D&D General Neolithic D&D

[Reynard]

of course all of these were extinct/mythic in Neolithic times by at least 5000 years.

Mammoths went extinct about 4000 years ago, 500 years after the great pyramids were built.

 

[Tonguez]

Mammoths went extinct about 4000 years ago, 500 years after the great pyramids were built.

Yeah kinda what I was referring to with ‘mythic’.

The Wrangle Island mammoths were dwarfs only about 7ft or smaller and had been isolated about 6000 years earlier. So its unlikely humans ever made contact, but yes they did exist and maybe adventurers might go there and discover the last hairy elephants on earth…

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

I think fiction needs to be balanced with nonfiction. Which means there will be fiction in the balance.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

We're concerned with mammoths but no body's talking about the second thing on the list.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

This is the only one I don't like. Very specifically, where those early cities first appeared could not have been deserts.

Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing when I wrote it. But, I'm shooting from the hip. Thinking with my heart, rather than my brain. It doesn't matter if it is right, because, of it doesn't feel right then it's wrong.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Does anybody have any comments about the last item on the list?

 

[SoulDoubt]

I toyed with some ideas for Neolithic D&D back in 3.x. (And maybe even in 2e? I don't even remember, lol.) More recently I've been tinkering with a Bronze Age setting idea, which actually brought up some of the same questions and concerns.

I'm going to reiterate what others have said and recommend checking out Planegea as a starting point. It addresses a lot of the things brought up in this thread, and is basically a fully-fantastical D&D world projected back into the Stone Age. It would be trivial to tweak or ignore certain elements to bring it up to a Neolithic level. At any rate, it would serve as a better foundation than standard 5e, IMO.

On the non-fantastical end of the spectrum, there's Born from Ice, which has also been mentioned. I'm not as familiar with it, but if you want no magic or spells, classes based on each Ability Score for a "d20 Pleistocene" feel, then starting with that and building towards what you want seems like a good bet.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Mammoths went extinct about 4000 years ago, 500 years after the great pyramids were built.

So you are saying mammoths were used to build the pyramids. I think they might have got a bit hot with all that shaggy fur. Maybe the Egyptians developed iron to make shears to shave their mammoths.

 

[Reynard]

So you are saying mammoths were used to build the pyramids. I think they might have got a bit hot with all that shaggy fur. Maybe the Egyptians developed iron to make shears to shave their mammoths.

Of course not. Aliens built the pyramids. Egyptians rode the mammoths in their war to usurp the aliens.

 

[SoulDoubt]

So you are saying mammoths were used to build the pyramids. I think they might have got a bit hot with all that shaggy fur. Maybe the Egyptians developed iron to make shears to shave their mammoths.

This is shameful erasure of non-woolly mammoths.