Published by Steve Jackson Games, 1998
Designed by David Brin and Steve Jackson

Inspired by an article entitled Darwinopoly by Dr. Jared Diamond in Discover magazine, this game (which is also sometimes called Darwinopoly) is a cross between a board game and a role-playing game. Earlier versions of the game were played at science fiction conventions from 1989 until the game was published in its final form in late 1998.

Players at least 4, 6-8 recommended, games with up to 40 have been reported
Period Stone Age
Scale abstract
Turn 6 months
Map abstract
Unit individual

Components
1 12-page rulebook
2 11"x17" gameboard sheets
336 1/2" counters
1 pad Character Card forms
1 9"x12" ziploc container
2 2"x3" ziplocs for counters

Counter Manifest
24 Child counters
24 Guardian counters
12 Basket counters
12 Spearhead counters
190 Food counters (40x1; 40x2; 40x3; 20x5; 20x10; 20x20; 10x50)
74 Grain counters (20x1; 20x2; 10x3; 10x5; 10x10; 4x20)

Collector’s Value

Tribes is still in print and available for $9.95 from Steve Jackson Games.

Player’s Value

“It’s 50,000 BC - where are your children?” is the subtitle of this game, and indeed the main objective of the game is to breed and raise as many healthy children to adulthood as possible. Unlike GURPS Prehistoric, this game focuses on development of the tribe overall and how individuals contribute to it and interact. Therefore, it is more like a codified thought experiment than a genuine role-playing system. David Brin, one of the designers, is an award-winning science fiction author who has written extensively on the relationship of biology to society and behavior.

The people playing the game are individual tribespeople who have chosen to specialize in Hunting, Gathering or Crafts. There are rules to govern the mechanics of living, marriage, breeding and dying but these are mostly parameters for record keeping. Like most role-playing games, this game works best if the players bring a good attitude and creative spirit to the table. They are encouraged to come up with tribal laws binding on the conduct of the members (though democracy hadn’t been invented yet, these laws are established by majority vote). There are rudimentary rules for settling issues through intimidation or actual violence, but the latter is discouraged as a sign of social breakdown (though if you happen to be playing this at a convention, and there’s another table of Cro-Magnons across the way with more food than is good for them, that’s another matter...).

The game is played for at least 20 years (40 turns) and at the end, the tribe is judged as to how successful it was based on the number of people in the tribe at the beginning and end of the game. Individuals within the tribe are counted as successful by the number of living children they have at the end of the game.

Support Material

The Steve Jackson Games website maintains a support page: http://www.sjgames.com/tribes.

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