Welcome to Mystara: Our Culturally Appropriating Orcs

Lets be honest. If WotC released The 3 Amigo's as an adventure to protect a village against Orcs from Mystara's Hollow World, would that not that be cool? It's a classic adventuring tale, but this time our adventure's are all actors pretending to be adventurers without giving the game away. I have full confidence they wouldn't make it *good*, but I'm sure Mr Welch could do a video on it to make it fun and...coherent.

Come to think of it, coherency seems to be WotC's weak point. 5th Ed lacks coherency rules.

I thought Hel made the Beastmen

Ive only ever thought of orcs through the tolkien lens
All this variation is so awesome lol

Beastmen: evil souls reincarnated. the fight each other cause some tribes are M4G4 reincarnated and some tribes are WOK3 reincarnated...





it's just a roleplaying game, idi0ts!!! 😂

Rex Orcus: when u have trademark problems with the word "orog" 😂

With the description given in the OD&D book I’m surprised more people don’t take advantage of it and seriously make some evil beasties like in Dr. Moreau. The description doesn’t say one type of beast.

Orcs have many lairs.
Like an onion.
🌰

The thugshaker cowboy all the way in the right part of the new orc picture makes me giggle everytime i see him lol 🤣

Personally I like the "orcs as sentient plants" origin story Warhammer 40K came up with. Plants don't have culture, right?

Always liked the Orcs from Heroes of Might and Magic 2.
They look like Pigs with crossbows.

orcs adapting to imitate their successful adversaries is a fun and realistic idea. also a great conversation ender for anyone who points the fact out into their face, only to find their own face nailed to the village walls.

So orcs act like half-orcs. Fine I guess.

Maybe they will us a Princess Zargala from Raid Shadow Legends. Or maybe a Paula Patton.

When will there be more Alphatian videos?

Remember. White people at Hasbro are calling other people racist for saying orcs are not black people.

Watching wotc accidentally remaking Mystara is really entertaining

what a weird campaign setting, i will certainly never play nor host a game in this!

Los Orcs 😂

Orcs are "black people" = Bad
Orcs are Mexican People = Good.

WTF WoTC!

I just started making orcs with Speedy Gonzales accents. The more DnD tries to be woke, the more jacked up I make my game.

Ahhh Mystara is such a melting pot of civilizations. I'm surprised WoTC didn't go with Viking Orcs or Greeks.

I’m now reminded of Elder Scroll’s interpretation of Orcs and how they gave them an overall “Asian” (Mongolian/Turkic, bits of bobs from all over) aesthetic while also sticking with the classic LOTR inspiration. The armour and clothing just look cool. Have to say however, I much prefer that aesthetic over Cowboy orcs.

Past: "Kill! Loot! Women!"
Present: "Por favor, tienes un trabajo para mi? Mi hija es pequena y tiene mucho hambre..."

"Don’t ask to see their badges." 😅

Nor badgers, for that matter.

I am just distrustful of WotC's new orcs because they're overly "pretty", and I am always wary of the dreaded WoW-influence.

Huzzah

Orcs are kind of vexing to me. I can see no reason why some could not be good or neutral - I would imagine most of them are quite Chaotic in outlook but I don't really think that should be set in stone either.

On the other hand, if you want mooks in D&D, Orcs are the go to.

Orcs according to lore: they look like a cross between man and beast, their skin has a weird, dark tint, they have deformed jaws and hate other races often attacking and raiding them.

Some weird leftist on twitter: YEA ORCS ARE TOTALLY LIKE MEXICANS EVERYONE WHO DISAGREES WIRH ME IS RACIST

The benefit of not following the "hObBy" for about a year now is making 2024 wokescolding irrelevant. Luminaries of the past century have already said pretty much all there is to say on fantasy races, good and evil, ordered and chaotic. Well presented, sir.

I played "shadow over mystara" and I saw goblins, kobolds, knolls, drows, but never an orc.

I love Mexican orcs. I 100% approve of this. Yes please

Boa Tarde! Me Amiga! --Nerevar

When the f&$# did prcs grow? They were always smaller than men.

To serve a cruel master in service to a higher goal can only court tragedy.

Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi have a lot to answer for, derailing real anti-racism into essentialising race and race-reductionism and thus back into unconscious racism. Because that's where the corporate funding is, for academic departments and HR budgets as another way to keep workers divided and intensify management control, and to keep voters deluded into voting against their class interests because the obscenely wealthy elites who don't care about them are now tokenly "diverse". And we get stuck with the downstream cultural crap version which incorporates HR into games rules and game art. WoTC and Hasbro are corporations after all. So yeah, ignoring it all is right, and let's keep on doing our own thing in the D&D Known World and its genuinely diverse and vibrant regions.

