So I was with some of my players the other day, and our current gm could not make it, but our group still wished to play a game. So I had this Idea in the back of my head for a while to do a prehistoric style game. The world is mostly wandering tribes and such, I described it to them that no elf has died of old age yet.
My problem is the game seemed to need rescaled some, I gave them bonus hit points per pathfinder beta, and an extra feat to start off with as well as two character traits. My problem is there is no money, and not really many feasible ways to give them magic items, or really other treasure to help them survive in general. They have a couple of crude weapons slings, and crude spears, one of them has leather armor, but thats about it, they survive or hunt for food, and they look for small caves or hollowed out trees to sleep in.
I came here seeing if I could fish out any ideas for things I could give the players to make them a little stronger at higher levels. I was thinking feats, maybe spell like abilities, or extra class features based on character stuff, like maybe give a character an animal companion if they are able to tame an animal, or give them sneak attack if they play their character as a stealthy hunter type (which through most of the fist session the characters were sneaking through the woods trying to avoid fighting things).
From your last paragraph, are we to assume that these characters have no class, or you severely limited their class options?
they are limited to barbarian, savage scald bard archetype, ranger, oracle, witch, and sorcerer.
the two characters that played the first game are a savage scald, and a ranger, but i have a few new players interested in joining the game after hearing the premise.
My first thought is that you could turn things on their heads by having the Orcs discover metalworking first.
To a stone age culture a bronze axe and armor would by definition be magic weapons, so that could be a way to introduce them to your PCs.
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Well, IMO, the magic user classes don't *need* anything to make them stronger at higher levels.
For the rangers and barbarians, I recall some 3.x third-party book that had a system for weapons developing along with the character, as their legend built, the weapon would become more powerful. It might even have been called Weapons of Legend? But I think that's the way to go for the melee fellas.
Heck, I mean, in a prehistoric setting, an actual metal sword is a pretty significant upgrade. :)
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From your last paragraph, are we to assume that these characters have no class, or you severely limited their class options?
I had to chuckle at this! I hate when the players have no class! Eating all the pizza and not even chipping in for it!
Seriously though, I would say that the world is so new that the magic energy of creation (whether divine, or by fey or dragons or whatever you wish) has infused certain things with its energy and the results are unpredictable. A leaf that does not wither and gives bonus to AC, or a pool of water that draughts from work like potions of healing, or rock that when used in a weapon provides a bonus.
You want a pre-historic game, but you want to give the players more abilitys and feats.
Does not make sence. They should have less stuff not more.
Anyway, some idea of equipment and magic listed below =
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Give them Stone, bone, and wooden weapons. Do not yet know how to forge metal.
Other than that, people are people, and lived there lives as normal. Farms still build houses out of stone, mud, or wood, people still traveled & traded, hunting for food, had kids, and fought over anything they could think of.... Same as today.
Class wise, i could still see them all, except maybe Wizard. (If they took Spell Mastery every level, i could even see Wizard).
Or have wizard us something other than spell books. Spell Staffs, is my favorite, were the spells is written is spirals up/down around the staff. (( These staff would not be used for fighting )).
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Magic = You have to choose. Make it Stone age (limit spells to 1-3 level No magic item that uses 4th level spell or greater) or keep it as is. (keep it as is, is the easiest).
So NO +3 Mithral/Iron/Steel or Adamantie armor. But you could still have +3 hide, Dragonhide, or Darkwood armor.
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Same item, just made of different stuff
Current metal items made of stuff listed below
Wood, see spell Transmute Metal to Wood = Basic -2 ac on armor, and any natural 19-20 rolled reduces armor by another -1 ac. Wood weapon take a -2 to attack and damage rolls, and a natural 1-2 rolled = broken weapon.
(one mending spell to restore 1 ac at a time do to damage loss only).
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Bone = (have to guess) Same as Wood except: Basic -3 ac on armor, and any natural 18-20 rolled reduces armor by another -1 ac. Bone weapon take a -1 to attack and damage rolls, and a natural 1-3 rolled = broken weapon.
