Attn RP fans: Naming the Primitive Tribe.

[Ardent]

I'd vote against any geographical names. After all, the names of locations may have been long lost or unavailable, especially to a bunch of primitive tribals.

Also naming them with a wacky tribal-sounding name is silly, because they are still using English. If they had developed a dialect or a pidgin which would be their primary mode of communication, then ok, but as I understand - they do speak English in the game, right?

As for contacting MCA, you can mail him directly, without involving BN or Fargo - Avellone is a really nice guy and replies to e-mails with shockingly short delays. Just be polite. Don't know about the other designers though.
Still, I don't really think it's such a great idea - the RP is made by fans, and the Primitive Tribe location has been de facto designed and fleshed out by the RP team, so why leave the cherry on the cake for some established designers to eat? I say the ultimate decision should be up to Dravean, Killap or whoever else was working on the content for this location. Of course if you want suggestions, I have one: name the tribe: "the Ardents"

Seriously though, I'm definitely for naming them for their belief in the spirit world. Somebody suggested earlier that such a name would be invalid, as the tribe itself wouldn't use it to describe themselves, and that it would be a name given by other tribes/societies.
I respectfully disagree. Sure, they can call themselves "Us" or "People" or whatever when they're talking to one another, but when a stranger arrives in town, they won't tell him: "Hey, we're us", they will use the name by which they are known in the world, such as: "Hey, we're the Spirit Drinkers". When somebody asks me what tribe I am from, I don't say: "Hey, I'm a Polak", I say: "Hey, I'm Polish". In the case of English, the two names are quite similar, but try saying that in Hungarian: "Hé, én vagyok lengyel" (according to Google Translate ) -> there's not even like a single "p" in there. So Hungarians have developed their own word to call my "tribe", and if I knew any Hungarian at all and went to Hungary, I'd tell them that I'm "lengyel" and not "Polak".

That said, I don't have any cool names to propose for the tribe (except for the Ardents ). I kinda liked the Spiritwalkers.

 

[Oppen]

Seriously though, I'm definitely for naming them for their belief in the spirit world. Somebody suggested earlier that such a name would be invalid, as the tribe itself wouldn't use it to describe themselves, and that it would be a name given by other tribes/societies.

I think you misread that. At least, when I said it was not valid, it was about the "Two Moon Tribe" name, because it's basing the name in another town. Why would the tribe call themselves based in a town of people who shares nothing with them? I'm all for trying to find a cool name related to their ability (at least, they see it that way) of communicating with spirits.

 

[Oppen]

Also, Spirit Walkers sounds great.

 

[Ardent]

I think you misread that. At least, when I said it was not valid, it was about the "Two Moon Tribe" name, because it's basing the name in another town. Why would the tribe call themselves based in a town of people who shares nothing with them?

Sorry if I misread that. I totally agree that Two Moon tribe is not a good name.

 

[Silencer]

I'd vote against any geographical names. After all, the names of locations may have been long lost or unavailable, especially to a bunch of primitive tribals.

An unnamed ridge would still be there, hence, the "Ridge Tribe".

Petrolia sounds almost like petrol, which suit postapocaliptic world

Except petrol is "gas" in USA. Also, "Matolek" is a dummy in Polish

Something like Spiritwalk(ers) or Bonespeak(ers) could work, though if I was in a more creative mood I'd stongly favor something a little less direct.

Bonespeakers sounds OK. "Boners" is a derogative term used by raiders, or call them "Cartilegians" if you want to be very obscure or are a Caesar's Legionnaire

 

[Ardent]

An unnamed ridge would still be there, hence, the "Ridge Tribe".

"Ridge" is not a geographical name, it's merely a geographical term, so technically, there's nothing wrong with what I've written

Bonespeakers sounds OK. "Boners" is a derogative term used by raiders, or call them "Cartilegians" if you want to be very obscure or are a Caesar's Legionnaire

Bonespeakers sound good too to me.

 

[UniversalWolf]

Based on Sulik's dialogue they must be a tribe descended from Jamaican rastafarians, so perhaps that should be taken into account.

