Water

Season-1 of "The Tribe" began by showing the kinds of problems kids faced with the downfall of their civilization & technology. One of the most basic challenges was finding clean water.

How did they cope? Lucky for the Mallrats, their mall had a roof water tower. Problem was how to refill it when it was empty, and how to keep others from stealing it. Even inside the tribe, Lex was known to squirrel a few jugs away against future need. It even became political - Lex planted water in Bray's room & accused him of stealing it. That's one way to get rid of a rival, I guess.

It seemed that rain was scarce. When it did rain, the Mallrats were challenged to make the water drinkable. (I guess that meant, once they took the cover off their water tower, they broke any seal that kept the water inside drinkable.) It was good old "genius" Jack along with Dal who found the ingredients & built a water purifier that actually worked.

For the rest of the city, most kids hauled water from the river. It was noted early that, with no factories or other sources of pollution, the river was finally running clean. It was also noted that hauling water was the hard way.

Water is a basic necessity of life. You drink it, cook with it, wash with it, clean with it, grow food with it ... hard to do without it.

Based on a recent player poll at KTDARPG, our game's 7th season is going to do a bit of mirroring Tribe Season-1. The over-arching theme this season is Drought. We haven't dealt with a whole lot of life-altering shortages. This will certainly be one of them. And we don't even have a "Jack" to get us through ...

Stop by & check it out as the season progresses.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

I get by...

When you boil it down, a good part of what "The Tribe" was about was friendship.

Friends. Mates.
Compadres. Brothers.
Lovers. Tribes.
Gangs. Neighbors.

Whatever term you use, finding yourself alone in a world upside down tended to drive the Tribe characters to find friends, make alliances & stick together.

There were lots of good reasons for doing that. It was easier to find food if there was more than one of you looking. Easier to find shelter. Easier to guard each other's backs instead of roughing it alone. The more people around you that you trust, the better chance you have for survival--more than that, the better your chances to thrive.

It wasn't about supremecy. The Tribe wasn't about empire-building. What they were building were families, the most basic unit upon which they could truly build the future.

So at the risk of sounding oh-so-corny, I'll say that friendship is what I've found through KTDARPG too. Maybe it's the Tribe-element at work. Maybe it's just the human element. I've made friends from sunny California to the red earth of Tara...er, Atlanta, to the lakes of Michigan & Ohio, to the best parts of New England, to the walls of Jerusalem and many many parts in between. Some of these friends I've met; others I haven't had the privilege yet. All my friends are dear to me. We share laughter & dreams & goals & ambitions and just...life. It's kinda cool.

As the song says,
"I get by with a little help from my friends."

For the all-nighters & the encouragement, for the great times, for the very wicked story plots that probably had other players thinkin' we were totally stoned at the time, and for so much more...thanks, friends. You know who you are.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"