Do Orcs Hang Out at the Local Tavern

Old School Perspective
My first association with the word "orc" is from The Lord of The Rings where they are the bad guy minions of Sauron and Saruman. The Hobbit seems to refer to the same evil creatures as "goblins" and despite some research into the origins and species of orcs and goblins, I remain unsure if J.R.R. Tolkien meant them to be two names for the same creatures or not. The fact that they are evil and live separate from men and elves seems obvious, however.

White Box reintroduced me to orcs as a part of gaming. Listed among the monsters in Volume 2: Monsters & Treasure, orcs are one hit-die creatures with armor class 6 (equivalent to leather and shield) who live in various tribes either above ground in villages or below ground in caves, are aligned with chaos and occasionally work alongside men (who are presumably also aligned with chaos). Orcs are light sensitive (-1 to hit) and quarrelsome - frequently fighting other orc tribes. We are told orcs have access to catapults and to wagons, so I infer they are builders and makers of some (crude) skill. They are often led by high level fighting men, magic users or more powerful creatures, which seems to indicate subservience to power. This all seems to fit in with what I gleaned about orcs from reading Prof. Tolkien and my mental image of "orc" was (and maybe is) a combination of what I gathered from the Tolkien sources, movie adaptations included, and White Box.
In 1974, when White Box was published, the "to date" published works of Prof. Tolkien were fairly popular, especially among readers who would be interested in White Box. This was before the unfinished works were released by Christopher Tolkien therefore much that is now known about Middle Earth remained a mystery then. White Box may have been inspired by elements of Middle Earth, but certainly it does not adhere to a strict canon regarding any source. Therefore creatures such as the orc or troll may be "borrowed" from a literary source, but the authors freely adapt such material to suit their own fancy.
Moving ahead in time to the Advanced Game, orcs receive a fairly long entry in the Monster hardback. We now know that orcs are a common creature, of average (low) intelligence. They are characterized as slavers and "bullies" and their tendency to squabble and fight among themselves and with goblins is emphasized. They are described as cruel and haters of living things in general and especially elves. They prefer to live underground, see well in the dark and are accomplished tunnelers and miners.

It is from the Advanced Monster hardback that we have the image of orcs with pig snouts and the first mention of their skin coloration - brown or brownish green with a bluish sheen and pink snouts and ears. This seems in contrast to the Tolkien orcs who I recall being described as "black" and created from the tortured spirits of elves. The so-called pig faced orcs have never set particularly well with me and I tend to avoid using this description while refereeing. Your orcs may vary.
The half-orc makes its in-game appearance in the Advanced Monster and Players hardbacks as a mongrel race mostly resembling their orc parent (Prof. Tolkien mentions half-orcs as bred by Saruman). We are told some 10% of the human-orc cross-breeds sufficiently resemble humans so as to pass among human society. The strong racial language used in these volumes teeters on the unacceptable today (imo), but the meaning is quite clear. Half-orc player characters look mostly human, perhaps having some unusual features such as off-color skin tone, unusual hair or nose and ear shapes. They receive a Charisma penalty of -2 and are not well liked by other races. It is obvious, however, that this 10% of half-orcs can move among human society with some degree of freedom. I get the impression that people generally react negatively to the half-orc, but tolerate them as "ugly" and perhaps "ill mannered" or bullies.
What about the rest of orc-dom? The tribal orcs and those half-orcs who mostly resemble other orcs are presumably treated as monsters and are therefore unwelcome among polite society? This would be keeping with a Middle Earth interpretation. I just can't imagine an orc being served anything but violence at the Prancing Pony Inn.
The game has changed much over the decades since White Box ushered in the new hobby and today much game art and many published settings assume orcs and humans mingle freely in a diverse culture of blending much like our own real culture aspires to. This is certainly different from the way I experienced the game in my early days and may reflect some degree of old school verses new school styles of play. White Box emphasizes a do-it-yourself approach especially to world building and there is no reason to suppose worlds didn't exist back-in-the-day where orcs and elves shared high tea - in fact Tunnels & Trolls' default setting (Trollworld) has always been like that. It just isn't the way my group played the game until fairly recently. (In fact, when I referee, orcs are still "monsters".)
How one approaches the orc, half-orc may say something about their roots in the hobby. My first half-orc character was handed to me by my referee as he informed me this was to be my character in his 3.5 campaign. I balked...I had never wanted to play a half-orc, or a vampire or any other "monster". I got through it and grew to enjoy playing my half-orc cleric/thief, but it was an adjustment. I still tend to see orcs, drow, tieflings and other monster races as the bad guys. I also still enjoy westerns where the good guys wear the white hats (remembering it is all "make-believe"). One of the joys of this hobby is the freedom to "decide how you would like it to be, and then make it just that way".