In November 2021 we resurrected the August 2016 Tribe 8 Bundle, featuring much of the Tribe 8 product line, with many titles in beautiful new versions, from Dream Pod 9. Tribe 8 (1998), Dream Pod’s third RPG, is a chronicle of dream magic, supernatural horrors, and godlike figures on a post-apocalyptic Earth. When the demonic race of Z’bri horrors enslaves humanity, the Earth Goddess manifests magical avatars called Fatimas to overthrow the demons. But life under the Fatimas is no utopia either. Tribe 8 player characters are the Fallen — outcasts from the seven Fatima tribes — determined to build an eighth tribe and a new society on the ashes of the old.
The Tribe 8 First Edition rulebook itself is formidable and not easy to grasp: small print, pages and pages of character narration, interspersed with a few character stats and some nice artwork. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s post-apocalypse Clan of the Cave Bear: neo-gothic/urban tribal barbarians worshipping feminist totems, using swords to fight mind-shattering tentacle demons from another dimension — some sort of new-agey magic and a “technology bad, grunting and berries good” attitude — and set mostly in Canada.
It’s better to start with the clear outline in the Tribe 8 Player’s Handbook: “You play a Fallen, exiled from the ‘perfect society’ because it wasn’t as perfect as the Fatimas said. You live on a discarded island [in what was once Montreal] — a forgotten land for a forgettable problem. But there is something here, something greater than yourself. The island of Hom is full of people like you. Alone in exile, you start to build a family around you — your cell. You may not always get along, but you need each other — to deal with others who pursue different goals.
“Beyond the island of Vimary is a whole, strange new world, with crazy xenophobic Keepers, fierce barbarian Squats, the Z’bri and their twisted Serfs, the restless dead, and surviving threats from the World Before like radiation, toxic chemicals, and diseases. lf that weren’t bad enough, there is the River of Dreams, the Sea of Lost Souls, and spirits of all sorts. And one all-important question overshadows all else, a challenge to all of humanity: What are you going to do about it?”
In a departure from its early Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles — RPG and miniatures games inspired by high-tech science fiction and Japanese-style robots — Dream Pod 9 conjured in Tribe 8 a richly textured, quest-driven product line that still stands as an exemplar of ’90s-style metaplot. Like Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles, the original T8 game uses DP9’s Silhouette engine; Dream Pod has announced a forthcoming Forged in the Dark edition of Tribe 8, Tribes in the Dark. (After this offer launched we added the free Tribes in the Dark Playtest Kit.)
In this offer’s original August 2016 run, the .PDFs were image scans from the 1990s hardcopy originals. Eight titles in this revival — the 1E rulebook, the Companion, Vimary Sourcebook, Horrors of the Z’bri, Children of Lilith, Word of the Pillars, Into the Outlands, and the Weaver’s Screen — were Dream Pod 9’s new, beautifully upgraded electronic editions with pristine, copyable text. (And if you purchased this offer during its original run, the new versions are on your Wizard’s Cabinet download page and in your DriveThruRPG Library.) The print in the remaining scans is readable but light. Most text can be copied; the optical character recognition (OCR) is generally good but not foolproof.
This revived offer once again provided everything you need for a complete campaign in this unique post-apocalyptic fantasy setting at an unbeatable bargain price. Tribe-founding is affordable! There were six titles in this revived offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $40) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the Tribe 8 Player’s Handbook First Edition (start here!); the 1998 Tribe 8 First Edition rulebook along with the Tribe 8 Weaver’s Screen and Assistant that launches the extensive T8 metaplot; the Companion; the Horrors of the Z’bri book of adversaries; and the magic sourcebook Adrift on the River of Dream.
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got this revival’s entire Bonus Collection with ten more titles worth an additional $59:
- The major books in the T8 story arcs Children of Prophecy and Conquest: Children of Lilith, Trial by Fire, Into the Outlands, Broken Pact, Word from the North, and Warrior Unbound.
- Vimary Sourcebook: The acclaimed core setting book — one of the best-regarded supplements in the T8 line or anywhere.
- All three “Word” tribebooks: Word of the Fates, Word of the Pillars, and Word of the Dancers.
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to this offer’s pandemic-related charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.
