I'm currently running a homebrewn campaign with characters sent to investigate the suspicious and secretive interest of the Mechanicum into an Imperial colony that got isolated by Warpstorms for over a century. The Inquisition intercepted a distress call, commissioned a frigate and sent the palyers to investigate before leaking the message to the Mechanicum to hide the Inquisition involvment. it quickly becomes apparent that Orks ransacked the imperial colony, looted avery crashed spaceship that came near (they've got an orkified archeotech orbital magnetic array to pull down ships so the player's ship got pulled out of orbit and the players got temporarily marooned on the planet with little or no support)

Long story short: they're heading into ork territory in a rocky desert and I've got some ork adversaries/npc's worked out as well as some quick & dirty vehicle stats, collected enough pics and drawing to illustrate the orks but I was wondering if any of you guys would perhaps have already created specific Ork NPC's, vehicles, artwork etc etc? I was kinda curiosu what you guys are doing with expanding the Orks for DH (or RT.. or... wha'evah)

LOL your players are so DEAD, like really dead, as in DEAD. :)

LOL, naaah, they're sneaky and clever bastards.

I doubt they'll be suicidal enough to take on a huge ork fortress head-on. They're actually chasing the colony's Techpriest, who's linked with the mind unit of the colony's original tech priest. There's a conspiracy going on with some elements within the Adeptus Mechanicus chasing rumours of an STC on the planet. And said elements sent a secret expedition, hiding it from the rest of the Mechanicum and the Imperium. So it's a race for the Archeotech ruins deep in the mountains, with the ork rooted in firmly between teh desert and the mountains.

The Orks are actually gearing up for a siege of the Players Frigate, which crash landed relatively intact (the players have no idea yet what happened to their ship as they were getting ready to disembark when the ship started crashing and they jumped ship.). So basically they'll have a choice, find some clever and daring way to delay the orks or wreak havoc in their camp, or follow the renegade tech priest into the mountains and race for the prize.

Just make sure none of your players are really good with the ability to throw their voice or something. Same for any possible telepathic psykers, 'cause they can quickly ruin it for you by causing plenty of in-fighting amongst the orcs while they slip past and go to try and beat the heretic.

Serimus Bodikan said:

Causing in-fighting amongst Orks is incredibly easy and largely pointless - Orks settle disputes, entertain themselves and sometimes even communicate with violence, so a brawl between individual Orks is likely to be a frequent occurence, and one that leads to very little injury to any of the participants (Orks are too damned tough to let a bit of friendly violence bother them). At which point, all it takes is one Ork or even one Gretchin to spot the group of humans passing through to spoil it - Nothing unites an Ork mob like the prospect of fighting someone else.

Thanks for the all the great idea's guys!

Just as an fyi, I have Creatures Anathema but I was curious what you guysw ere doing with it, I've also found a copy of 'Da uvver book' from Gorkamorka. the only thin missing in my reasure trove is the infamous 'Orks' book from a loong time ago (I had it but lost it). That black book with zero rules and just orky background and fluff, that was brilliant stuff!.

And thanks again for the great idea's, guys!

And can you imagine, the players decided to bypass the Ork town completely... sigh...

Meph, if you could perhaps, think you could send me a message or post "Da 'Uvver Book" up here for those who might not have a copy? I'm sure there's a few people who'd appreciate it.

Sure thing man, i'll upload it and post a link. I'm hoping that due to the age of the book, the discontinuation of it's print and such, that this will not cause any trouble. In case it's a big no-no in the eyes of the moderators, just give me a heads-up and I'll remove the file immediately. I should have the file uploaded by this evening.

Meph said:

It doesn't matter if it is out of print, it's still copyrighted material, and as such illegal to put it up for download unless you've been given permission by GW.

I'd take it down before it gets you in trouble, because as nice as the mods on here are, putting up links to pirated material is still a bannable offence.

Understood, my apologies.

Trying something similar for an adventure I'm developing. Players called into investigate village that's population has dissapeared (Ganf Magna) as reported by an Inquisition contact. Local PDF has not investigated as they claim they cannot afford an investigation to the remote area but have swept the area and confirmed no hostiles and blame the Orks on the disapearance. Strange as there are no signs of bodies.

