Summer Tribe Award: Best Bitch

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: KTDARPG'S Best Bitch

Winner: Villa

Runner Up: Jet

Don't let them fool you. Every female has an "inner bitch" just waiting to come to life & either mess up your day big time or give you an adventure you won't soon forget.

The Tribe had more than its fair share of examples!

Remember the sweet, dingy, sincere little Cloe from Season-1? And how she grew up into the angst-filled, rebellious teen that you loved to have by Season-4? Or how about dear Trudy. That girl could keep your head spinning, she'd change so fast from human being to bitch and back again! Amber had her turn at that wheel but mostly she was the patriotic martyr-type. Salene was the sacrificial lamb most days, but just ask Ryan about those mood swings of hers. Ellie, Ebony, Moz, Ruby, May, Patsy, on and on and on ... yep, lots & lots of examples.

The best ones raise bitchy-ness to an art form -- and KTDARPG has some of the best!

The best of the best is Villa (31% of votes). From the second she came on the scene, Villa has been a constant source of ... well, hmm ... surprise? laughs? outrage? craziness? It's hard to typify this girl. Outa control is probably a kind way of describing her. From the game, we know why she is the way she is. Sorta. Kinda? But we can say with absolute certainty that, with Villa around, you will so definitely NOT be bored! Just ask Marionette!

Right on the heels of first best is second best: Jet (25% of votes). To all appearances, Jet is a cold, hard bitch with a royalty complex. Maybe she comes by her ruthlessness honestly. She was tribe leader of the Vamps until they were massacred. Who are we to judge?

Ah, where would we be if all our characters were sweet and honest and loyal and true. Sometimes it takes a bad girl if you wanna have fun!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Fave Male

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Favorite Male Character

Winner: Prince

Runner Up: Llysander

Runner Up: Marionette

Usually a person's favorite "anything" is the thing he or she is most familiar & comfortable with.

That's probably why Jack was always a favorite in The Tribe through all its years. You could say the same for KC until he disappeared (then they teased us with his reappearance briefly in Season-5!). Of course there's always the exception. Slade was definitely exceptional & an instant favorite when he appeared on the scene in Season-5.

The winner of this category, Prince (9% of votes), proves the attraction of familiarity. We've watched Prince grow & go crazy through 8 seasons of KTDARPG. We've seen his strengths and weaknesses and loyalties. We saw his love grow for his wild Bird of Prey ... and we were with him when he lost her. We know why he wears a piece of broken sword, and we know how important the Misfits are in his life. We may not know how far he'll go, but we definitely know how far he's come.

Marionette (7% of votes) is also familiar. He's fought everyone including himself, and he just keeps on fighting. He's a complex man with a horrible past, but he's trying to atone & do the right thing. He always tries to do the right thing. Outside his circle of Death Seekers he has few friends but counts Valentine among them. And love? Ah, love with the wild Villa who brings out the best in him even while he tries to tame the beast that torments her.

Llysander (7% of votes) feels instantly familiar. New to KTDARPG, he's so open with everyone, never false. His words and actions ... match. Llysander is a man with a mission but he's also a man able to appreciate those who try to help him or whose kindnesses put them in his path. From what we've seen so far, Llysander is also a man whose passions are not on the surface. They run deep & harsh. Unleashed? Well ... that's something we'll wait and see.

Congrats, guys! You rock!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Fave Female

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Favorite Female Character

Winner: Jade, Maggie, Valentine, Villa

Runner Up: Hawk

Your favorite is just ... well, your favorite! Don't gotta have a reason for what you like or don't.

Watching The Tribe, you have people who liked Amber and people who thought she was very one-dimensional. You either loved Trudy or you hated her. There were fans who booed May for breaking in between Pride & Salene and others who cheered her guts in declaring her own feelings for Salene. (It got kinda tangled.) Love Ebony or hate her. Think Mouse was an annoying little brat or applaud her not-so-innocent views of her world. Ellie, Ruby, Java, Moz, Moon -- they all had their fans & anti-fans. Reasons didn't seem to matter.

And so it is with KTDARPG.

We asked our players to vote their favorites. They voted themselves right into a 4-way tie!

The winners were:

• Jade, the honey-blonde former-slave singer who has found true love (again?) with the mysterious Zero.


• Maggie, the mousey ex-slave server at Home who's had it rough enough in love that we wouldn't blame her for giving up on it altogether.


• Valentine, the sable-haired former anarchist-turned-entrepreneur with a stream of lovers and maybe, just maybe, one true love.


