HUNTER-GATHERER TRIBES

HUNTER-GATHERER TRIBES

What separates the pariahs from other hunter gatherer tribes is history: whereas the tribes can reach back many generations and rely on inter-band alliances cemented by marriage and trade, the pariah starts at year 0.

Otherwise, the tribes indigenous to a region organise themselves in a similar fashion to pariahs: they form bands of up to 60 members, though usually along familial lines.

Each band usually has an 1d12 infants, 1s12 youths, 1d12 adults and 1d12 elders. Infants cannot fight, youths and elders fight when cornered, all adults will engage in combat to defend their band.

Names

Roll, pick or receive inspiration from the naming tables below to decide what the rival tribe call themselves.

Tribes can be named after geographic areas:

GEOGRAPHIC INSPIRED TRIBAL NAMES
1	Burning	Creek
2	Cold	Fells
3	Fast	Glade
4	Great	Grasses
5	High	Hill
6	Lonely	Jungle
7	Mighty	Lake
8	Old	Mound
9	Shady	Mountain
10	Tall	River
11	Wide	Tor
12	Yellow	Woods

Eg. Tribe of the Tall Grasses ; The Yellow Mountain Folk; People of the Old Woods

...or a favoured animal:

ANIMAL INSPIRED TRIBAL NAMES
1	Black	Auroch
2	Bold	Bear
3	Cruel	Crows
4	Great	Eagle
5	Grey	Hawk
6	Lurking	Jackal
7	Mighty	Leopard
8	Old	Lion
9	Red	Rhino
10	Terrible	Serpent
11	Worrisome	Tiger
12	Yellow	Wolf

...or they can be named for the true name of their ancestor, using the true name generator in PARIAH volume one. 

D12/ D20	Initial vowel/ Dipthong	Initial Consonant	Vowel/Dipthong	Consonant
1	A	B	a	b
2	Ai	D	ae	d
3	Ao	Dr	ai	dr
4	Au	F	ao	f
5	E	G	au	g
6	Ei	H	e	h
7	I	J (Dz)	ei	j (dz)
8	Ia	K	eiu	k
9	O	Kw (Qu)	i	kw (qu)
10	Or	L	ia	l
11	U	M	io	m
12	Ur	N	iu	n
13		KiP	o	p
14		R	oa	rr
15		S	oe	s
16		T	or	t
17		Tx( Ch)	u	tx (ch)
18		V	ui	v
19		X (Sh)	ua	x (sh)
20		Z	ur	z

Power Structure
For added flavour, consider how the tribe might organise themselves. This may or may not influence how bands behave when encountering the pariahs.

Try not to get too obsessive over details that won’t feature heavily in actual gameplay: ultimately it is unlikely that pariahs will have much interest in how their rivals govern themselves.

POWER STRUCTURE
2d6	Description
2	Martial Patriarchal: The tribe is ruled by a hereditary warrior-chief, who is always male. The tribe value hunting and fighting above all.
3	Meritocratic martial: The tribe is ruled by the greatest warrior or hunter, determined by an annual contest.
4	Male Magocracy: The most powerful male shaman or sorcerer is the head of this tribe.
5	Gerontocracy: The tribe is ruled over by a council of elders.
6	Anarcho-individualist: There is no centralised power structure, with a collective democracy emphasising the needs of individual freedoms and property before family, clan, band or tribe.
7	Anarcho-collectivist: There is no centralised power structure, with a collective democracy emphasising the needs of the brand and tribe over those of the individual.
8	Gerontocracy: The tribe is ruled over by a council of elders.
9	Female Magocracy: Rule rests in the hands of the most powerful female shaman or sorceress.
10	Meritocratic martial: The tribe is ruled by the greatest warrior or hunter, determined by an annual contest.
11	Martial Matriarchal: The tribe is ruled by a hereditary warrior-chief, who is always female. The tribe value hunting and fighting above all.
12	Other: the tribe organises itself along some other unusual line. Perhaps they are in the service of a demon spirit, spirit-touched individuals, a council of ancient clan elders or even in the employ of settled peoples as bodyguards.

Distinguishing Features

What makes a tribe distinct from others the pariahs might meet, and will enable the players to recollect them easily?

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES
2d6	Description
1	Distinctive tattoos: facial or all over the body, unusual colours or unique emblem.
2	Extreme body modification: branding, burning, scarring - even amputation, eye removal etc.
3	Always accompanied by hounds or more unusual domesticated animals (lizards, birds, monkeys)
4	Bones: they armour themselves with the bones of their enemies.
5	Nude: this tribe eschews clothing of all kinds except for some jewelry and body art.
6	Brightly coloured/ patterned fabrics: this tribe clearly have mastered textiles and dress with aplomb.
7	Masked: the tribe only take off their masks when back at the camp.These could be animalistic, demonic, or simply featureless.
8	Shrunken heads: this tribe carries a pole from which they hang the shrunken heads of their most respected ancestors. This may function as a magical device.
9	Painted white: the tribe cover themselves from head to toe in chalky-white paint before going hunting or into battle.
10	Painted in blood: members of this tribe coat themselves in the blood of ritual sacrifices to bring them greater power on the hunt or in battle.
11	Painted red: this tribe uses rich red clays to daub their bodies and hair before venturing on trips.
12	Animal skins: the tribe clothes itself in decorative animal skins, perhaps to invite the power of that animal’s spirit when venturing on the hunt or into battle.