The adventure leads the PCs into the jungle with some assitance from far more experienced navigators. They will encounter Orks and some "rebel Grots" but I am trying to figure out just how I can make this fair as opposed to having them overrun by screaming boys with lots of dakka.

Perhaps truly making them "feral" with no Flashgits or Mekboyz? Only Choppas and primitive weapons? Ample chances to ambush Orks and plenty of Gretchin as opposed to plenty of boyz?

Personally I can't stomach the juvenile dis, dat and dakka dakka ork rubbish that GW veered into and would be wary of using them in any adventure in their current state. They are a joke and while comedy has a place in any RPG, I would not make it a central feature of a campaign.

Strip out the silly rubbish and go back to basics. Orks should be cunning, violent and extremely cruel.

DavidJones said:

I was under the impressiong that Orks have always been that. That has never changed. Hell, they're less comedic now than they were back at the beginning of 40k, in my opinion. Just change the whole Ork language into grunts and punches, like it actually is, and run them as they are currently, and you have what you want.

DavidJones said:

Some really good points and perspectives regarding the ork silliness can be found HERE , especialy in N0-1's post 2 posts down.

Thanks for the link.

The truth is that they have not always been like that. Okay so now I am showing my age but in the original Rogue Trader they were a cruel, evil race with lots of potential. Not silly or slapstick. They could handle a bolt gun back then too. The early 40k White Dwarf scenarios did not have squigs or silly rules or all the dakka dakka nonsense. The Orks were a genuine challenge for the Space Marines. This is about 25 years ago.

I think the squigs were the first sign of change. Then things went rapidly downhill. WFB Orcs soon got the same treatment. I suppose GW was trying to appeal to a younger audience. GW never should have gone public. I guess that was the problem.

Suffice to say that if any of my players meet an Ork it is not going to have a "choppa" or speak like dis and dat. It will be cruel, evil and alien.

Sigh.

DavidJones said:

Twenty-three, actually - Rogue Trader was released in 1987. The Orks gained their supposed 'slapstick' elements within three years, four years before GW went public, and two years before Second Edition 40k.

Simply put, except for the very earliest years of the setting, the orks have pretty much always been as they are now. Those same earliest years of the setting gave us illiterate thug space marines riding flying surfboards, an Inquisitor called Obi-Wan Sherlock Clousseau, a Half-Eldar Astropath working for the Ultramarines...

The Orks' mentality remains unchanged - the superficial layers of "komedy" piled on top don't change that they're sadistic, violence-loving monsters... it merely means that there's other stuff there too.

As I said, about 25 years ago.

The comedy rubbish may seem superficial, but it represents a lot of wasted ink and effort which could have been better invested in more interesting ideas. Okay so a designer is not always going to hit the nail on the head but a bad idea carried on and developed for 20 years is still a bad idea. It was allowed to infect WFB too (or did the infection come the other way??).

GW is not a po faced company and I appreciate that, but what they did with the Eldar in 40k was elegant and interesting. Why couldn't they have done something equally interesting with Orks?

Putting Orks into DH is like casting the Marx Brothers in Alien. Or making the Predator wear clown shoes. Yes he is still a violent killing machine, but how can you take him seriously?

Not being able to shed the "overtly comedic" aspect of Orks isn't really the fault of Orks or their designer, but rather the GM. Claiming that GW's vision of Orks is "wrong" means only that it doesn't appeal to one individual's particular taste.

It is good to remember that in Warhammer, 40K especially, the RPGs are something of an afterthought, although the original RT contained more RPG-ish aspects. Wargaming gives far less opportunities for personal drama and such, which in turn allows for Ork silliness. Works for tabletop, slightly more complicated for roleplaying, if the GM wants to use them as seriously scary opponents.

I think it all comes down to descrpition and application. As soon as the Acolytes start losing limbs there should be some change in the attitude.

All that being said, I have myself been looking ways to make the Orks something that is easier to take seriously before they rip your arms off.