• Villa, a psycho ice-blonde with more than just tendencies toward violence, all calmed down in the presence of the very enigmatic (and probably also psycho) Marionette.

Congratulations, ladies! Your fan clubs applaud you!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Best Male Primary

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Male Primary Character

Winner: Llysander

Runner Up: Rio

When you go back & watch episodes of The Tribe focussing on primary males, the hallmark of the best ones are their predictability. The character can be as far from the real-life of the actor as day and night, but the character takes on a life of his own to the point that you KNOW what he will do because of who he, the character is.

Ok, that was a little convoluted. Let's just say the male characters are alive on the screen when you watch them. You know what they will do because of what they've done in the past. Even when there are surprises, those surprises are within the realm of what that character could possibly do. Make sense? I hope?

Like the females in their category, the male "primary" is the character a player invests most of himself (or herself!) to during the growth of the game. And the voters stayed true to the definition of what a primary should be: Predictable.

Llysander was the clear winner (38% of votes). As new as he is inside our game-world, Llysander has set up a pattern that keeps repeating. It's even evident in his speech patterns. He has some very solid views of life & how you treat people, any people but most especially women. When honor is involved, you know you can count on this one to do what honor demands. He constantly expects to be duped or cheated, and he's grateful when he finds the people he meets are as genuine as they seem. It will be interesting to see what effect Llysander has on Fort River ... and vice versa.

Our runner up is also--and always--extremely predictable. When it comes to Rio (25% of votes), you either love him or hate him. There is seldom any in between. It's hard to know whether to define Rio as a pervert, a misogynist, or just a punk. He's shown that he can be a good strategist when it comes to business. But when it comes to friends? I dunno, this guy has got me bamboozled too. So I guess you can predict him but you'll have a hard time categorizing him. Anyway, he impressed enough people to come in #2 in this part of our poll.

Congratulations, guys!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Best Female Primary

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Female Primary

Winner: Katara

Runner Ups:

Krystal, Terra, Valentine

In The Tribe, we were given many examples of unique women. Their strengths were many, and they shared one in common: they were all truly survivors. Even after characters like Patsy, Danni & Taisan vanished from Tribe-world...you always wondered where they wound up, whether they ultimately lived or died.

In KTDARPG, a primary female character is your number one--usually the one you develop the strongest, the one you invest most of yourself in, the one you "live" in.

The winner of this category, Katara (30% of votes), has been in our game less than 6 months. That she won this category should tell you that her creator/player has done an outstanding job of bringing Katara to life & giving her a very strong persona. I could go into that persona here...but you know what? Katara is so unique & so full of surprises that I really don't want to spoil it for anybody. Guess you'll just have to drop by our game & see for yourself. Use the link at right and come on over!

Our runner ups (each with 18% of votes) are also very well-drawn women who have had--and are having!--an impact in the game. Krystal is a former Diablo turned River Rat, a healer who saves lives & yet kept a special sweetness that is rare in our game. Terra is what you might call a child of nature who's left that green world on a special mission: to find & punish those who dared to kill a mighty river. Valentine has guts, the kind of guts that have kept her alive when those closest to her died or left, the kind that keeps her coming out on top against some pretty heavy odds.

Our game-world has become a living thing after almost 5 years. It's because of the players growing in strength & confidence in their gaming skills...and because the women (and men!) they've created have taken on lives of their own.

Congratulations to all of you. It's a pleasure to be among you.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Believeable

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Most Believeable Character

Winner: Arianna

Runner Up: Everyone!

One of the things I always appreciated about The Tribe was how strongly the characters were drawn. Within the world the Virus created, the actors brought their characters to life in amazing fashion. They were real. They lived. You sympathized with their problems & burdens. You cared about what happened to them.

Our winner in this category is Arianna (8% of votes), tribe leader of the Misfits, a character who has lived & grown in the game since its first days almost 5 years ago. As any girl, Ari has had her share of ups & downs, challenges & triumphs, romance & heartache. She's a teenager who knows how to fight--and has fought for her life & the lives of others!--and she's also a mom. Day by day, Ari has grown right in front of our eyes. We know her. That's a very good feeling.

The voting gave us a 4-way tie for runner up, each with 7% of votes -- Alexis, Krystal, Llysander & Prince. Two characters who've been with our game for many years, and 2 that joined us in the past several months. Krystal & Prince...well, we know them like we know Arianna. They're friends of ours. Alexis is new & has developed right before our eyes in just a few short months. A baby was revealed, a father found, a brother lost, and now the effort & trust to create a new family is needed from her. We find ourselves rooting for her to succeed. It's a similar thing with Llysander. New in Fort River, searching for a sister savagely taken from him, trying to help others as he can but also holding himself apart from feelings or a possibility of happiness ... tragic stuff. How could we not care?

