Stone Age D&D Games?

[possum]

I like the idea of a prehistoric campaign setting and I would like to add my two cents (err, two teeth.)

Personally, the classes I would find suitable for a prehistoric campaign are Barbarians, Druids (serves as clerics), fighters, Storytellers (modified Bard that I haven't written up yet), Sorcerors and Wizards.

I love the idea of the cave wizards that Tonguez came up with.

As for races, I have a few ideas concerning elves.

It is quite possible that the elves are just as savage as the humans, and the Wild Elf race in the DMG should be used.

However, I like to think that Elves are vastly superior to the other races at this point, having already achieved the title of a proper civilization with written history. It is quite possible that they already begun to use metal in the making of tools and weapons. (They later became stagnant and the other humanoids eventually caught up to them.)

I love Henry's idea about the pack hunting halfling and gnome species.

Orcs do not exist in the traditional sense as of yet. Taking their place are the wild elves that turned their back on the new ways of the cities, and instead live like they always did. The orcish god has not yet corrupted them into his/her image. The Orcs are also captured and sold into slavery by the more civilized elves.

Drow could very well exist, remnants of the elves wild past that were abducted as children by kobold raiders and carried away into the dark depths of the World Below. They have since rapidly evolved (divine intervention?) and slaughtered their kobold captors.

 

[Aaron2]

Fighters - Weapons and Light armour only. Heavy armour may be gained through quest (eg a breatplate made from the shell of a Glyptodont).

He'd need Medium Armor prof to wear hides! I've also seen plenty of examples of leather armor reinforced with bone or wood plates (similar to the non-existent splint or banded mail). As part of my Roman stuff, I made some rules for hide and wicker shields but I'm not 100% happy with them.


Aaron

 

[Algolei]

Lizardfolk could rule the world. They could be the 'elves' of standard games, with their high-falutin' attitudes.

Or, if that's not standard Ice Age enough for you, maybe the Ice Age was the high point in the elven civilization and all other races struggled against subjugation by them.

 

[diaglo]

Lizardfolk could rule the world. They could be the 'elves' of standard

SLeestaks...

 

[Aaron2]

Drow could very well exist ...

It would be fun for the PCs to actually take part in driving the drow off the surface and into the underdark.


Aaron

 

[SWBaxter]

Of course, "city" in this context meaning several hundred people?

Nope. Egypt and Mesopotamia are believed to have had cities with populations in the tens of thousands before the Bronze Age (which is usually dated from around 3300 BCE in that area of the world). Ditto some of the Central/South American civilizations. There are lots of stone age sites that are thought to have housed populations in the thousands, which would've made them good-sized cities in dark ages Europe.

An interesting, if very speculative, look at pre-historic civilization is Richard Rudgely's "The Lost Civilizations of the Stone Age". Stone age cultures can easily have cities, industry and resource exploitation, trade routes, and many of the other trappings of a more modern game if you're so inclined. You have to go back perhaps 20000 years to get to a point where most people will be hunter-gatherers you'd see in a "caveman" game.

 

[painandgreed]

What level of stone age; caveman, Aztec indian, or something in between? The difference between the two would be way different. For caveman, it would be mostly warriors, adepts, and maybe rogues. Soemthing along the cultural level of teh Aztecs could pretty much use the standard D&D classes with a different equipment chart.

 

[Gez]

However, I like to think that Elves are vastly superior to the other races at this point, having already achieved the title of a proper civilization with written history. It is quite possible that they already begun to use metal in the making of tools and weapons.

In our stone age setting, it was the dwarves (stonecunning, remember) who were the only one using tool. Tribes of dwarves (the sons of the Skyfather) would wander around, looking for "gifts from Ouranos" (i.e., meteorites) from which they extract meteoritic iron and makes tools with that.

Elves, keeping in with their chaotic alignment, are the least civilized and the least advanced of all races. They are young and exuberant, eternally young and exuberant. When they're not hunting for food, they're rejoicing, dansing, singing, and making out. Unless they're busy goofing around, making weird stuff just to see what happens. They are more likely to pull the tail of a sleeping smilodon than to try to build something. In fact, the mere idea of building is weird for them. Things are fun! Why change them?

 

[Algolei]

SLeestaks...

Yes, dahling?

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I would argue that if you just deversified out the hide category there might still be heavy armor around, but IMO there's a very good argument to be made for dropping the fighters heavy armor proficiency and replacing it with additional skill points.