[UA] (Completely OT) Tribe 8 (was: The Zone)

[David M Jacobs]

At 07:31 PM 7/03/02 -0500, WingedCoyote at aol.com wrote:

>I've been meaning to ask somebody about T8 for a while, and since somebody 
>mentioned it, I'm doing it now. Specifically, how much does the metaplot 
>railroad players, and how much does it give them the "I can't effect 
>anything that's going on" feeling? Some of the setting seems pretty cool, 
>but other parts of it sound disturbingly WWish..

You might find that the feel of T8 changes soon; a new Cycle of the 
metaplot is beginning, and the T8 Line Editor (Hilary Doda) has just left DP9.

To answer your questions, though, the metaplot generally assumes that PCs 
take a given course however, the books usually offer alternatives should 
they decide to go their own way (as they're wont to do).  In addition, 
there are a couple of books (T8 Companion, Book of Legends and Harvest of 
Thorns come to mind) with scenarios/campaigns that take place outside the 
metaplot.

In short, it's quite possible to play games that avoid the metaplot 
entirely, although you might want to pick up some of the metaplot books for 
the goodies at the back.

My major gripe with T8 (apart from poor proofreading) is the 
layout.  Before you run scenarios from a given book, you really need to 
know the stuff backwards; it's hard to refer to information in-game when 
it's hidden somewhere in the narrative.  That aside, they're generally a 
good read.

Although you won't notice it as much now, there was also a problem with the 
order in which the books were released.  Adrift on the River of Dream, the 
Synthesis (magic) sourcebook, was only released relatively recently; 
Synthesis and cosmogony are major parts of the game.  Now, most of the 
bases are covered.

As for WWishness, well, T8 has its splatbooks, although, thankfully, there 
were only three for the Tribes (rather than seven).  T8 tends to be more 
atmospheric than angsty, but for players to really get a hold of the 
background, they'll have to read about a hundred pages from the front of 
the rulebook.

Any other questions?



David M Jacobs
dmjacobs at zipworld.com.au
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~dmjacobs/
ICQ UIN: 17027598

"'Kevin,' David interrupted, 'what the Germans should have done
was show the Russians a dead cat and ask them to explain it.'

"'That would have stopped the Soviet offensive right there,' I said.
"Zhukov would still be trying to account for the cat's death.'"

— from Valis, by Philip K Dick


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