I want to make a Gorkamorka forum game. How to?
Namely, how do I write orks? What kinda stuff do I need to know about them and the setting to make the characters, items, weapons, vehicles, etc. proper and orky?
Well, first off, Orks in 40k talk like drunken Pikies. Bad, horrifically accented gutter english. "Oi, wutz deez 'umans doin?" You can have more or less of that as you prefer, but, Orks are basically modeled after British Soccer Hooligans according to GWS.
Secondly, and probably most important of all, is the concept of MOAR DAKKA. More firepower, more bullets, bigger noises, basically an entire race that operates the same way Michael Bay thinks. Orks believe that the color red makes vehicles and planes go faster. The bigger, the faster, the louder, the more dangerous it is, the more Orks like it.
Third, is improvisation and adaptability. Orks don't make anything "new." What they do is cannibalize the things other races make. So their weapons and vehicles and space ships and power armor are all "folk crafted." By that I mean, they're effective but basic, ramshackle and unreliable. Armor is thick and heavy and made of other bits of armor. Guns are loud and violent and high rate of fire but they jam or explode a lot. Vehicles are cobbled together from derelict tanks and troop transports. Rok Space Fortresses are literally chunks of other ships rammed into giant asteroids and wired together (using totally unexplained Orky technology) so they work. Structures are built out of shot up Flak Board, burnt and twisted sections of steel and anything else they can bolt together to make a wall. No thing made by Orks is consistent, each and every one is different in some way. Or "Kustom" as they like to call it.
Fourth is their mindset. Orks are basically a primitive, tribal culture. Bosses are those that are the biggest, the toughest, have the biggest tusks, the most spikes on their armor, have crushed the most of their foes ect... Whether you're dealing with Feral (completely non-technological orks who grew up on a planet with zero contact with other races or other orks) or Space Orks, they still basically organize and operate as tribes and clans. Following the above, Orks also rarely settle down and live sedentary lives. They live for war, bloodshed and conquest. Feral orks trapped on a planet will happily make war on each other if there's no one else to fight with. It's not a conscious thing, orks are simply wired for destruction. This isn't to say Orks are
stupid. Their not
smart but they are
crafty as long as it relates to something dealing with war.
Fifth is related to the third but only somewhat. Orks are one of the universe's greatest species, and here's why. They can thrive almost anywhere, in almost any environment with next to no technological assitance. Sub-zero world of ice floating on a methane sea? No problem. Volcanic hell scape where the air is 50% toxic fumes? It's like a holiday getaway for orks. An Asteroid fortress floating in space with intermittent life support and power? To the Orks it's a Rolls Royce. They simply don't give a fuck about most of the things that pose dire hazards to other races. Even if it IS fatal to them, they'll just spawn more orks to replace the ones they lost. About the only things completely lethal to orks are: the vaccum of space and being totally disintegrated. Orks, when they feel pain, tend to not register it. They'll happily survive losing an arm, a leg or more and keep fighting. They don't feel sorry for themselves, think about the future very much or have long-term goals beyond making war. When Orks find there's no enemies left to fight, they either go find new ones or start fighting each other.
Sixth is their relation to the Warp. Orks don't create impressions in the Warp like most other sentient races. That doesn't make them immune to the warp by any means, but it does have some noticeable consequences. For one, Orks don't worry about being taken over by daemons, they simply can't be. Second, they're hard to "read" via the warp. Their thoughts are alien and don't leave warp signatures that psykers can read very well. You can't prognosticate on them, get a sense of what they're thinking or communicate with them telepathically. You can't manipulate their thoughts or reorder their minds. Third is that their use of the Warp is highly destructive and random because their use of isn't learned so much as felt. Which is why an Ork Weirdboy Psyker is as likely to fry a regiment of Imperial Guard with their powers as their own mob.
And lastly, I guess, is the concept of WWAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH. Waaaggghhh is basically Ork morale. It gets stronger the more orks are around. A single ork may be ornery and dangerous on his own...but basically they're still primitives at heart and kind of cowardly. But get 50 of their boyz next to them, and there is no risk they won't take, no enemy too tough, no objective too difficult, no death too grisly. It's been said of 40k Orks that the only reason they haven't dominated the galaxy yet is their inability to unify and keep the WWWWAAAAAAGGGGHHHH endlessly going. This isn't like Chinese Communism or any real sense of community; it's more like what happens when a mob turns into a riot. The times Orks pose a real threat to the galaxy is when a strong enough Warboss can gather enough clans together to make war on an epic scale. WWAAAAGGGGHHHHs of that sort can last decades before enough orks die or leaders die that the WAAAGGGGGHHHH peters out. While it's going, Orks in a WAAAAGGGGGHHHH just sweep through galaxy, leaving fire and ruin in their wake.
One example of Ork tech I like is from a 40k novel I read. These guys are trying to drive an Ork wagon, which was refitted from an Imperial troop transport. The steering is so heavy that a normal human can barely manage to keep it going straight without dislocating their shoulder. The shifting likewise grinds gears horribly and requires brute force to use. The truck is stinky and full of unvented exhaust and rusted through body panels. The truck accelerates so hard it's enough to give a normal, unprepared person whiplash. There's no modern conventions like glass for the windows, heaters, air conditioning or any of that, because Orks just don't give a fuck. And then the vehicle later on unexpectedly dies on them.
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Topic: Warhammer 40k (Read 14453 times)