Tribal Games

I played Hillfolk and it just made me angry. Instead of feeling liberated by the mechanics I felt shackled.

I've been wanting to run something similar, but I haven't figured out how to do it.

I've been playing around with the idea of turning the party into paragons of the tribe. Not necessarily leaders or elders, but heroic figures whose fate is linked inextricably with that of the tribe.

If they gain experience or knowledge, they'll notice that the tribe profits from it as well.

I figured it would be a way to link tribe building with more familiar personal adventures.

Kind of like KoDP's hero quests, except continuously.

I am getting the impression that the difference between a bronze age/prehistoric fantasy setting and a medieval fantasy setting is more about culture than technology.

Any number of justifications could be imagined for ancient civilisations having access to the sort of tech and materials your players might be familiar with from generic RPGs.

I feel like this might be the key to improving player adoption when attempting to introduce non-generic game worlds.

Wolf pack and winter snow sound could, at elast for stealing the rules for tribe building and stuff.

That's more or less what I want to do but more relationship with other tribes/entities. What system do you use?
Noted, I will avoid hillfolk then, narrativist style games aren't my style.
Yeah, I think the same, you can have the tribal feel and have people armed with lasers and plasma swords, like some pulp sci-fi tales.
I was thinking to have black powder too, like one of my prefered fantasy books than mixs spirits and living deities, tribalism, gun powder and all kinds of swords, low level magic and lots of masked people. But then from where comes the powder (magic, science, trade) and how a bunch of tribals get they savage hands on it.

Is there a reason fighting men from Greek and similar societies wore relatively little on their extremities? Is bronze unsuitable for arm and leg coverings? Did it all come down to climate? Or was the metal too valuable to waste on anything but the essentials?

First the greeks tended to fight in formation, with the hoplon and long spears cutting the extremities was difficult. Second they had to provide for they fighting gear, so only the most wealthy of the hoplites had a full set made of bronze, and even then it was more to flaunt they wealth than anything. When they had to fight in a more "heroic" way they had full plate armours made from bronze, but it was impossible expensive to arm all your army that way and with the big shields and formations it was redundant.

The Dendra panoply is a good way to show the most "Heroic" armour of earlier ages. Think the times of Aquiles, Hector and all those great heroes, than risked life and limb to scavenge the armor of they enemies or allies.

Would this be nonsensical equipment for a one-on-one fight?

Well, for a champion the big guy doesn't have enough armor, not even a helmet. Aquiles has a sweet gear tough. I really loved the way hollywood did this one for the weapons and armour, some one did his business and even when lot of it wasn't historical in the least at least it all looked bronze age.

Bare thighs always baffle me, though. Aren't they absolutely crucial for mobility, and aren't their arteries a huge liability?

People tended to discard leg armor the first, specially the thig, becaise it chaffed when you walked in the march and all that. People ever wanted a good mix of protection and comfort, and specially poor warriors than were the majority only bought the most useful/imprescindible, like helmets and fabric armor (only nobles would wear over impractical stuff to show they wealth and status) , and even then they only weared the helmet instants before a battle if they could get they way.
For Aquiles, his way of fighting was flashy and speed based, and the armor shows that in my opinion, enough to protect the most vital parts without hindering movement. He uses an aspis/hoplon if I recall right, and that shield protected nearly all the upperd and most of the lower body. And the leather skirt is another layer of protection, like the baltea in Roman armor.

Also look at this fellahs, without armour and probably the champions of they tribe. Because hollywood we tend to over armor ancient people, but for the most part they wore they everyday robes and whatever armor they could get they hands, if even that. The Iberians for example tended to discard the mail armor at first vs Rome(they way of fighting was way more mobile than the Roman one, but they fought in formations), Hannibal made them pick it up tough when they fought for him.

Would it be a stretch to consider armor in most game-related equipment lists way underpriced? Or should it be well within a hero's means to buy armour in any remotely heroic adventure story?

In the past, my DM usually made us face off against bandits and the like that would, to the man, have armor that was roughly on par or just slightly worse than ours.

I can see the challenge in that, but I'm coming to the conclusion that it isn't very realistic storytelling.

