# What is this? Very much a work in progress, that's what! I had the idea a little while back to give my own takes on how orcs are handled in a number of TTRPGs. Most of these I still need to finish up and flesh out. Hell I'm probably not quite done withe ones already filled in but going ahead and sticking this up for now. ## D&D Rules Cyclopedia The OG as far as tabletop RPGs go at least. Also kinda boring. Ugly beast-like humanoid monsters that hate all living things but are also cowardly. They get paired up with a tougher chieftain and have a 50/50 male female society with kids “whelps”. Let’s not dwell on the implications of knowing your monsters have kids to slaughter. Might get teamed up with an ogre or troll, and might have some spell casters in their ranks but otherwise these are pretty boring. ## AD&D 1e The art here makes it easy to see why orcs in Japan really started to run with the pig faced design for their orcs. Orcs are portrayed more as bullies but get a lot more detail to their society and traits. As is this edition’s nature, we start getting a lot of percentages and odds of there being specialized variations in the group, from professions to their gear. We also get half-orcs as a very problematic idea that orcs can breed with almost anything other than an elf for viable offspring. The implications of this, and as a PC character option aren’t exactly great. Airing a little personal beef with this edition. It’s noteworthy that half-orcs are the only race option in which a female PC can have the same max Strength as a male PC. Of course they also have rather low caps on Wisdom and Charisma, and are the only one with a lower cap on Intelligence. ## AD&D 2e The art here is a fair bit better IMO. 2e’s Monstrous Manual is my favorite D&D bestiary, though it does suffer from the same stat probability mess that 1e does too. I get it's really useful for some GMs but less thrilling for me. But getting a more elaborate detail and ecology of most creatures, orcs included, is nice. The entry even kinda pokes fun at the idea of them having a pig like appearance. Half-orcs aren’t in the player’s handbook as a PC option this time, though rough guidelines can be pulled out of the Monstrous Manual. The same concerning implications stick around, but ability scores don’t have gendered nonsense attached at least. ## D&D 3e ## D&D 4e ## D&D 5e ## 13th Age 1e ## 13th Age 2e ## Pathfinder 1e ## Pathfinder 2e ## Realms of Terrinoth ## Shadow of the Demon Lord ## Shadow of the Weird Wizard ## Wicked Ones ## Shadowrun ## The One Ring ## Draw Steel Draw Steel tries to be a little non traditional with all of their ancestry options while still touching in on the essential themes that these folk tend to have. This is just as true for their orcs. Making them one of the original ancestries created by the gods is nice, and taking the idea of orc rage as more a passionate fire than just "angry baddies" is always appreciate. In fact it's outright stated that they're peace loving at heart and ultimately desire to be left alone in a world that won't let them be. Physically they have a bit of a more alien vibe with how their face structure is settled. A little less traditional fantasy, a little more Star Trek. (Think Klingon crossed with Jem'Hadar.) They're pretty solid and I really dig them. Though I can't help but point out that in their live stream launch party for the game, the topic of them having a little trouble getting artists to draw "sexy orcs" came up, and this just outs the entire dev team as being hopelessly straight guys for sure. They certainly haven't found the spicier corners of the Internet I might frequent.