes for my adventurers? Perhaps an Orc Chieftan who gets tougher each time the players encounter him?

Oooh...what this says to me is a system for converting player-heroes to orcs, virtues/rewards and all. Maybe too complex, but it would be fun. And maybe a little Kafka-esque.

[Robin Smallburrow]

Where is The Enemy? Orcs are not one of the free peoples because they are Servants- this is something players tend to forget, that an Orc PC is not 'free to do what they want'.

U need some rules to indicate this- perhaps double Eye Awareness penalties?

I'm not saying u can't have Orc pcs, only that they shouldn't have the same freedom.

Robin S

[MattG]

It was fun to read thru that. Nice work! I like the orc-work trait, and maybe the calling or background toward idea of “crafty orc” or twisted scholar “engineer/designer/inventor orc” would fit? They are good forging their cruel toys and it seems some will lack skill more than creative ideas.

Other thought is, like it was just mentioned, they do hear the call of the Enemy or any strong malice and linger to it. Resisting it should be punished somehow, not much free will in them after all.

Lastly, “degeneration” twist could be interesting. Every time orc is given second chance by free peoples after begging for life and failing some test (corruption of kindness? lol) or when building strong bonds within the band (acts of "true" friendship, sacrifice, truthfulness, etc.) should be punished by some kind of "Points” describing him being more weak or soft, degrading in the evil ways a bit not to his advantage. That wouldn’t change the orcish nature, no hope there, but expose him to the social/way of life dangers. Maybe as bout of madness he will hesitate to kill unarmed/ begging foe which might bring him bad consequences (hesitated too long and exposed himself or believed where normally wouldn’t and was tricked, will recover less endurance after sharing food with weaker comrade or something along those lines). But it might be nonsense speaking thru me, I am not sure I ever heard of orc being anything other than coward in his evil ways and that is already mentioned in the rules. They were born naturally evil and don't remember the life before the change like Golum did.

[Michebugio]

Where is The Enemy? Orcs are not one of the free peoples because they are Servants- this is something players tend to forget, that an Orc PC is not 'free to do what they want'.

U need some rules to indicate this- perhaps double Eye Awareness penalties?

I'm not saying u can't have Orc pcs, only that they shouldn't have the same freedom.

Robin S

Thank you for your comment, Robin!

Short answer: you're right, and that's why the Culture is the Orcs of the Misty Mountains, and not simply "Orcs". In fact, personally I would never allow to play Orcs of Mordor, or Orcs of Isengard. The Orcs of the Misty Mountains are the only orcs with a certain degree of "freedom", at least in a time when the Enemy is still weak and/or hidden.

For this reasons, this Culture should be ideally played before the Darkening of Mirkwood, or at least during the Darkening but before the War of the Ring, in a period where the Orcs of the Misty Mountains were relatively free to pursue their own goals, and the calling of Sauron wasn't so strong yet.

A "weakened" Sauron would be a perfect "Patron" for the orcs, though. Rules for a kind of "Eye Awareness for Orcs", instead, would be great to explore the possibilities of a campaign where a party of Orcs is struggling to break free from Sauron's will, albeit not in a "redeeming" way but just in terms of free will (to do bad things on their own rather than being ordered to, of course).

Lastly, “degeneration” twist could be interesting. Every time orc is given second chance by free peoples after begging for life and failing some test (corruption of kindness? lol) or when building strong bonds within the band (acts of "true" friendship, sacrifice, truthfulness, etc.) should be punished by some kind of "Points” describing him being more weak or soft, degrading in the evil ways a bit not to his advantage. That wouldn’t change the orcish nature, no hope there, but expose him to the social/way of life dangers. Maybe as bout of madness he will hesitate to kill unarmed/ begging foe which might bring him bad consequences (hesitated too long and exposed himself or believed where normally wouldn’t and was tricked, will recover less endurance after sharing food with weaker comrade or something along those lines). But it might be nonsense speaking thru me, I am not sure I ever heard of orc being anything other than coward in his evil ways and that is already mentioned in the rules. They were born naturally evil and don't remember the life before the change like Golum did.

Thanks for your kind comments, Matt!
By the way, that's exactly what I had in mind designing Cowardice. Ideally, an crc should gain advantage from behaving as his negative Traits dictate, at least as long as he stays in an orcish society. An orc behaving in any softer way would be seen as a coward, pathetic or otherwise weak representative of his race. Cowardice rules means that an orc character is irredeemable, at least in conventional ways: being "good" doesn't make him better, it actually makes him worse in the eyes of his society.