The way to really avoid the whole orky pigdeon english fiasco is to go down the route that Dan Abnett did in one of the Gaunt's Ghosts books where he describes the the ork language as archaic and gutteral. Don't be to specific about what the orks are actually saying because the players probably don't want to be near enough to an ork to overheard its conversations and lets face it, if a 7 foot killing slab of muscle and rage comes charging towards you you're more than likely going to be focus on the massive axe that it is swinging at you rather than what it happens to be shouting.

With regards to ork vehices just uses some of the standard stat lines for ground vehicle and strap a few guns to them as trucks and buggys are quite lightly armoured. I'd also say in roleplaying terms have the ork vehicles make a lot of noise so the players have a bit of time to make themselves scarce rather than the oks just turning up a butchering them. Remember that ork vehicles run on the power of the orks thinking that they should work so if players are foolhardy enough to try and take one they may have problems getting the vehicles started not to mention keeping it running.

Indeed, i run my Orks without the comedy layer, just as the cruel, uncivilized brutes they are.

i actually think that a lot of the comedy factor may have been influenced by Warcraft, the first one. I think that their humorous approach cross-pollinated into WH40K and WHFB, as both War- and Starcraft are very influenced by GW's stuff...

The important thing to remember about orks is that , like all complete dicks, only other other orks are supposed to find it funny.

It's predates Warcraft by quite some time. Back before Waaarrgh the orks, Ere we Go and Freebootas was released Orks didn't really have any individual style, also having that many army options pretty much made them unstopable at that point in time.

I play Orks in 40K, and used to really love GorkaMorka when it was still around, so I have been developing Dark Heresy equipment, stats, and gubbinz for Orks, drawn from the GW sourcebooks through the proverbial DH lens. I'm not sure if it will work, but I've also debated having Ork character creation rules.

Is that wrong??

Meph said:

Correction: Blizzard stole GW's stuff. No influence, just sneaky stealinz

ThulmannFan87 said:

No, it's not wrong... however, a lot of it has already been done...

Ork Freebooter player characters - written by me - can be found in Into the Storm for Rogue Trader (with Mekboy and Kommando alternate ranks), which (depending on where you are) has just been released. The Rogue Trader rulebook contains stats for Choppas, Shootas and Sluggas, while Into the Storm contains Big Shootas, Burnas, Deffguns, Rokkit Launchas, Bomb Squigs, 'Sploding Squigs, Stikkbombz, Stinkbombz, Big Choppas, Grabba Stikks, Grotwhips, Power Klaws, assorted Ork armour (up to 'Eavy Armour), and a selection of weapon upgrades, plus a Warbike. On top of that, there are rules for Snazzguns and Mega Armour in Creatures Anathema for Dark Heresy.

In short, there's a lot of Ork stuff already around, if you know where to look.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Nathan,

As someone who has Into the Storm, and is an ork fan, I have to say I like your implementation of all things orky.

But, I have to say, I'm not sure you can take a freebooter and plop him in DH.

Unlike normal RT characters, you can't just 5 from all stats, the skills they get from RT origin, and replace their starting equipment and skills/talents as appropriate.

Freebooter origin and starting skills/talent give very little that you could realistically remove to get a DH Rank 1 Freebooter. The Ork stat line is already very nerfed compared to starting RT characters, that removing more to represent a lesser ork is iffy, imo. Maybe, you could 5 from ws, str, toughness, but dropping the rest seems that would make their stats unduly low. Either a DH Ork would be much 'stronger' than a DH character or they are much weaker than a RT character (personally, I think the latter is true). As Orks spring from the ground mostly full grown, I can't really think of what you could remove from their starting traits/talents (they aren't Unnaturally Tough for a bit?? Not quite as Made for Fighting? Not as 'Ard?)

aside: Any reason for severely nerfed stat line? Orks have 185 (maybe 190. I can't recall if they get 25 Ag or not) starting stat points (DH have 180, RT have 225). Unnatural Toughness and starting traits don't seem like they explain it, as Kroot have a comparable stat line to normal RT chars w/ Unnatural Str (+5 to a couple stats, -5 from a couple others), and their own host of nice traits.

EDIT: Honestly, I can't fault most of the starting stats. Orks aren't going to be cuddly, after all. But they do have a noticeably worse profile than a AM. Unnatural Toughness is offset, to a point, by an AM's access to carapace and power armor.