Troll Lord Games

Which version orc do you guys prefer to imagine as your bad guys?

The older hog headed orcs?
http://www.otherworld.me.uk/images/Orcs1.jpg

Or the new-wave cromag orc?
http://www.elderscrolls.com/images/codex/races/orc.gif
_________________
The Rock says ...

Know your roll!

Older version hands down.

It won't be long before the orc is just a green skin beauty, which I'm sure will be solidified by a novel with a romance between an orc and an elf or something.

I haven't thought of orcs as being of the pig-headed variety for many years. The later version makes more sense the way the game works now. Hard to think of the older version making a half-breed race.

When I read LotR for the first time back in the day, I imagined orcs as a gruesome demi-human race, and was surprised to see them depicted as piggish in the art I eventually saw. That, and the association I now make with Star Wars bad guys, made me happy to see them imagined the way they were in Jackson's films.

I have to say the Cro-Mag version ... for the simple reason that I'm a purist when it comes down to it. After all, the goblins and Uruk-hai from Tolkien's Middle-Earth are created by corrupting Noldor Elves into something dark and twisted (Silmarillion).

In the Elder Scrolls games, which the Cro-Mag image comes from, the Orcs (or Orsimeri) are also descendents of the original Aldmer who came to the world of Tamriel after Lorkhan cast down the Heart. The Aldmer split into a number of groups who subsequently become the Altmeri, Bosmeri, Chimeri (the Dunmeri), the Dwemeri and the Orsimeri.

(You know, reading this post over, makes me realise that my wife is correct: I really am a useless mine of trivia).
_________________
Gareth Larter | Secretary & WebTyrant | Phoenix Games Club - East London

Check out our website: http://www.phoenixgamesclub.org.uk/

Orcs are always porcine in my campaigns. Sometimes more or less piggish, but definitely not hairy ape-like Cro-mags.

As a semi-aside, I've always been rubbed the wrong way by the 3e Half-Orcs are depicted in the core art. I think it's that they generally are depicted as not having any noses at all.

Before Tolkien, there was real myth. In those legends, the ones which gave us the word Orc, they were related to elfs, goblins, and the like, because they were all "fey" but the orc was one of the uglier ones, and had a wide range of appearances, sometimes even able to change the way they looked. So, they are definitely brutish humanoids, but after that.... it only matters by the individual. Either is "right" and neither is "correct."

Arakor wrote:
I have to say the Cro-Mag version ... for the simple reason that I'm a purist when it comes down to it. After all, the goblins and Uruk-hai from Tolkien's Middle-Earth are created by corrupting Noldor Elves into something dark and twisted (Silmarillion).

In the Elder Scrolls games, which the Cro-Mag image comes from, the Orcs (or Orsimeri) are also descendents of the original Aldmer who came to the world of Tamriel after Lorkhan cast down the Heart. The Aldmer split into a number of groups who subsequently become the Altmeri, Bosmeri, Chimeri (the Dunmeri), the Dwemeri and the Orsimeri.

(You know, reading this post over, makes me realise that my wife is correct: I really am a useless mine of trivia).

I knew somebody read all those books in the morrowind game. Just wasn't sure who.
I prefered the piggish variety. The first material I read featuring an orc described them as appearing to be an unholy union between beast and man.

The one in the Beowulf story had tentacles and multiple heads. (I think ... not sure)

Anyway I found this interesting bit

Quote:
For some time they were often depicted with pig-like faces, although there is no such description in Tolkien's work. A possible explanation of this is the coincidence with Irish orc (cognate of English pork) that means 'swine'. An alternative theory is that they were often depicted as pig-like due to the tusked and pig-like description of the orco (ogre) in Canto 17 of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. (The orco is, of course, described as pig-like because it gave Ariosto a chance to rhyme orco with porco "pig".)

Here:
http://www.reference.com/search?q=orc

There sure were a lot of different orcs in the world.
_________________
The Rock says ...

Know your roll!

I've never been a big Tolkein fan, so I say old-school D&D all the way. They gotta rhyme with "pork" for a reason, right?

I sort of like the "croc" head that is somewhat fashionable.
_________________
Deserve has nothing to do with it, if you think you're entitled. You're not.

--Stephen Chenault

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

J. R. R. Tolkien

The version I designed.
_________________
"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

gideon_thorne wrote:
The version I designed.

