Softening Red Talons and Wendigo
I find myself needing to blunt the extremes a bit vs. some of the written sources. For example, I had to tone down the Red Talons in their attitude towards humans (slightly) and Wendigo in their attitude to the entirety of reality (slightly). Otherwise my players, who are in an area with a lot of these tribe members, would have a hard time even interacting with a lot of their world other than just steering clear of everything.
Now certainly, those interactions are still fraught with challenges. However, I don't see how else this would work if I toed the WoD party line. I understand their are varying camps, but even those in Wendigo and Red Talons in the books as written are range of flavors of we hate your character to we hate your character and may want to hunt down their kinfolk and eat them. Quite literally. I do like the flavor of that being a past attribute of the tribes, but man its a challenge to run a game like that with Modern Times and new players.
In addition, there are members of those tribes in my play group. While that explains some of the ability for the players to interact, its still hard to construct a playable world if you take the books as written in many places. I also didn't want to limit a bunch of players new to WtA to tribes that didn't appeal to them. While its certainly OK to say no on a character that doesn't fit a chronicle, I knew that coming out of the gate with more things they couldn't play than could didn't make sense. "Hey guys, here is this great campaign setting and game to explore - just ignore most of the cool tribes and it will be a blast."
Anyone else have similar issues with other tribes? Did you just generally soften their stance or change things considerably.
Tells-the-Story, another great post and another late reply from me, sorry about that. Tis' the season to be crazy busy and all. So first off, I don't know that I would dull anything. You have to keep in mind a few things, 1: Tribal sterotypes are just that and not representative of how everyone is. 2: Most of the tribe books are from the voice of one (or sometimes two or three) character(s). 3: Personal or tribal disputes can get in the way but don't necessarily have to be the end of the world. For example recently my own players had to make their way to a Red Talon caern (for the very first time) to ask help from the elders there on behalf of one of their elders. The pack of a Child of Gaia, Fianna and Get of Fenris. The elder Talon in question (who is written to be a bit of an asshole) insisted a trial by combat before he'd even address the players,and then he sent them on a quest before even listening to the call for aide. This is to say isn't it more rewarding for your players to change the minds of the local Wendigo Sept through their deeds? The Wendigo may never like your players (and some might become good friends) but they can sure as hell respect your players after all. Beyond that why limit the players? I mean I feel like you're suggesting it's about the tribal breakdown in the region, but why not create a local mixed tribe sept or make the hunt for members of the pack's tribe part of the storyline. The idea that you have say a Glass Walker in the pack and your group has to go somewhere else to try and find a glass walker Sept in order to properly train the Walker. Sure you can always golden rule what's written, or ignore what you don't like, but you can always write something in addition that does suit your needs. Lastly and as a side note, I have to disagree with you on the Talons, it's easy to look at them through that lens but I feel that's doing then a disservice especially after doing the Talon Episode. They're not nearly as horrible as their reputation suggests.