I have been nerding out a little over neolithic archaeology, from Gobekli tepe to Catalhoyuk and so on, and I was thinking about how you could do D&D in (a fantastical version of) that time period.
What classes would be important? What races? What equipment? What rules? What changes would you need from typical D&D set in its sort of if you squint Medieval-ish setting to one at the very dawn of civilization?
Have you ever run a neolithic D&D campaign, or other fantasy RPG? How did it go? What sorts of adventures and things did you focus on?
A neolithic version of D&D is not far that removed from Dark Sun. It's probably one of the better starting points if you are not using the Planegea setting, which I am personally somewhat lukewarm about.
I have not personally run a neolithic D&D game, though I have run
Paleomythic: A Roleplaying Game of Stone & Sorcery and the Snow & Blood micro-setting for ICRPG. I have
Primal Quest but I haven't played it yet. I also worked a bit on creating a paleolithic version of the Odd-like games (e.g., Into the Odd, Mausritter, Cairn, etc.).
I have also mused elsewhere about making a neolithic version of Dragonbane, with the Mage likely being the biggest challenge due to its grimoire. However, there is probably less tinkering involved with Dragonbane than with D&D 5e as Professions amount to a single heroic ability, a small list of core skills, and rolling a d6 for starting gear. The skill and equipment list is also quite mutable.
I would probably eliminate full caster classes or rework them to be half-caster classes.
I would potentially just make them all Warlocks who are dealing with intermediate powers of the world that they don't understand: e.g., Fey Horned Lord, Celestials and Fiends, Primal Spirits, etc. Create about four or so spell lists (e.g., Spirit, Primal, Arcane, etc.), and your patron determines which of those spell lists you choose. With the 2024 version, you could potentially just prohibit Invocations being used for level 6th+ spells or prohbit the grimoire invocation. The ability to prohibit or switch out Invocations probably makes the Warlock the easiest to adjust the dials and knobs of the class.
Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved also had Champions, which were sort of like the game's version of clerics/paladins though more like paladins with 5e cleric domain subclasses. Champions had causes like Magic, Death, Life, Battle, etc. I could see Neolithic Champions championing similar cause, but also other ones including Civilization/Cities, Nature, Commerce, or Exploration.
Also major props for having a Champion of Labor. In a campaign about five years ago, I played my Dwarf Forge Cleric as an exactly that. I had full control over the nature of my deity, so they had a male and female aspect. The male aspect was the miner and smith, as represented by the hammer, while the female aspect was the farmer and brewer, as represented by the sickle. Loads of fun.
