Last week I had an idea to run a prehistoric fantasy campaign using5eas the base system since that's what I'm comfortable GMing for right now, set around the neolithic era and I had a discussion with a friend to iron out some details of the world aswell as the circumstances of the players, so far, we've mostly been limiting things so it'll fit the era, I'm not an experienced worldbuilder so I'd like to get some advice on areas I might've forgotten, should expand upon and so on.
>Without metallurgy, currency is more or less out of the question, question is wether it should it be removed as a whole or if grains could be used as perishable type of currency.
>a lot of weapons aswell as armor inherent to the system will be unavailable to the players(though I might use the monster hunter crafting supplement instead of metallic armors in some fashion), aswell as magical items beyond the scope of bleeding-edge stone-age technology.
>Races aswell as classes and backgrounds will be limited, reasons for excluding a certain race may include that their lives are extraordinarily long(200+ years), classes aswell as backgrounds are limited to how they'd reasonably fit, language will also be locational rather than necessarily racial.
>Tribes will have their own gods/religions, my intent is to create a smaller pantheon to be available for use but the players may create their own tribe's deity should they wish to do so
>Since their circle of worship is small they're more inclined to intervene to the benefit of their followers, though the way in which they do might be subtle or indirect due to the fact that they don't have much godly power.
>Demons/Devils/old ones may try to pose as gods, if the players get a mission from one of their gods it might be a ruse designed by a fiend who wishes to hurt the tribe or corrupt the players or the "god" might've been a fiend without their knowledge all along.
cont.
>>44168549
As for the intended situation for the group
>Each player used to be a member of a previous tribe, but got exiled and marked as undesirables/scarred (using something obvious/fairly easily doable like a huge X across their face).
>They have however joined a new tribe founded by other exiles which consists of a mixture of races aswell as religion rather than being mostly uniform.
>In the interest of their own safety, the tribe has settled away from water streams, favoring seclusion at the cost of being dependent on rainfall to grow their crops.
>Since it consists of exiled criminals the players' tribe might have a reputation as bogeymen, desperate weaker tribes might seek them out for help ("if people are scared of the crossface tribe they must be capable")
>>44168549
For currency I would look at usable items- flints, furs, hides, etc. Trade, if any, was barter.
>>44168549
I know you said 5e, but you should give this game a read. It really fits the mindset of a Neolithic game.
Magic should be primitive and/or just really straight forward.
Like simple +1 bonus type spells, things having to do with spirits, just basic elemental spells like fireball or lightning bolt should be high end tier.
>>44168584
I could probably do something with degrees of need for each place they try to barter, though somewhat generalized.
Location x might have a surplus of resource y, say furs, since game is unusually rich there, it'll never be in high demand, on the other hand they'd probably need flint for spears, knives and whatnot and are more likely to trade their crafts for those.
should the players come upon a random settlement I might use some sort of table to see what those settlers have and need, letting me have some semblance of pricing rather than complete arbitration, in those cases I do intend for the player to haggle, it would also sorta let me use the pre-existing currency system.
>>44168636
I'll check it out anon
>>44168706
I do intend to look through the magic chapter, I don't think that the players will have all teh spells available to them and right now I'm thinking I'll allow/disallow on a school by school basisBut nothing is set in stone
>>44168549
How would you stat a Neanderthal?
>>44168922
While they went extinct before the neolithic there's also a fantasy element which might excuse their continued existence.
Off the top of my head, the half-orcs stat bonuses fits the bill pretty well considering the neanderthals build, but I'd have to look into neanderthals more to decide their other bonuses(maybe stat them as an orc subrace). After which I'd also stat up an encounter version,
and if i'd happen to not make an enemy neanderthal statblock i'd probably use the one for orcs in lieu of that.
>>44169258
*half-orc subrace, my bad
>>44168922
>>44169258
Mountain dwarves are better
>>44169819
Good point, I might do some minor retooling of the dwarves so that I can use them as neanderthals instead.
I originally decided to exclude them since I felt that their great age+long childhoods and general idea of what dwarves are didn't really gel with a prehistoric world.
There is only one right way to play a prehistoric game. And that is Og.
>>44170599
I don't think OP wants comedy.
>>44170628
While I'm not looking for comedy any suggestion could still be used for inspiration.
