Friday, February 28, 2014

Orcs & Goblins for Dungeon Crawling in Middle Earth

Presently two orcs came into view. One was clad in ragged brown and was armed with a bow of horn; it was of a small breed, black-skinned, with wide and snuffling nostrils: evidently a tracker of some kind. The other was a big fighting-orc, like those of Shagrat's company, bearing the token of the Eye. He also had a bow at his back and carried a short broad-headed spear. As usual they were quarrelling, and being of different breeds they used the Common Speech after their fashion.

Today we will look at the Orcs & Goblins of my Middle Earth. The orcs of the Misty Mountains were described as smaller and weaker of the orc tribes. While Mordor seemed to have the standard breed of orcs, and Saruman corrupted man and orc to create his Uruk-Hai (which will not be discussed here as they will not be around for my 1640 Third Age game).

Orcs / Goblins
Goblins are the Orcs of the Misty Mountains, smaller than their Mordor cousins. They are usually armed with curved scimitars, spears,and short bows. These will be the D&D “goblins” of the Holmes edition.  

 Orcs are the "true" orcs of Mordor, clad in black mail, larger and stronger than "goblins" of the Misty Mountains.  Armed with scimitars, spears, and bows. These are the “orcs” of Holmes D&D. Orcs - typical orcs of Mordor.

 Even in Mordor there are some variations of orcs, there are the "hunters" small creatures with extremely flat noses that are excellent trackers. These orcs will be represented by “kobold” stats from Holmes D&D, but they have the tracking ability of Rangers. 

So in summary, you can expect to encounter the following in or around Cirith Ungol, happy hunting:
Goblins - orcs of the Misty Mountains (weak, suffer in daylight).
Kobolds - weakest of Mordor orcs, hunters (sniffers).
Orcs - typical orcs of Mordor.

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