Re: Thoughts on the New Orc Bard Hero?
Posted: February 27th, 2021, 2:05 pm
The game system I grew up with (NA) describes the Orcs (as well as others) as if they are loyal followers of Chaos not just nasty guys in their own right. But who says a rogue Orc can't just want to be the big boss (we've seen Orc generals and sorcerers before) and be motivated by greed? (Gold can get you a lot of things after all)
Ogres (maybe Trolls too, I'm less familiar with their treatment in Heroquest OR Warhammer fantasy...) do like to eat stuff, so love of battle isn't the only thing that motivates them. And despite that backstory laid out in ATOH we never actually see any official Ogre mercenaries (cue us homebrewers).
Maybe they deserted, maybe they lost their captain and went awhol. Maybe they just wanted more or wanted to be the boss, or didn't fit in for whatever reason.
Or maybe there were patches of monsters that simply weren't drafted into Zargon's armies? There could be all kinds of reasons. I like the idea of some guys that maybe you can't quite trust but want to see Zargon lose and want to get some of the booty too.
Fun stuff. As a one off or series, playing as the bad guys could be fun. Having temporary monster mercs on your side happens in the official quest packs at times too. Sure, usually it takes the form of magical influence (you takeover the evil sorcerer's mooks disrupting his power, or the good guys were contaminated by evil magic and then the spell wore off so they help you), but still, it's not unprecedented.
So whether you treat them as NPCs like Sir Ragnar or they're fully fledged "heroes" it can be done and has precedent in the officially recognized works (more so in the EU published quests and NA expansions, to be fair).
Ogres (maybe Trolls too, I'm less familiar with their treatment in Heroquest OR Warhammer fantasy...) do like to eat stuff, so love of battle isn't the only thing that motivates them. And despite that backstory laid out in ATOH we never actually see any official Ogre mercenaries (cue us homebrewers).
Maybe they deserted, maybe they lost their captain and went awhol. Maybe they just wanted more or wanted to be the boss, or didn't fit in for whatever reason.
Or maybe there were patches of monsters that simply weren't drafted into Zargon's armies? There could be all kinds of reasons. I like the idea of some guys that maybe you can't quite trust but want to see Zargon lose and want to get some of the booty too.
Fun stuff. As a one off or series, playing as the bad guys could be fun. Having temporary monster mercs on your side happens in the official quest packs at times too. Sure, usually it takes the form of magical influence (you takeover the evil sorcerer's mooks disrupting his power, or the good guys were contaminated by evil magic and then the spell wore off so they help you), but still, it's not unprecedented.
So whether you treat them as NPCs like Sir Ragnar or they're fully fledged "heroes" it can be done and has precedent in the officially recognized works (more so in the EU published quests and NA expansions, to be fair).