Are orcs capable of reform, given their Hate?
I have a character playing a troll who came up with a minor relationship with a reformed Orc who is something like a Druid. There are no lifepaths that will build this, so I’ll have to construct him and then work on the additional skills I want. Does this sound right?
The way I see it? Orcs always have Hate, barring a miracle. It doesn’t matter how fervent your desire to be good is; Hatred is something that never disappears completely. It’s not unlike an addiction or other such condition: you can never rest, never finish fighting the battle permanently. So said Orc would maintain powerful control over their emotions, abstain from channeling Hatred, and try to avoid circumstances that would cause their Hatred to rise. The only thing keeping them rooted is a firm desire not to be defined by the Hatred within themselves.
That’s one intense (and powerful!) statement right there. I love it. (One day, I want to see a player choose to be an Orc in a heroic group. Or maybe play it myself.)
So an orc must, at the very least, contend with this inner rage, try to control, fight it. That’s how I envisioned this NPC, in conflict with his inner demons.
Yep! Which would be a very cool character indeed. I’m not quite sure what to do about the NPC, but maybe do a most-burn and hand out a few skills they picked up along the way?
Even if you don’t do a full burn, take a sec to answer the Hatred questions. This’ll tell you a lot about the life your orc has left behind!
I don’t really have to calculate this down to the minute for aptitude, skill acquisition, and practice, right?
You don’t even need to do a full burn. Read the “Burning Rogues” appendix in BW. Answering the Hate questions is a good idea, too.
Sort of like the Hulk?
A bit like “Frank Miller does the Hulk”. So yeah. Same basic idea, but with even more toxic emotion under the surface. Possibly also some sort of addiction to the hatred.
If you’re going to play that character, I would suggest you police yourself in two ways: first, you need to learn all the things that grant automatic Hatred checks - not only should you not ignore the peril of being overwhelmed by Hatred just because you made an RP choice to ignore it, it’s good to see it grow despite your best efforts to keep it in check. If I were doing this, I’d REALLY push myself to look for reasons to take hatred checks and struggle with my seething inner demons. Second, you can’t NEVER exploit Hatred. Use it rarely - like, once or twice EVER rarely - but make it really dramatic. Make it something that turns the tides so much that the other players in your group lean on you to use it more often. Make it tempting, but also make it terrible. Make sure that when you do it, even though there were no other options and you had to do it to save everyone, it haunts your character. You went too far. Never again.
It’s a great device for character development, but remember that development requires conflict. If you just act like it’s not there, it won’t be as much fun.