 

[Dravean]

To be clear, I wasn't suggesting we take the exact name of any of locations I listed. Instead, I thought they might serve as an inspiration to whatever the final name ended up being. If we were to take one of the names directly, I'm inclined to agree with Yamo in that Matolle would be the best fit.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see that no one has spoken up in favor of keeping it as "Primitive Tribe." We thought perhaps people would have gotten used to that and be adverse to change.

Also, as someone else pointed out, we are naming the location, not the actual tribe. So if we went with Matolle, it would simple be "Matolle," not "Matolle Tribe."

In a post-apocalyptic setting, I'm partial to names that are short and kind of primitive sounding: Tull, Lud, Modoc, Hub, etc.

We don't know a lot about how this tribe is suppose to be. The information contained on the wiki is mostly conjecture based upon the only real facts we have: Sulik's dialogue, and the float text of the tribal "war bands" you can encounter around the area.

By examining that very limited source material, we can infer, of course, that they got a hard-on for spirits. Obviously, grampy bone is an important spirit to Sulik, but I think that wiki is off-base by stating that Grampy bone is the "only unique spirit" and is the "main, wisest and strongest of them." Also, it seems strange to assume that every member of the tribe has a bone through the nose, simply because Sulik does.

The Primitive Tribe that is included in the RP was originally designed as a separate mod by Chris Parks (I think he did the EPA as well). When I was brought on-board the RP to re-write the dialogue, I altered the Primitive Tribe so that at least some of the tribals would talk in a way similiar to Sulik. To explain the discrepancy, I had Krom tell the PC that the tribe was an amalgamation of several different tribes that merged together to better their chances of survival.

Altering other people's work is a tricky situation to be in. I want to bring every aspect of the RP more in-line with the vanilla Fallout 2 experience. Ideally, a new player would have no idea where the vanilla content ends and where the RP content begins. But on the other hand, I feel guilty when I completely alter someone else's creation. So I had to wear a bit of a straight-jacket. If we were to start with a blank page, I'd like to have some kind of set-piece to the village that sets it apart from just being another tribal place. I'd also focus on making the tribals there spirit-worshipers that Sulik would fit right in with.

Eh, I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here. Sorry about that.

Back to the name. Let's look at related Fallout 2 names. Sulik seems to be made up out of whole-cloth. It has a nice, tribal ring to it. Arroyo is named after a geographical term. Kurisu is the phonetic spelling of how Japanese would say the name, Chris. All food for thought. I'm going to mull over it some more. In the meantime, I welcome all your input and suggestions.

 

[Ardent]

Back to the name. Let's look at related Fallout 2 names. Sulik seems to be made up out of whole-cloth. It has a nice, tribal ring to it. Arroyo is named after a geographical term. Kurisu is the phonetic spelling of how Japanese would say the name, Chris. All food for thought. I'm going to mull over it some more. In the meantime, I welcome all your input and suggestions.

I would draw inspiration from Van Buren material. The tribals would have played a huge role in that game and there were several very cool tribes - ones that were not (at least not entirely) your typical permutation of stereotypes that we may have about Papua/New Guinea or American Indian tribes.

Skimming the design docs, there were:
- Iron Lines/Rivers
- Blackfoot Tribe
- Hangdogs
- Hounds/Daughters of Hecate
- Ciphers
- Twin Mothers

So, like almost all of them are named after their beliefs/rituals/characteristic looks.

As for the places these tribes inhabited:
- Great Circle (Circle Junction)
- Blackfoot
- Ouroboros
- Mesa Verde
- Twin Mothers

More variety - one descriptive name, two places named after the tribe, one historic, mythological name and one geographical name. Note that the ones that are not called like the tribe have a good reason for that:
- Mesa Verde -> the tribals are descended from educated, knowledgeable group of scientists who knew perfectly how their new home was called before the war. This knowledge was transfered to their children.
- Ouroboros -> a name from Greek mythology. Since the leader of the tribe was obsessed with mythology, it's not surprising for her to have named everything surrounding her with mythological names too.
- Great Circle -> The tribe of Iron Rivers/Lines settled this place after long years of nomadic lifestyle. They couldn't have named it Iron River, because iron rivers are the railways.

