Rules for a Stone-Age campaign

[Aberzanzorax]

If you don't allow for higher AC's, and it is a 4e game, you might as well remove the paladin, cleric, warlord, and fighter classes. I certainly wouldn't play one.

Well, sure, I think I agree with that.

But I don't really see there being cavemen paladins, clerics, or warlords as they are written anyway.

As for fighter, I totally disagree. I'm playing a fighter right now that wears leather armor and gets temporarly hit points every single time he gets hit and also most times he hits others.

That would make the fighter the "skilled warrior" while the barbarian would be the "survivalist warrior".

 

[Bumbles]

Hey, just saw this today:

Ancient Humans May Have Managed Fisheries: Discovery News

 

[Baron Opal]

Here is a timeline that I cobbled together for a B/X game. Feel free to use or ignore my notes in the margins as you see fit. The idea was to gain some inspiration from our own timeline.

Also, for an idea of one lucky tribe that has their own superior / magical weaponry, look up arsensic bronze.

Timeline

~130,000 years ago
• Last Ice Age begins.
• Earliest remains found of Homo neanderthalis.

- The Naga Kings fail in their mandate against the Jotun. Overwhelmed, the Naga Empire falls as the glaciers move southward.

~120,000 years ago
• Latest remains found (uncontested) of Homo erectus.

~72,000 years ago
• The Tonga supervolcano erupts. Approximately 10,000 breeding pairs of Homo sapiens survive.

- The battle between the Draconic and the Titanic reaches a critical point. As primal and monstrous forces war the mortal races are decimated.
- The ancestors of the elves are brought to their hidden valley and placed in magical slumber.

~50,000 years ago
• Great Leap Upward - After long, slow development of stone tools, the rate of innovation accelerates.

- The divine realms intervene. A majority of the mortal races side with divine patrons who provide some recourse against draconic and titanic forces.

~30,000 years ago
• Latest remains found of Homo neanderthalis.

- The mythic King Neander leads his people underground to escape the endless strife and grinding ice. As they venture even farther underground they encounter a benevolent primordial power that changes them into the dwarven race.

~27,000 years ago
• Latest remains found (contested) of Homo erectus.

~16,000 years ago
• The Ice Age ends and the glaciers retreat. Land compressed under tons of ice slowly rebounds changing the topography.

- The titans and dragons are finally defeated, imprisoned or neutralized by the divinely inspired mortal races.

~7,400 years ago
• City of Eridu founded in Mesopotamia.
• Beginning of bronze age.

~5,100 years ago
• Narmer unites upper and lower Egypt.
• Stonehenge built with earth and timber.
• Horses domesticated.

~4,600 years ago
• Stonehenge rebuilt in stone.
• Beginnings of Minoan civilization.

~3,600 years ago
• The Santorini volcano erupts.

~3,200 years ago
• Bronze Age Collapse – Bronze age settlements collapse for seemingly no reason. People are scattered and literacy is lost. Emergence of iron tools and weapons is thought to be a factor.
• Minoan civilization collapses.

- The Elves are awakened by their patron.

~2,500 years ago
• The founding of the Roman Republic.

~2,400 years ago
• Major Mayan cities founded.
• Maurya Empire founded (India).
• Alexander the Great founds his empire.

- Beginnings of Acheron and Thracian civilizations. These, along with a re-energized Stygia, from the three great empires of the time.
-

~2,000 years ago
• Roman Republic becomes an empire.

~1,250 years ago
• Mayan society collapses.
• Western Roman Empire collapses.

~700 years ago
• Rise of the Triple Alliance (Aztecs).

~500 years ago
• Campaign start.

 

[DM_Fiery_Fist]

I actually just wrapped up a low magic stone age campaign set in my own campaign setting. I actually focused it around a village of humans in the arctic taiga. Since it was third edition, I allowed a barbarian, bard (using the savage bard variant), fighter, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, and spirit shaman. I replaced most of the typical armor with variants made from wood and bone and made breastplates the best available. It offset the attack and damage penalties from stone weapons. I included rules for weapon breakage and also provided an atlatl that was similar to the longbow, since I didn't allow bows in the setting. I really emphasized the low magic aspect. Almost all of the spells were very low-key, to the point where the party often wasn't sure just how effective the spirit shaman was.

As far as monsters went, I relied heavily on mythology and folklore. I kept combat to a minimum but incorporated monsters such as the wendigo. I also spent considerable amounts of time in the early part of the game building up the folklore around these creatures. The major plotline I began with centered around a player character's younger brother stealing a sacred stone axe and being possessed by an evil spirit called an upiloc. The characters had to trek to a mysterious cave to get “medicine” from a race of fox-men.

The game unfortunately fizzled out midway through due to time constraints on the players, but I did have time to develop a fairly detailed series of encounters, including a primitive game of lacrosse called tokhonon. If you're interested, here's a link. The Player's Guide in the files section has a little bit of information on the equipment that I allowed. I'll be glad to post some of the encounter ideas I had if you're interested.

Josh