humble minion
Legend
There's two other arms that aren't visible cos he's using them to scratch his backside...
D&D 5E Planegea: Prehistoric Fantasy
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Yes, Im assuming these primal gods dont follow standard biological symmetry, and may well have a transdimensional existence (theres actually 13 limbs in the image but only 8 are physical - which complies with the Number Taboo (I like that))
overgeeked
B/X Known World
I'm kinda waffling about the Black Taboos. I get why they're there (to keep the setting in stasis), and it's nice to finally have some reason (even if it's unexplained) why the setting is stagnant in regards to technology level...but these seem a bit...ham-fisted to me. The Bogeyman will eat you if you write anything down (which implies the knowledge of writing exists and that without the Hounds the people could simply just start writing), or count in numbers higher than 9 (which again implies that knowledge of counting higher than nine exists and that without the Hounds the people could simply start counting things higher than 9). Same with wheels and money. If bartering is the main source of exchange / commerce...and since salt is used as a common stand-in for other goods...which means salt is currency...so the Hounds should come and eat you for exchanging salt for goods or services. Some of the Taboos just don't make any sense.
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Crimson Longinus
Legend
True, but having them wear bikinis instead of being even more naked like would be historically accurate is probably a necessary concession to the modern sensibilities.
In any case this is cool and fresh take on D&D and I really love that we are starting to see more setting that are not just the standard fantasy Europe. I read the early Homebrevery version of this setting a while ago, and I quite liked it. Though I recall that I wished they had done more mechanically, a lot of stuff is basically just reskinning, and all the stone age stuff just worked exactly the same than the standard D&D fare.
And yeah, I have to echo the sentiment that black taboos seem hamfisted and unnecessary. There really doesn't need to be an explanation why a stone age setting is at stone age any more than there needs to have an explanation for why a medieval setting has no cars.
humble minion
Legend
All I know about the setting is what I've read from the preview on the kickstarter page, but just from that i kinda like the Black Taboos. Firstly they really add a nice cosmic horror element to the setting. It's not just that the world is stone age because it's stone age, and if you just wait long enough then agriculture and metal and Aristotle and YouTube will come along. The world is stone age because the blindly malicious universe hates you and everything like you, and will mercilessly crush any attempts to rise out of the hardscrabble hand-to-mouth state that your ancestors have lived in for generations uncounted and in which you now find yourselves.
Second, i can see its in-game utility when dealing with smartarse groups. A PC group who, for instance, developed a written code they could use to leave messages etc, or a PC group who constructed some sort of sled that ran on log rollers to carry heavy loads when there's no snow - they'd have a non-trivial advantage in the world, and that sort of thing isn't beyond the realms of plausibility for clever stone-agers. It's a suboptimal metagaming way of dealing with things, but an effective one nonetheless.
The salt thing - yeah, I'm a bit more skeptical about that. But I'll wait and see how it's implemented. Same with the equipment list - they didn't talk about armour much in the preview, but the impression i got was that everything was available, just handwaved as being made out of available materials. I'm pretty leery about the verisimilitude of full plate made out of giant sea shells and chunks of dinosaur osteoderm personally, but I guess the alternative is major surgery to the D&D engine. If you don't have high dex or Barkskin etc, then armour is the only way to raise your AC to functional levels in basic 5e. Fixing that system issue without breaking too much else would be a pretty major undertaking.
Second, i can see its in-game utility when dealing with smartarse groups. A PC group who, for instance, developed a written code they could use to leave messages etc, or a PC group who constructed some sort of sled that ran on log rollers to carry heavy loads when there's no snow - they'd have a non-trivial advantage in the world, and that sort of thing isn't beyond the realms of plausibility for clever stone-agers. It's a suboptimal metagaming way of dealing with things, but an effective one nonetheless.
The salt thing - yeah, I'm a bit more skeptical about that. But I'll wait and see how it's implemented. Same with the equipment list - they didn't talk about armour much in the preview, but the impression i got was that everything was available, just handwaved as being made out of available materials. I'm pretty leery about the verisimilitude of full plate made out of giant sea shells and chunks of dinosaur osteoderm personally, but I guess the alternative is major surgery to the D&D engine. If you don't have high dex or Barkskin etc, then armour is the only way to raise your AC to functional levels in basic 5e. Fixing that system issue without breaking too much else would be a pretty major undertaking.
overgeeked
B/X Known World
Many generations. Anything more than nine is "many".
What would be a better way of handling it? Besides the DM just saying no.
You can just have no armor better than hide. Or you could go the Dark Sun route and replace metal with chitin, thicker hide, bone, and other materials. It might not be "realistic" even for D&D, but it's a simple shorthand that works.
humble minion
Legend
True!
Man, that'd take some SERIOUS mental readjustment when you're playing in the setting. Mentally editing out any reference to numbers above nine. Timekeeping in particular would be tricky. There's a big gap between 'many days' and one month/moon-cycle.Having a good session zero discussion about it, and the players buying into the premise of the setting and agreeing not to push the envelope.
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overgeeked
B/X Known World
Well, you could just count time closer to how our ancestors did. Or keep things broken down into smaller parts. One week is seven days. One month or moon is four weeks. One season is three months or moons. One year is four seasons. A child growing up could be broken down into four or seven year chunks. However many to reach adulthood.True!
In my experience that doesn't work. Unfortunately.
Crimson Longinus
Legend
Good luck with discussing distances in-character! And as they actually seem to use salt as currency, how they communicate prices?True!
It is rather silly, and actually comes across as kinda insulting towards actual prehistoric people. I'm sure they could count.
humble minion
Legend
The price thing and salt ... yeah, I'm skeptical about how they're handling that. If I was a GM I'd mostly use that as a rough guide to relative values when PCs are bartering, rather than just offhandedly assume that salt is a universally-accepted medium of exchange. If nothing else, you're not going to have much luck trading salt to the tribe that lives on the salt flats. And monsters aren't going to hoard the stuff either, when you kill a monster the real loot will be its hide, teeth, bones etc. Not to mention salt is prone to dissolving and washing away if it gets wet...
I don't think the counting taboo is insulting to primitive people, personally. The game line accepts just fine that primitive people were able to count and comprehend counting, it's just that in-setting there's just a malicious external force that murders them if they try. My assumption is that the intention here is to promote a more wild swingy Conan-y hand-to-mouth style of play, rather than a more historically authentic experience which would be very focused on forward planning and spending the warm months drying down and storing enough meat to last through the winter...
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