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The Harnish
Germany
Duisburg
NRW
Cult of The Harnish Leader
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This review is a book that's well over a decade old but well-worth more attention: Dream Pod 9's Tribe 8 RPG.
Here's how the publisher describes it:
We are the dispossessed, the Children of Hom, the Fallen, we are the Eight Tribe and we stand alone. We are those who walk away, those who turn our backs on the Seven Sisters, on our mothers and fathers, and venture into the wastelands around us to find our destiny, to find our calling. Some of us are rebels or outlaws, others malcontents and lunatics, victims and terrorists, but we are one; we are the Children of the Fall. Listen to me, my brothers and sisters, we must no longer stand idle and silent; our time has come. The ashes are vanishing and in their wake a new world is dawning, a world that is our destiny to discover and to reclaim. The past, the camps, the Z'bri, they are all just that - the past. The future is dark and unknown; the future belongs to us.
-Altara Ven, "The Manifesto of the Fallen"
Tribe 8 is a roleplaying game set in a tribal future where Player Characters are blessed with mystical insight and marked by destiny. They must struggle to build a new society from the ashes of the old, fighting against alien horrors and the Fatimas, avatars of the Goddess Herself. The Tribe 8 rulebook contains everything needed to start a campaign, including world background, full character creation and interaction rules, and a new and dynamic system for Synthesis, the magic of Tribe 8.
The Book
I'm reviewing the soft-cover version of the book which is 208 pages and originally sold for ~$30, although nowadays they can be had quite cheaply in bargain bins and Ebay. The cover of the book is color while the interior is black & white. The book is well-written and reasonably well laid out but like many of DP9's products, could have desperately used better proof-reading: While it's not terrible, there are a ridiculous number of grammatical (and even spelling) errors in the book for something that's supposed to have been professionally produced.
The book's art is attractive looking although the art is not going to be everyone's liking – a quick read of other reviews and comments across the internet will show how contentious the art was. Personally, I like the drawing which are evocative but indistinct so that while they hint at what the world is like, they leave a lot to the imagination. The biggest problem with a lot of it - especially the portraits – is that they vary in how crisp & clear they've been printed. Some are quite dark, others are very faint, others crisp, and others muddy. In addition, some of the art has been given a splattered effect that makes them look terrible.
The book is divided in to two sections - the first covers the history and details of the Tribe 8 setting. The second half details the RPG rules. I like this arrangement since you get the full-flavor of the world first and then are provided with the mechanical crunch. The subdivision of these sections is done via chapters and subheading. Unfortunately, the chapter divisions appear as labels in the margins which, like some of the art, has very poor contrast and thus almost unreadable. The result is that the reader can easily move in to a new chapter without ever realizing there's been a change. It seems clear that the book was either meant to be printed in color but wasn't due to the prohibitive cost, or that DP9 used a cheap print house that churned out mediocre results.
The Contents
Luckily the contents of the book are much better than the the actual physical qualities. The setting is highly evocative and original: While Tribe 8 is set in a post-apocalyptic world, it is one of other-dimensional creatures akin to demons, rusting wastes, and overgrown wilderness. The game is set a couple hundred years in the future, after a collapse of our modern world. The initial cause of this apocalypse is never openly stated but the result is that mankind is left on the edge of survival and has been plunged in to dark, barbaric times. It is at this time that the Nomads, other-worldly creatures who have visited Earth before, return to help man recover. Unfortunately, something goes wrong and the Z'bri, demons of horrific power and tastes also pass into our world and a war breaks out. Many of the humans surviving this war, while the Z'bri ultimately win, are forced in to concentration-style camps where all manner of dark and horrific things are perpetrated. This living hell continues, with mankind working as the slaves and playthings of their demonic captors until the Fatimas appear – these are semi-divine, constructs of flesh, bone, and metal – teaching humans to use magic (known as Synthesis) and leading them in to rebellion against the Z'bri. The ultimate result is that mankind wins its freedom, with each of the Fatimas (there are 8 initially, but the lone male Fatima, Joshua, sacrifices himself during the rebellion) leading a tribe devoted to her principles and teachings.
Thus, an uneasy peace exists between the seven tribes and the Z'bri, with the tribes inhabiting the island on which modern day Montreal stands. However, over time the Fatimas begin to reveal their darker sides, with corruption, fanaticism, and prejudice beginning to plague each of the tribes. Those who questioned the word of their Fatima or displayed any sort of deviance from their tribes laws or conventions were stripped of their contact with their Fatima - which is of a psychic nature and is quite traumatic - and banished from their tribe. Thus are born the Fallen, the eighth tribe for which the game is named. Of course even the Fallen aren't quite so innocent since while some are simply political or social dissidents, they're also populated by the criminals of the tribes – thus your best friend might have been banished for refusing to bear a child for a tribal leader, or may be a murdering sociopath.