The voting in this category was really a triumph for KTDA -- every single character listed as a nominee got a vote. Jade, Villa, Marionette, Sypher, Madam, Jet, Icarus, Vincent, Crux, Domino, Balthazar, Amy, Pandora, Cecily, Chidori, Mist, Hawk, Kite, Rio, Tristan ... bravo, all of you. And especially to your creators, bravo! You've brought some special people to life & into our lives. We care about them. That's some pretty amazing magick.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Questionable Morals

Breaking down the Sumemr 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Character of Questionable Morals

Winner: Prince

Runner Up: Rio

All right, maybe first we need to decide what "questionable morals" means -- especially since our KTDA character who actually runs a house of ill repute didn't win this thing!

In The Tribe, in case you hadn't noticed, it wasn't uncommon for characters to...um...sleep around. Didn't matter if you were "good" like Amber (who actually had 3 maybe 4 lovers in 5 seasons) or "bad" like May (who kept switching it up way too much for us to keep track). In this way, in a big way, Tribe characters broke from Old World morals & made their own rules. This also was definitely morals, not "virtue." I could make a very long argument that some of Tribe's characters were actually extremely virtuous despite all the bed-hopping going on. But we'll leave that for another time.

Prince winning this category (42% of votes, a very strong showing!) startled me. Ok, so my characters kinda grew up with Prince in KTDA. Hm...and now I'm remembering it was our Prince who had the game's first nude scene. And Prince has always been about the ladies, though no one special until his first Bird of Prey & then his current season love interest. He can definitely turn on the charm when the right woman catches his eye. Way to go, babe!

Runner up was Rio (25% of votes), and he is a Lothario in the truest sense of the word. Not sure that love-em-and-leave-em accurately describes his attitude towards women, but it comes close. He's not one to be found often without a lady on his arm...or 2...or 3?

Blackrose, Madam, Sypher and Valentine also received votes in this category. Making up our own rules...maybe we aren't too far off the mark from The Tribe, after all.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Most Innocent Character

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!



Category: Most Innocent Character
Winner: Jenna
Runner Up: Terra
Runner Up: Krystal

How in the world is it possible, in the post-apocalyptic world in which our players live, to have any kind of innocence at all, no matter what age you are?

Even the youngest have seen death, starvation, deprivation and degredation. For many of them, they may not know or understand anything else.

It's not just a lack of innocence in the youngest; it's the loss of innocence in the older kids.

That's why I was surprised that Jenna won this category (41% of votes), until I thought about it for this blog. For whatever reason, Rio kept Jenna isolated & protected since the Virus. She became a bard, making her way telling stories & histories, but she doesn't really know all that much about life. She hasn't experienced it. That became totally obvious when she met up with Icarus. Though she's a teenager, Jenna doesn't know about relationships, especially the physical side. She's very very lucky that Icarus is caring, thoughtful & understanding. A lesser man would have taken total advantage of Jenna & then left her behind.

We had a tie for runner up -- Terra and Krystal (18% of votes). Again, different kinds of innocence. Terra is definitely a babe in the woods, literally. Now that she's inside Fort River, you can almost predict a loss of her innocence if she spends any amount of time there. Krystal has an innocence of the soul. She has never taken a life; she's saved them when she could. She's never wronged anyone though she's been wronged herself. Without her tribe & her friends, I truly believe Krystal would be dead in game-world by now.

Interesting enough, every character nominated in this category received votes. The others were Izzy, Lily and Maggie ... also innocents in a very strange land.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Best Couple

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Couple

Winner:
Marionette & Villa

Runner Up:
Domino & Alexis

The Tribe gave us a lot of really great pairing-ups.

Ellie & Jack

Lex & Taisan

Trudy & Jay

Amber & Pride

Lex & Siva

Ram & Java

Salene & Ryan

Pride & May

Alice & Ned

Bray & Moon

Ram & Ebony

Amber & Sasha

Zoot & Trudy

Trudy & Dal

Cloe & Ved

Slade & Ruby

Even when they were the most wildly dysfunctional couples in the universe...well, ok. It was kinda like watching a train wreck. How could you not look? O_O

That sometimes describe the winners of this category, Marionette & Villa (47% of votes). It's a fact that these 2 have been winning out as best couple for the last few years. There's just something about the lunatic ice-blonde and the quasi-psycho who tamed her. Oh, wait--did I say tamed her? That's not exactly true. What is true is that love affects us all. You gotta admit, Villa is not quite the unpredictable destructive force she is with Mar around than when she's going solo. They're actually kinda cute to watch. Gives you faith that love really can work miracles, hm?