I'm not expert but armor used to be big deal, the most ancient the setting the most precius it was. In the Illiad you can see it, for example how Homer talks about the armor of Agamenon or how everyone tries to snatch it from each other. Heck, Ayax commited suicide because they grant the armor of Aquiles after his death to Odiseus, even when he was the one to really capture it.
Until the Romans and they slave powered factories making mail armor was very expensive, think of it like a car. A good set of fabric for your basic hoplite a tunic, weapons, helmet and shield for a utilitarian vehicle and a full plate of bronze and all the stuff a ferrary.

What's bad about Heroquest? I never tried it and only read the books for the fluff and not the system tough.

Heroquest isn't bad, and the sourcebooks made for Glorantha are all great even if they read more like reference books than game texts.

The system itself is fine if you like poofy story telling games, but it won't support the game with its mechanics, as everything is based around a d20 roll against one number. It's a "make it up as you go along" kind of system, and that doesn't do much for me.

Yeah, I don't like that. I prefer a more crunchy way without going Rolemaster or Pathfinder. BRP/RQ seems what I will use, will the new one about glorantha have rules for clans and stuff ?

Runequest is probably your best bet, not only is there a whole world with mechanics and scenario's at hand to profit from, it's also fun.

I had a game of Runequest 3 tonight. As guests of the Icebird clan, the PC's killed a vampire and some soldiers from the Lunar Empire's evil demon-bat cult. Then they got banished to the steppes for making the tribe seem anti-lunar. Good fun.

It probably will because Orlanthi (the tribes people from King of Dragon Pass) are assumed to be the good guy go-to background for most characters. For the Party I DM, three of the players are Orlanthi tribesmen, one is a Praxian nomad and the last one is a Lunar citizen in disguise.

You can literally use King of Dragon pass as inspiration for encounters and plothooks, or use some other book all RQ books are very compatible with eachother. I use a RQ 6 enemy generator to generate enemies I can easily use in RQ 3 with only a little tinkering if the character knows a lot of magic.

...

...

...

There seems to be a style difference here.

These guys are from Ralios, where an older style of Orlanthi culture is preserved. The other answer is that visual representation of Orlanthi in art has somewhat recently changed to a less celtic mode.

Yeah, they're planning to make it more focused on community and cult relationships. Go to Chaosium's website and read up on the designer's diaries they have for the new Runequest to see if you're interested.

These are Orlanthi from The Holy Country during the timeframe of the Runequest game.

These are Orlanthi from King of Dragon Pass, which plays about 200 years before the Runequest timeline.

Glorantha also has dinosaurs

I got nothing to contribute, but I just want to say that this thread is awesome.

Also Jon Popisil is the new artist for the six age, so I'm pretty exited for it. I loved specially what he did with the Malkion based cultures, instead of knights they have a distinct and cool look now.

And more Malkioni.

...

Runequest 6 master race reporting in

Sounds fun and what I want to do. Runequest seems to be the answer (I played BRP so at least is a known game) but I don't remember rules for clans. Perhaps adding another simple game mechanics like Microscope or ORE to make random decisions? The basic game in BRP/RQ and the GM/me doing roles in ORE or any other system to spice what happens. I could do a simple event table tough.
>Implying I don't love Glorantha.
Glorantha is great, and I will steal lot's of things to spice the game, from animal nomads to some gods and cultures, but I want to add lots of other shit (Hyborea, Dominions, pulp and weird novels I like plus lots of folklore of my country).

Heroquest has a pretty good clan generator if I recall correctly, you could try that.

What kind of shit do you want to add from Hyperborea that Glorantha doesn't allready have?

me and a friend were looking for a system to play Conan in and we found runequest that way

I was mistaken, it's Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes that has the clan generator.

I prefer the faux-Mycenean/Gaulish/Germanic/"Celtic"/Italian mix they have know, it's a lot more distinct than not-viking we had before.
The feel of uknown beings, cultures like the Acheron or Stygians, the feel of HIGH ADVENTURE without magic everywhere etc. Oh another universe than I steal everytime is Tytan/The Sorcery/Fighting fantasy universe and LW, some cool things to steal of both.

Anyone has made they own tribal cultures for games? What books/sources did you use for inspiration?

Caesar's De Bello Gallico

mediafire.com/file/2ok0b2291ukn2vj/Hillfolk.pdf

Here's the Hillfolk rpg if you want to have a look at it.

WtA?

If you play Croatan Song you can even be proper injuns

I misread that as Croatian Song at first and was confused.

