Stone Age D&D Games?

[Gez]

It's been touched on already, but remember that 'stone age' cover a very broad range from cave dwelling savages to city builing centrally organized cultures. There is solid evidence that stone age cultures traded across thousands of miles. Also remember that a stone age technology will be sophisticated within the limits of its abilities. Otzi the ice-mummy (who was from the early copper age, granted, but stone still made up the bulk of tools as copper is kinda useless) had some very sophisticated gear, and had been treated by acupuncture.

True enough. In our case, since it was just a one-shot game to get a breath of fresh air between the long, complicated, and oppressive campaigns we otherwise play in, we went for total cheese, with dinosaurs and other staples of silly B-movies about prehistorical time. Pseudorealistical accuracy wasn't something we were interested in, but fun and clichés (especially when we knew them to be totally wrong), hell yeah!

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Two things:

Firstly, it's interesting to note that there's a fair amount of scholarship detailing how much the ice age appears to have favored humans. I mean that was our big day at school. Got to go everywhere, develop art, and wipe out mamoths. Totally awesome!

Secondly, how would you do a stone age campaign if you wanted people to be able to keep their old characters?

 

[Andor]

And just a note, A stone age culture could easilly co-exist in an isloated area in a normal campign world.

If that seems unrealistic to you recall that there are, right now, here on earth, stone age tribes living in New Guinea that have never seen an outsider or a metal tool. Some of them are cannibals.

Andor

 

[Andor]

Two things:

Secondly, how would you do a stone age campaign if you wanted people to be able to keep their old characters?

Easy. Swarm of rust monsters. You did know they have mass migrations didn't you?

-Andor

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Easy. Swarm of rust monsters. You did know they have mass migrations didn't you?

-Andor

That is the awesomest thing ever!

 

[Tonguez]

If that seems unrealistic to you recall that there are, right now, here on earth, stone age tribes living in New Guinea that have never seen an outsider or a metal tool. Some of them are cannibals.Andor

May have been true 50 years ago (20 even) but now this is pretty much a myth - you can find coke and ray-bans EVERYWHERE!!!!

 

[Stormrunner]

Why are you wanting to run this campaign? As a break from the norm, right? So use it to highlight "lesser races", rarely-used settings, etc.
Perhaps the fertile plains are dominated by a vast Horde of Mongol-style centaurs. Since saddles and stirrups haven't been invented yet, centaurs are the only ones who can perform a mounted lance charge, making them quite powerful in combat.
Perhaps the islands of the southern ocean are populated by a race of tiki-carving, catamaran-sailing lizardfolk.
Perhaps the brutal, savage "modern" gnolls are the degenerate remnants of what was once a proud, highly-civilized empire - dig out the Egyptian/Mesopotamian references.
Perhaps fey (spirits) are much more common - every grove has a dryad, every stream a nixie, with whom humans must bargain for the right to harvest fruit, fish, etc. (cf Gregory Keye's The Waterborn ).

 

[TheLostSoul]

Two things:

Firstly, it's interesting to note that there's a fair amount of scholarship detailing how much the ice age appears to have favored humans. I mean that was our big day at school. Got to go everywhere, develop art, and wipe out mamoths. Totally awesome!

Actually it seems as though Homo Neandertalensis was better suited to life during the last ice age. Modern archaeology is of the opinion that they were highly specialized and not very flexible. This is perhaps one of the main reasons for their disappearance. There are several discussions as to whether or not they were wiped out due to interbreeding with Homo Sapiens or they were extinguished by warfare. There are evidense linked to both theories, though most finds is more supportive of a competion for resources and that Homo Sapiens was better suited for that after the last ice age.

It is also interesting that Homo Neandertalensis was far better flint nappers than Homo Sapiens, It seems as though Homo Sapiens learned advanced flint napping from Homo Neandertalensis and that they only in the late Paleolithic had better flint napping techniques. There are some dicussion as to wether the Homo Neandertalensis further developed their skills, but the finds are very questioned.

 

[SWBaxter]

Wasn't there an age between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age? Something like the "Copper Age"?

In some areas, yes. And a few areas went from the stone age straight into the iron age. It's mostly a matter of available metals - if copper was the only easily accessible metal, then cultures in that area had a copper age. If both copper and tin were accessible, then they generally figured out bronze pretty quickly. The latter applies to the Egyptian/Mesopotamian city-building cultures. Cultures that didn't have any easily accessible metal stayed in the stone age.

May have been true 50 years ago (20 even) but now this is pretty much a myth - you can find coke and ray-bans EVERYWHERE!!!!

(Referring to modern stone age cultures)

Not a myth. There are still a few stone age tribes that have refused contact with outsiders and are left alone, usually on small islands. For example, North Sentinel Island, one of the Andaman islands in the Bay of Bengal, is the home of a tribe that has reacted violently to every attempt at contact, by firing bows at ships and helicopters. The local governments leave them alone, and don't permit anyone to travel there other than the occasional anthropologist. The tribe was in the news recently when it was feared they'd been wiped out by the tsunami, but it appears they came through OK.

 

[Gez]

May have been true 50 years ago (20 even) but now this is pretty much a myth - you can find coke and ray-bans EVERYWHERE!!!!

[Rammstein]We're all living in Amerika, Amerika ist wunderbar, we're all living in Amerika, Coca-Cola, Wonderbra[/Rammstein]

Although there's still a few tiny pockets of small, isolated tribal cultures, they're the exceptions that confirm the rule.