Dragonlance Dragonlance Creators Reveal Why There Are No Orcs On Krynn

Talking to the Dragonlance Nexus, Dragonlance creators Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman revealed why the world of Krynn features no orcs -- in short, because they didn't want to copy Tolkien, and orcs were very much a 'Middle Earth' thing.

Weis told Trampas Whiteman that "Orcs were also viewed as very Middle Earth. We wanted something different." Hickman added that it was draconians which made Krynn stand out. Read more at the link below!

Why are there no Orcs in Krynn? Weis and Hickman give us the answer! - Dragonlance Nexus

Dragonhelm gets the scoop from Weis and Hickman on why there are no orcs in Krynn. Read More

dragonlancenexus.com

 

[AnotherGuy]

um I had 3 answers... fluff mechanic and astetic, why is mechanic the only part you are focusing on?

again I had the fluff quote too

Sure, I can include all of that that if you want in my post, but you're missing my point entirely. It doesn't change the fact that said posters are not going to jump in and direct you how the orc fluff, the orc ascetic and the mechanics are not the aspects one should be focussing on when it comes to a DL setting.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Half-orcs have no niche in D&D, so literally anyone. Maybe a different mixed heritage if that's the story you want to tell.

by that standard NO race in d&d does...

 

[mamba]

yes I missed the fact that people didn't get that the robes are members of of the color codeing

didn’t want to presume, I prefer to assume that what you do say is what you intended, unless it is very clearly a mistake or ironic. You can always clarify what you meant, as you did.

I prefer that over me misunderstanding and then being blamed for putting words in your mouth / misrepresenting what you said

 

[Umbran]

nope replace elves with Dragonborn or Orc or Owlin, and its' the same.

If that's true, then why not just have all humans, and be done with the problem completely?

 

[Velderan]

yes, it is actually what made me think (VERY MUCH dalamar) that a LE player could work with a NG one.... however I will be honest after a few years of 3e I was angry at the alignment spectrum itself... and by 4e when they introduced unaligned we started seeing the alignments just not working... we just ignore 99% of alingment now.

Same, we put it on our character sheet more out of habit than anything at this point. Occasionally the DM will reference it if a NPC is specifically drawn to a particular alignment character in the description but otherwise largely ignore alignment at my table.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This thread is becoming very adversarial. Calm down, please folks. Orcs in Dragonlance is not worth getting upset about.

I don't think it's about orcs at all. It's pretty obvious they are not important.

It's really about a philosophical belief, I alluded to a couple of months ago, that has appeared in the last couple of years. That is, that everything in the core rules MUST be allowed in the game. Preventing a player from playing what they want is morally objectionable.

You see it in "The trouble with halflings" thread. Some people don't like halflings. That isn't the trouble, surely you can just say "we don't have halflings in our game"? Problem solved, right? No, because "We can't disallow halflings THEY ARE IN THE CORE RULES". So, they are trying to get halflings removed from the core rules because they think that's the only way to not have them in their game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

by that standard NO race in d&d does...

Sure, but in your own world they can be whatever you want. I use orcs extensively in my own homebrew. But not in Dragonlance, because that setting doesn't have them.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

I did, and I contradicted every point you made with quotes from the article you were basing your conclusion on.
That is very much as engaged as it gets.

I also was not making fun of you, I kept is light hearted, with one rhetorical / joking question in it.

When you say things like "hard to fathom, I know," you are, in fact, making fun of someone. You are mocking their intelligence, portraying them as incapable of understanding simple things. That is why I was, and am, upset. Obviously, that specific comment only came later; it is simply illustrative of the pattern that was already there.

I also notice that you did not engage with my points but instead are resorting to insults. Ironic, you are the one doing what you are accusing me of

Because I already tried, and you responded with flippancy, something you continue to do; I won't be responding further unless we can get past snide, insulting comments like the following:

They could have. they did not want to. Hard to fathom, I know

 

[GMforPowergamers]

This argument also argues that these two pictures are the same, because they share many of the same traits.

View attachment 265590View attachment 265594

no it doesn't...

it argues that the character can be rewritten with minor ease.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Depending on what aspect you want to focus on, a plainsman could fit that role, some dwarves, minotaurs. I realize they don't get the same mechanics so if I had a player that was set on being able to stand back up after falling to 0 HP once per long rest, I'd probably steer them in the direction of playing a plainsman warrior from the Que-Kiri tribe and give them half-orc game stats.

look at what you are saying.
"I can fit a half orc in"
yeah you can it doesn't change anything to take the half orc (or the dragon born or the teifling) and refluff them as human... I even did so for a campaign.
but once you let that in I have to ask, why is no orcs such a big deal? (in my setting the lack of orc, elf, dragonborn ect was a HUGE plot point and part of the theme of the setting and part of the pitch)