They became a race called the Kang/Keng, who were conquerers in the mold of Mongols in our own world. In the backhistory of the world the fey races had been different castes—the elves were the rulers, the gnomes were the tinkers and scholars, the dwarves the crafters and miners, etc. The kang were the warriors. Goblins and bugbears came later afterwards. The campaign world was set up with the notion that there was a fey magical unification in the deep history but that the fey had “gone too far” in their workings and opened the world to aberrations. (If you want an example of this, look at Bruce Cordell’s Gates of Firestorm Peak, though I devised it before that module came out.)

Orcs, because they seemed to be somewhat off the goblinoid race were just something else entirely, more related to trolls. They were aberrations and were irredeemably twisted and evil, unlike the martial goblins, who were violent by nature but not twisted. Humanity were outsiders who had invaded from somewhere else (implied to be our own world but never clearly stated as such).

We’re still running it, now exploring the fact that the fey unification was itself a client state of a larger vaati unification that was even older.

If you were to translate this notion to D&D, you could have a group of orcs that live amongst, or alongside, certain human barbarians. This would be where most half-orcs come from. It wouldn’t require any mechanical changes, aside from alignment, but if you wanted to you could give them some sort of wilderness-survival ability like tracking by scent, or a bonus to ride and handle animal checks if they’re horse nomads.

I agree. While there’s no real “wrong” way to describe orcs (since they’re imaginary and all), if you don’t hit at least some of the generally agreed-upon touchstones of orc-ness, why bother to call them orcs? It just creates confusion. Having to dispel all the cliches and stereotypes that instantly spring to mind, is much more hassle than starting with a clean slate.

On a similar note, I also hate it when writers feel the need to be “clever” and come up with their own names for creatures the reader will instantly recognize. If he’s a pointy-eared, forest-dwelling archer dude, just do us all a favor and call him an elf already.

For example, in my setting when I re-imagined the orcs I tooka s a guideline that Orcus, was a Roman good of death the underworld, and “Punisher of broken oaths”, and made the orcs a Subterranean society with Orcus-worshipping clerics who had domains related to caves/underworld, death, Law and Honor, where one´s word was very prized. Thus they had a reason to be Orcs.

For goblins, I like to play up the conqueror-god angle Maglubiyet has in Volo’s, having them be slaves to a truly evil god.

If you have some time on your hands, read Grunts! by Mary Gentle. It’s about a tribe of orcs – in a very Lord of the Rings-style setting – getting cursed to become marines after being buried in the tomb of a pan-dimensional dragon.

Re-imagining standard fantasy races is great and makes each setting unique. For instance in Eberron, Orcs are not the bad guys, they are just a peaceful nature-dwelling race.

I’ve used the same in our domestic FR game, where the Orcs are generally a misunderstood race; they are savage but with a more primal way and they do have codes of conduct and honor. But, due to their notorious past, they are subjects of hate and racism from the “civilized people”.