[OLOG] Orc Virtues

A glance at my URL will tell you this, but, just so we're abundantly clear, I love orcs.

For a good couple of years now, I've been building up a cumulative concept in my head of what an orc is in my home setting. This post isn't going to be about that - I'll save it for another time - but, to summarise, orcs are masters of engineering, stubbornly atheistic, and struggling to reconcile a millennia-old clan structure with the rise of realpolitik.

I've been toying with the idea of a GLOGhack (take a shot) that focuses on orcs. I don't know much about it yet - level of crunch, what the classes will look like, whether there'll be classes at all, etcetera - but one thing I do know is that it'd give me an opportunity to play with stats a little.

Orcs define themselves by virtues, various personal qualities they strive for and aspire to. There's a near-infinite variation in the virtues to which one might swear allegiance, but orcs are realists. They acknowledge that pursuing all virtue is overambitious at best, counterproductive at worst. Instead, most orcs will choose personal portfolios of virtues to uphold and pursue. The degree to which this is a formal part of society varies - some clans and enclaves hold elaborate ceremonies where young orcs swear to uphold their chosen virtues, while for others virtues are a quiet, personal matter and interrogating someone else's is considered rude.

This idea of choosing just a few strengths to focus on struck me as an interesting approach for a game. What if characters varied not just in the values of their stats, but in which stats they did and didn't possess, right from the outset?

So, here are the beginnings of a framework for just that.

art by Billy Christian

Orc Laws of Glory: Ability Virtue Scores

Character Generation

There are ten potential virtues. Here is a very rough table. Many of these have both physical and mental / emotional components. There is overlap - that's kind of the point.

1d10 Orcish Virtues

1. ACU, Acumen - practical intelligence, manual dexterity and fine-motor skills
   
2. DIL, Diligence - caution, perception, concentration
   
3. FOR, Fortitude - toughness both physical and mental
   
4. GRA, Grace - agility, full-body coordination
   
5. MIG, Might - physical brawn and leverage, not just how strong you are but how you use it
   
6. PAS, Passion - inner fire, drive, raw charisma
   
7. PRE, Presence - "passive" social skills, poise, and general impact
   
8. RES, Resolve - emotional and psychic endurance, commitment, willpower
   
9. SAG, Sagacity - abstract intelligence, learning, memory
   
10. WIT, Wit - quick thinking, "active" social skills
    

To generate a new orc, start by rolling five times on the virtue table, noting each result as it comes, including duplicates.

For each unique virtue, roll 3d6, plus an additional d6 for each copy of it you have beyond the first, and take the three highest results. Sum those dice and check the sum against the following table for your virtue modifier.

• 3-5: -3
  
• 6-7: -2
• 8-10: -1
  
• 11-13: +1
  
• 14-16: +2
• 17-18: +3

Erase one virtue of your choice. (This is mandatory.) You're done.

Let's roll up an example character now to demonstrate. We'll give her a good, traditional orc name, like Izec. I roll 6d10 on the table and get Acumen, Grace, Passion, Wit, and Wit again. For each of Acumen, Grace, and Passion, I roll 3d6, and get 8, 11, and 9, respectively. For Wit, I instead roll 4d6 and keep the three highest, and get 14. Then I must choose a virtue to erase - I decide to cut Passion.

Izec's final virtue modifiers are ACU -1, GRA +1, WIT +2 - she's quick of body and mind, but bad at applying her considerable intellect in a structured, practical way. She does not have any of the other virtues on the list. They're just not things that stick out about her.

If your total negative modifiers exceed your total positive modifiers, you may reroll your character.

Virtues in Play

Almost everything in the OLOG that's tied to your stats gives you a choice of two or more virtues to use. Here's how it works.

• If you don't have either listed virtue, you don't apply a modifier.
  
• If you have one of the listed virtues, you must use its virtue modifier.
• If you have more than one listed virtue, use the best modifier.
  

Derived stats, like attack bonuses and save values, each have prescribed sets of virtues that can apply to them. For other types of check, it's probably best to adjudicate on the fly whether or not a particular virtue is applicable (though ideally it should be consistent - thinking about keeping lists of where you've used a virtue in the past, might be too much bookkeeping).

For raw stat checks, each virtue has a derived virtue value of 10 plus twice its modifier - this is the equivalent of a raw ability score in other systems. If you make a virtue check with no applicable virtues, the target defaults to 10.

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This is all very unformed and early-stage at the moment, and could definitely use refinement, but I think there's potential. More to come, probably.