Our runners-up are a brand new couple in Fort River, Domino & Alexis (24% of votes). There's is a tragic, romantic story. The Virus upheaval separated them when Alexis was pregnant with Domino's child. Each wandered until they met each other again ... and their son Rex, as much as anything else, brought the lovers back together to try & give their life together another try. Can love bloom again? Can their promises to each other really be kept in a world where nothing is easy to predict ... especially love. We will see. We will see.

At least in KTDA, we can say that love definitely rules!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Sexiest Male

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Sexiest Male
Winner: Sypher
Runner Up: Domino

It was very interesting that the relative newcomer Sypher (40% of votes) should stand out so remarkably as the current male sex symbol for our game. Being new is in his favor, maybe. And the fact that he is soooo much about the ladies. It shows most especially in his relationship with Madam, with whom he has a history. His treatment of her & of the other girls who come his way is definitely not critical or exploitative or condescending. It's...gentlemanly, in a lot of ways. That's probably it--it's all about how he handles himself & how he relates to the females in his sphere of influence. A girl enjoys being treated like she's special--but not like she's fragile or a ditz. Sypher's definitely got a way about him.

I think it's the same with our runner up Domino (20% of votes). Also a relative newcomer. But this newcomer recently found out he's a father, and that the mother matters more to him than he ever thought possible. Concern, devotion, protection, heart ... what's not to like? Plus the fact that his eyepatch probably makes him look like a sexy pirate too. Nah, can't be that. Can it? Hehe...

There were 4 other guys in the running with votes in this category. Among them, Prince & Rio stand out as not newcomers. Prince has always been about the ladies since his earliest days in Fort River. Rio? Dunno about that one. Whoever voted for Rio as sexy must be attracted to the shallow, surface, male-dominating type of guy because there's no chance this guy's in it for the long-term with any lady coming his way.

The other 2 are Icarus & Llysander, both also relative newcomers to Fort River. Icarus is the protective, self-controlled type and he shows that with his developing relationship with Jenna, something he definitely is not taking advantage of. Then there's Llysander, who stands out in my mind as a tragic/romantic figure. Tragic because he is still grieving the loss of his sister & searching for her. Romantic because there just seems to be a romantic tension about the guy--he appreciates what he sees, but he focuses on the driving forces in his life. It's an interesting tension, for sure.

Congratulations to Sypher and to all our guys. You're the best!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Sexiest Female

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Sexiest Female
Winner: Hawk
Runner Up: Villa
Runner Up: Jade

As always, sexy is in the eye of the beholder!

For this round, our guys (and maybe girls?) voted Hawk the sexiest female in KTDARPG! With 38% of the votes, you know this was a heated battle! Hawk is our original nature girl. Raised in the wild, there's still something essentially wild about her. She's wicked with a weapon but tends to go all soft & squishy & confused when she has to deal with normal things like cities or interpersonal relationships. Her people skills could really use some work. But that means this girl is running on instinct and her instincts can be a bit...wild? Guess we'll need to ask her mate Creed about that one, hm?

Ok, Ok, you know I'm teasing you, Hawk!

There was a tie for the runner-up category -- Villa and Jade (each with 15% of votes). I don't think you could find 2 more different girls. Villa is an ice-blonde with a streak of violence a mile wide. She glories in the battle, the freakier the better. (You guys find that sexy?) Jade is our honey-blonde singer at Mirage, sometimes delicate & needing to be cared for, other times firmly independent & wanting to depend on no one.

Others who were in the hunt on this one included Blackrose, a very troubled & sexy killer; Arianna, the petite blonde leader of the Misfits; Jet, very dark & strange former leader of the Vamps; and Valentine, the buxom savy lady who is building up businesses all over town.

You're all great, ladies! Each one of you is a winner!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Funniest Character

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Funniest Character

Winner: Rio

Runner Up: Prince

This is an odd category because "funny" is truly in the eye of the beholder.

I can only make guesses why Rio came up as the voters' favorite for funny, with 44% of votes. It's not like he's the class clown or anything, but he does get himself into the wildest situations. Like how people laugh at the man who gets the pie in the face...and Rio does seem to get a lot of pie. Like his fight in Mirage, where he threw a punch & accidently slugged Jade instead of his target. There are a lot of moments like that in-game. Some days, Rio seems to be the guy everybody loves to hate, so of course they laugh at all the unfortunate things that happen to him.

