D&D 5E Setting Idea: Bronze Age Utopia

[Paul Farquhar]

You can have free will and choose not to be unhappy and discontent. The idea that happiness requires giving up free will is, IMO, without merit and an oversimplification of many things.

In order to choose not to be unhappy and discontent is has to be possible to also choose to be unhappy and discontent. Otherwise it's not a choice and if it's not a choice you have no free will.

In D&D terms, say I choose to be chaotic evil. I want to have better stuff than everyone else. But everyone has what they need, so what I have isn't better, so I am discontent (call this person the anti-Drizzt).

That doesn't mean you, individually, have to give up your free will to be happy, but a society where everyone is happy requires the absence of free will.

 

[jayoungr]

Seems like this thread is in serious danger of getting derailed by over-focusing on the word Utopia.

I just wanted to point out that in casual speech, Utopia can just mean "place where certain things flourish." I took "Bronze Age Utopia" to mean "the idealized, distilled quintessence of Bronze Age society." Not necessarily "Place where nobody ever has any problems ever."

 

[keynup]

This seems to be the opposite of what the OP wants. The idea is that iron is not a good conduit for magic.

He also mention that iron was banned, which would need a reason why.
You can also add in that cast spells while holding iron has a penalty (spell failure, DC lowered, uses higher spell level than normal)
Giving Iron clear advantages does a few things:

• PC want to use it, but it would get them in trouble
• PC see enemy has Iron, and realize the fight will be A LOT harder
• Quests to hunt down Iron users or suppliers

With a near utopia, you need to find conflict some where, so Iron would be 1 source of that

I'd consider it a "Near Utopia" not a "Perfect Utopia", because that would be lacking the Free Will.

A Farmers Guild would be in control of all farms. Guilds allow for political intrigue and investigation quests. Food in general would be unlimited, so the Guild is used to artificially enforced certain item limits.
Farmers would have to be guild members and get licenses for crops / animals, with some crops only have a few licences allowed ie: grapes, strawberries, coconut, lime beans.
Normally farmers farmers would never have enough time to do what's needed. These Guild Farmers have enough magic available that they have lots of free time, hence the tight regulations. Lycanthropes would the biggest threat to the Farmers.


Construction would use a good chunk of the lower class labor. Not for expansion, but for the nobles to tear down houses and build new ones every few years. Resources would not be an issue, just the labor to tear down and rebuild.

Actual magical weapons could be very rare or even not exist. This would give Lycanthropes a greater threat with the limited supply of silver.

 

[gyor]

Seems like this thread is in serious danger of getting derailed by over-focusing on the word Utopia.

I just wanted to point out that in casual speech, Utopia can just mean "place where certain things flourish." I took "Bronze Age Utopia" to mean "the ideal, distilled quintessence of Bronze Age society."

Honestly what I meant by Utopia was in the Star Trek federation sense of Utopia, relative, not absolute Utopia. It doesn't mean there are no social issues or that everyone is a zombified happy person 24/7, it just means no poverty, no war, very little disease. There still other challenges, interpersonal issues, a resource crisis that is driving the push towards dangerous, the other dependance on magical energy constructs like various versions of Unseen Servant, but more powerful and seen, Lycanthrope raids. Really the Federation/Commonwealth was the inspiration, but at a Magical Bronze Age Kingdom level instead of Interplanetary.

 

[gyor]

In order to choose not to be unhappy and discontent is has to be possible to also choose to be unhappy and discontent. Otherwise it's not a choice and if it's not a choice you have no free will.

In D&D terms, say I choose to be chaotic evil. I want to have better stuff than everyone else. But everyone has what they need, so what I have isn't better, so I am discontent (call this person the anti-Drizzt).

That doesn't mean you, individually, have to give up your free will to be happy, but a society where everyone is happy requires the absence of free will.

I meant Utopia in the Star Trek Federation sense, or the Vedran Commonwealth prefall, not an absolute Utopia were everyone is always happy and their is no social challenges left. It's meant to be hopeful, not distopia disguised as a Utopia. No Poverty, War, or very little Disease (Lycanthrope isn't seen as a Disease even if it technically is, it's seem more as lifestyle choice), and high education and high standard of living, but not everyone is happy all the time, and there are problems and the Utopia is at risk all the time.

 

[dave2008]

He also mention that iron was banned, which would need a reason why.

I missed that. I don't see any reason to ban it. Bronze is superior for magic, that is enough to marginalize iron IMO. Maybe iron is so unstable with magic that it is dangerous in a highly magical society. That would be reason enough to ban it.

 

[keynup]

I missed that. I don't see any reason to ban it. Bronze is superior for magic, that is enough to marginalize iron IMO. Maybe iron is so unstable with magic that it is dangerous in a highly magical society. That would be reason enough to ban it.

While that is all true, I believe in tormenting the PC. Letting them find something that is clearly better than anything they have, but that they can't easily keep, would make things more interesting.

 

[Myrhdraak]

I can see some similarities in my own campaign to the one you are proposing/looking at.

I have been running a campaign since 1985 centered around the Babylonian bronze age, around 1600 BC, focusing on the area around ancient Mari. Bronze is the metal used, but iron is starting to appear from the Hittite kingdoms in the northern mountains. The Akkad got rich by controling the flow of copper and tin (used for bronze), using their wealth to gather the lost art of arcane magic (which corrupted them). Arcane magic is feared, divine and primal magic accepted. The old elven primal magic in decline and being replaced by "the new gods - Marduk, Ishtar, Enlil, Ea, etc." City states control large regions, all under the current ruler of Babylon.

However, I have done some changes. The sumerian time is considered to have reached a higher level of technology, where glass and steel was common and magic more common. A large fire destroyed their civilization (as Enlil destroyed the previous civilization in a big flood), resulting in dwarves disappearing (hiding in the Underground) and elves leaving the world on ships and eldrich portals. In ancient sumerian ruins, steel weapons can still be found (masterwork or magical).

 

[keynup]

This seems to be the opposite of what the OP wants. The idea is that iron is not a good conduit for magic.

He also mention that iron was banned, which would need a reason why.
You can also add in that cast spells while holding iron has a penalty (spell failure, DC lowered, uses higher spell level than normal)
Giving Iron clear advantages does a few things:

• PC want to use it, but it would get them in trouble
• PC see enemy has Iron, and realize the fight will be A LOT harder
• Quests to hunt down Iron users or suppliers

With a near utopia, you need to find conflict some where, so Iron would be 1 source of that

I'd consider it a "Near Utopia" not a "Perfect Utopia", because that would be lacking the Free Will.

 

[gyor]

I missed that. I don't see any reason to ban it. Bronze is superior for magic, that is enough to marginalize iron IMO. Maybe iron is so unstable with magic that it is dangerous in a highly magical society. That would be reason enough to ban it.

That is exactly the idea I had, Iron causes Wild Surges when in contact with spell casters especially when they are using magic, which is dangerous. Also Wild Surges cause a euphoric feeling in the magic user it's triggered from, so Wild Surges are addictive, hence why Iron is a drug in the hands of Magic Users to the point where some inject iron dust into their veins.

Also the children of spellcasters who inject or eat high concentrations of Iron have a high likely hood of being born Wild Magic Sorcerers, aka Iron Blooded, which is seen as a dangerous birth defect.