Which do you generally prefer in a setting from demihumans; >Orcs

Playable.
>being a bearded midget woman is fine, but god forbid you have green skin, then you're an abomination

>>52253950
Seconded.

That said, doesn't mean you can't use them as your savage evil raiders from the badlands. I just use them in place of where some people would use Viking Age Northmen, so there's no shame in killing the ones who come to your lands and murderfuck your villages.

>>52253562

It's largely irrelevant, because I've never seen a PC play an orc or even a half-orc. It's always elves or humans. I've only ever played humans, but that's because I'm a racist.

>>52254880
I find people who do that a little boring.

I play as a goblin whenever I can, and I've played all different sorts of them. Greedy ones that are borderline Jewish stereotypes, WoW type tinker ones, generic stupid savages, and far weirder ones that are my own creations rather than drawing from existing media.

>>52254880
True racists only play elves.

Elves - master race (aka the player's own nation)
Dwarves, halflings - servile races
Orcs, goblins - Jews
Humans - everyone else

>>52253562
Well for things like orcs and goblins they're basically just weird humans so the only barrier is cultural/story contrivance to explain them being an unusual individual.

Restricting play makes a lot more obvious sense for monsters with abilities that would be overpowered or ill-suited to players for most gameplay.

There are of course exceptions, all ghost or all evil-outsider games can be fun but they do require special consideration and different game structure.

>>52253562
>Not being part of the hobgoblin masterrace?

>>52253992
That's a great point actually.

So many lazy gms and players act like we HAVE to have monstrous races for mindlessly evil bags of xp that can't be reasoned with and require no moral consideration but human history if full of raiders and "savages" or even just other tribes/villages that would raid without mercy and receive none in return.

>>52254880
Well at least in d&d elves and humans get some pretty juicy starting benefits.

>>52253562
Yes.

>>52257177
That's probably Tolkien's influence which also ties into a lot of "old-school" games. Orcs were supposed to be a non-specific "foreign invader" caricature along with their industrialism shtick. There's actual foreign invaders in the form of the Haradrim and Easterlings, but they're not as universally or ridiculously evil as orcs, because they're human and therefore have free will as opposed to orcs who were literally created by the devil equivalent out of spite for creation and the Children of Iluvatar

>>52253562
Orcs as monsters, hobs and gobs as playable races.

>>52257329
But even if they aren't technically as evil as orcs the wildmen and foreign mercenaries weren't exactly portrayed sympathetically in tolkien's stuff.
Maybe it's partly just because the action focuses more on battling orcs and people emulate the heroes in their heroic encounters.

>>52253562
The former, I guess, though I prefer not to see them at all.

>>52253562
Are races fit to be played. Hell, sometimes I like to try swapping out conventional races with more exotic ones just to see if it can make the setting feel more distinct.

>>52257816
They just barely come up at all unless they're mentioned as part of the enemy armies. On the Silmarillion it's said that the Easterlings who didn't drink Morgoth's kool aid millenia ago were enslaved by the ones who did.

During the siege on Minas Tirith the perspective is occasionally switched to the Easterlings and it's shown that they think Westerners are barely-human monsters. The ones who invade Dor-lomin in Children of Hurin are probably the least sympathetic out of the bunch (with them humilliating, enslaving and/or killing everyone the protagonist knew in his childhood) , but it's made clear that they think of themselves as the good guys or at least their claim to rule as legitimate in some capacity. To them elves are demons and the people who associate with them are evil wiches and warlocks. Another thing worth mentioning is that Turin's brilliant plan of killing the leader, rouse the townspeople to rebellion and reclaim his birth right just makes things far worse for everyone involved.

I think all races should be playable, monsters or no.

>>52253562

Here's how I do it in my setting:

>Goblins
They pretty much replace dwarves. Live in mountains, tinker, hoard gold. Playable.

>Orcs
WoW style greenskins. Barbarians, shamans, "muh honor" fantasy Klingons. Totally playable.

>Hordes of mindless inherently evil bags of XP
I have these too, I just don't call them "orcs" or "goblins". They're beastmen, and they're portrayed more like trollocs or broo.