>Wander the hills and streets of Croatia
>Fighting wandering Serbs and Slovenians
>Slavoj Zizek is big bag. Must stop him from resurrecting the Dark Lord Tito

I'd play that

>mediafire.com/file/2ok0b2291ukn2vj/Hillfolk.pdf
Nice. I Didn't like the system (too vaporous?) but it has some nice art and the clan creation is great.
Such a classic, they are the best too, Spanish/British explorers tales of first hand acoounts from natives are my prefered ( specially Diaz del Castillo but lots of ethnographics from Victorian age british give a colourful view than today age ethnographic studies lack).

Did you mean to quote me? (Croatan Song guy)
Why is there a link to an entirely unrelated pdf?

Fallout: New Vegas RPG

Tribals. Tribals everywhere.

And the best Tribe around -- Caesar's Legion.

(Still disappointed we never saw a confrontation between the 80's, a tribe of nomadic horsepeople -- but on motorcycles, and Caesar's Legion)

I misquoted the dude than posted the hillfolk link.
I had bad groups in WoD so I avoid like the plague. Tough native americans are some of my prefered groups, specially Southern/Messo-American for really weird and cool stuff.

Yeah, it tends to attract edgelords and furries.

Still some good stuff though, I'd reccomend checking out Croatan song.

drive.google.com/file/d/0ByspszhQDB_9S0FCNlc5OUl1SGc/view

Ington - God of Liberty and All-Father-type. He threw down the previous pantheon of gods to become ruler of the gods, himself, then disbanded the 'rule' of the gods to wander among the people as an Odin-like figure. (the reason why they're so fucking stubborn and angry and refuse to be ruled by foreign kings or emperors or republics)

Dorvelt - God of the Wilds, Hunting, and Fair Dealing (because if you don't deal fair, then you're liable to be hunted down by your fellow tribe mates)

Ferson - God of Laws and Agriculture (The tribal code to which many tribes keep was designed, it is said, by Ferson. He also taught the people how to keep farms and farm animals)

Benjin - God of Wealth, Invention, and Fire (his face is still printed, in profile, on most coins created by the tribes -- he's also said to have summoned fire from the heavens using a key and a kite...)

>I'm hoping you can figure this out....

Dorvelt?

I get the others, but is it supposed to be Roosevelt? Can't quite put a finger on it

Theodore Roosevelt. He's on Mount Rushmore and he's different enough from the others that I figured he'd work.

Abraham Lincoln be another Persona of Ington as a God of Physical Liberty (meaning anti-slavery) which is only worshiped by northern, Viking-like tribes who only believe in taking slaves/thralls from other populations in war and that the children of thralls are born free, while the southern tribes have been poisoned to think taking and breeding slaves is a good way to get a free workforce (like their Roman-expy neighbors do)

To better explain Teddy:

He was known as a Great Hunter, but he also brought about the National Park system. He's also the trust buster, responsible for breaking up monopolies and putting a boot in the face of corrupt business.

Ah I see. Naming convention didn't match the rest so I got a bit confused.

Neato, sounds like a cool setting
Maybe a counter to Abralin (Good name?) in the south?

Elee or Sondav?

Rome-Expy in Texas or Florida

Carthage-Expy in Yucatan.

Yeah, I knew that, just didn't match the other naming conventions is all

I don't know if you'd need a counter so much as the south saying the north is fucking weird and believes in Physical Liberty when everyone knows that Ington only represents the freedom of the tribe from rulership from other tribes -- slavery is how you get ahead in the world!

But there are Confederacy monuments all over the place (even in fucking Brazil).

The "setting" would be a post-apocalyptic Americas. The National Mall having been turned into something like a Roman Forum.

I think Abralin's a good name -- though maybe too obvious if only because "Abra" is an uncommon name-starter and people would immediately think Abraham Lincoln or Abraham of the Bible.

*Shrug* just feels right to have yins & yangs
Anyway, I like it a lot.
Feels like something that'd fit into the Mad Max universe

Eh. I think once PCs see the naming convention, they'll figure it out anyway.

And it's better than Hamcoln :P

I am Tom Hanks of suburbia
Our people welcome you in peace

God of pork and freedom

Mad Max goes a bit beyond "tribal" unless you mean the Fallout version of Tribal, don't you think?

Depends.

There are settled cities, sure, but we also see groups like the Marauders, the kids in the Crack in the Earth, and the Buzzards.

