How do I make ogres interesting.

[Kevinranch]

I’m working on a setting where I’m adding twists to all the monstrous races, but I can’t seem to think of anything for ogres. I’m wondering if any of you have ideas for how to make ogres different and unique.

[noob]

I’m working on a setting where I’m adding twists to all the monstrous races, but I can’t seem to think of anything for ogres. I’m wondering if any of you have ideas for how to make ogres different and unique.

Ogres value highly infrastructure and often stay permanently near important infrastructure to check it and repair it over time but their laws often involve making people who use the infrastructure pay for its upkeep(thus explaining the ogres near bridges that makes people going through them pay)

[LoneStarNorth]

High fantasy: Humanoids that become too selfish and greedy transform into ogres, still living in their castles and mansions centuries after they have fallen to ruin.

Low fantasy: Ogres are manufactured creatures, made for hard labour. In good nations they can earn wages and eventually retire, in evil nations they try to escape from slavery. In either case they have to figure out what to do with themselves afterwards.

Pokemon: Ogres are baby giants that turn into true giants at a certain age/when exposed to different stimuli/when traded.

[flyinglemur]

Goblin punch has an interesting interpretation of ogres, as creatures effectively embodying child abuse.
Here's the link

[Draconi Redfir]

Most ogres are actually genderless workers all spawned from a common brood-mother. They act as a sort of pseudo hive, similar to ants or bees. The common ogres go out to collect and consume food, while simultaneously patrolling, protecting, and gaining new territory. They actually don't digest most of the food they eat, converting it into fat, or storing it in a second stomach. Every few months, they return to the broodmother and either regurgitate their collected food, or sacrifice themselves for the broodmother and her newborns to consume.


optional: Broodmothers will sometimes give birth to virgin mothers who look a lot like humans, orcs, elves, dwarves, or other common races, perhaps designed in such a way that it could be interpreted in any way. she COULD be a tall human, but she could also be a half-orc. Or perhaps she's a half-elf half-dwarf? She then goes into society and spends a few years mingling among civilized races, courting men of any race she can as often as she can. Perhaps she kills and eat the men afterwords, though it might be safer not too. maybe she only does that some of the time. The young mothers will store any genetic material they collect from this time until they grow of age, at which point they will be compelled to leave society and set up their own den, using the stored genetic material of their unknowing mates to produce a new colony of ogres. Her offspring may feature traits of their fathers from time to time, such as slightly green-tinted skin, pointed ears, or a resistance to poisons. As such, some of her children may be more suited for certain tasks then others.

[Kevinranch]

Most ogres are actually genderless workers all spawned from a common brood-mother. They act as a sort of pseudo hive, similar to ants or bees. The common ogres go out to collect and consume food, while simultaneously patrolling, protecting, and gaining new territory. They actually don't digest most of the food they eat, converting it into fat, or storing it in a second stomach. Every few months, they return to the broodmother and either regurgitate their collected food, or sacrifice themselves for the broodmother and her newborns to consume..

I love this idea, this would fit perfectly into my world. I would have never thought of a ogre hive. Thanks for the inspiration.

[Draconi Redfir]

glad i could help!

[The Glyphstone]

Make them smart? There's a distinct lack of anyone to fill the 'intelligent brute' category at low-to-mid CRs. It's not super-original, as the Warcraft setting did it first, but breaking them out of the overcrowded 'dumb minion muscle' group could go a long way towards making them unique.

[brian 333]

Ogres were once a powerful major race whose art and culture was imitated by the still barbaric elves of their day. Many present day ancient ruins were built by ogres and still setain engineering and magical wonders still unrivaled in the modern age. But they became arrogant and tried to make gods of themselves. The true gods cast them down, making them the grasping, greedy brutes we know in the present.

Ogres remember the time they held power, and want it back. Ogre Magi are the remnants of their once mighty schools of wizardry, and they insure the lore of their former glory is preserved and passed on to each generation.

Ogre shamen are limited in power due to their ancestor worrhip. It is rare for a tribal shaman to be able to cast fourth level spells.