Rules for a Stone-Age campaign

[Chaoszero]

I'm building a setting set in roughly 5,000 - 4,000 BC europe (exact year is unneeded as it is a fantasy) and I'm coming up with restrictions. Most of these are edition neutral, but it is being held in 4e.

I am asking for help with the setting, not the mechanics, if you please.

So far -
No bows.
No horses.
No metal (but weapons retain mechanical value for simplicity).
Wolves for pets.

What else to I need to consider?

 

[Alzrius]

I've been thinking about this campaign setting for a while, and while I'm planning on writing an article (or even a series of articles) about it, there's a LOT to consider, both for fluff and crunch. In a nutshell:

Races: Are all the various D&D races here? Are some of them "cavemen" while others are not? Or do they all exist in a state of savagery?

Classes: Most modern classes won't be appropriate in a primitive setting. A few others will need to be tweaked.

Skills and Feats: Like classes, a significant number of these will need to be dropped, with others possibly tweaked depending on if you think they'd be used or not.

Religion: Are the gods absolutes that created/predate the races that worship them? If so, why are they allowing their people to exist in a state of savagery (e.g. compare the contemporary - supposedly timeless - view of Corellon Larethian with the idea of cave-elves)? Or do people ultimately create the gods, meaning that likely none of them exist at this point? If that's the case, what gods are there now?

Equipment and Magic Items: A staple of the stone age is that there's no real manufacturing, beyond simple weapons/tools of wood, stone, and bone (and maybe harnessing fire) - how will your characters reliably defend themselves (e.g. what about armor)? Since most magic items won't exist yet (because items themselves don't exist yet) how will the PCs remain mechanically viable?

Monsters: What monsters don't exist in the setting? This is important, since some monsters just "feel" more modern - the vampire, for example, seems like a Romantic monster, and not one you'd meet in the stone age; ditto for the lich, with its phylactery and attentive magical focus. Do you have monsters that have some sort of organized civilization? If so, be careful for your players trying to utilize the benefits of their technological/magical advances (e.g. "Hey, I pick up the lizard-man's metal weapon, discarding my club in favor of it!"); this also holds true for planar monsters, as the planes are considered to be timeless. Dinosaurs and other powerful animals should have greater prominence to reinforce the feel of the stone age.

Magic: Is magic thought of as advancing like a science? If so, it may seem inappropriate for the strongest level of spells to be available in the stone age. Are certain spells, particularly ones with names in them, banned on the idea that they haven't been invented yet?

Adventures: Given all of the above, how do you craft adventures that feel appropriate for the stone age? What sorts of villainous plots need to be foiled in a world where most people are just concerned with hunting and gathering? What are the rewards for adventuring when there's no valuable material possessions?

Hope that helps!

 

[Mark]

There's a 3.XE book with all of that stuff called From Stone to Steel (which is not available through the EN Store, apparently) that should be easy to use for conversion.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't play 4Ed, so I'm couching my suggestions in 3.XEd terminology.

1) Without written language, Wizards (if they exist) would need alternative methods of codifying their spells- etched stones, strands of knots (with or without beads of stone, bone & shell), or even tattoos would be appropriate.

The Sorcerer- probably the Battle sorcerer- would be the most common full arcane caster, if any exist.

The Bard in some form, would be the most common arcane caster of all, unless you use the Kingdom of Kalamar Spellsinger.

2) With animism being the main kind of theological view, the shaman should probably be the default divine caster. Another option would include the totemist from Magic of Incarnum.

3) You're going to want to have some kind of weapon breakage rules.

4) The totemic barbarian- see Unearthed Arcana or, better yet, Arcana Unearthed/Evolved- would be great for this setting.

5) The Rogue should be replaced by the Scout.

6) No "Mounted" anything feats.

7) You might want to include the Neandertals from Frostburn.

8) No Monks, Paladins or anything requiring a high level of training/discipline/asceticsim.

9) Don't forget the atlatl, the bola, throwing axe, the javelin and shortspear, the throwing club/boomerangs, and slings would be your main ranged weapons. (See Primitive Hunting & Fishing Techniques)

10) Some cultures had some truly unique and brutal weapons- I always loved the shark-toothed sword-clubs of the islanders in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

11) I would drop Simple/Martial/Exotic. Some of the tribal weapons out there would be considered Exotic in a typical D&D game.

I would have Tribal/Exotic weapons instead- anything your tribe doesn't use is Exotic.

12) Language is going to be a tough one. "Sign Language" would be about as close to "Common" as it gets.

 

[Ahzad]

I've been thinking about this campaign setting for a while, and while I'm planning on writing an article (or even a series of articles) about it, there's a LOT to consider, both for fluff and crunch. In a nutshell:

Races: Are all the various D&D races here? Are some of them "cavemen" while others are not? Or do they all exist in a state of savagery?

