The Little Things

As game discussions continue about what "is" & "isn't" Tribal, it got me to thinking. Actually it got me to go back & re-watch some early Tribe eps, just to remind myself what it was about this show that appealed to me in the first place.

After maybe 4 episodes, yeah...I remembered. It was the little things the writers 'n producers 'n actors did to make Tribe-world real, to bring it to life. It was the Sight, Sound, Taste, Smell & Feel of that alternate reality that was so appealing. And if you go back & watch? It still is.

When it comes to KTDARPG? We've kinda let some of the small things slide. Not all, just some. Here are a few that come to mind...

Everybody's kinda sorta...perfect. Now since our game-world is 2 years past the virus & the adults dying, this could maybe be explained by natural selection. The strong survived; the weak didn't? Dunno if I buy that, but there has to be some reason nobody's wearing Old World glasses or seems to need them. Nobody we know has bad teeth. Matter of fact, none of the characters we've met has been described as anything but attractive or cute or whatever. Where'd the ugly kids go?

(In all fairness, one intrepid player has a character with a malformed arm/hand & a lead character who lost an eye in battle. So there's potential out there...)

The food supply is relatively...painless? In the tv show, there were at least 2 instances where animals were slaughtered (ok, off-screen but still part of the story) for food. And somebody had to do the slaughtering. In our game, as much as we're willing to rip up each other in a good fight or slaughter the bad guy(s), we are very strangely reluctant to be "real" when it comes to all of our food sources.

(And before anyone complains, Chyna is a rabid animal lover! I'm not advocating sacrificial lambs here, guys. But you KNOW our characters are eating meat every chance they get. Enough said...)

The mortality rate for our game-world is pretty low, considering. Considering that by now ALL the Old World medicines should either be past their use-by dates or completely gone. Considering that other than that pesky Virus, we've only seen 1 example of a disease that should actually be killing kids (the chicken pox back in Season-One). Considering hygiene should be mostly non-existent. Considering the positive plethora of girls who've had/are having babies in the current game season--not one time has a mother had any troubles delivering or recovering, and not one baby died. (Well, that's not true. One baby was kidnapped & killed, but I don't count that in this category.)

We've had an awful lot of kids die fighting enemies--other tribes, the Brotherhood, Anti-kids--even just in riots or natural disasters (like that hurricane at the end of Season-Three). But it seems like ordinary LIFE in this kind of world would be awfully hard...and awfully precious.

Anyway, just my thoughts. Don't get me wrong--we've got an awful lot of things RIGHT as our game has moved from season to season. Maybe these reality-avenues might be interesting to explore?

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"