Unique Cultural Practice

Beneath superficial differences of appearance, a tribe might practice one or more of the following unique cultural practices:

Unique Cultural Feature
2d6	Description
1	This tribe venerates a particular animal above all.
2	Extreme gender division: the tribe is divided into bands along gender lines. Perhaps conflicts arise when youths no longer wish to adhere to the gender they were assigned?
3	Pets: the tribe is famed for keeping many tame animals as their pets. Some are feral, others fully domesticated.
4	Nocturnal: this tribe does not venture out in daylight hours and fear sunlight.
5	Vegetarianism.
6	Polyamory.
7	Endocannibalism: the group eats human flesh, but only within its own social group.
8	Exocannibalism: this tribe eats the flesh of non-tribe members. They may perform this as a sombre post-battle ritual, or they actively seek the flesh of other tribes.
9	Worship of the settled people: this tribe believes the settled peoples to be an advanced, god like civilisation (unlike most hunter-gatherers who see them as just weird).
10	Addiction: the tribe have disrespected the entheogenic spirits and are addicted to sleepflower or quickleaf.
11	Pacifism: the tribe totally eschews violence against other humans, within or without their tribe.
12	Silence: the tribe refuses to speak out loud when beyond the confines of their camp.

Typical Encounters

Humans encountered in the wilderness fall into several varieties. Reaction rolls should be modified by the pariahs’ reputation, circumstances and numbers.

Band	An entire band of hunter-gatherers consisting of 2d8 infants, 2d8 youths, 2d8 adults and 2d8 elders. All will be armed in some way. Why are they on the move? Are they hungry, battle-weary, or taking part in an annual migration or event?
Herder	1d4 herders, 2d4-2 youths and up to 5d6 animals that they are herding for their meat, milk, hides or something else. Will be wary, but likely to send back a youth to report to nearby bands/ communities.
Hunting party	A group of 2d4 hunters and 1d4 youths, armed with bows and spears. They will be on edge but not necessarily aggressive, focused as they are on finding big game. Will only confront the party if they try to interfere with the hunt.
Trading party	A group of 2d4 adults, 1d4 youths and 1d4 -2 elders. They are looking to trade with another band, but are content to trade with the pariahs if they can offer anything of value.
Raiding party	As hunting party but on a specific mission to raid a rival band, tribe, settled community or (5% chance) the pariahs’ band. They are very aggressive and keen to not let anyone interrupt their mission.
Shaman	An ageing wiseman/woman looking for entheogens in the wilderness. Will have at least one magical device, and will be accompanied by an apprentice (50% chance) and possibly a spirit-touched (15%). Non-confrontational, potentially communicative.
Sorcerer or witch	A lone conjurer, accompanied by (roll 1d12) 1 - a conjured elemental; 2-3 - some enchanted animals; 4-5 - a spirit-touched servant; 6-7 - a raiding party; 8-9 - three nameless ones; 10-11 - a bound blood-drinker; 12- an animal spirit. They will be keen to disinvest the party of any magic.
Spirits disguised as a humans	Appears like any of the above but actually spirits playing a cruel trick upon the humans. Their intentions are unknown but almost certainly malevolent: most likely to attempt to form an alliance with the pariahs before betraying them.

Hunter-Gatherer Items

In addition to the ordinary starting items (see PARIAH, volume 1), hunter-gatherers might be carrying some of the following trade goods.

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Sorcerer’s Sage (entheogen)	A set of arrows.	Set of stone-working tools	Hunting dogs	Basket of fresh fruits	Silkworms
2	Culinary spices	Shaman Shroom (entheogen)	Wool, dyed.	Set of polished axe heads	Animal hides	Clay jar of honey
3	Cured meats	Healing herbs	Desert Rue (entheogen)	Fire-Starting fungus	Elaborate carved wood	Corpse preserving spices
4	Wine in a clay pot	Preserved shellfish	Bag of salt	Sleepflower (entheogen)	Collection of spears	Stone idol
5	Well-made basket	Beer	Sacks of grain	Green peppercorns	Quickleaf (entheogen)	Incense
6	A wooden wheel	Length of hempen rope	A monkey with human intelligence.	Smoked meats	Collected animal fat	Cactus buttons (entheogen)

II. PARIAHS

Most of the other pariahs encountered will be solitary, having been outcast from their band and left to fend for themselves. They will most likely be very happy to join the pariahs’ band.

From time-to-time, a genuine pariah band will be encountered, or at least a hunting or raiding party.

Use the guidelines for creating tribes, with the following exceptions:

- Pariahs rarely possess items of great value, so ignore the additional items chart. 

- Pariahs may practice a random hodge-podge of tribal practices, embracing or rejecting the customs of their culture of origin. 

- Roll on the table below for a name or use the suggestions for inspiration:

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Howling Wolves	Graceful Antelope	Void Star	Swollen Guts	The Worthless & the Hopeless	Laughing Girls
2	Cruel Suns	Barking Dogs	Blooming Flower	The Abyss	Crooked Smiles	We Are the Ones Who Must Suffer
3	Smite Us for We Have Fallen	Heartless Ones	Smiling Reptiles	Open Heart	Bottomless Pit	Blackened Feet
4	Red Hands	The Mired in Endless Torment	Lost Boys	Running Leopards	Soft Embrace	Not You
5	Empty Gestures	Yellow Eyes	Those Who Do Not Care	Children of  the Dirt	Flying Monkeys	Dog Piss
6	Elegant Dancers	No Ravens	Broken Arms	Blasted then Are We	Hopeless Bastards	Fleeting Shadows