Grade the Silhouette System

[Wofano Wotanto]

Of those who voted, only about half (52%) have heard of it, and about a third (35%%) have played it.

Is that the worst percentage of any of the systems you done one of these threads for? I guess the "never heard of it" category is pretty irrelevant anyway, given that there must be many folks who'd vote that way if they'd even looked at the thread - which they didn't, because they never heard of it.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

Tribe 8 I think is one setting where the 'in universe' style writing and the 'vibe' unfortunately overwhelmed the clarity of the concept and setting. They eventually released a player's guide that was written in plain language to help make a greater sense of things.

(As an aside, there's a Cortex Prime hack written for Tribe 8, and version using FitD named Tribes in the Dark was also in development, but that seems to unfortunately have been interrupted as it's been a couple of years since the last update.)

Tribes in the Dark is still in the works—I had an interaction with one of (or maybe the lead?) designer late last year, who shared the current playtest rules. It's just taking a while, as these things do.

 

[Laurefindel]

This is probably old news for many of you but the 4th edition is about to come out for retail after taking feedback from their pdf following last year’s kickstarter.

I might actually get this one; I’m due for a new rpg book anyway.

 

[GuardianLurker]

I have Tribe 8. I was really impressed with the setting - the post-apocalyptic/meta-physical vibe was freaky but worked. I never found a group suited for playing it though, and it's been sitting on my shelf since I bought it.

 

[Voadam]

I got the PDFs of the Tribe 8 series but have not really gone into them. It seemed an interesting setting with a weird mystic horror aspect.

 

[jdrakeh]

Tribes in the Dark is still in the works—I had an interaction with one of (or maybe the lead?) designer late last year, who shared the current playtest rules. It's just taking a while, as these things do.

Yeah. Wil (the lead creative) posts regularly about it on Twitter. It's still in the works and actively being developed.

 

[Kannik]

Is that the worst percentage of any of the systems you done one of these threads for? I guess the "never heard of it" category is pretty irrelevant anyway, given that there must be many folks who'd vote that way if they'd even looked at the thread - which they didn't, because they never heard of it.

Aye indeed, it is the lowest of the bunch thus far -- second place is the SAGA system at 88%, and the rest are all in the high 90s-100. I'm not entirely surprised that it is low, though at the same time I would've thought it had more lasting mindshare despite its heyday being a while ago.

It might have still more of a presence in the tactical miniatures game space as that is what is mostly what is being produced, and maybe with the release of the new edition of the HG RPG it'll begin to creep back in.

 

[Kannik]

Tribes in the Dark is still in the works—I had an interaction with one of (or maybe the lead?) designer late last year, who shared the current playtest rules. It's just taking a while, as these things do.

That's great to hear! The last playtest material I'd seen/gotten was from 2022, excited to see it get released.

 

[Kannik]

Striders were a little bigger, and as the timeline advanced there's been some marked "scale creep" at the higher end of things, although they're exceptions rather than the rule and really raise the question of how many eggs you want in a single basket. Thankfully, the tiny Ferret and its butt-wheel are still as beloved as ever, giving the IP a strong answer to the equally inexplicable popularity of Battletech's Urbanmech.

Haha, the Ferret really is the Urbie of HG, ain't it? Butwheel vs trashcan.

 

[SableWyvern]

As I recall, the main mathematical issue with the system is that a stat of +3 had a pretty dramatic effect, especially when it was in Dex, and it was relatively easy to acquire. The game played best with stat values no higher than +2, possibly allowing a +3 for absolutely elite, best-of-the-best.