I've been inspired /tg/ and now I want to play in the stone age. But how do you keep it interesting without making it a pseudo sword and sorcery setting like conan.
>>45051450
There's no wide variety of options in terms of weapons and magic, because as soon as there's too many possibilities, it isn't the stone age anymore. There's clubs, spears, stone axes, slings and bows and that's it.
Realistically, people would spend most of their time gathering food and surviving rather than adventuring. But I guess that can be an adventure in and of itself.
Survival skill becomes incredibly important because there isn't large scale farming providing readily available storable food.
Steel is gone.
Iron is gone.
Weapons become disposable because none last forever. Hard use of stone age weapons results in broken weapons. Strength and endurance become even more important than skill and finesse. Your fire hardened spear isn't going to be bringing swift death to anything, so if the other guy is bigger than you the hits he gets in (and you can't really prevent this in a 1 on 1 with such poor weapons) are going to be hard to walk off.
Grappling becomes far more common, as does the use of sneaky git weapons like rocks and knives.
Obsidian is incredibly dangerous as a weapon, but incredibly fragile and unreliable against a resisting opponent. Striking bone will likely lessen the effectiveness of your weapon immediately.
There is likely no law, and probably every tribe has the potential to be violent against any other tribe, depending on current conditions and level of desperation.
When enough resources are easily at hand life is still pretty good though, and responsibility stress is significantly less of a thing.
People happily live by the motto "live slow, die whenever" and ambition is probably rare, and possibly seen as covetous and selfish.
>>45051450
The stories of Conan are about a self deterministic man struggling against the rule of old evils, and savagery against civilization in which savagery would always win, as the author puts it.
You can do the opposite, a lone man is weak against nature, he needs the tribe and all the knowledge that his kind gathered throughout generations. They struggle against nature and only through inventiveness and practical learning, trial and error and etc is that he can hope to leave enough so his children may prosper even more.
>>45051680
same guy, The other thing that changes is people with auto immune system problems or other diseases. Assuming people are living pretty close to "savage" lifestyles diseases become remarkably lifethreatening, and people with poor constitutions just don't make it, especially when split from a support group.
In fact, being split from a support group is probably a great test to see if you get to be a man, because it definitely is a challenge to make it without others.
I ran a three or four part adventure d6 homebrew. They had to do things like worry about what they were going to eat, predators trying to eat them and other tribes. Thier weapons were limited to wood, bone flint and obsidian. Wood and bone did less damage, but stones would potentially break when used. At one point they took a month long trek to a volcano to trade bone flutes for obsidian tools.
Watch Quest For Fire for inspiration.
I'd use ideas from this old thread:
https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/44964554/
Just a reminder that the chalcolithic period was a thing, so at most you could expect to see some smelted copper tools. Bronze if you're really willing to push it.
>>45051984
Those are copper and bronze ages, not stone age.
Yeah I know they overlapped, but this thread is about a setting where the handaxe is the pinnacle of modern technology.
>>45052272
Actually, I think a ranged weapon, such as the bow, atlatl, or blowpipe would represent the pinnacle of human war tech at that point.
>>45053557
Yeah, I was using a figure of speech.
>>45051891
>Neanderthals are ugly, but are smart and tough as shit
>Erectus are idiotic savages and nobody likes them
>Floresiensis are borderline mythical, only living on their little islands; nobody but their neighbors believes the stories
>Habilis is the slowly fading little ape-people; the other races ignore them and fail to realize they have oral histories that describe fucking megaladons
>Nobody wants to fuck with Homo Sapiens, they're not as smart or as tough as the Neanderthals, but they will murder the shit out of you and swarm across your territory
Did all these different species actually exist at the same time. Why has no one made a game with this
>>45054058
I think erectus died out just before most of the others came on scene.
Habilis was gone long before.
Neanderthals being smarter than cro magnons is contentious.
>>45054254
>>45054271
>>45054301
>>45054351
How would magic be handled?
>>45054382
I'd think that animism is a good fit. Everything has a spirit, and people can learn to bind and control spirits. Bind the spirit of a small stone, then exert your control to reshape it into a tool or weapon. Bind the spirit of an animal to gain a permanent animal companion. Bind the spirit of a campfire to make it get up and go burn people for you.
Binding human spirits is both incredibly difficult and one of the worst taboos one could break, but it's an incredibly powerful talent if you can manage to pull it off, and either keep it secret or survive when the rest of your people try to kill you for doing the unthinkable.
>>45054382
Less super flashy wizardry, more shamanistic mysticism. I imagine there'd be a lot of focus on spirits, animism, maybe necromancy. I could see a few sorcerers about trying to rule tribes as god kings. Dunno where you'd place priests and such. Perhaps as a new and upcoming thing.
>>45054559
Would you say such acts would be going too far? Playing god, even?
>>45054271
>shorter neanderthal wielding the longer stick
Compensating much?
>>45054750
Further proof that manlets never learn.
>>45051450
More like Minecraft.
You make everything yourself and knowledge how to make things, find the right materials, and discover little improvements is wealth.
The youtube channel primitive technology is a goldmine for this.
So would the only available classes be barbarian, ranger and shaman?
>>45055634
Just reskin the others
>>45055634
Some kind of hunter-gatherer Druid, perhaps.
And there's nothing saying you can't have a rouge. Thievery and stealthiness aren't new inventions.
>>45051450
What are you talking about? What would it be besides sword and sorcery if you're roleplaying? If you just want a board game, there's a lot of options.
>>45055683
>stone age Paladin
>"YOU AM DEFY GODS! ME AM SMITE!"
>stick with rock on the end begins glowing with golden fire
>>45055634
Why wouldn't Sorceror be a good dnd class?
