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Stone Age D&D Games?
- Thread starter VirgilCaine
- Start date
Turanil
First Post
-- As already mentioned Nyambe provides interesting material that may be used for a StoneAge campaign.
-- Unearthed Arcana with its many variants can greatly help tailor the classes to a Stone Age setting (Savage Bard, Totem Barbarians, Wilderness Rogue, etc.), plus variant races that would also fit well (jungle dwarves, desert elves, etc.).
-- I had once an idea for a Stone age setting. Basically, it's the humanoid prehistoric age, a century or two after the fall of the two "alien" species which dominated the world. That is: Mind Flayers against Yuan-Ti. So, there is plenty of ruins to explore, otherwise a Stone Age would be a dull things of caves and mammoths (something you tire of very quickly...)
-- There once were three or four Dragon magazines that described a Stone Age setting; they were great. Unfortunately I don't have them anymore, and cannot remember which issues they were. If someone know which they are, I would be glad to know, as I would like to have them again.
-- Unearthed Arcana with its many variants can greatly help tailor the classes to a Stone Age setting (Savage Bard, Totem Barbarians, Wilderness Rogue, etc.), plus variant races that would also fit well (jungle dwarves, desert elves, etc.).
-- I had once an idea for a Stone age setting. Basically, it's the humanoid prehistoric age, a century or two after the fall of the two "alien" species which dominated the world. That is: Mind Flayers against Yuan-Ti. So, there is plenty of ruins to explore, otherwise a Stone Age would be a dull things of caves and mammoths (something you tire of very quickly...)
-- There once were three or four Dragon magazines that described a Stone Age setting; they were great. Unfortunately I don't have them anymore, and cannot remember which issues they were. If someone know which they are, I would be glad to know, as I would like to have them again.
WayneLigon
Adventurer
I've always wanted to run a Stone Age campaign. Very dark, very basic. Some fooling around with history to get some scattered dinosaur remnants sticking around (hey, maybe as 'gods' of lizardmen, who are the debased survivors of the ancient days).
There was a cool stone-age/superhero 'Campaign in a Box' article in Pyramid several months back. I might should look at that again as well.
There was a cool stone-age/superhero 'Campaign in a Box' article in Pyramid several months back. I might should look at that again as well.
Thorvald Kviksverd
First Post
There was an old Dragon article (maybe in the 60's or 70's issue wise) that had a good write-up on ice age/stone age campaigning.
DarkMaster
First Post
diaglo said:
I said "one "of" the first"
You are also incorrect in your statement. The first thing human do is "burning oxygen", Once they are born, it's breating then sleeping, then eating and then making poo. Making babies takes at least another 10 years.
Unrelated incorect statement only leads to other unrelated answers.
One last unrelated comment, You must buy a new calendar each 1st of January, Not just reset that old 1974 calendar to January.
LoneWolf23
First Post
You could also have Elves, back in their "Magic Wielding Lords of the Earth" phase, prior to the rise of man. They'd have more advanced technology and magic then anyone else, but would also be involved in wars amongst their own kind, keeping them from conquering the "lesser people", except perhaps for dwarven tribes enslaved to work in mines for them...
Edit: ...And when I say advanced, I mean bronze age, like mesopotamian or greek.
Edit: ...And when I say advanced, I mean bronze age, like mesopotamian or greek.
Last edited:
SpiralBound
Explorer
I could see a case to be made for excluding the Fighter class. As I understand it, the Fighter is someone with a certain degree of formalized training in warfare, not just someone who likes to be in a fight! 
A Fighter knows battle tactics, how to use a wide range of different weapons, how to wear and fight in armor, etc. Definitely not what your average tribal defender would know. Most combative cavemen would know how to use a 3 or 4 weapons at most. Club, rock, spear, maybe the spear-slinger and a slingshot. Their average battle tactics would rarely be more complex than "chase", "encircle" and "overwhelm". Hardly representative of a fully trained military professional, which IMO is the intent of the actual Fighter class over a "character who fights".
I like Henry's suggestion of using the NPC classes, although I'm sure there are also loads of variant classes out there that would work as well.
Henry's other suggestion of packs of semi-savage gnomes and halflings is more than a little bit creepy, but cool all the same. Imagine telling a player who wanted to play a gnome in this stone-age campaign to roll 1D4 and that was the size of the pack of gnomes that he would then control as a single "character"!!
Perhaps, you'd add a gnome to the pack every 2-3 levels?
A Fighter knows battle tactics, how to use a wide range of different weapons, how to wear and fight in armor, etc. Definitely not what your average tribal defender would know. Most combative cavemen would know how to use a 3 or 4 weapons at most. Club, rock, spear, maybe the spear-slinger and a slingshot. Their average battle tactics would rarely be more complex than "chase", "encircle" and "overwhelm". Hardly representative of a fully trained military professional, which IMO is the intent of the actual Fighter class over a "character who fights".I like Henry's suggestion of using the NPC classes, although I'm sure there are also loads of variant classes out there that would work as well.
Henry's other suggestion of packs of semi-savage gnomes and halflings is more than a little bit creepy, but cool all the same. Imagine telling a player who wanted to play a gnome in this stone-age campaign to roll 1D4 and that was the size of the pack of gnomes that he would then control as a single "character"!!
Perhaps, you'd add a gnome to the pack every 2-3 levels?
Dr. Strangemonkey
First Post
I put together a stone age setting for Arcana Unearthed but it wasn't so much cavemen as it was pre-Columbian.
It's actually pretty interesting to contemplate what people could do with stone, bone, glass, and ceramic if they also have access to high magic.
There were cultures within the setting who had become so good at manipulating heat and materials through magic that they could make very effective ceramic armor and glass weapons.
There was a similar thing in that druid style life magic made it possible to use every part of a creature in very high powered ways. Yield from a creature became a very important thing.
So that let's say you meet a bear. Everyone knows that bear bladders are good for healing. The fighter kills it, the ranger cuts out the proper organ, the druid 'identifies' its natural properties and that's how you get a heal potion. Thus loot can be found even in a place that has only known nature.
I never got to run it, but I've always wanted to.
It's actually pretty interesting to contemplate what people could do with stone, bone, glass, and ceramic if they also have access to high magic.
There were cultures within the setting who had become so good at manipulating heat and materials through magic that they could make very effective ceramic armor and glass weapons.
There was a similar thing in that druid style life magic made it possible to use every part of a creature in very high powered ways. Yield from a creature became a very important thing.
So that let's say you meet a bear. Everyone knows that bear bladders are good for healing. The fighter kills it, the ranger cuts out the proper organ, the druid 'identifies' its natural properties and that's how you get a heal potion. Thus loot can be found even in a place that has only known nature.
I never got to run it, but I've always wanted to.
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