Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: The Wembic Nation of the Gold Mountains aka All About Orcs

The Wembic Nation of the Gold Mountains aka All About Orcs by John Josten is a generic role playing game supplement published by Board Entrerprises. This is part of the Small Bites series and is the “World Walker” version. The full version, which is only available to Patreon supporters, is more than double the length.

This is a 25 page PDF that is available for free from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover.

The Introduction gives an overview that the supplement is intended to make orcs more memorable. This is followed by a Glossary about some of the terms used. The Table of Contents is also on this page.

Next is material from the Fletnern Wiki that is associated with orcs and the Wembic Nation. This has bits on tribes, individuals, sites, regions and cultures.

The Sounding Board is a collection of blog posts. First up is Not All Orcs are Created Equal. This explains that in Legend Quest orcs can be scaled to be a threat to all characters (which is actually true of Pathfinder as well), and that just because different tribes are all orcs doesn’t mean that they aren’t different from each other.

Is Being a Trope a Bad Thing? says that sometimes it’s fun and relaxing to just be that character who kills orcs without thinking.

How Do Orcs Fight? is on portraying orcs as legitimate threats and serious warriors.

Empire of Orcs discusses the Wembic Nation and its current emperor, and his actions.

An Empire of Orcs? is on how the Wembic orcs started creating an actual nation.

Lifestyles of the Magical and Mundane is on the orcs living in the Wembic Nation. This covers culture, food production, activities and history keepers. Tactics has some excerpts from an orcish book on tactics. Wet Behind the Ears discusses the equipment orcs use.

News of Fletnern covers the Conquering War some decades ago and the occupation of Parmania by the Latvich of Garnock and the orcs. There is also a reproduction of a letter from the Wembic Nation to Myork that threatens them. The current emperor of the orcs has also sort-of threatened Brinston, resulting in a census that was covered in All About City Guards. This section also gas a timeline of some relevant dates.

The Good Life discusses the orcish capital-fortress, a former dwarven mine, and cuisine. Blan Zar is a rather brutal, but usually not fatal, orcish sport. Orcs have other martial sports as well.

What’s Missing explains what is in the full version and the supplement is wrapped up with various links. Finally there is a listing of orcish tribes.

The Wembic Nation of the Gold Mountains aka All About Orcs in Review

The PDF has the various major sections linked and some of the minor ones, but the bookmarks are not as thorough as they have been in recent editions. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is also hyperlinked. Navigation is okay, but poorer than it has been. There are also some external links to relevant supplements and parts of the wiki. The text maintains a two column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of black and white public domain and stock images. Presentation is okay.

As always, this is a collection of generally related articles on the subject of orcs rather than a coherent whole. It does put together a fairly detailed picture of a country of orcs being more than just cannon fodder and quite possibly the most dangerous nation on the continent. Orcs, as portrayed, may on average be less intelligent than other races, but that doesn’t mean they are unintelligent, or not dangerous. This makes this an interesting and well-detailed depiction of orcs that will make them rather more of a threat, and more interesting. The level of detail may be more than some GMs are interested in, but it’s still worth a read. The Wembic Nation of the Gold Mountains aka All About Orcs can be found by clicking here.