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How can you make the stone age cool?


SSgt Baloo

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Lets face it, apart from The Flintstones, most of us just can't imagine a "fun" stone-age setting. What kind of features would your stone-age setting have to make it fun and gameable?

 

Settings I might suggest:

One Million BC Heroes (dinosaurs coexisting with humans)

Cave Man Heroes (like One Million BC Heroes, but with a comedic slant)

Native Peoples Hero (your stone-age society is being colonized by people with superior technology)

Any of the above could include shamanistic magic of one sort or another. How would that work?

 

Anyone else?

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

Er... Set it during an ice age?

 

More seriously, a stone age setting would be a bit along the lines of a fantasy setting with me. A strict 'authentic' stone age setting would be without magic of course, but taking a few liberties with reality might go a long way. One can also postulate that there are the beginnings of civilization cropping up, and even a few actual cities, however small. There is archeological evidence, albeit flimsy. for such as old as ten thousand years ago. Also, the 'magic' of metal might start to arise. Virtually everyone of course is using bone or flint tools and weapons, but perhaps the first glimmerings of copper are starting to arise, a few might have discovered the secret of bronze and a very few truly 'magical' weapons might have been beaten out of 'star steel'. Someone is building a stonehenge and who knows what intrigue that might entail.

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

Er... Set it during an ice age?

 

Yeah, an ice age is cool.

 

How else would you make the stone age rock?

 

Sounds like a mammoth undertaking.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary thinks Lucius would be in like flint. Just ax him.

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

Edgar Rice Burroughs lost world HERO comes to mind. I've got Aaron Allston's Lands of Mystery circa 1985 and i use a modified Zorandar ( lost world setting for the book) for one of the worlds in my Pulp Sci Fi universe. In fact just tonight they ended up there.

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

Edgar Rice Burroughs lost world HERO comes to mind. I've got Aaron Allston's Lands of Mystery circa 1985 and i use a modified Zorandar ( lost world setting for the book) for one of the worlds in my Pulp Sci Fi universe. In fact just tonight they ended up there.

Ah yes, Pellucidar and Frank Frazetta paintings, what grand times were those! :-)

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

For a serious campaign I would look at something around 3100 - 2900 BC. This puts things at the end of the Stone Age and beginning of Bronze Age. For a campaign concept I would play on the elements of developing societies and the idea of what is primitive. Possibly centering around around Mesopotamia or a fantastical equivalent.

 

Characters would be from a primitive clan or tribal society isolated from the other developing cultures. More than likely I would look at a magic light world where knowledge of herbal cures and medicine is just as mystical as calling on ancestor spirits. At the same time all the members may know some magic, warriors call upon the Hunter to keep their spears sharp, farmers follow rites to banish locusts or other predators.

 

Early stories may revolve around developing the tribe and crafting an understanding of the known world. This may include takes of survival or defending the village from some more monstrous creatures of the age, things that hadn't realized they should be extinct now. As the players become more comfortable with the setting I would begin introducing different cultures that are more advanced. This could possible be a peaceful first meeting, amusing both sides can get around language issues, followed by a more war like or slaving culture seeing them as a source of slaves.

 

The campaign can take multiple directions from here with the players becoming enslaved, isolated or integrated into one of these other cultures. Stories may take on a more old versus new and what is really better tone. Although, I don't think I would want to focus to heavily here instead looking at cultural advancements versus the cultures that possess them. This strikes me as a time of empire building and I don't think it would be out of the question to see the PCs as possible conquerors or leaders as the campaign progresses.

 

One thing that may be intriguing is exploring the different styles of magic and religions of the cultures.

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

Actually I was recently thinking an "old testament" game could be interesting. Naturally you would have to have the right group of players. the first quest could easily be a "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" quest (no offense to modern witches). You must hunt down a 'witch' and that could take you anywhere acoss the face of the ancient world.

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

Probably the hardest part of any truly stone age setting would be getting in to the mindset of a stone age resident. These people couldn't invent the wheel or stirrup' date=' for heaven's sake. Or build one.[/quote']

 

Now, that depends on what your cut-off for "stone age" technology is. Late neolithic era cultures in Europe and Asia were already building large towns using stone masonry, practicing agriculture and animal husbandry to a significant degree, and presumably had fairly sophisticated, stratified cultures. Heck, just look at Mesoamerica: the Mayas, Aztecs and their predecessors didn't smelt metal or use the wheel, but for over two thousand years before Europeans came they had cities, writing, astronomy, theology, wars and empires.

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

Don't tell the players what game they are going to play. Have the players design themselves for 50 points starting with an 'everyman' package. Then give them each another 25 points that their friends can spend on them to round them out. This may wind up being a somewhat fictitious version of themselves, but it's a game meant to be fun.

 

Then 'teleport' them through time into the late stone age! They are equipped with whatever they had with them when they walked through the door to play that day. They have their own knowledge, so they would certainly be able to invent the 'concept' of the wheel and stirrup, but do the players themselves actually posses the hands on knowledge to build a cart or make a saddle? Can any of them chip a flint tool, or make a fire without a lighter or match? Can they find or improvise shelter? Would they know how to avoid sabertooth tigers? Can they hunt or identify edible plants? Perhaps to survive they could try to be adopted by some nomadic tribe, but why would they be taken in? Would they be seen as gods or demons?

 

It might not turn into a long lasting campaign (though it might), but it certainly would make for some memorable moments. Perhaps they discover that this is not quite the earth they read about in their school books. Perhaps the magic has not yet gone away? Maybe dinosaurs still walk the earth? Maybe the second moon in the sky is a bit too much of a clue?

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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

Lets face it' date=' apart from [i']The Flintstones[/i], most of us just can't imagine a "fun" stone-age setting. What kind of features would your stone-age setting have to make it fun and gameable?

 

Settings I might suggest:

One Million BC Heroes (dinosaurs coexisting with humans)

Cave Man Heroes (like One Million BC Heroes, but with a comedic slant)

Native Peoples Hero (your stone-age society is being colonized by people with superior technology)

Any of the above could include shamanistic magic of one sort or another. How would that work?

 

Anyone else?

mighty mightors super friends?the native peoples hero souns goood as does colonization bypeople with superior tech ala the ancient astronaught theory [the "powers of the gods' were tech used by space travelers]
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Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

 

You might want to check out the movie 10' date='000 BC - it could give you some ideas[/quote']

 

I'll see if it's available on HoBO. I'd like to see Year One, as well.

 

Okay, I just read the Wikipedia article and now I'm not as enthusiastic, but I still might try to see Year One.

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