My Thoughts
So that's the setting in a nutshell. It's complex and rich but very open-ended. The way it's presented in the book, in the form of stories and writings from various NPCs, leaves much to the interpretation of the reader and thus the GM (or what Tribe 8 calls the Weaver in an attempt to be different) has a lot of rich description without a huge amount of actual canon. This will drive some readers nuts since you can't simply flip open the book and find an encyclopedia-like entry for a given subject, but if you're the type of GM who wants a basic idea and sandbox to play within but want to make it your own this is just what the doctor ordered. That said, the organization of the book is such that particular topics do tend to appear in discrete sections so with a little effort and organization a GM can find details about whatever they might need. Perhaps the coolest bit is that players can read the whole setting section of the book without worry of spoiling any surprises.
One other thing that is not very apparent from my description is that the Tribe 8 setting is dark. If you think some ofWhite Wolf's material is dark, Tribe 8 will shock you. While the book itself isn't particularly graphic or gratuitous, some of the acts and events it alludes to are very bad stuff – we're talking about things like rape, torture, sexual enslavement, and sadism. There's also a very clear religious element to the whole setting which has parallels to Judaism and early Christianity (amongst others). Hence, this is a book and setting meant for mature audiences and clearly isn't going to be to everyone's taste. However, if you want a very dark, open-ended setting which is a mixture of fantasy, horror, and conspiracy, Tribe 8 has it in spades. The Z'bri are horrific and in general are truly evil. They're also utterly alien, both in their psychology and physiology, making them truly monstrous adversaries. In contrast, humans are a mix of the moral and amoral, the selfish and the selfless, making for a huge variety of realistic relationships and scenes. And the physical world is one which is familiar but dangerous – rusting skyscrapers, flooded subway tunnels, and overgrown wilderness populated by barbaric tribes, horrific Z'bri creations, and hungry wildlife. The result is a setting that is really character focused in which the PCs struggle for their own survival as well as can battle to make the world a better place – it's small enough scale that the characters can make a difference but in order to do so will require sacrifice and devotion. The game lends itself to something very different than the typical post-apocalyptic “treasure hunt and kill four-eyed, fire-breathing, frogs” that most post-apocalyptic settings default to.
The System
Tribe 8 uses Dream Pod 9's Silhouette rules system which has made appearances in their other games such as Heavy Gear and The Jovian Chronicles. The system is solid and well-thought out, but very crunchy and has a tendency to be very lethal. It works well in play, with a fast resolution system but it's also a system which really requires a GM's moderation and judgment since it, like the setting material, is open-ended and vague in places. Character creation is based on a point-buy system with a lot of math involved but once completed, all of the formulas and math fall to the wayside so it's a one-time headache. Dream Pod 9's later introduced a revision to the system, known as Silhouette CORE to 2nd edition of most of their games, including Tribe 8, which is an improvement upon the original in my opinion, but which is still very crunchy so it may not appeal to everyone.
The Conclusion
Tribe 8 is a fascinating game with the potential for some tremendous roleplaying opportunities. Perhaps its greatest value, at least for me, is as inspiration for a game and setting. I simply love the setting (which comes through in much great detail and clarity in later supplements). While I'm not a huge fan of the Silhouette system – it's got flashes of brilliance in it but it lacks the character-driven story elements and mechanics I tend to prefer nowadays. Instead, I think I'd prefer to run a campaign using a different RPG – it strikes me a great fit for Burning Wheel, Fate, or even Smallville depending on the type of game you're looking for out of the game play. I also think that it would work great as the setting for Apocalypse World – while AW is meant to be played with a published setting, Tribe 8's vagueness and dark, mature themes are a perfect fit for it.
All that said, Tribe 8 certainly isn't for everyone – it's not meant for children and even some adult groups are liable to balk at some of the topics that it broaches. While you could easily strip out or down play some of these, you certainly can't sanitize the setting completely without destroying what makes it interesting. Thus, I would say that Tribe 8 is best suited for those that want a fantasy/post-apocalypic game that is dark and visceral in which the PCs are the heroes. If that sounds like the kind of game you like, check it out.
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I have this book somewhere. A strange and exciting setting. Glad to see it finally getting some attention here on the Geek.
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Wulf Corbett
Scotland
Shotts
Lanarkshire
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Many years ago, when I introduced this to my game group, it was described as the escapees from Auschwitz living alongside the Nazis... as one player put it, "Remind me again why I should want to play in this world?"
Nonetheless we did, and it's one of the richest and most inspiring game worlds I ever read about. Finally, though, the game mechanics killed off enthusiasm. Too many numbers for a game that's so heavily defined by the roleplaying, not the die rolling.
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