So, coming back to the RP, I would actually name the tribe first, something like the earlier-suggested "Bonespeakers", and name the location "Bonespeakers Tribe" (It'll be a pain to fit that on the blue world map label, but Bonespeakers alone should be feasible). There are a few other locations in Fallout that are called for their people or their function and not for the actual name of the place: Raiders, Military Base, Cathedral, Toxic Caves, Slave Run etc.

 

[Silencer]

Based on Sulik's dialogue they must be a tribe descended from Jamaican rastafarians, so perhaps that should be taken into account.

Hmm... "Tafari Tribe" is too obvious - contract it to "Tari"? Doesn't play out too well with them being spirit worshippers.

Kurisu is the phonetic spelling of how Japanese would say the name

See? Kooris!

 

[valcik]

Perhaps even Great Salt Water could be used somehow.
Sulik: "We and I think your little head be doing all the thinking."

 

[Ardent]

Based on Sulik's dialogue they must be a tribe descended from Jamaican rastafarians, so perhaps that should be taken into account.

Hmm... "Tafari Tribe" is too obvious - contract it to "Tari"? Doesn't play out too well with them being spirit worshippers.

No disrespect intended, but... Potheads Tribe? Mary Jane Tribe? Marley Tribe? Jah Peepel?

 

[Darek]

Perhaps even Great Salt Water could be used somehow.

He he, I was actually thinking Salty Waters to myself.
I mean, we got Shady Sands, so why not?
But I think people want something more than that.

 

[Lavo]

Petrolia sounds almost like petrol, which suit postapocaliptic world

Except petrol is "gas" in USA. Also, "Matolek" is a dummy in Polish

Yep. I know it's gas. So it suits to the world, which was inspired by Mad Max, where gas was most valuable resource.

And in intro to one of the Fallouts it was said, that the war broke out for last remaining resources: Petrolium and Uranium... Or I misheard it, lol

Something like Spiritwalk(ers) or Bonespeak(ers) could work, though if I was in a more creative mood I'd stongly favor something a little less direct.

Spiritwalkers or Bonespeakers sounds more like some gang name.

It should be something more like:
- Tribe of the Walking Spirits
- Bonespeaking Tribe
- Lost River Clan
- Walking Spirit Village
- Forgotten Forest Brood
- Petrolia Tribe

You know, the name should have tribe/clan/brood/village at the beggining or ending of the name. Sounds more... tribal imo

 

[Yamu]

I honestly don't think appending something like that is necessary. Of the known tribal groups in the canon, only a minor fraction of them go out of the way to point out that they're a tribe. To me, labeling them that way would be kind of like adding "-City," "-Town," "or "-ville" to the end of the names of any and all civilized settlements.

 

[Surf Solar]

Is there an option to just leave it as is? Primitive Tribe on the WM sounds ok for me, aswell as staying true to the original Docs.

 

[Elitech]

I think the OP should put a poll in now, asking: "Are we naming the location or the people who live there"?

Just as an example of discrepancy of the thoughts:

Location - could be called (Prosper) Ridge, Matolle, Petrola or whatever...
Tribe - Spiritwalkers, Grampy Bones, Salt Water..

So what are we naming - location or people who inhabit that location?

 

[Yamu]

Also, as someone else pointed out, we are naming the location, not the actual tribe. So if we went with Matolle, it would simple be "Matolle," not "Matolle Tribe."

That doesn't limit our options, though. As Ardent has pointed out, there are plenty of world map locations in the existing games that are named after their functions or their inhabitants. If a name is picked out that fits a tribe more than a location, it can still be applied as the name of the map location, e.g. "Raiders" or "Slave Run."

 

[Elitech]

Or just name it The Bear Tribe in honor of the Bear Dude and be done with it

 

[killap]

Or just name it The Bear Tribe in honor of the Bear Dude and be done with it