Prehistoric Adventures?

mmadsen · May 8, 2002

But you need a really good reason to explore in a survivalist campaign.

The life of a nomadic hunter-gatherer is one of exploration. Game migrates, and hunters migrate with it. Older hunters remember previous migrations; younger ones learn the way.

If you think of prehistoric humanoids as just a little smarter than animals, one doesn't think of animals as very motivated to explore.

Prehistoric Cro-Magnons were presumably as intelligent as modern men; they just weren't educated. Imagine how stupid you'd look in the primeval forest of Europe with no idea what to eat, how to track prey, what to call various plants, etc.

I'm talking about campaigns where "Me get food, me get shelter, me procreate" is as high as things go on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for now. You could get a tribe to explore by forcing a move due to the the food source drying up or a natural disaster/Ice Age, but it's all tied to basic survival.

It's terribly un-PC, but raiding other tribes for women might make for good adventures. It obviously continued well into Bronze Age Greece.

mmadsen · May 8, 2002

Inventing wheels, frisbees and fire within one lifetime is fun in a light-hearted "Ringo Starr Caveman" campaign, but could frustrate a DM in a more serious campaign. It could get like PCs using Earth meta-knowledge to always try to invent gunpowder in a standard D&D campaign when the DM doesn't want gunpowder and has to put his foot down. In that standard campaign, there's still lots for the PCs to go and do instead.

I'm getting annoyed with the hypothetical PCs just reading about it!

By the way, for a good book on real-life primitive technology, I recommend Primitive Technology, A Book of Earth Skills.

I'm A Banana · May 8, 2002

I'm thinking of doing a far-far-future postapocalyptic campaign that should, ideally, be nearly indistinguisable from a caveman campaign....

All I need are things that would evolve after a worldwide destruction...weird futures from today's hardiest of species...

A great speculation...I want to know!

mmadsen · May 8, 2002

I'm thinking of doing a far-far-future postapocalyptic campaign that should, ideally, be nearly indistinguisable from a caveman campaign....

All I need are things that would evolve after a worldwide destruction...weird futures from today's hardiest of species...

I'm seeing Dire Cockroaches...

Tonguez · May 9, 2002

Ok serious now

My current homebrew is set in Mythic Polynesia and its peoples are neolithic mariners.

IMC the PCs are the 'champions' of their community which is a group of settlers newly arrived on a new island.
The campaign started with the PCs being sent from their homeland (which was sinking into the waves - something that has happened irl Polynesia) to discover a new land.

They found Paumako a large island whose native inhabitants include clans of gnomes, a family of ogres, clans of goblins and a Sahuagin lair a short distance off the coast.

First Adventure - Explore Island, meet gnomes (and avoid tresspassing on their burial ground), explore (ogre dominated)mountains and recover the 'Heart of the Land' (an artifact) from the Spider Caves (thanks WOTC)

Second Adventure - Establish a settlement - Fetch settlers, build village, harvest food, use diplomacy to keep everyone happy

Third Adventure - Villagers have tresspassed on gnome burial ground!, the gnomes are going to sacrifice them to the Feindish dire eel that inhabits the Sacred Pool. - Save Villagers, restore relations with Gnomes, respect Eel god

I am going to introduce the Sahuagin at some point (maybe WOTCs Sharkbait adventure) as well as a Lizardman from a neighbouring island. The PCs will also eventually make contact with the neighbouring islands (inhabited by elves, lizardfolk, giants, hobgoblins etc) and eventually confront a Feindish Half-elemental Fire Ogre bent on total control of the Islands

Classes
1. Fighter
2. Ranger (Marine)
3. Barbarian (Cannibal Savage)
4. Paladin (Elite Warrior)
5. Bard (Karioi)
6. Rogue - Scout/Raider
7. Scorcerer -No Wizard
8. Cleric
9. Druid (Shaman)
10. PrC Beast Rider -Able to ride the various megafauna eg Giant Eagles, Dinos, Whales, Sharks etc

GWolf · May 9, 2002

[Double Post]

GWolf · May 9, 2002

About above classes

In my opinion, Paladins shouldn't exist it just doesn't seem to fit. Bards, may or may not, depending on DM. The most common classes would Be Barabrain, Rogue, and Porbably Cleric or Druid for the relgious shaman peeps.

enrious · May 9, 2002

The Primal Codex would be a good resource for a primative/jungle campaign, IMO

It's available over at RPGNow.com

kenjib · May 9, 2002

In addition to the Primal Codex, the Dungeoncraft articles in Dragon Magazine have been going through precisely this. You can read the first few here:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dragon/dungeoncraft

Start with article 280. I don't get dragon magazine so unfortunately I haven't been able to read any further than what's available there. He introduces too much high fantasy for my taste but there are lots of good ideas in there. I think the introduction of an ancient pre-human civilization (think Sleestaks from Land of the Lost), for instance, solves many of the problems with generating plot hooks. It also adds a nice Wierd Tales era twist to the setting.

Now that I've mentioned it, maybe reading up some old plot synopsis of Land of the Lost episodes would generate some great ideas as well.

mmadsen · May 9, 2002

Re: About above classes

In my opinion, Paladins shouldn't exist it just doesn't seem to fit.

I would say that the Paladin doesn't have to be a crusading knight on a white charger...but the rules do expect a magical mount -- and Polynesia doesn't have any riding animals, does it?

Edit: I missed the bit about megafauna riding animals. So the Paladin has a faithful whale?