Tales and Chronicles
Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
Meh, I'd forgo elves and dwarves in favor of more antediluvian races like minotaur and lizarfolk, and "touched" human heritage like yuan-ti and hexborn.
D&D General Neolithic D&D
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
Aldarc
Legend
I would personally keep both elves and dwarves. I think that there are fun things that you could do with them. I would not actually include Yuan-Ti, but I would hint at their rise with snake-worshipping human cults. But yeah, definitely lizardfolk.
Stormonu
NeoGrognard
That might be something to think about; the main player races may be neolithic, but that doesn't mean all the races in nearby existence need be. Could have an elfquest situation, for example, where elves have a silly advanced culture but are isolationist because they don't want to share their knowledge, are afraid to (prime directive?) or don't want to deal with the "savages". Or even just other civilizations that have moved to the next stage but the PCs are a group that hasn't yet advanced that far.
And you could have some oddities as well. In my own homebrew, elves didn't invent language until long after they'd been shown it by humans - elves didn't see the need to write something down to pass to others because a) they were effectively immortal and didn't to "pass it to the next generation" - they'd remember everything that was worth remembering and that which wasn't worth remembering wasn't worth writing down, b) if they needed to relay it someone else they could just tell the person or send a messenger and c) human writing couldn't convey the emotional intent of the speaker. They had to go through a real societal shift where they decided "hey, maybe we should start writing this down in case something happens to Uncle Finn and we can't go ask him about it anymore."
And you could have some oddities as well. In my own homebrew, elves didn't invent language until long after they'd been shown it by humans - elves didn't see the need to write something down to pass to others because a) they were effectively immortal and didn't to "pass it to the next generation" - they'd remember everything that was worth remembering and that which wasn't worth remembering wasn't worth writing down, b) if they needed to relay it someone else they could just tell the person or send a messenger and c) human writing couldn't convey the emotional intent of the speaker. They had to go through a real societal shift where they decided "hey, maybe we should start writing this down in case something happens to Uncle Finn and we can't go ask him about it anymore."
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
yeah animal headed people seems to be common, but so is dwarf so meh -
Sumerians depicted Ugallu lion-women, Kusarikku bull-men, Girtablullû scorpion-men, Fish-men and Bird-men.
Interestingly the first King of Sumer was Alulim (seed of Red Deer) who lived when people ‘still had the ways of animals’
Lakesidefantasy
Hero
My apologies, my first language is English. Maybe I should have phrased my comment more like this:
"I see a lot of responses that seem to assume we are making suggestions for a fantasy setting, or even a specific setting like Middle Earth. Should we be doing that? What about simply considering a neolithic setting? Considering my comments upstream in this thread, would that be boring? Do we need dwarves, elves, and dragons to make things fun?"
It seems we're layering what-if questions here. The first question is, "What if we were adventures in a neolithic setting 8,000-10,000 years ago (on Earth)? The second question is, "What if we were adventures in a fantasy setting where magic is real and elves exist?"
I'm asking because the elves and dwarves really distract from the neolithic feel for me. Don't get my wrong, neolithic elves and dwarves is a fascinating idea but they don't really feel neolithic.
I know the archeologists and paleontologists among us are going to puke but here are some things I think have the feel of a neolithic setting:
Cavemen
Dinosaurs
Caves
Stone tools
Furs
Fields of wheat
Shamans
Glaciers
Cities in the desert
Ziggurats
Obsidian
Copper
Gold
Antlers
Mammoths
Mastadons
Saber-tooth lions
Ape men
Evil white apes
Predators
Talismans
Stone circles
Etc.
I agree. I think humans only would feel better, but we are talking about D&D so I think we kind of have to make room for demihumans, even if we shake them up.a bit.
Maybe dwarves are only just emerging from underground. Maybe elves have only just stepped out of faerie into the world. That sort of thing.
This is the only one I don't like. Very specifically, where those early cities first appeared could not have been deserts.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
The broader meaning of Desert is "arid region with low rainfall" and Civilizations do tend to develop in arid areas due to Necessity and Opportunity.
In tropical regions with abundant heat and moisture food plants grow easily and constantly thus agriculture is less intense (swidden farming works) but in arid regions it is necessary to improve soil cultivation and irrigation methods to feed your families. Also growing seasons are shorter thus there is a need to develop food storage systems - in particular Grain Silos and Beer brewing
The opportunity comes about due to river flood plains (Mesopotamia/Nile/Indus/Yellow River Valley) giving a defined area of regular fertile growing conditions - literally an oasis in the desert - which if secured can support large populations and which have a degree of natural defence by having deserts on the borders. Cities become centers of Population and Trade - civilisation is born.
Of course thats not absolute - The Incas and Greeks, and Ethiopian civilisations flourished in Mountainous regions which are easy to defend and might control luxury goods, the Greeks also had great access to the Mediterranean for transport and food. The Mayans and Aztecs built civilisations in jungle/swamp
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Loren the GM
Adventurer
I'd definitely suggest checking out Born from Ice. That is basically what we are doing - a no magic pre-historic setting on earth, based in science.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
of course all of these were extinct/mythic in Neolithic times by at least 5000 years. So while they might be fun to use they would still be rare and exotic beasties rather than defining features. Theres still aurochs, bears, antelope, lions and wolves to deal with.
Cave men are an interesting one given modern sensibilities. In reality a Neanderthal in modern clothes wouldnt look that strange if we saw them walking down the street (short, stocky, big headed guy), and I dont know if a modern game would really present 'cave men' as othered enough to make them anything more than just another human culture.
yes, but these arent really distinctive enough without a whole lot of cultural exposition
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