Sunday, February 12, 2012

A Final Word on Slaughtering Orcs

In TSR era D&D, the default assumption is that orcs & co. are irredeemably evil, rabid monsters. In an utterly objective sense. Their very essence is evil. Within that imaginary realm, killing a young orc is dispatching a demon in larval form. Not killing a child.

In later editions, the picture has changed somewhat, with ideas of orcs being noble savages, etc., entering the picture.

I think it's just fine if someone wants a more nuanced orc in their campaigns. 

But if you do so, and you pretend, or actually think that your intellectual model about an imaginary subject is shared by everyone else and then claim you're a superior role-player to those who don't acknowledge your self-constructed imaginary parallels between slaughtering D&D orcs and real life genocide, then I'm going to laugh at you.

I'll have a twinkle in my eye, though, so try not to take it too hard.