I was saddened by the appearance of Bullet Farm in Fury Road. Sure, I thought the Bullet Farmer was cool, but Road Warrior's use of crossbows seemed to imply that bullets were swiftly becoming a rare commodity. People running around in slowly breaking down cars, attacking each other with lances and machetes would be awesome.

On the topic of our Polytheistic "Gods of America" scenario... I want to see Scientology cults surviving in California, Mormons still keeping the faith in Utah, maybe some Hippy-Dippy Nature/Asian Mysticism cult from San Fran up to British Columbia.

There's a fallout NV rpg apart of the videogame? I really liked it (Dem Khans or the Honest Hearts) but the legion was terrible. Such a cool concept so bad implemented, they didn't appear to be better than edgy larpers romans. Heck the few missions you could do for them had shit rewards and you had to be a cunt to pull them. Some cool characters (Lanius, Vulpes) and some sweet armor with mods, but dang I wasn't event tempted after I could pull a Yes Man route.

SF chinese claims SF to be their native home soil, LA Korean claims LA to be their native home soil, SD Hispanic SD to be native home soil, considering blacks and whites as foreign stranger, building ghettos for them.

Bullets are a rare commodity. The Bullet Farm is the only place they're still made, and even then they're reserved for special troops. Warboys don't often get guns (as evidenced by the ceremony around Immortan Joe giving Nux his revolver)

Yeah, Fallout does Scientologists (Calls 'em Hubologists)

Mormons would be pretty cool.

Also the Amish because they're already used to life without much technology (They do use it, they just don't like to use it more than they need to)

But then, that would mean that Christianity survived and therefore it wouldn't make much sense to have cults around Founding Fathers.

A lot of the original Legion content got scrapped (like chariots built out of chopping off the front end and engine from a fusion-powered car). And you never got to see Legion territory (which, from the few hints we got, would have been interesting).

Apparently, Legion Territory is the safest in the Mojave because the Legion systematically dealt with all raider threats. In addition, the Legion controls major cities like Denver and Phoenix. Denver, apparently having survived the nukes, became a Raider/Tribal stronghold with huge bridges built between the skyscrapers because packs of mutant feral dogs and giant mantids controlled the streets.

And then there's the Legion Capitol at Flagstaff, which probably looked more like a Roman city than the scrap heap that was their fort in New Vegas -- because they could actually use slave labor. There's an observatory that could be a Temple of Mars. And Flagstaff's stadium could be the Arena... Bah, humbug. It would have been fun.

I think there are more blacks and hispanics in LA than there are Koreans in Koreatown, but it could be cool to see LA ripped apart by sectarian and ethnic squabbles among the already ghettoized populations of Compton/Inglewood, Koreatown, and Eastside.

Everyone fighting to take control of the "Hollywood."

I would only have Christianity survive among the hardcore cults where it's most fervent today. Amish Kingdom in Pennsylvania, a Mormon Kingdom of Deseret in Utah, and a bunch of tribal snake handlers in the Appalachians. Elsewhere, surviving Christians are a heretical group that is often chased out by the Founding Father pagans.

Amish and Mennonites start speaking more German and more bastardized English until they're essentially a German enclave in the U.S.

>Mormons would be pretty cool.

Literally New Vegas' Honest Hearts DLC.

Except they had guns and only lived in one town.

I'm talking Joshua Graham setting up a kingdom based on Salt Lake City and holding court in the Mormon Tabernacle and spittin' mad bible verses, son. Then going out and chopping heads off with a sword.

There was a notable novelette that native American managed to hold more anteapocalypse tech than white, than invades east, forcing remnant whites to flee across the Atlantic.

Actually, speaking of post-apocalyptic knights, DC did a miniseries of Beowulf set in post-apocalypse America.

That's pretty cool. I'll have to find it.

IIRC it was part of the Sword of Sorcery anthology

What are your prefered tribes Veeky Forums?

You even have to ask?

Not many games exploiting Central Asia, Homeworld, some of glorantha (and even then only pentans nomads and grazelanders) and some not-mongols. Shame, some very interesting cultures.

>Everyone fighting for Hollywood

Why? What's there they would want?
Things people fight over has to make sense.

In Mad Max, they fight over an oil rig because they want oil for their cars.

In Fallot: NV they fight over Hoover Dam because they want electricity.