The Tribes of Crane

[Nazareth]

Played Tribes of Crane from 1978 till 1981 when Schubel & Son first started the game. Saw a flyer in a gaming store in Huntington Beach Ca. Turns were a $1. Probably one of the first 20 or 30 players then. I remember playing with Bob Cook, Mike Popolizio and Jack Everitt back then (designers of BSE and Monster Island). Watched the game morph into something much more than even Schubel imagined I think. That was a real power game. Lots of great gamers played in the early years, John Muir and Glenn Harold to name a few. I think Glenn Harold is playing Fallen Empires currently.

[Fallen Empires]

Played Tribes of Crane from 1978 till 1981 when Schubel & Son first started the game. Saw a flyer in a gaming store in Huntington Beach Ca. Turns were a $1. Probably one of the first 20 or 30 players then. I remember playing with Bob Cook, Mike Popolizio and Jack Everitt back then (designers of BSE and Monster Island). Watched the game morph into something much more than even Schubel imagined I think. That was a real power game. Lots of great gamers played in the early years, John Muir and Glenn Harold to name a few. I think Glenn Harold is playing Fallen Empires currently.

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I played Tribes of Crane in the UK for many years until the turnround by mail got the better of it

Fallen Empires costs no more than the game did then and has the advantage of email, excel etc.

Glenn Harold has been playing for some time and is really enjoying it.

New players are always welcome. Land Tribes, Sea Tribes, Political or Religious figures, Land and Sea Mercenary companies, Trolls, Golbins, etc

Contact us for more info

Jim/Peter GM's

[Silver]

Tribes of Crane was the best game I ever played in terms of depth, feeling and atmosphere. I joined in 1993 and played until 2001, running various tribes and political figures of the Rebellion, under Melvyn Huntley who later become Tribes of Crane GM. I am not sure what you are talking about regarding discouragement of battles, especially once the war between the Empire and the Rebellion started, we had battles every turn. Very exciting game times, but really slow turnaround killed it, I remember a time when I waited 8 months for a single turn.

Then gaming simply moved off, I find difficulty in playing hand-moderated games these days, but my ToC experience will be remembered as an amazing one. Peter who is running now Fallen Empires was also a ToC GM once, so I am certain there will be a lot of ToC feeling into his new game!

[Greybeard]

I remember playing in ToC, but only briefly. I can agree with Silver and the others who also enjoyed this game, though I only played briefly before it entered the long pause Silver mentions, and so never built up long-term commitment.

[GrimFinger]

There's a small quip about The Tribes of Crane on the Phlegmatic blogsite, which hails itself as "The Curious Journal of Philmo Phlegm."

[PlayByAle]

I played Tribes for Crane for many years and even was the GM for a while. It died a death in the UK when turn round got too long. It was a great game.

The game has been rewritten and resurrected as a Play by Email with a number of changes and improvements and renamed Fallen Empires.

It has been run for a year as a trial and been re-started earlier this year with a few minor changes and improvements.

It is possible to run a tribe and/or settlement. Political figures to run cities and Mercenary and Sea borne companies are being added later this year.

We are ready for new players to join us in the UK or overseas. Just email fallenemp.gmail.com

Peter

Peter! I am shocked, stunned and in truth mortified! Stating that your game is a rewrite of ToC is not pleasing! Espercially as I was happy to advertise your NEW game on the ToC forum way back. I seem to recall buying the rights to ToC from you around 1996 and those rights remain in MY posession. Please desist in advertising your game as a newer version of ToC or I WILL take matters further if needs be. I'm sure you have intended no offense towards me, or ToC However, having shed blood, sweat and tears for ToC I am NOT prepared to let ANYONE ILLEGALLY claim it for their own.

Melvyn
Zen Games

[GrimFinger]

If you're sure that he intends no offense towards either yourself or Tribes of Crane, then how can you simultaneously be shocked, stunned, and mortified by comments that you are sure intend you or your game no offense?

That glaring contradiction aside, while it's certainly a colorful way to introduce yourself to the site's members, welcome aboard the site, Melvyn. While I have played neither Tribe of Crane nor Fallen Empires, personally, nonetheless, I welcome discussion about either or both games here on the site. If Tribes of Crane is an active game, onsite ads for it are invited. Like the other ads here on the site, there isn't a charge to run them.

I know mostly about Tribes of Crane from bits and pieces gleaned from various sources over the years, and most of what little that I do know is from the Schubel & Son era of the game's run. That said, there's really not exactly one heck of a whole lot of information about Tribes of Crane to be found on the Internet, if my past attempts at locating information on it are any indication.

Interestingly (at least, I found it to be interesting), out of the three hundred and thirty-one PBM or turn-based companies listed on the PBM Wiki site, to date, Zen Games isn't listed among their number. I can fix that, by adding an entry for it. Perhaps you would be interested, Melvyn, in crafting an entry for it? Otherwise, Zen Games will likely receive a bare bones entry on it. The PBM Wiki grows at pretty much a snail's pace (I think that the snail is winning, actually), so even a fairly brief entry could provide a little illumination for site visitors and PBM history buffs.

And on a side note, for site visitors interested in this latest turn in the discussion about Tribes of Crane, it appears that the discussion shifted away from the PlayByMail.Net forum to Melvyn's Facebook page. So, unless somebody party to this "issue" is willing to enlighten me further, I don't really know anything more than what was posted in the thread, here, and will simply refer inquiring minds and interested readers to Melvyn's Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/melvyn.huntley

Unless I am reading the discussion there wrong, it seems that there may not really be an issue, after all. But, again, at this juncture in time, I am as much in the dark as the rest of you.

On a separate note entirely, if Zen Games has a website, I could also add a link to it on the PBM Hivemind on the front page of this site, if someone could provide me a copy of that link. Previously, I added a link to an old Yahoo Groups discussion group for Tribes of Crane, but for the most part, there's not a lot of user activity in that discussion group.

[PlayByAle]

If you're sure that he intends no offense towards either yourself or Tribes of Crane, then how can you simultaneously be shocked, stunned, and mortified by comments that you are sure intend you or your game no offense?

Simple, Grimfinger! I know Peter to be a really nice guy. However, his comment on this forum stated in black and white that Fallen Empires was an update of Crane, with ownership thus more than implied. I have since received a facebook post from the Fallen Empires guys stating that this was NOT their intention and that in future they will proofread their public statements more carefully. As such I consider the matter CLOSED.

There is no ToC website at present, while the game itself has been in hiatus for far too long. However, it looks like I will soon have time and resources available to restart the game in a modest way. It will remain a snail mail game for enthusiasts. Please feel free to add Zen Games to the wiki page. Anything else I can help with my email is zengames@breathe.com. Cheers! Melvyn

[GrimFinger]

I have added Zen Games to the PBM Wiki. At present, it is, like most PBM company entries there, a very sparse entry. Details can be added at any time, going forward.