Lord of the rings orcs and Warhammer orcs are clearly British, this was pointed by my British friend, with Warhammer it is obvious, but I can’t say he is wrong about others

WotC say8ng that they do not are Racists but they do Racist actions

Orcs, the horrific results of the foul union of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy 🐷 🐸

I’m confused is Mystara finally coming back officially? If so I hope they bring back Lupins!!!!!!!!

Just remember that orcs are so cool that not even WotC can ruin them.

So we can't have this? We can't have a look at that picture and say: "Heeeeeey! I'm gonna make my entire family and roll them into Orcs; except my prima Jesenia, that B is a Drow and we all know it, and not one of the nice ones. Full on Lolth fundamentalist that h0"; is that what you are saying? They had made those Orcs look like Vikings and you all would be as quiet as a mouse, or you would be talking sh1t about that other picture with an adventurer on a wheelchair. But not; you saw a little speck of marketing driven BS representation obviously aimed to try to make D&D more inclusive, and you all went like "Other cultures being invited to our Euro-centric medieval fantasy game? Gasp! Not on my gatekeeping watch!"; and that's a total payload of crap. We Latinos had a look at that picture and not a single one of us went like "Daheck! Cultural appropriation! Light up the torches!", No! Not even Esteban, the Che Guevara superfan in every family, said anything bad about it. We all as soon as we had a look at that picture, collectively thought the same: "Hey, look! They made La Gorda into an Orc! Yeah, look! She has the same haircut and all!", And is La Gorda mad about that? Sure, but not because of "cultural appropriation", but because she only rolls Elves! So you all can take your fake outrage and shove it! We didn't get mad about "Helena of Avalor"! And I assure you that not a single one of us gives a darn about this either! Frag off, you pile of hypocrites! 🤬

Ever notice that whenever someone tries to make a "good" version of a traditionally evil fantasy race (orcs, goblins, etc.) they always try to make them cute or hot? As if to say that people who are "ugly" can't be good.

I like the idea of the orcs having different animal attributes depending on the region and culture. It certainly sets them apart from the other versions roaming around the ttrpg sphere. An 8ft tall muscular otter headed creature with an axe is definitely something to run away from.

This is unironically a better take on diverse orcs than the mainstream has ever done

The way my DM explained it was that Orcs are what happen when you have an evil god. This God, Grummush, doesn't think of his Orcs as people, he thinks of them as his army. He has only one point of view, his own, and doesn't think about what other people want. If he is wronged, even by accident, he immediately thinks he has been deliberately attacked.

To this purpose, he forces the Orcs under his command to live and act according to HIS way, HIS way of life, HIS wars. Grummush orcs are not his children, they are his slaves, and Grummush is so blinded by hatred he cannot see it. Any Orc that complains or deviates from Grummush's path is immediately viewed by Grummush as a traitor to be destroyed.

If Orcs can get away from Grummush and escape his influence, they are no more evil or foul than any other species on the planet. But many live under his influence, and are brutalized for it. They are taught to hate, they are taught to be aggressive, they are taught that non orcs are to be enslaved and any Orc who deviates from this are punished severely, if not killed outright.

To my mind, the "Mexican orcs" are those who escaped Grummush. They are free from his hate and his influence and are now able to live happier lives, instead of being on a constant war footing at the whims of a god so blinded by rage he cannot accept anything but a war footing.

Also, when I saw the "Mexican Orcs" my thought was not that this was racist, as much as it was Hasbro deciding to try and be "inclusive" in the way soulless corporations are - in a hamfisted and tone deaf manner. Having spoken to a Mexican American whose parents are first generation immigrants, he isn't angry about the Mexican orcs, he's more amused by them. He said that it wasn't racist as much as it was well meaning ignorance.

And if he's not offended by it, then I'm not offended by it.

The new art gives me more content for my favorite passtime: Read non-mexicans cry about cultural appropriation while actual mexicans get excited about cool rep and visibility. Oh the perks of being a syncretist culture. Already working on the Pancho Villa revolutionary orc build with a touch of cannibalism for the aztec rep. 💃

A visit from the Piggertons... genius!

What we need are Bavarian orcs. A love for beer, lederhosen, funny hats... it just fits
Or maybe that's just me.

So today I found out I conpletely copied the evil race origin for my own setting frim Mystara.

Also Spanish elves