Orcs of the Misty Mountains - Playable Culture

[Angelalex242]

Makes sense. Just make their 5 virtues 5 abilities out of the monster manual, and their rewards something like Orc Poison. Maybe even a Morgul Blade.

[Glorelendil]

Maybe even a Morgul Blade.

I believe that would appear in their Magical Treasure Index.

Oh oh oh...even better: it's only available if you can convince Sauron to be your Patron.

[Angelalex242]

Wouldn't have to be Sauron. Any of the 9 Nazgul could hand 'em out too, if they were your patrons. And at the very least the Witch King is certainly patron material. Come to that, other evil patrons are Saruman (!!), Smaug before he's dead, Durin's Bane in Moria...and whoever the local 'Orc/Goblin King' is in the Misty Mountains. Oh, and the Werewolf in Mirkwood.

[qwercus]

Virtue: Hound of mirkwood --> Snaga of Mt. Gundaband. Same benefits, it's just not a hound, it's a little snaga at your service...
greetings, qwercus

[Michebugio]

Here we go, the Virtues and Rewards!


CULTURAL VIRTUES:

Due to the variety of orc breeds, they are said to possess all sorts of malicious and dangerous qualities. Many of these Virtues bear the taint of the Shadow, and could be attributed to the Dark Power's influence over the ages. What is certain is that nobody question the fierceness with which the Orcs carry out their invasions, sparing no weapon at their disposal.


Uruk-Hai Fighter

"We are the Uruk-hai: we do not stop the fight for night or day, for fair weather or for storm. We come to kill, by sun or moon."

You belong to an improved breed of the uruks, black orcs of great strength first appeared out of Mordor. Not only you are larger, but you can withstand the light of the day without being weakened and you've been trained in the use of better weapons.

Raise your maximum Endurance score by 3 points. Additionally, from now on you do not lose 1 point of Hate when fighting under the light of the sun, and the Encumbrance of any broad-headed sword and broad-headed spear you wield is reduced by 1.


Goblin Archer

“He leaped into the waters, but the Ring slipped from his finger as he swam, and then the Orcs saw him and killed him with arrows.”

Most members of your kin possess a natural talent for aiming in the dark when using their horn bows. You seem to possess that quality yourself, as your arrows find their target with terrible precision. When you are inside a thick forest or under the earth, or it is night, add to your ranged attack rolls a bonus equal to your basic Heart rating.


Servant of the Necromancer

“The Orcs in the service of Barad-dûr use the sign of the Red Eye.”

You’ve been a servant of the Necromancer in Dol Guldur for a long time, torturing slaves and acting as a lieutenant for the Dark Lord. Your evil deeds have elevated you among the ranks of the other orcs, marking you as one of the most cruel of your kind.

Raise you maximum Hate score by 1 point. Additionally, you enjoy a bonus of +2 to your Standing.


Snuffler

"Orcs were as keen as hounds on a scent, it was said..."

Your wide nostrils have made you a "snuffler", a tracker of intelligent quarries. Your scent is greatly enhanced and lets you follow tracks or recognize a smell better and at a greater distance than any other orc: when you make a roll using a Perception or Survival skill in a situation where you can use your olfaction, you always add your Attribute score to the result, as if enjoying an Attribute bonus.


Warg Rider

- quote needed -

You made an alliance with a Warg of the North, which you now use as a mount. Reduce by 1 the amount of Fatigue increase generated by each Fatigue test during any journey (as if you were riding a Pony), and you can now cover 30 miles of distance in an average day of travel, instead of 20.

You can make additional bargains with the Warg, to gain the same benefits as those described under the Hound of Mirkwood Virtue of the Woodmen of Wilderlands. When you first choose this Virtue, the Warg agrees to assist you with one Common skill as described under Support (Adventurer's Book, page 133), without paying the Experience cost. You can bargain to be supported in additional skills, as well as to be assisted in combat (through Harass Enemy and Protect), as a separate undertaking during later Fellowship phases and at the price of additional Experience points, as described in the Virtue.

