In Dungeons & Dragons, I find we too often neglect to create a distinctive culture for orcs, goblins, and other savage humanoids. It usually satisfies the players and DM to say merely that they are filthy, violent, and unsophisticated. This lack of culture and refinement stands in for any description of the ways in which their cultures express themselves.

The goal in establishing these cultures and expressing them in narrative to players need not be to create sympathy or empathy toward what are generally by design meant to be antagonists. Rather the goal can be to make these creatures more intimidating by suggesting both that the players (and allied NPCs, for that matter) may have underestimated them, and also that these races have more at stake that they will fight for beside subsistence and instinctive violence. They have an enduring culture, and though you may kill an individual, a part of them lives on that you cannot so easily destroy.

Common manifestations of this kind of culture might include games (and other forms of play and competition), performances as with storytelling and songs, carvings in the form of sculptures or etchings on the surfaces of objects, ceremonies marking important (or even quotidian) events, and preparation and consumption of meals. These should be encountered along with artifacts and instances of work, sleep, and combat. How often these manifestations appear ought to correlate with and reflect the prosperity and values of a society.

Graffiti can illuminate those expressions that are more specifically individualistic or counter-cultural in nature. (Where those expressions instead align with mainstream culture, they serve to reaffirm it in a notable way.) Such elements ought to be balanced against the concern of confusing players. A society may not be entirely cohesive, but the presentation of it should be reasonably so.

As an example of what this could look like, suppose that there’s some goblins that the players stumble upon one way or another. Suppose as well that these goblins are neither actively watching for the players and other enemies (as on guard duty or out on a raid), nor are they asleep. What then are they doing? Perhaps the players find them painting one another’s faces, in the style that has become iconic for their clan, which they do because they believe that it wards off bad luck. Perhaps the players find these sorts of paintings on the walls of their dens, expressing the clan’s hopes for prosperity.

Although I’m not currently running any games (an odd state I don’t anticipate will endure long), as I DM moving forward, I will endeavor to include more crafting of and allusions to the cultures of these races. Every intelligent race will find ways to express itself, and those will, I hope, make them seem more than bags of gold and experience.