Did you draw the one in the M&T?
_________________
The Rock says ...

Know your roll!

I don't have a preference for either and generally like to see variety and so I also like the croc and Peter's orc.
_________________
Count Rhuveinus - Lejendary Keeper of Castle Franqueforte

"Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!" ~ Gary Gygax

"By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes:" - Macbeth

CharlieRock wrote:
Did you draw the one in the M&T?

Yup!
_________________
"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

I prefer the cromagnon type since in my games orcs become Wendols (13th Warrior movie), that is, some kind of neanderthal brutes.

However, when it comes solely to minis, the pig-headed orc (Gamorhean type) is great, and if I see one in the LGS I will buy it! On the other hand, I don't like Rakham's orc mini.
_________________
Homebrews Wiki a list of campaign settings on the web.

Can't afford to miss this opportunity to mention LA, wherein you can play either the porcine version (veshoges) or the cro-magnon version (orcs). As if that's not enough, you've got the oaf as well, which is akin to an ogre. So put me down for both!

Somewhere imbetween...

_________________
It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after ones own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.

Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350)

I really like these fellows:

[/img]
_________________
History teaches us that men behave wisely once they've exhausted all other alternatives.

I prefer neither. I'm more of a Warhammer Ork kinda guy. Although I do like that hybrid version Matthew posted a couple posts ago... But that's if I have to choose between the two. Otherwise I've always replaced the D&D orcs with WH Orks since I was a kid... weird quirk, I guess.
_________________
"Um... just how -does- one wield a vorpal gnome, man?"

I liked the orcs as drawn in module A1, which is closer to the cro-magnon than the porcine.

Like I said elsehwere, I believe on DF, the Biologist in me goes with Cro Mag because I can believe that it would create half breed spawn with humans.

The pig heads make it harder for me to believe it.
_________________
The Ruby Lord, Earl of the Society

Next Con I am attending: http://www.neoncon.com/

My House Rules: http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... llordgames

For me, it totally depends.

If you allow half-orc characters in the games you run then orcs look like cro-magnons.

If you disallow half-orc characters in the games you run then orcs look like piggies.

I find that trying to mix heroic fantasy and serious zoology makes my follicles ache.
_________________
History teaches us that men behave wisely once they've exhausted all other alternatives.

ssfsx17 wrote:
If you disallow half-orc characters in the games you run then orcs look like piggies.

Well either that or you could run it with the piggies , allow half-orcs, wait for it to sink in, watch the PC inspired genocide of everything orc (and maybe pig as well).
_________________
The Rock says ...

Know your roll!

Personally I like the versions in the LOTR films. Also Pete's take in M&T is pretty much spot on to what I think they should look like. I never likes the Piggy versions since they look like a Woogalore form Private Eyes.
_________________
The Lord of Ravens
My blog

Julian Grimm wrote:
Personally I like the versions in the LOTR films. Also Pete's take in M&T is pretty much spot on to what I think they should look like. I never likes the Piggy versions since they look like a Woogalore form Private Eyes.

I like the M&T version, too. Just didn't think of it when I made the poll (this was a repost orginally from GGames).

The M&T version makes me think of Gremlins. Just ... Gremlins on steroids with blades. Yeah, perfect.
_________________
The Rock says ...

Know your roll!

Personally, I'm new wave on this one. Nostalgically though, I still like the pig-face. Maybe I'll just use both versions as differing types of orc.

-O
_________________
> Omote's Advanced C&C stuff <
Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

Omote wrote:
Personally, I'm new wave on this one. Nostalgically though, I still like the pig-face. Maybe I'll just use both versions as differing types of orc.

-O

I'm picturing a scene like the one in the Star Trek:The Next Gen Time Travel episode. Where they went to Cpt. Kirk's Enterprise and seen the Klingons from that period and quized Worf about them.
_________________
The Rock says ...

Know your roll!

Between the two, I'd go with the Cro-mag look. (I normally go with the Cro-mag look with just a touch of pig)
_________________
Never throw rocks at a man with a Vorpal Sword!

I like my friendly neighborhood sexy orc ladies myself.

_________________
"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

gideon_thorne wrote:
I like my friendly neighborhood sexy orc ladies myself.

Yes you gotta love sexy orc ladies .

I prefer cro-mag orcs or WH orcs.I've never liked the porcine kind of orc.

Iam Who Iam