Quote Originally Posted by Tom Kalbfus View Post
What do you need orcs for?
This is the wrong question to ask. See, this is still Dungeons and Dragons, and in Dungeons and Dragons, orcs are an expected part of the milieu. You don't need a reason to include orcs, they're in there by default. At first, my reasoning for Orcish Vikings was "it sounded cool."

Of course, now it's currently "Considering my stated focus on having the players participate in historical conflicts, I need to have the Demihumans well-integrated into mainstream society, otherwise they don't really have a reason to participate. An Orc who lives in a cave and doesn't know what France is can't really meaningfully participate in the Hundred Year's War, and that means the Hundred Year's War campaign won't really include Orcs. That's a problem because it makes the NPC population more homogeneous."

Now, there's the fact that you, personally, might prefer to have "civilization" consist almost entirely of humans. Ultimately, I can't stop you. But I can tell you that sounds boring and uninteresting, to just take every race that isn't human and declare that they don't get to play in the sandbox, and instead just live Somewhere Else, only to be allowed in play when the DM needs a random encounter with bandits or raiders that's largely inconsequential to the plot. And I can tell you that I strongly advise you to reconsider, and embrace the fact that you're playing D&D, rather than try to fight it.





(On a side note, please refrain from double-posting in the future. It's poor form.)