I can also see all the NPC classes being functional in this world.
>>45055841
>What would it be besides sword and sorcery if you're roleplaying?
what does this mean? Do you mean to say that sword and sorcery is the only type of fantasy you can play? I can imagine a fairly interesting 'nation building' stone age/tribal game with lots of diplomacy, folding together a bunch of disunited tribes into a stronger pseudo-kingdom.
Sword and sorcery is more a setting than a style of game, though.
>>45056150
>avatars of great spirits taking on their aspects to augment themselves in combat
Sounds pretty cool, sorta like wardens
>>45051553
>Realistically, people would spend most of their time gathering food and surviving rather than adventuring.
Then you make surviving the adventure. You have to hunt displacer beasts if you want to eat meat, and you have to fight krenshar to keep them from stealing the carcass. Your shaman needs herbs that grow in fey territory to make poultices. A vampire is preying on your clan the same way you prey on beasts, and you have to find the cave he lairs in, and defeat him.
GURPS. TL0.
Throw some racial templates for neanderthalis and sapiens at the players.
The problem comes with the story. Either go mystical and have some sky spirit shit - an area has been claimed by the fell spirits of nature, great treasure and risk lies within. Or go with someshit like volcanic activity causing mass animal graves, have fun surviving.
>>45051450
I don't think mammoths come on that size.
This thread has inspired me. I think i will run a game where the players are from a tribe that needs to migrate for one reason or another. Cue a traveling journey to find a garden of Eden while meeting other tribes and spirits along the way. Plenty of chance for combat and Social challenges like perhaps recruiting another tribe.
>>45056375
ancient folk would have been much shorter than modern standards.
>>45056850
>toughest, grittiest, most manly men ever
>their average height is 5'3"
/fit/ and /pol/ would be very confused
>>45057177
They wouldn't be the toughest though would they? like i may be wrong but hasn't humanity's records for physical feats always kept getting higher and higher with age. So someone who was well fed in say the 2nd Punic war would be an overall better human than one from the stone age. or is this wrong ? /fit/ and /pol/ already seem quite confused most the time desu
>>45051450
Quest idea:
Chief of a nomadic tribe is going to seek a fallen star to cement his power, as fallen stars have shining rock in them that make powerful weapons, allowing the chief to conquer neighbouring tribes and grow powerful. The party are to accompany this chief to the site of the fallen star. But beware, for it is not just enemy tribes seeking and the star and the vicious wildlife you have to worry about, the calamitous crash of the star stirs a plague of primal darkness deep below the Earth.
Cue morlocks/lizard people/Arthur Machen style little people
>>45057384
Sounds neat but you could go horror pretty easily and have cosmic horrors coming to claim their lost maguffin or when it lands it woke up something that was put to sleep by a long dead tribe.
>>45057493
Yeah, I wouldn't want that. Cavemen fighting primal creatures is enough. Pygmies, morlocks, whatever, I just like that stuff. No need to tie it into elder gods or such.
>>45057384
sounds like the plot of vandal savage's rise to power
>>45058294
Vandal savage could make a neat character to just hear about in the background but he also has mad bbeg material
>>45055841
this is fairly funny but really lacking
>>45057198
this one is pretty creative
I found this pdf but it seems lacking when it comes to neanderthals
>>45051450
Australia: The RPG
>>45059075
Crikey! there's a giant evil croc spirit in the lake!
>>45059181
Seriously, though. Crocodiles, sharks, giant spiders and drop bears. It's a death world outside the walls of the cities.
>>45059244
spiders are as rampant in city/surburbia as they are anywhere else desu. Like memes aside Australia isn't dangerous if you are aware of whats around you fauna wise.
>>45059285
Fine, so even inside the city walls you're fucked.
>>45059357
if you don't have common sense, then maybe.
>>45051450
Check out this game, OP. It's absolutely what you're looking for.
A sense of scale is important. The natural world is vast, unknown and uncontrollable to caveman dude.
>>45059445
yes this actually seems perfect. I do wish the tribes were a bit more detailed but i guess that's just something extra to do
>>45059807
Those are just examples anyway.Have you ever seen this movie
>>45057101
>4000 BC
Nigga we had towns, agriculture, and pottery by then. Try 30,000 BC.
Nature is the scariest fucking thing. You turn a corner and see a sabertooth or worse while alone? you run and hope to good god it hasn't seen you. Sleep in tree branches or close by the fire if you're with a small group, for fear of wolves in the night.
What am I missing?
>Hunter
Good at hunting and tracking animals, as well as harvesting their parts. Can make weapons from wood, bone, and flint.
>Warrior
Good at fighting and maintaining morale. Works best with other warriors
>Storyteller
Knows the tribe's entire history. Good at making peace out of conflict.
>Chief
Leads his people. Knowledgeable of many things but has the most experience from a prior class.
>Shaman
Communes with spirits and makes medicine.
>Tender
Skilled at making and maintaining fire. Can cook, though isn't their main duty.
>Shaper
Molds mud and clay into pottery, medallions, and spirit figures
>Caretaker
Makes clothing, prepares and preserves food. Has teaching skill
>>45059914
I've seen it, any story set this far back would probably play out like this wouldn't it.
>>45059357
Suddenly, Zeon dropping a colony on Australia doesn't seem so evil.
>>45055841
"Swords and sorcery" is a sub-genre of fantasy, similar to low and high fantasy, dark fantasy, steampunk, and so on. Conan the Barbarian is the classic swords and sorcery story, but that's not the only type of story that can be told through roleplaying.
>>45059445
It's a shame Zozer games isn't a more productive company. The little they do, they do really well.
here is a stone-punk setting done by quite an intelligent guy.
https://setinstonestory.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/
