Every time I look at materials for this game, I'm completely bewildered by the premise and the attraction of same.
I can't figure out what it is. Are you inmates in a vast post-rational bantustan? What are you supposed to do? Why bother?
Holy crap. I'd totally forgotten about that game. It's, like, about Canadians isn't it?
WTF?
!i!
Well, originally, I picked it up when it first came out under the premise of 'post apocalypitic tribals, outcastes forming their own tribe'
Add a dash of the magic and mystical, an enemy that was something akin to soul vampires and poorly understood at best, and some notion that survival of the species hinged on this new tribe of outcastes tossing aside the cultural shackles that held the other tribes down and that was what I got from it.
Once the supplements came out I stopped paying attention, really. I gather it was a vastly different beast, and the entire thing was sort of some weird philosophical passion play about man's inhumanity to himself, or something....
Personally: My take of the original book: Playable, cool, with some interesting tidbits to be explored.
Of the collection of books: Untouchably wonky.
Eh, explore the world, kill otherwordly beings and take their stuff (sometimes). Doesn't seem so WTF-ish to me. Like Jorune, I think some get too caught up in the window dressing. Which is understandable. The window dressing is pretty fucking cool or needlessly complex depending on your POV.
Regards,
David R
The one thing that really keeps me from getting into the game is the miniscule text size. It takes a lot out of me.
I'm not sure where the difficulty lies, to be honest. It's a post-apocalypse game, except with weird goddesses and demons instead of zombies or mutants. You can do pretty much anything in Tribe 8 that you can do in any post-apoc setting.
You do what people usually do in post-apocalypse games. What's the point?...well, I dunno, that's for the group to figure out, I'd say. I mean, what's the point in Call of Cthulhu or All Flesh Must be Eaten or Gamma World or Midnight?
Quote from: brettmbThe one thing that really keeps me from getting into the game is the miniscule text size. It takes a lot out of me.
I only ever had the first edition, and the layout just about killed me. Very irritating as game books - tough to find anything quickly.
Quote from: ErstwhileI only ever had the first edition, and the layout just about killed me. Very irritating as game books - tough to find anything quickly.
I think that's the one I have. I'll have to dig it up and check.
EDIT: You're right, it's the layout that bugged me - you can't find anything. I was thinking of heavy Gear - tiny text.
Quote from: Ian AbsentiaHoly crap. I'd totally forgotten about that game. It's, like, about Canadians isn't it?
Even better, it's all in post-apocalyptic Montreal. (I haven't actually played it but people here have a lot of love for it.)
Quote from: walkerpEven better, it's all in post-apocalyptic Montreal. )
that's the best kind of Montreal. :D
(Funnily enough, post-apocalyptic Saskatchewan would look...a lot like pre-apocalyptic Saskatchewan, I'd imagine. :haw: )
I grew up in post apocalyptic Northern New York (Watertown). Sometimes we'd cross over to Kingston, Ontario, to see what people lived like before the Fall.
Tribe 8 is a mix of abject terror and super-chic visual style, which to this 80s person is a good working definition for one specific kind of awesome.
What you do is very simple, and that info is readily available at dp9. You start out as a member of the eighth tribe, a bunch of ragtag outcasts on the outskirts of postapoc Montreal. You help organize and liberate what other remnants of humanity made it through the concentration camps of the Z'Bri, IMHO the most reprehensible demon-things in RPG literature, and who by the way dwell not so far away from your homebase.
A year or two of weekly play and several hundred dollars later, that liberation will indeed happen. There are a number of rpg.net threads by people who played it all the way through, and they're ecstatic about the experience.
T8 has all sorts of stupid WW-isms/1990s design idiocies built into it--railroad metaplot unfolding over a dozen books, lots of faction books on top of that, setting info written as partial first-person account by interested parties, so on.
It doesn't matter. Those who've played it say there's a lot of leeway for the PCs to make their mark in the metaplot. The scattered info has been assembled into a proper third-person account in the Player's Handbook.
But the real point is that the NPCs, the locations, the maps, the adversaries are just too gripping. There is no such thing as a dull encounter in Tribe 8. No NPC is generic--you care about these people, pro or con.
As for the gameworld, there is a point at which certain settings become three-dimensional and pull you in, provided you're willing to play on their terms. From there on in, there's no such thing as a trivial side quest, either. Everything your PCs do matters, and it helps of course that Vimary is such a small and intense place. Not a whole planet, just a few hundred square miles shared by the tribes and the Z'Bri.
While some of this may sound like Glorantha and such, there's a world of difference--the difference between 1970s North Cal hippies overdosing on Campbell and 1990s French graphic novels overdosing on stylish weirdness. Those two universes are just not in communication.
I know you're not exactly a 70s hippie, El, but I don't think even at second glance you'd like T8 one little bit.
Awesome! I mean, it's just what I thought it was. If I had the time, I might get on the train with someone else driving it, but as things stand I think I'll wait for the movie.
Quote from: Elliot WilenI can't figure out what it is. Are you inmates in a vast post-rational bantustan? What are you supposed to do? Why bother?
You are supposed to change things and you can in that setting.
One of the biggest problems people seemed to have early on, curiously enough, was with the idea of a barter economy. Some of the early supplements started creeping toward money with the introduction of medallions and such. That's how I wound up writing the Economics essay that was published in the Tribe 8 Companion. I wanted to save the barter idea by making it workable for people, which I did in part by listing some of the things they might trade. And what's interesting about both of the essays that I wrote is that despite all of the talk of mythology and arcs and so on in the game, my essays were written to support a die-hard world-based perspective to help explain how things might actually work in the setting.
that's not that interesting John. In fact, in most cases the weirder or more mythic something is, the more grounded in reality the things around it or supporting it have to be.
