Feb. 5: Round Two of the 'Battle of the Orcs'

Culture Warring over Orcs

The release of the 2024 D&D ruleset has reached its climax with the arrival of the Monster Manual. While the book is not ‘fully’ released, a lot of folks got early access through DnDbeyond, including yours truly. That’s led to many people getting into the nitty gritty of the books. It also means that the culture war beat is back. If folks remember, a lot of conservatives and self-declared “grognards” became a bit testy over Wizards of the Coast’s decision to present orcs in a manner that doesn’t reflect the cultural savagery that defined them in years before but offers a different vision in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

I hoped we’d move on from this topic, as Lord knows we don’t have enough reasons to be stressed out this month with real-life politics.

But now we’re ready for round two as folks are trying to make another culture war-esque debate on the topic happen.

That drama came back up last week when people with early versions of the book (including journalists) noticed how orcs did not get stat blocks. While the 2014 Monster Manual had stat blocks like “Orc Warrior” and “Orc War Chief,” the new book lacks any of those. Is this evidence of Wizards erasing orcs due to allegations from some that they represent the black community?

The actual reality is a bit simpler. As EN World’s Christian Hoffer notes:

“…Much of this is due to a deliberate design choice, meant not to sanitize Dungeons & Dragons from evil sentient species, but rather to add some versatility to a DM's toolbox. Orcs (and drow) are now covered under the expanded set of generic NPC statblocks in the Monster Manual. Instead of players being limited to only three Orc-specific statblocks (the Orc, the Orc War Chief and the Orc Eye of Gruumsh), DMs can use any of the 45 Humanoid statblocks in the book. Campaigns can now feature orc assassins, orc cultists, orc gladiators, or orc warriors instead of leaning on a handful of stats that lean into specific D&D lore.”

The intent is to offer DMs the option to create more flexible stat blocks using the base ten lineages introduced in the PHB. It allows orcs to be as flexible as elves or dwarves. While I don’t mind having flavored or specialized stat blocks for orcs or others, they rarely differed enough to justify it. The Orc was just a thug stat block with 1-2 additional perks, for example.

Not everyone’s a fan of this approach, mind you. Professor DM (of the YouTube channel Dungeon Craft) argues that treating orcs as generally as you might a human or elf creates a slippery slope where having the ability to play as monstrous races (orcs, hobgoblins, Yuan-Ti, etc) makes it harder for storytellers to detail who can be fought indiscriminately aka who is ALWAYS the bad guy. Especially since D&D founder Gary Gygax, in his early writings, argued that playing monstrous races should be discouraged because it complicates the moral nature of whether adventurers were right to fight the clan of orcs attacking a town.

I understand his argument, but I find it a matter that is dependent on the table itself.

Does your table need villains who can be fought indiscriminately? Only the storyteller can determine that. If a storyteller wants a realm where orcs represent the prominent destructive force of the world, that is their choice, just as one could introduce a world where halflings are the equivalent of pure malevolent evil. It’s a matter of stage-setting and world-building rather than something that should be placed upon the game itself.

As a DM, I don’t find the need for “indiscriminate villains” appealing. I think it’s more interesting to allow a character’s actions and factional affiliations to determine whether they deserve to die or be fought. Or perhaps you use magical/political corruption to be the determining factor. Or maybe your villains are driven by your own chosen affiliations. There are several ways to think about what defines evil in your campaign beyond just one’s existence as a certain type of monster.

WOTC doesn’t have to be the ones who determine a monstrous race’s moral alignment. The DM does this while being provided with appropriate tools and character stat blocks by the publisher to capture whatever ideas they intend to present to their players.

But that’s just my two cents. This debate will most likely continue for as long as people are online if the comment threads on these articles are anything to reflect on.

But what do you think? Is the lack of orc stats a meaningful reflection on the state of D&D, or is it a culture war nothingburger?

That’s it for this issue! Check-in later this week for many interesting Kickstarters, game news, and more!