Orcs of the Misty Mountains - Playable Culture

[Angelalex242]

Oops. I don't have Rivendell yet.

[Rich H]

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

I also wouldn't have it as a Cultural Reward for an Orc - those that Mich has already done feel more fitting.

[Woodclaw]

Just a little point on the Orc-Poison, while themticly correct, I think it might work better in a way similar to the Dunedain's arrows from Rivendell.

[Michebugio]

I also wouldn't have it as a Cultural Reward for an Orc

Yes, Morgul blades are definitely not stuff for Orcs. They're dark, undead magic wielded by the Nazgul, so even an Uruk would be at best frightened just by the sight of such a blade.

The only known Orc weapon of the past is the iron spear of Boldog the Great Orc, used in his confrontation against the elf Thingol back in the last days of Beleriand. Thingol slew Boldog in single combat and apparently kept the spear, which was given to his fellow Mablung who used it to kill Charcharoth the Wolf.
So, the original spear would be an Enchanted Weapon of great power, even though we can't replicate it with the existing RAW, since it's Orc fabrication (not Dwarven, Elven or Numenorean). But it's reasonable to imagine that the Orcs may have kept forging spears in that shape, although not as formidable as the original, they could be still fearsome weapons in the hands of an Uruk.

As a side note, maybe it was one of those spears that hit Frodo in Moria (and it could have killed him, if it wasn't for the mithral shirt).

Spoils of War is both a quick way to have a "jolly" reward, and a touch of colour. The idea came to me from the Crossing of Celduin adventure in Tales from the Wilderlands, were an Orc chieftain is described as wielding a bloodied Barding shield. So I thought, that's exactly what Orcs would do: steal good equipment from the fallen, to use them as trophies. That Orc chieftain may just have stolen a Tower Shield from a fallen Barding captain during the Battle of the Five Armies.

Just a little point on the Orc-Poison, while themticly correct, I think it might work better in a way similar to the Dunedain's arrows from Rivendell.

I have Rivendell and it may work very well, though I would try to stick as much as possible to the effect of the original Orc-poison. Maybe the solution could be simply an instantaneous effect, as Deadmanwalking suggested, that imposes a +6 to the TN of all actions for a number of rounds equal to 10 minus the Attribute Level of the opponent.

[Deadmanwalking]

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.

I feel like the halved effect (as I suggested), or the limited duration (as you did) are both very valid options. I'm sure there's another option or two out there as well. Maybe have it start at +2 target number and go up per round until it's +6? That might be overly complicated in practice, but it'd make it immediately useful while also having the poison kick in gradually...

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.

I think you mean Heirloom of Lost Arnor. Royalty Revealed does something else entirely.

That said, yeah, something that notably enhances their ability to inspire their fellows or strike fear into their foes seems appropriate.

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

Yeah, alright. That's good enough for me.

[Glorelendil]

Ok, Mich: now we need Enchanted Qualities of Orcish make.

[Michebugio]

Ok, Mich: now we need Enchanted Qualities of Orcish make.

At some point after I bought Rivendell, I started to develop Enchanted Qualities of Sauron/Morgoth craftmanship, since I had a cursed weapon in my head to be used in my campaign. Actually some of the Qualities could have been the same as some Dwarven/Elven craftmanship Qualities, then adding a ton of Curses. But some others could be pretty much unique.
Included the rules to craft a Morgul Blade, of course

[saltmarsh]

Very interesting and we'll write but unless you want to do a one off orc game I can't see much use for them as any orc is going to be attacked on sight.
And even if they can convince a human that there different they would have no chance with dwarfs

[Corvo]

Interesting read.
By the way, about Orc Poison I would keep it as in the rulebook.
My reasoning is that Orcs aren't Heroes of the Free Peoples: they are different and they should behave differently.
They aren't about heroic, fair fights. They are about goblins sniping a great elven hero with their poisoned arrows and then running away, just to come back when the poison crippled their target.
Dirty, cowardly tactics, and Orc Poison by raw encourages this behavior.

Conversely, I'm doubtful about Spoils of War. King's Blade is a no-brainer, compared to the orcs weaponry, and frankly I think it's pretty anti-thematic to have a goblin wielding such blade.
Other rewards aren't so problematic, imo

[Stormcrow]

Just a nitpick, because you know how much I hate this sort of thing: Tolkien never used the phrase Morgul-blade; that comes from Peter Jackson. Tolkien used Morgul-knife, and it even appears in the index of LR this way.

For interest's sake, here's a list of every genitive instance of Morgul in English I found in my Kindle edition of LR:

Morgul-lord
Morgul-knife
Morgul-spells
Morgul Vale
Morgul Valley
Morgul-sheen
Morgul-king
Morgul Pass
Morgul-rats
Morgul-stuff
Morgul-road
Morgul-way
Morgul-wound
Morgul-host