But such benefits come with a price: a Warg of the Wilderlands is a vicious beast, always ready to betray his orcish companion at the first sign of weakness. If you become Wounded or Poisoned during a fight, make a Valour check immediately after the battle ends: on a failure, the Warg attacks to feed on you! Use the stats of a Wild Wolf for this fight (Loremaster's Book, page 82). The Warg automatically wins the initiative, and you are forced to fight in Forward position for the first turn. Your companions can join the battle and help you fighting the beast only starting from your second turn of combat, if they wish... and if you aren't already dead.

The Warg stops fighting when reduced to half his Endurance or less, or if he becomes Weary. At this point, he will keep assisting you and won't attack again while you're healing (unless you become Wounded or Poisoned after another battle). If you kill the Warg you don't lose the benefits already gained with this Virtue, but you won't have the assistance of another Warg until the next Adventuring phase.



CULTURAL REWARDS

Orcs make no beautiful things, but many clever ones including machines, tools, weapons, and instruments of torture, they are delighted by wheels, engines, and explosions, and can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves. They can make very well hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes and tongs, or get other people to make to their design.


Orc-poison (special)

You learned how to make orc poison that you can use to coat the blades of your weapons. When you are attacking an enemy with a bow of horn, a spear, a broad-headed spear or a broad-headed sword, if you roll a great or extraordinary success you may choose not to apply your Damage rating and poison your enemy instead. A poisoned opponent becomes partially blind after a number of rounds equal to his Attribute level, after which he suffers a modifier of +6 to the TN of all actions for the remainder of the combat.


Spear of Boldog (spear or broad-headed spear)

These iron spears are made after the one that the Great Orc Boldog used to fight Thingol in the First Age, and are designed to allow the wielder to take full advantage of his arm strength.

When using a Spear of Boldog, your melee Damage bonus is based on your favoured Body score.


Spoils of War (special)

A malicious habit of the Orcs is that of looting and stealing weapons and armors from the dead bodies of their fallen opponents. When they find something of particularly good quality, or that they deem otherwise useful, they keep it and carry it with them both as a trophy and as an instrument of battle.

When you take this Reward, choose one Cultural Reward from the lists of Bardings, Men of the Lake, Beornings, Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain or Hobbits of the Shire. Once chosen, it cannot be changed. From now on, you can use that Reward as if it was an Orc Cultural Reward.

This benefit comes with a price, however. You automatically gain the Flaw Thieving, if you didn’t already have it. Additionally, any member of the Culture you “stole” your Reward from will double his efforts trying to retrieve what you have unjustly taken, and is treated as having the Quality Hatred (Orcs of the Misty Mountains) when fighting against you.



WEAPONS OF THE ORCS OF THE MISTY MOUNTAINS


Jagged knife: Damage 3, Edge E (Sauron result), Injury 14, Encumbrance 0

Bow of horn: Ranged; Damage 4, Edge 10, Injury 12, Encumbrance 1, Called shot: Piercing.

Bent sword: Damage 4, Edge 10, Injury 12, Encumbrance 1, Called shot: Disarming.

Spear: Damage 4, Edge 9, Injury 12, Encumbrance 2, Called shot: Piercing.

Broad-headed sword: Damage 5, Edge 10, Injury 14, Encumbrance 2, Called shot: Piercing.

Broad-headed spear: Damage 5, Edge 9, Injury 12, Encumbrance 2, Called shot: Piercing. Note: it can't be thrown.

Orc-axe: Damage 5, Edge E, Injury 16, Encumbrance 2, Called shot: Break shield.

Heavy scimitar: Damage 7, Edge 10, Injury 16, Encumbrance 3, Called shot: Break shield.

[Glorelendil]

Fun stuff, Mich. Loving reading it.

[Deadmanwalking]

Very thematic, I quite approve.

