Has anyone tried a primordial D&D setting?

[Tonguez]

I have run a couple of Stone age settings and enjoy them.

I like having the PCs be village leaders and thus responsible for the wellbeing of others and development of the world (I have my own Village Management mechanic)

In another they were sent out to explore the unknown lands across the ocean

Magic Items - My setting is a world of many spirits and some of these are willing to give boons in return for favours (eg the White Heron Woman whom the PCs helped in a battle against a giant serpent gave them a feather token). Other monsters will drop items. Another source is natural treasures eg the Shell of the Giant Beetle the PCs kill might be AC +2 and Fire proof.

Magical Sites are also good, like a Pool of Healing or a Magic Cave*
*Magic Caves allowed me to include Cave Wizards. The Painted Caves are sites of great power where Cave Wizards mark their magics uon the very walls. The Cave Wizard must sleep in his cave each night in order to maintain his power.

Weapons - use same stats but assume all are made of primitive materials (stone, bone, wood) and look different. No crossbows. MAsterwork = Metal

Wealth - no coins so use the Modern Wealth Mechanic and call it Mana (or Status) Status can be felt by others (a person of high status is recognised as a hero) and it can be used.
Status use
1- to influence others to give assistance and/or items in return for an obligation (ie buy using status)
2- to determine how many 'followers' the PC can influence into doing stuff (Village Management Mechanic)
3- As action points (yes they are Heroes)
4- like XP for certain spells (Heroes)
5- some magic items have Status limits (ie only a PC with Status of 12+ can use the Spear of Storms to anyone else it's just a longspear) (Heroes again)

 

[elforcelf]

DMH,I would like to see your campaign notes. zephyrmev@aol.com

 

[S'mon]

Aaron Allston's 'Hollow World' setting for BECMI Mystara had several 'primordial' type areas & might be worth checking out; I think he's among the very best writers ever to work on D&D. The HW setting is pretty cool (except for the Merry Pirates - oh dear).

 

[Raloc]

The equipment was an ongoing thing. Not only because certain pieces of gear just hadn't been invented yet, but also because there weren't scads of coins and magic items lying around in monster lairs. The idea of not paying X amount of gold for Y magic item in the nearest town just didn't sit well with some of the players. The magicians felt shafted in having to create magic items for the warrior-types.

For some reason... For a long time, it didn't occur to them to loot the outsiders they fought for their manufactured weapons...

One of the favorite moments of the campaign that everyone was talking about was the first undead of the setting, a sorcerer that had crafted a cavern into a crypt/temple and was working towards becoming a lich. He eventually succeeded and attracted a cabal of sorcerers that were working to bridge the gap between the material plane and one of the outer planes... The players still wonder whether this lich was eventually the first cleric or the first wizard.

The campaign lasted seven months (with 5th level characters), although I had enough material planned out to get to at least 12th level.

Hehe sounds great. Anyone ever read the Belisarius Saga? I think it would be cool to run a prehistoric campaign and have the PCs end up starting up tech revolutions of that sort.

Currently I'm running a Forgotten Realms campaign (sort of, it has a lot of my own homebrew stuff mixed in in terms of the cosmology and such, the biggest of which is that there have been infinite revolutions of prime material planes, and the deities have had incarnations lasting through some of those ages to the current time) in which a host of baddies are after a certain artifact that will allow them certain nasty powers (such as the ability to create any undead in unlimited number). The PCs are evil or neutral themselves, so it's been a strange game. None of them are insane enough to actually seek out pieces of the artifact, so they've mostly just been getting contract work. So myself and the co-DM have taken an approach such that things will advance regardless of the PCs' interaction. Good heroes might go after the baddies (which I actually have a couple of players doing PbEm running the bad guys for), but unless they succeed or the PCs step in, the pieces of the artifact will slowly start to find their way back together, and the wars and such will continue and grow.

Recently though, my co-DM and I have come up with an idea to intentionally let one of the BBEGs get the artifact, while the PCs are in stasis of some sort (for approx 100-200 years). This will be around 17th level I think (when I freeze them), and I'm going to eliminate most of the major powers in the FR, with some exceptions. The first part of the future campaign will be about finding out what happened while they were in stasis, then likely they'll start trying to build their own power bases. The co-DM's character will probably remain unfrozen so he can help out the others (and unfreeze them). Since he's soon to become a lich, the time won't matter much. I can't wait to see where it goes though, it should be quite fun.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

I once ran a campaign where the PC's were created by the gods themselves and told to lead the world in its first age.

Does that count?

YOINK. Well, except for the "lead the world" bit.

 

[Graf]

The equipment was an ongoing thing. Not only because certain pieces of gear just hadn't been invented yet, but also because there weren't scads of coins and magic items lying around in monster lairs. The idea of not paying X amount of gold for Y magic item in the nearest town just didn't sit well with some of the players. The magicians felt shafted in having to create magic items for the warrior-types.

It seems like Tonguez has the solution. To some of this. I.e. someone wants to get an item they have to consult the spirits/wisefolk and then go on a mini-mission.

One of the favorite moments of the campaign that everyone was talking about was the first undead of the setting, a sorcerer that had crafted a cavern into a crypt/temple and was working towards becoming a lich. He eventually succeeded and attracted a cabal of sorcerers that were working to bridge the gap between the material plane and one of the outer planes... The players still wonder whether this lich was eventually the first cleric or the first wizard.

The campaign lasted seven months (with 5th level characters), although I had enough material planned out to get to at least 12th level.

The whole "firsts" stuff is, I think, the payoff in this sort of game.
I think that SKR (former WotC employeed now WotC freelancer) talked about playing some game like that in the begining of 3.0...

How did you handle culture?
Where the characters Conan style (i.e. just particularly good humans for that age) or where they the "next step" in social evolution?

5- some magic items have Status limits (ie only a PC with Status of 12+ can use the Spear of Storms to anyone else it's just a longspear) (Heroes again)

Was this used to enforce the wealth by level table or as some kind of Legendary Weapon system?
I'd forgotten how cool your games were Tonguez.

 

[Huw]

Why not play in Glorantha? The 3rd age is barely 1,500 years after the creation of the world. Mongoose's edition is set even earlier.

You get spirits, shamans and barbarians a-plenty, iron is a fantastic magical material and everybody's still trying to master this "city" business.

Adapting it to d20/D&D might be tricky though. I tried it a couple of years back, and it lost a lot of atmosphere.

 

[diaglo]

I was wondering if anyone has ever ran a primodial D&D campaign?

Chainmail?

sure. i've played chainmail many times.

 

[DMH]

DMH,I would like to see your campaign notes. zephyrmev@aol.com

So would I They don't exist anymore and they wouldn't be that useful to you in that they were mostly Alternity rules.

But, here is what I remember.

PC races were lizardmen based any of the 10 standard dragons plus a few of the others, using ideas from Goodman's CG to Dragonkin. At this point their alignments were not set (they didn't draw the attention of the gods until later) and their magical abilities were fairly poor (limited spell selection and in d20 terms multiclassing required and no caster level above 6). In addition to the pitance of magical items (potions mostly), they used rituals to improve and alter themselves (PP's Factory or GR's Advanced Gamemaster Guide have useful rules for this). Current day dragons don't do this because they are "perfect". I never did come up with a campaign theme beyond exploration.

 

[ProtoClone]

I once ran a campaign where the PC's were created by the gods themselves and told to lead the world in its first age.

Does that count?

That completely counts!
Primordial can be how ever you want it to be, because this is a fantasy setting.