Now Prince on the other hand (25% of votes) can be a class clown when he wants to be--and he has all of us laughing right along with him. His observations of life, the way he baits his opponents, the great twist he can give a phrase that gives his street-talk a style all his own...yep. That's our Prince.

Other people got votes for various reasons. Villa for the way she treats people, Maggie for her sometimes hilarious views of life, Joker for his unpredictability and somtimes sense of fun...

Congratulations, everyone! Something tells me the next awards competition will be even tougher.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Best Crazy

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Crazy
Winner: Villa
Runner Up: Everybody else

How do you define "crazy"?

In The Tribe, craziness was extremely relative. Taisan was the resident space cadet & New Age crazy. Tribe Circus was a whole lot of crazies hiding behind costumes & masks. I still believe the Guardian was clinically psychotic...not sure how else you could explain him. Zoot had delusions of grandure, which he transmitted directly to Ebony. Ram was a megalomaniac of the highest order. Then you had the lesser versions...Moz, Salene, Trudy, Gull...yeah, tribe-world was hard on a girl or guy. It wasn't easy standing up to the stress with no valium & no paxil.

Gotta say, the crazies in KTDARPG aren't any easier to distinguish. Everybody has their own special brand.

For this round at least, the designation "Best Crazy" goes to our own ice-blonde Villa (59% of votes). This girl is cold-blooded, violent, vicious, unpredictable and completely whacked. You can heat her up with alcohol. Add in Marionette, the love of her life, and Villa is a ticking time bomb. Watch out for this one, guys.

Runner up was...well, everybody. There were a lot of others to choose from. Crux, the apparently psychotic leader of the Moths. Tristan, whose scars & lingering pain would drive anyone mad. Marionette, he who routinely wears a body-full of chains. Prince of the Misfits (we definitely won't be talking about that dog episode here...ick!). Katara, a girl pretending to be a boy pretending to be a--whatever! On and on and on...

We're probably lucky our voters could decide at all!

Congratulations, Villa!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Most Entertaining Character

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Most Entergaining Character

Winner: Hellstorm (Vincent Hellstrom)

Runner Up: Jenna

I knew it! I knew the way this poll would go before the first vote was cast. Rock 'n roll will win every single time! The competition was HUGELY fierce & multi-talented -- and it just had to be that the rock star of Fort River was gonna take the prize. Hey, Hellstorm (70% of votes) even has his own fan club!

Runner-up was Jenna the Bard, a distant second with only 15% of votes. But what could we expect? If you were going out for an exciting, entertaining night on the town, would you go watch a fast-paced upbeat rock show or settle for a milder night of storytelling? Be honest now!

It seems our game has gone in for entertainment a bit more routinely--and spectacularly--than The Tribe. We did have a few moments in the show. There was Tribe Circus, but they turned out to be kinky & a little scary. We had the 3 girls from the Jackals tribe who sang at the Mallrats' double wedding; ah, but we never did see enough of them! There was the competition on the beach at the tribal gathering in Season-1 where Taisan's free-form dance routine lost out to heavy-duty breakdancers. By the time we got to Season-5, the hottest form of entertainment was the highly addictive reality space supplied by the Technos. I wouldn't exactly recommend that...

Anyway, everyone got votes in this category so kudos to all our entertainers. Jade and Teller, better luck next time, my friends.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Most Mysterious Character

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Most Mysterious Character
Winner: Zero
Runners Up: Balthazar, Constantine, Madam, Terra

"He's so mysterious."
"She's a complete mystery to me."

Sound familiar?

It's fun to have mysteries. They keep things exciting. A great number of our game-characters have their mysterious sides.

Voted best among them was Zero (35% of votes). Zero is our resident ninja and the Death Seekers' "acquisitor." He's also found his heart's desire in the fair-haired Jade. Despite how much we know about him...it just feels like there's so much we don't know. His motivations? His passions? His plans or even hopes for the future. This guy has had a lot of screen-time, but we're left with a whole lot of questions.

Tall, dark and unpredictable Balthazar (12% of votes) hasn't been in Fort River long, but there's just something about him... He hangs with Kane & Co. who seem to have a real "thing" against tribes. Then Baz goes and joins the Moths, even gaining some kind of status there in a short time. You gotta ask "why?"

Then there's John Constantine (12% of votes), who used to be Scarecrow. Who used to be a Misfit. Who used to share Arianna's bed. These days the man just seems...lost. Lost to himself, lost to his former friends. Whatever happened while he was out of town, it's changed him drastically. He kills coldly and seemingly without remorse. Who is he, now?

