Hi folks. Orc discourse is happening.

Let’s talk orcs.

Let’s talk about a specific orc character pitch:

Y’Gria Khaskia, Level 3 Orc Wizard (Divination)!
ST: 8
DX: 10
CN: 12
IN: 16
WS: 14
CH: 14

Y’Gria is one of five students of Raivin Graufeldander, famed mage of Feorr. Y’Gria is subletting from a second cousin who came from the same Wandering Village as Y’Gria but settled in Feorr ten years ago.

Y’Gria, like most orcs, has slight fangs and skin the color of moss, and is freaking *huge*. But that hugeness is *all* flubber—a halfling could probably use his belly as a bed, but Y’Gria himself struggles to move a decent-size bookshelf.

Y’Gria would make for a pretty rad support caster, except he’s impossible, according to rules-as-read (RAW) D&D.

Volo’s Guide to Monsters lets you play an orc.
But it won’t let you play a Level 3 orc with INT over 14 or STR below 10.

The stats I gave Y’Gria above are cheater’s stats. I ignored the Orc ability modifiers and gave the Marshmellow Mage a +1 to INT and WIS.

Kind of like what this supplement is doing: https://twitter.com/gabejamesgames/status/1245878124883202051

This is a failure of D&D’s “Race” system. It locks characters into specific destinies, with no explicit rules for exceptions.

No muscle-halflings. No fat elves. No Y’Gria Khaskia.

And that’s where the racist undertones seep in from.

Because an aspect of racism is the willingness to consider a people as a monolith without considering the countless exceptions to the assumed rule.

And yes, some aspects *are* common within a culture, but you can’t just say “Orcs get +2 STR” without digging into why.

Maybe an orc’s coming-of-age ceremony involves a test of strength. Maybe every orc is taught from birth how to hold a spear, for tradition’s sake.

But there should always be ample room for the exceptions, for people who reject or reframe or pick-and-choose from your fantasy cultures.

That’s truer to life.

And it shouldn’t require HOMEBREW HACKS to the MOST WELL-KNOWN TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING GAME IN THE WORLD, MIKE!