That said, Orc-Poison seems relatively useless given how long it takes to effect foes...I mean, nothing a group is fighting will live long enough for the poison to apply (okay, maybe a Troll, but if that's not dead in the 6-9 rounds the poison takes you're in serious trouble!). I'd probably keep the basic effect, though with a lower penalty (+3 or so) and apply it immediately.

Servant of the Necromancer also seems more than a bit weak. Maybe add something to give a direct bonus in social situations with other Orcs? Perhaps something that upgrades a success one category when being frightening or dealing with other followers of the Shadow...probably only during Encounters.

The Spear of Boldog is also a little bit weird as a Reward for a culture where spears of any sort are not one of the primary starting weapons (ie: you can't start with spear skill at 2). Though I suppose the Bardings are an example of another culture that does this...

[Angelalex242]

If Morgul Blades were included...

Morgul Blade

These dark swords of the witch king of Angmar are infused directly with the power of the Shadow. When an opponent is struck with one of these swords, he takes 20 points of Shadow (and inevitably becomes Miserable). Any Eye rolled by the opponent then triggers a bout of madness as normal.

[Mim]

Just a friendly reminder that Rivendell contains a description of a Morgul-knife on page 84 (and it's already pretty nasty ).

[Michebugio]

Very thematic, I quite approve.

That said, Orc-Poison seems relatively useless given how long it takes to effect foes...I mean, nothing a group is fighting will live long enough for the poison to apply (okay, maybe a Troll, but if that's not dead in the 6-9 rounds the poison takes you're in serious trouble!). I'd probably keep the basic effect, though with a lower penalty (+3 or so) and apply it immediately.

Servant of the Necromancer also seems more than a bit weak. Maybe add something to give a direct bonus in social situations with other Orcs? Perhaps something that upgrades a success one category when being frightening or dealing with other followers of the Shadow...probably only during Encounters.

The Spear of Boldog is also a little bit weird as a Reward for a culture where spears of any sort are not one of the primary starting weapons (ie: you can't start with spear skill at 2). Though I suppose the Bardings are an example of another culture that does this...

You made a point (actually, you made three points ), since you highlighted those things I found weak myself.

Going with order:

1) Orc-poison: that's right in terms of mechanics, it's far from appealing. The lowbies (Attribute level 2-3) get one-shotted way faster than in 2-3 turns, while the big ones could as well have killed the whole party in 6-9 rounds. On the other hand, a poison that takes effects instantaneously is weird, and in such case +6 TN would be far too much. The closest effect to this one is the Axe of Azanulbizar (mixed with the Barbed Axe), but I wanted to make something different and as close as possible to the Orc-poison description in the Loremaster's Book.
The point is that Poison effects are crafted to affect only players, while the opponents don't last more than the battle where you fight them, so trying to transfer such mechanics "on reverse" is rather pointless (at least, I wouldn't call it Orc-poison: I would go with something completely different instead). Gotta think more about this one.

2) Servant of the Necromancer: it's like Royalty Revealed, with the +1 Hate instead of the artifact (so it's much worse than that). Maybe instead of the +1 Hate I could add an effect that mimicks Flame of Hope or Gleam of Terror weapon qualities described in Rivendell, thus making this Virtue practically identical to Royalty Revealed, but on the dark side. If you know the stats of the Messenger of Lugbùrz opponent in the Loremaster's Book, then it would be a nice way to duplicate Voice of Command.

3) Spear of Boldog: the point is that this is the only orcish artifact you can EVER find in Tolkien's writings. Apart from that, nothing. And I don't think I'm gonna change the weapon proficiencies to accomodate this: Orcs are always described by Tolkien as wielding curved swords or bows, while spears are quite rare. But spears should be nonetheless a secondary weapon, given the stats of the orcs in the Loremaster's Book.
So... the bonus it grants is quite good, so I think that it would still be appealing to players. Of course, it's not optimal for min/maxers, but hey: this is The One Ring