Classes: Most modern classes won't be appropriate in a primitive setting. A few others will need to be tweaked.

Skills and Feats: Like classes, a significant number of these will need to be dropped, with others possibly tweaked depending on if you think they'd be used or not.

Religion: Are the gods absolutes that created/predate the races that worship them? If so, why are they allowing their people to exist in a state of savagery (e.g. compare the contemporary - supposedly timeless - view of Corellon Larethian with the idea of cave-elves)? Or do people ultimately create the gods, meaning that likely none of them exist at this point? If that's the case, what gods are there now?

Equipment and Magic Items: A staple of the stone age is that there's no real manufacturing, beyond simple weapons/tools of wood, stone, and bone (and maybe harnessing fire) - how will your characters reliably defend themselves (e.g. what about armor)? Since most magic items won't exist yet (because items themselves don't exist yet) how will the PCs remain mechanically viable?

Monsters: What monsters don't exist in the setting? This is important, since some monsters just "feel" more modern - the vampire, for example, seems like a Romantic monster, and not one you'd meet in the stone age; ditto for the lich, with its phylactery and attentive magical focus. Do you have monsters that have some sort of organized civilization? If so, be careful for your players trying to utilize the benefits of their technological/magical advances (e.g. "Hey, I pick up the lizard-man's metal weapon, discarding my club in favor of it!"); this also holds true for planar monsters, as the planes are considered to be timeless. Dinosaurs and other powerful animals should have greater prominence to reinforce the feel of the stone age.

Magic: Is magic thought of as advancing like a science? If so, it may seem inappropriate for the strongest level of spells to be available in the stone age. Are certain spells, particularly ones with names in them, banned on the idea that they haven't been invented yet?

Adventures: Given all of the above, how do you craft adventures that feel appropriate for the stone age? What sorts of villainous plots need to be foiled in a world where most people are just concerned with hunting and gathering? What are the rewards for adventuring when there's no valuable material possessions?

Hope that helps!

There is also an early Dragon Magazine issue #68 that dealt with Ice Age adventuring.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Weren't there some GURPS supplements that covered this setting? (Low Tech or Ice Age, maybe) I've never been a big fan of GURPS, but the genre/setting supplements are often useful even if you're using a different system.

 

[roguerouge]

Weapon breakage should be relatively common, actually, as the Stone age was using bone, antlers, and shells for their weaponry too. That makes magic weapons that much more special: no untimely breaks. In fact, I'd consider dropping all weapons by 1 or even two die sizes, to allow you to make special normal weapons available as early level plunder. No heavy armor, but that should be fine with 4e, as light armor plus Dex/Int should be fine mechanically. Tribal societies mean that defending the home means the home has moved into danger sometimes.

Look up trepanation. Use it as a "cure" for charms, compulsions, curses and so forth.

There is no agriculture, so the vast majority of the time adventurers are going to be hunting and gathering or defending the tribe from various interlopers.

I'd have the initial tribe have only a very small number of weapons available, with the party having to nab more advanced weapons from other tribes or from monsters.

 

[Bumbles]

What else to I need to consider?

Well, I would point out this article on Domestication:

Domestication - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That'll give you an idea of what animals and plants are available.

Other aspects of the game would vary.

Of course, you could also borrow a page or two from the Pliocene Epic.

Since you want a 5-4K BC-ish game, that would be the Neolithic, so there would be some cultivation, settlements, if you wanted. Or not if you didn't want them to show up. Not like the players need to know what dates you're using.

 

[cmrscorpio]

Otzi might be a little young (estimated at about 3000BC) but can give you some good basis on what kinds of stuff you can use.

[edit] If you want to know what is possible in a stone age society, you might want to read up on how the native populations of the Americas, Australia, and Pacific Islanders lived before Europeans suddenly (and often violently) brought them out of their stone age cultures.

You might also want to read about Maztica and use it as a springboard. Previous Edition Dungeons & Dragons Downloads

 

[Andor]

Late neolithic you could have self bows. At very least you should have atlatls, maybe bolas. Mesoamerican obsidian swords are plausible. Then clubs, stone axes and biblical favorites like slings and the jawbone of an ass.

You're looking at three types of societies roughly speaking. Nomadic hunter-gatherers, settled hunter-gatherers, and settled pastoralists. The pastoralists have less free time and a lower standard of living but they can support larger populations. In that time frame I think you're pre-dating agriculture in europe but you might have herders.

Early city-states really seemed to like the whole god-king idea. But those are far away in egypt and the fertile cresent.

Boats in europe are going to be things like rafts and coracles.