Ogre pitch

Overview

• An Empire ogre is a creature designed to fill the role of "brute" on a battlefield.
  • We don't believe a single ogre is an effective tool; our rules don't allow for monsters that are immune to attacks, so players will quickly overwhelm a single ogre.
  • To be effective, we would want to field a unit of ogres, or an ogre supported by multiple allied creatures.
• Empire ogres are combat creatures.
  • The costume must allow enough movement that it can fight effectively.

Appearance

• Ogres are larger-than-man-sized creatures, preferably at least seven feet tall.
  • This allows us to use our Large Creature rules
• They are humanoids, but there is a wide diversity in their specific features. Ogres are conceived as being unstable and prone to mutation. Some of the examples given to the players are:
  • an odd number of eyes - both a single eye in the middle, and a third functioning eye above the other two.
  • curling horns - similar to those of a cambion or a single horn reminiscent of a rhinocerous)
  • tusks similar to those of a boar or mammoth
  • bony growths on the body especially around the hands, shoulder, knees and upper back similar to those of Shadowrun trolls
  • tufts of fur or hair, or entire pelts of long coarse hair
  • mottled or striated marks on the skin, albeit most often in 'normal' ogrish skin colours rather than anything more colourful.
  • Inappropriate Elements: Ogres are mammals, so body parts reminiscent of other types of creature would not be appropriate (ogres don't have tentacles, insect-like elements, feathers, wings or lizard-like scales)
• Ogres keep growing throughout their lifespan and can be as large as we can phys-rep.

• Wild ogres use tree-trunks and rough hides. Ogres that are fighting with orcs may have piecemeal armour and wield massive two-handed weapon in one hand

As Characters

• The Jotun, the Thule and even the Druj make use of ogre families in their armies. They give them weapons and armour them up, making them much more dangerous than wild ogres.

• They are 'stupid; they can't read and write, don't build or craft, and enjoy smashing stuff.
• They have a voracious appetite that means they are almost constantly hungry. They can eat anything they can fit in their gobs, but they prefer meat.
  • If they taste human flesh, they develop an overwhelming craving for it, making them even more dangerous.
• They're not common in the Empire because they've been hunted to extinction. Sometimes an ogre or a pack of ogres comes in from outside. They present a serious threat to isolated villages, travellers and the like.

• There are no ogre magicians or shaman. All ogres are thugs. They can be the target of enchantments just like anyone else however that might give them odd powers.

Ogre capabilities

• They are freakishly strong. This allows them to batter down gates or light pallisades with their fists. They may be able to call STRIKEDOWN with every strike. When equipped with more advanced weapons they are capable of calling SHATTER especially against shields, and using IMPALE on melee strikes - which means they are best faced by guys in heavy armour.

• Being large they are naturally immune to special combat or magic calls. They don't suffer IMPALE from arrows, for example. They can't be WEAKNESSed or VENOMed and so on.
  • Remember that they still take damage from being hit, however ,and this is likely to mean they will get mown down if they are surrounded.

• They have preternatural stamina - this means lots of body hits, but also means they have second wind a number of times a day.
  • I think they can also heal up by eating - if they're given a bit of time to recover and there is plenty of meat around they can restore themselves to full hits in about five minutes by using one of their Second Wind abilities which is much more effective for large beasties than just getting 3 hits back I think.

Culture and Customs

• Ogres do not appear to possess any culture.
• They are intelligent and can speak, but are incredibly stupid by human and orc standards. Despite their strength they make dreadful labourers and need constant supervision.
• They don't create anything - they don't build, they don't paint, they don't even carve wood.They just live to procreate, fight and eat.
• AN ogre pack is dominated by the strongest and most vicious ogre. They are territorial, and fight each other for territory.
• Lone ogres, especially adolescent ogres, are either outcasts or are on the search for a mate.

In their natural state ogres neither craft nor build. They make dreadful labourers, and seem incapable of remembering instructions from day to day - attempts to use them as workers have required them to be 'trained' again each morning, and have invariably ended with the ogres attacking their captors and needing to be killed.

• Wild ogres tend to have a lair which serves as the centre of their territory, and they defend it madly.

Ogres in play

• These are meant to be scary - they're the iconic brute for Empire, combining elements of traditional roleplaying ogres, trolls and giants.
• The flavour tells the PCs that "A lone character would most likely be able to defeat a lone ogre only with a great deal of luck or a clever plan, and a single ogre is capable of threatening an entire small village. A group of ogres is exponentially more dangerous - they represent a credible threat to an village or an experienced band of soldiers."

Links

• here is a link to the Ogre page on our main wiki - this is expanded information for our players.