'Primitive' campaign adventure seeds?

[Ed_Laprade]

Mammoth hunt! Actually, Jean Auel's Earth Children series (Clan of the Cave Bear, etc.) has a number of scenarios that should fit right in with your setting. But they tend to be scattered through the several books.

Off the top of my head:

Discovering the uses of horses, other than as food.
Same for domesticating wolves.
A tribe where the women have taken over and think they don't need men to proceate.
Dealing with your Neanderthal neighbors.
All sorts of different societies and exploration in general.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Dealing with your Neanderthal neighbors.

Especially those with motorcycles and remote controlled fireplaces.

 

[Dioltach]

Here's an interesting plot hook: the moment that sabre-toothed tigers decided to become house cats. Think about it: all of a sudden an enormous predator walks into a cave like he owns it, climbs onto somebody's lap and starts purring.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I read a short story ong those lines, except it focused on wolves. Specifically, a "piebald" wolf who helped a man survive in the wilderness. It was well written, but a bit of a downer.

(The very border collie-esque "piebald" wolf gets killed at the end.)

 

[binaryphantom]

Another thing to think about is HOW new the setting is.
How long has humanity actually been around? Have they formed tribes or have they been just freshly created?
How much of the world do they know of and what does it know of them? What do they know is around them and how much beyond that is known? While you you said no overt magic, what of the supernatural do they know? Do they know the dances that make the sky gods cry and who to make sacrifices to when their child falls ill?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another thing to think about is HOW new the setting is.

Yeah. Very early civilizations either won't have writing or will have unusual forms- making WIZARDS extremely rare.

 

[GhostBear]

Yeah. Very early civilizations either won't have writing or will have unusual forms- making WIZARDS extremely rare.

That assumes that early wizardry is reliant on writing. It doesn't have to be. Writing is a good way to pass on information, but not the only way.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Even though i've personally run campaigns in which runesticks, runestones, tattoos, wampum and other methods have been used to substitute for magical writings (tome and scrolls), I was primarily talking about the class, RAW.

The fact is, even after we started using codified non-verbal forms of communication or data recording (portable enough to be useful as a substitute spell book), those who were actually proficient in it were exceedingly rare for most of recorded history.

Making spellcasters who rely upon "written" lore for magic rarer still- rarer than in a typical D&D campaign.

 

[Yora]

Writing is indeed the defining factor when it comes to wizards in a primitive setting.
It's either a good idea to remove the writing part entirely and have them work entirely on memory, or you can use the writing part as what makes them so very special. When almost nobody can write, there are only very few books. So a spellbook becomes even more mystical and more exclusive. Chanting and throwing magic infredients is something everyone can do, even if it takes a special person for these actions to actually have any real effects. But magic that comes out of a book can not even be observed and immitated by outsiders. There is something important going on in the books, but its practically invissible to those who can't read.

 

[Tonguez]

Dreaming Caves are an alternative to wizard spell books and also make great adventure locations.

A Dreaming Cave is a place where special shamango to mediate, imprinting their Dreamings and Vision upon the the cave walls. The shaman can return to the caves at a later time and reawaken the power imprinted on the walls.

I once ran an adventure where the PCs had to recover the Dreaming from the Cave of Surtr the Blaizing One, a deep cave complex that collapsed after a geothermal explosion and was now overrun with fire elementals.

- so yeah Wizards can work if you conceive of them differently (more the Conanesque Wizard in his Tower/Cave) than the traveling wizard of DnD

Also don't forget natural dungeons - any enclosed area that can obscure views and lead from one space to another can be treated as a dungeon - caves, gullies, canyons, forest trails, hills and moors


Anyway in the same adventure as above I started with the PCs as a hunting party from the same village sent out to catch ducks for a wedding feast. During this they came across a sacred pool inhabited by a nymph, who was friendly as long as they didn't try and bath in her pool without permission.

They later came across a enemy raiding party sent to attack their village in order to steal a totem artifact.