Fleshing out an idea: “an orc was raised by humans, so he fights with the humans against his species” [closed]

Question

So my younger brother is getting started in the RPG space ( <3 ) doing variations on a Lego RPG (they make those now?!). I'm advising him on his GMing.

But, crazy twist, he wants to have one of the player characters be an orc, the otherwise generic non-human (read: acceptable target) enemy. Which is neat and a variation I'm totally behind.

So, with some prodding, he came up with a "the orc was orphaned and raised by humans" idea as an explanation for what, the actual heck, an orc was doing fighting its own. Now, that's pretty neat, especially for a first go, but it begs all sorts of other questions. Do these species eat the same foods? How easily does an orc speak the human language? How does it deal with physical/medical issues that a species's support structure might otherwise cover? (I mean, we've got puberty, and that's pretty wacky. Imagine not having had people around to explain it!)

You get the point. It's a good idea, but could use further pursuit. Any ideas? Note that the setting is still in its infancy: I was hoping that answers to this question might help us zero in on how the setting should play out.

Answer 1

While building the character the story teller and the player can devise how some of the background can work. I can not recommend this way of character creation enough, all players not just the "enemy within" style can benefit from this method.

• Reasons why the adoptive parents want this orphan.
• How the orc became an orphan
• If the orc doesn't know when or how they came to be with the parents, what age do you reveal that information?
• Dealing with two or three major altercations in the child's life, how does that play out? By fighting back right then, coming at them later from the shadows or planing to enter into an order or sect to deal with the anger and/or shame.
• If there can be no cross breading how to deal with puberty, what the parents do and how the young orc just becoming an adult can deal with their inequalities.
• Schooling and the pitfalls associated with that fiasco, assuming that the system allows the orc to be trained with the other kids. (None of us ever do well)
• Unrequited love or accepted love and the ridicule that would come from such a union.
• Choosing a profession or failing to be accepted. A great reason to become an adventurer or coming to fight it's "own"

These questions, and more like these, can be asked of the orc while growing by the story teller. The story teller need only provide a small description of the event at the age of the orc child's development and ask the young orcs response. Each new answer helps to entrench the orc in it's history. Once the questions are completed this is the skeleton of the background. Also some of the characters skill set and physical powers can be created this way.

I have done similar things in many of the games I have run, a little planing on the story tellers part and some helpful player input makes a background that allows the "enemy" to join the ranks of the "home team".

A lot of quirks and advantages can result from this kind of character, but remember the society as a whole does not tend to take to beings of the rival culture. Expect the "enemy" to be spurned or have good reasons why the player is accepted.