Anyone tried running an Orks only game?

My son is a big Ork fan and I figured a 100% orky game could be a lot of fun (especially if played with a heavy dose of dark humour. I grabbed the .pdf Gorkamorka rules from the GW website for additional inspiration and have been collating the orky-ness from Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader in preparation.

Anyone tried it before? Do I need my head examined even contemplating the idea?

I tried it once. Biggest issue my players had was that they all felt like they were the same character. There isn't a lot of room for variety in the career provided. The addition of Wierdboy and Freebooter alternate ranks opens things up a bit. Mine were a quick mashup that I've long since thrown out in disgust, but it does work pretty easily.

Other than that, everyone had a lot of fun! It makes for a brilliant let-your-hair-down oneshot between campaigns

Errant said:

That's an issue applying to "streamlined" character types in general, including Sisters and Marines. Regardless of whether their similarities are due to indoctrination or biological limitations, they all share a somewhat similar personality. Still, it can be interesting and fun once the players get into details such as individual preferences or opinions ("I'M DA SHOOTIEST" - "BUT I'M DA CHOPPIEST!") that make for miniscule but notable uniqueness. In addition to this, the characters should possess a somewhat whacky sense of humour which they could add to their characters, as Orks seem to be all about that and a few sessions playing as them sound like an ideal comic relief between more serious adventures.

I can only say that I've played on a roleplay-heavy Ultima Online shard for several years, and the group of Orks there was heavily influenced by TDE/WHF which makes them rather similar to the 40k ones. And they always seemed to have a lot of fun. Actually, everyone had a lot of fun - when those guys made road blocks to collect "shiniez" everyone, including the robbed ones, were always grinning because of the act they pulled off. Also they were far more interested in taking people's cloaks than coins. Their chief was rumored to own an insanely huge collection, with the cloaks of various heroes the most valued trophies.

I recommend reading DEFF SKWADRON for further orky inspiration.

Lynata said:

Indeed - that was one of the sources that made me think it was a viable idea for a game.

As I don't see it as a loooong term campaign I wonder if it's worth starting the players off at rank 4 - allowing people to take the alt career ranks from ItS straight away and encouraging a bit more variety in PCs right from the start?

As a HUGE Ork fan, I have played in a fun game like this once, the group could not accomplish much as we argued, fought and wished the worst on each other lol. but it was done in such fun and in such a good way. We were very good at fighting however, we based the characters on the hanson brothers from slapshot

Of my three regular players I think one (my son) aspires to be a Kommando who's "innit fer da teef", another would ideally like to play a PainBoy and the third would like to play a string of Gretchin (who die in comic fashion to be replaced by another identical one shortly after - verymuch in the mold of the clones in the Paranoia RPG).

DaBossuvDaWaagghh said:

So were you three from the Blood Ice Klan?

Nerd King said:

Nice crew, I do plan on making an Ork kammando myself (when I found a game of course); they're the fartest form the stereotype as it can go, but they'll still chop/shoot/smash you in the end, just wait until you're done talking and doing boring things.

Freebootas are ork, but they are a diferent breed of orks; Lootin' is on the top of thier list, instead of figtin' (which is down to #2), so even talking or doing some un-orky things is tolerable, as it can be gud fer' lootin'...and if some gitz are around to guard your (future) loot, well you get to fight on top of it, so win-win-win (the 3rd win is there 'cuz Orks iz made fer winnin')