On the surface, we know who Madam (12% of votes) is. She's been around the game quite awhile. She lives up to her title as the "madam" of the Painted Ladies. We know she takes her role seriously. We know that she has strong connections to the new guy in town, Sypher. But other than that? Big, big mystery here.

Terra (12% of votes) is our newest mystery. She came out of nowhere with the damming of the StormRiver, a girl steeped in nature and aggrieved at the harm done to nature by that devastating act. Who is she? or maybe Why is a better question?

So many questions...

Our counterparts in The Tribe were no less enigmatic. What truly motivated Zoot? Was Ebony as transparent and power-hungry as she seemed? Was the Guardian a genius or a madman?

Sometimes the journey is way more exciting than the knowing, hm?

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Most Dramatic Character

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Most Dramatic Character
Winner: Tristan
Runner Up: Hawk
Runner Up: Domino

What makes a character "dramatic"? For the purposes of this poll, it had to do with how deep the character was. Deep in back-story. Deep in character development. Even deep in angst worked.

Tristan was the clear winner with 41% of votes. This is a very well-developed character, with tons of connections throughout our game landscape and loads of backstory, a lot of which has been included in-game through flashbacks. If you've followed any of the recent Tristan/Cecily/Jet developing thread...well, the angst is very apparent.

Hawk was runner up with 29% of votes. Again, this female character is very well developed mostly inside the game. She lost her family, lost an important part of her New World family, then lost an eye battling evil. Angst would be her middle name, most definitely.

Domino is relatively new in the game but has already made an impression (18% of votes). Not a lot of backstory, so going on what's in game we've been given just enough to imagine the rest. He lost an eye; he found out he had a son he didn't know about... oh yeah, there is definitely angst & violence in his future.

But to be fair, an awful lot of our characters have great character development going for them & some very heavy histories & situations since the Virus. These were just the top 3 of a very large heap.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Awards: Best Villain

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Villain
Winner: Manon
Runner Up: Chopper
Runner Up: Tristan

First, a bit of explanation. The term "villain" is always subject to interpretation. Sometimes the characters we perceive as villains wouldn't exactly see themselves that way, hm?

The past year, KTDARPG has had a wealth of characters that might be considered villains.

This time around, our winner is Manon (35% of votes). Manon is a girl, described this way: roughly scarred skin, dull gray eyes, withered black hair with bits falling out. Manon is also an assassin. Emotionally and physically, she feels nothing because she was an experimental subject who was never "completed." That made her perfect for Chopper's needs -- an assassin who feels nothing.

Chopper was our runner-up villain (18% of votes). As a pseudo-scientist who seems to revel in blood and guts and suffering and fear and all those good things, Chopper is a perfect leader for the Black Hand assassins. Everything is an experiment. Everything is a test. The world is Chopper's laboratory.

Tristan tied with Chopper as runner up (18% of votes) - but Tristan is one who's hard to label. Is he a villain? He may have done some villainous things, but you have to look at him closer for reasons and motivations. Tristan seems to stir up surprising strong loyalties among the people close to him. Urick, Cecily, others - Tristan is definitely charismatic. I guess his villainy is yet to be determined...if it's there. He may surprise us all!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Best Leader

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Leader
Winner: Hawk, leader of the Birds of Prey
Runner Up: Arianna, leader of the Misfits
Runner Up: Valentine, leader of Fort River businesses

Sometimes people are defined by the leaders they choose. The Locos had Zoot and then Ebony. The Technos had Ram and then Mega. The Mallrats had Lex, then Amber, then Bray. The Chosen had the Guardian. In Season 3 the city kids fairly elected Ebony as City Leader.

Anybody familiar with The Tribe easily forms a mental image of the people mentioned according to who's leading it, for better or worse.

It's very similar in KTDARPG.

Winner in the "Best Leader" category is Hawk (38% of votes), leader of the Birds of Prey. Hawk had one other leadership role, tribe leader of the River Rats, but nothing so successful as her association with the Birds of Prey. The Birds serve as sort of a roving band of enforcers focused on justice & fairness. With them, Hawk is in her element. Whether it's the Brotherhood or the Anti-kids or any other bad guys, she knows what to do instinctively, how to do it, how to finish a job.

We had a tie for runner-up. Arianna (15% of votes), tribe leader of the Misfits, has always been at the heart of the city with her tribe. People in need turn to her for help, and she never turns them away. This girl has had her ups & downs but has never lost her focus.

The other half of the tie is Valentine (15% of votes). Not exactly a traditional leader, Val is at the head of almost all the prominent businesses in Fort River. Her reach is long, and fortunately she is charitably minded & fair. She doesn't cheat people & doesn't tolerate those who do.

