Has anyone run a campaign where the world is still in its diapers, so to speak?

[Skade]

My prehistory seeting was Doombringer, the precursor to my normal campaign setting Agastasi. The only history prior to this setting is the Age of Legends, a time more like mythology than history, where the heroes were beings of spirit and flesh, and everyone lived hundreds of years. Doombringer is a few hundred years into a period of man, where civilization is really just beginning. There are artifacts, but they are remainders of that mythological period, and this Age is just beginning.

 

[Altalazar]

I'd almost have to say this thread has split into two distinct historical periods:

A legendary period when the world itself was brand new, and so everything else starts from scratch.

A period where "modern" magic and technology are just coming up, though the world itself could be quite old, there just won't be any old steel swords or wizard's towers (which was what I was thinking about initially). Where stone castles as a form were just starting to be built. It does leave the question of what is the reason for all of this explosioin of magic and technology - could call it a golden age of invention - perhaps the reasons could even be part of the plot overall, but that isn't necessarily needed. I think I prefer it to be just a happenstance of history - and let the important points of history be the players' making.

 

[Pseudonym]

I tried something like this a few years back. I took the concept of Tolkien's Silmarillion, with a dash of Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld. The basic notion was that the gods had just recently created the world, and the campaign began when the PCs "woke up" and became aware of themselves and others areound them.

Magic was all around, but no-one knew how to tap into it. The only magical items and artifacts were items discarded by the gods after the world was made.

It didn't go very far, as it was a bit too high concept for my group at the time. The wanted orc and pie, but were disapointed that noone had built a 10x10 room yet, or invented pies.

Maybe I'll flesh it out some more, and find a group better suited to playing this sort of game.