Which I suppose is interesting in and of itself, but in support of your essays makes their grounding make perfect, and predictable, sense.
I personally couldn't get into Tribe 8: I could understand the appeal and all, but I just didn't enjoy the setting. Very slightly too bleak for me.
Quote from: SpikeWell, originally, I picked it up when it first came out under the premise of 'post apocalypitic tribals, outcastes forming their own tribe'...Once the supplements came out I stopped paying attention, really. I gather it was a vastly different beast, and the entire thing was sort of some weird philosophical passion play about man's inhumanity to himself, or something...
I didn't read all of it - because I hate in-character rules and setting exposition - but, yeah, it did seem...weird. Like there was a greater message to the game. Not just symbolism, but a message...
Seanchai
Don't overthink it.
Tribe 8 = Burning Man.
Quote from: Pierce InverarityDon't overthink it.
Tribe 8 = Burning Man.
Bah! Amateurs! When I roast Man I use a in-oven meat thermometer, then let it set for 5 minutes to finish cooking after I take it out. Burning Man? Ptagh!
-clash
OK, now you're underthinking it.
Quote from: Pierce InverarityOK, now you're underthinking it.
A situation I'm comfortable with due to long habituation. :D
-clash
I find man best served raw, or failing that with an open pit barbeque... and apple in the mouth gives bonus points for style.
What are you, some kind of a Walkerist?
Walkerism would be a cool Tribe 8 ideology, btw.
Quote from: SpikeI find man best served raw
...with the pleasantly acrid odour of adrenaline and fear still tinging nerves and joints. Mmmmmm!
Quote from: walkerp...with the pleasantly acrid odour of adrenaline and fear still tinging nerves and joints. Mmmmmm!
If I ever get a chance to run a Tribe 8 campaign I'm gonna have a Z'Bri use exactly this line.
Quote from: SeanchaiI didn't read all of it - because I hate in-character rules and setting exposition - but, yeah, it did seem...weird. Like there was a greater message to the game. Not just symbolism, but a message...
Seanchai
I'm not knocking your preference, but there are no in-character rules in the 1e or 2e Tribe 8 rpgs. All of the rules are contained in the rules sections. There are NPC write-ups scattered throughout the books, but those aren't rules. For the record, I loved the in character exposition but wished for separate encyclopedic-style material.
As for a message, there really isn't one but the game's atmosphere makes it seem like there should be. There is a lot of symbolism, but it's as much of a mish-mosh as Tribal society is.
Quote from: WilFor the record, I loved the in character exposition but wished for separate encyclopedic-style material.
While it could be less icky, what's amazing about it is how well it held together and built up an organic and plausible setting, though it was totally awful for reference purposes.
Quote from: WilAs for a message, there really isn't one but the game's atmosphere makes it seem like there should be. There is a lot of symbolism, but it's as much of a mish-mosh as Tribal society is.
I always thought it could be interesting playing a Mad Max comes to Vimary style game.
Quote from: WilAs for a message, there really isn't one but the game's atmosphere makes it seem like there should be.
I think the "cycle" supplements kind of reinforced this.
I know a guy who is crazy about the setting. He had to jettison a whole lot of stuff to nuetralize the so-called message from the game. He's been running various campaigns in this setting for a couple of years now, each one very different from the other.
Regards,
David R
Quote from: David RI think the "cycle" supplements kind of reinforced this.
I know a guy who is crazy about the setting. He had to jettison a whole lot of stuff to nuetralize the so-called message from the game. He's been running various campaigns in this setting for a couple of years now, each one very different from the other.
Regards,
David R
I'm pretty crazy about the setting, and I'm not really getting what you mean...what has to be jettisoned to neutralize what message? There just isn't one, and I've run Tribe 8 games of varying lengths since 1998. I'm sure I can dig up some of the developers to confirm that there really isn't a message there...
Quote from: WilI'm pretty crazy about the setting, and I'm not really getting what you mean...what has to be jettisoned to neutralize what message? There just isn't one, and I've run Tribe 8 games of varying lengths since 1998. I'm sure I can dig up some of the developers to confirm that there really isn't a message there...
Honestly I don't know. From what
he said, I'm guessing the stuff he took out were meta plot elements which reinforced a particular theme...
message? (exactly what said message is,I have no idea since I was supposed to be a player in his campaign, before I dropped out) Although I've got nearly every
T8 supplement I've only ever read the main rule book.
Regards,
David R
Quote from: WilI'm not knocking your preference, but there are no in-character rules in the 1e or 2e Tribe 8 rpgs.
Thinking about it, you're right. I do think all the rules are in chapters of their own in the back.
Seanchai
Quote from: SeanchaiThinking about it, you're right. I do think all the rules are in chapters of their own in the back.
Seanchai
Of course I'm right, I'm the motherfuckin' Tribe 8 messiah
:D
Quote from: AosI grew up in post apocalyptic Northern New York (Watertown). Sometimes we'd cross over to Kingston, Ontario, to see what people lived like before the Fall.
I lived in Kingston for five years, and I now pity you intensely.
Watertown NY is famous for the immense snowfalls every winter. The people there have evolved resistances to this, and allow themselves to be flash frozen at the first snowdump, wherever they happen to be, until the spring when they thaw out, carrying on as if there was no pause.
-clash