Our game-world has a lot of powerful leaders vying for this title. There is Megalues, patriarch and tribe leader of the Evans clan. Jet, leader of the Vamps who were mercilessly slaughtered. Ace, leader of the Death Seekers. Crux, leader of the Moths who are new to Fort River. Chopper, leader of the Assassins of the Black Hand. Blasko, leader of The 100. Madam, leader of the Painted Ladies. And Tristan, leader of his own family and sect that is slowly growing.

In KTDARPG, you just never know where the next strong hand will be in evidence. That's half the fun!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Best New World Business

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best New World Business
Winner: Home
Runner Up: Saber's Store

One of the things you have to do to build a New World is...well, build it. That implies business. Commerce is key because people need things. Lots of things!

The Tribe gave us plenty of examples. Season 1 had the great tribal gathering on the beach where everything was bought & sold, including slaves. Season 2 had Dani's great push for a mall-within-a-mall. Of course that was part of her push for a common currency to level the playing field that a lot of tribes didn't want to be leveled. Through 5 seasons, the show gave us all kinds of traders & businesses, from market stalls to bars to horse traders.

KTDA followed that example.

The players voted Home on Crown Street in Fort River as their favorite New World business (54% of votes). Created by Valentine, Home seems to have something for everyone. It's a meeting place, a drinking place, an eating place, a sleeping place. There's darts & pool for those who need distractions. From time to time there's music & storytelling. Sometimes there's even a job to be had for someone down on his or her luck. Home has had its share of problems. It's been targeted a number of times for bombing, attacking, etc. But Valentine refuses to give up. She has a genuine concern for the people who look to her for support. Her prices are fair & her services are honest. She has guards & loyal employees to help her keep it that way.

Second place went to Saber's Store over on Peachtree (15% of votes). Saber is a well-known, popular trader in Fort River & she recently opened a store to make it easier for customers to find her. From food to clothes, chains to bedding, weapons to building materials -- if you need it, Saber can get it for you...for a price.

Fort River has lots of other great businesses. Be sure to visit the weekly Market Day at Tango Lake, or the covered daily market in the old school on Airport Road. If gambling is your thing, there's the Mirage in the industrial district. There's also Cecily's Herb Shop, Kane's Carvings or the River Rats booth in the daily market, Legacy which is Sid's smithy on Airport Road, or the City Shelter & Clinic down by the river bank.

Fort River is alive, and our merchants and traders are helping build the future.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Best Tribe

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Tribe
Winner: Misfits
Runner Up: River Rats
Runner Up: Moths

What would The Tribe have been without...well, tribes?

Mallrats - Demon Dogz - Locos - Ecos
Gulls - Technos - Mozzies - Jackals

Ah, yes. Colorful, memorable, significant.

Our players have proved that tribes endure. Maybe not as all-encompassing as in the show, but we have tribes that play significant rolls. Witness our game favorites:

> Misfits (42% of votes), which have been with the game since the beginning. Currently led by Lady Arianna, the Misfits are truly part of the fabric of Fort River.

> River Rats (33% of votes), created at the end of the StormRiver war to join diverse tribes into something new. The River Rats are really a cross between the Ecos and the Mallrats, fighters yet concerned with the future & helping people learn how to live in the future.

> Moths (17% of votes), born in another city & transplanted to Fort River recently. This small rather mysterious tribe is led by Crux, a man who seems to have his own ideas about power and the getting of such. (Tends to have a fixation about explosive things...)

We also have The 100, Death Seekers, Skaters, Sewer Tribe, Travelers, Vamps & a host of shadow tribes we take out now & then for local color.

Congrats to Arianna, Prince, Izzy, Lily, Domino, Alexis, Rex, Pandora -- all the members of the Misfits. You know we love ya!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud 9 "The Tribe"

Summer Tribe Award: Best Story

Breaking down the Summer 2009 "Tribe Awards" presented to KTDARPG players by the votes of their fellow players, with tributes to the show that continues to inspire us!

Category: Best Story
Winner: Joker vs. Hawk
Runner Up: The Summer Drought

All right, you have to start with your game storyline. We're usually juggling several at once so we asked, "Which current story thread do you enjoy the most?"

The answer was a strong one.

"Joker vs. Hawk" got 40% of all the votes. The plot is part of a more complicated assassins plot, but this scenario has very peculiar twists. Joker's told everyone he's an assassin, but he doesn't seem like he wants to do the job all that much. Soooo... Joker told the city kids one of THEM has to kill Hawk & bring him proof. Otherwise, he'll start blowing up bits and pieces of our city.

It's quite a dilemma. Hawk is a city hero. Who's gonna take her on? And yet if it will spare the city and other deaths, should she give herself up to fate? We will see...we will see.

The runner-up is more of an all-encompassing story. In the game, our landscape has been in a severe drought for something like 2 months. The drought's affected available water, food & other resources and created several different kinds of conflicts. It's not exciting and colorful but it IS something you can't ignore!

(Note: The drought recently broke and our city is currently having a great rain storm!)

When it comes to fascinating, interesting story lines, our game definitely has them. Assassins, the death of a river, new tribes, the intriguing return of past characters, grudges and plots...we can definitely say KTDARPG has something for everyone!

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Patting Ourselves on the Back!

Twice a year, our rpg - "Keep The Dream Alive" - has a unique highlight. We call it the "Tribe Awards."

These awards give a well-deserved pat on the back to the players, characters, significant moments & bright spots that keep us playing year after year.

They also give a shout out to the great tv show that inspired us to start this craziness! Honestly, you'd be hard pressed to find a show to equal The Tribe. It was unique & fun, had great actors in memorable roles, and it brought us players together from all corners of the globe.

We're coming up on 5 years since the game started. We have almost 100 members, probably a couple dozen active players. Hehe... it's great!

Anyway, "Tribe Awards" ... Usually awards are determined by the awesome Council of Tribes. But for some reason, this year the Council decided to take a sabbatical. (There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that a tall ice-blonde was seen harrassing Council members with the point of a very wicked-looking blade!) To fill the gap, we game moderators threw decisions about awards to the players/members. Polls were created. Everyone voted their favorites. It was a wild ride. The voting was hot & fast & kept changing right up until the polls closed on August 8. But in the end, we did it and the awards were...well, awarded!

Winners have been announced in the game. Now I get the fun part, here, in Chyna's Closet. I get to analyze, comment & tease unmercifully! In the posts still to come, I'm going to break down the awards as I've done in the past. I'll reference game-threads & posts and...other things *evil leer*...that probably led to the votes going they way they did.

And, as always, we'll parallel The Tribe and see just how much we have in common after all.

Stay tuned! Hehe...you don't want to miss it.

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Coming Soon: Summer '09 Tribe Awards!

We can't claim that the voting going on at the KTDA game site is as exciting or important as what went on in "The Tribe" Season-3 when the city kids came together to vote in Ebony as city leader, but . . .

The players 'n members of KTDARPG are currently in the middle of a very important vote--voting for the winners of the Summer 2009 Tribe Awards!

This is the first time we've actually put the awards to a player-vote; and from what I've seen so far, the competition is heated! Everybody has their favorites!

The poll ends on August 8, and then the winners will be revealed. The game-site will have the full list. As you may have read in the past, I'll do a more in-depth review of the awards here over the next few weeks.

Our "Keep The Dream Alive" Role-playing Game is a lot of fun in a lot of ways -- this is just one more!

Players, vote!

-Chyna, Game Owner

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"

Rain!

Weather never really played a very big role in "The Tribe." Maybe it was because weather would limit the storyline somehow, forcing our characters to be idle inside while it stormed or whatever.

Out of 5 seasons, I only recall 2 weather-related scenes.

In Season-1, our Mallrats were having trouble finding & keeping clean water. There was a water storage tank on the mall roof but it was emptying fast. They needed rain to fill it up. Otherwise, they had to walk all the way to the river & haul their water from there. Not an easy task.

There was a very brief scene where all the Mallrats silently looked up, realizing what they were hearing was rain on the roof. It was a small scene. If you blinked, you missed it. But it was there.

The second incident was in Season-4, when Jay & Ebony ran away from the city to escape the Technos. They wound up with the Echos...in the rain. There was no reference by any of the characters about the weather. It just was. Kind of a nice change, I thought, from the sterile "every day is neutral" outside environment our characters usually lived in.

Our game is vastly different. Weather makes a difference and has since the beginning. Winter was cold, snowy, and sometimes just a mess. That had an impact on what our KTDA characters wore, ate, drank, and how they lived from day to day. Spring was wet. Summer (where we are now) has been hot & dry for a very long time. Drought set in. That certainly impacted how our characters viewed water, what foods were available, and how we tried to find ways to keep cool.

Fortunately, recently, the drought has been broken. We have rain! I'm sure that will continue to make differences in the lives of everyone in our city of Fort River.

In KTDA, weather is just as vital a character as those created by our players.

It's just a lot more fickle. *grin*

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"