Bone armor is more brittle than wood, so wood makes for better armor.
Bone weapon tho are better than wood for doing damage and to hit. All thow they are more likely to break.
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Stone = (have to guess) Same as Wood except: Basic -1 ac on armor, and any natural 15-20 rolled reduces armor by another -2 ac. Stone weapon take a -2 to attack and damage rolls, and a natural 1-5 rolled = broken weapon.
Stone armor is better than wood armor AC wise to begin with, but stone is very brittle, and easily takes ac damage. Stone weapon function as well as wood weapon, but again stone weapon are brittle and easy destroyed.
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Anyway just some ideas.
Why no Magic items? Don't they have blessing of spirits to help them? Talismans and fetishes to ward off evil, lucky spear that was imbued with tiger's power when pierced its heart, that strange glassy-thing found on the beach after thunderstorm that is clearly lightning's child and unleashes his/her power when asked to?
In the draconomicon, the had rules for special items made out of dragon hide and bones, you could expand on this to include magical beasts, etc.
Also, the gods themselves could grant the players items.
Well, IMO, the magic user classes don't *need* anything to make them stronger at higher levels.
For the rangers and barbarians, I recall some 3.x third-party book that had a system for weapons developing along with the character, as their legend built, the weapon would become more powerful. It might even have been called Weapons of Legend? But I think that's the way to go for the melee fellas.
Heck, I mean, in a prehistoric setting, an actual metal sword is a pretty significant upgrade. :)
Weapons of Legacy actually. I think it's an awesome book. It even has rules for customizing your own legacy item.
Last time I ran a similar game, it was so far in the past that the characters ended up becoming 'gods' in legends. The stories about them got so impossible that it was obvious that they weren't mortals.
Belief is Power.
Boy, do I wish *I* could play in a game like that!
Or run one. Maybe my game world could be going through an Ice Age, and the PCs could fight neanderthals, mammoths, saber-tooth tigers, etc.
For flavor, I could say that Sorcerers have to mutilate a finger to get power. Wizards, instead of studying spellbooks, might study... cave wall drawings? Or maybe the position of the stars? (Although in the latter case, I'm not sure what a wizard should do on a cloudy night.) Instead of deities, clerics could get their power from "spirits." Instead of magic rings and amulets, there could be talismans made of... bone? wood?
I do wonder about how to deal with the lack of currency, though. That could cause awkward problems, I think.
Maybe reading some fiction might inspire some ideas. When does Paizo come out with the complete Hok the Mighty?
Just an odd thought you could do magic items in a different way for instance.
Grafnaf Wood - Most wooden weapons are made of hard wood but a one made from the rare wood of the Grafnaf Tree is much stronger and tougher than normal wood gaining magical qualities.
Skystones - Nobody know why but now and again these strange stones are found in various shapes and sizes such as.
*Bladestones - naturally shaped like a spearhead these stones function as magical daggers or if attached to a high quality shaft they are enchanted spears.
Similar methods could be used to make prehistoric themed items from most catigories so the hide of a special creature could make magical leather or hide armor, the blood of another may function as healing potions, ect.
I'm still obsessing over how to handle some of the problems like lack of currency.
Did "GURPS Ice Age" discuss any issues like that, in a helpful way? Does anyone know?
(I mention "GURPS Ice Age" because I don't know of any company, outside of Steve Jackson Games, that dealt with Stone Age roleplaying. Really, I wonder why that would be. Surely I couldn't be the only one who thinks the idea is intriguing. Does anyone know of any other good source?)
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I think trying to find a way to make the normal mechanics work might be the wrong way to go. The point of a game like this I think is the feeling that everything is primitive and different, where the normal rules that everyone is used to don't apply - or more likely haven't been invented yet. :P
First of all, I'd be very wary of how spellcasting is handled. Because equipment is so primitive, spellcasters have an advantage right from the get-go. You need to make spellcasting just as primitive as melee somehow.
So, maybe you can play a wizard, but if you do, you are basically going to have to invent arcane casting from the ground up - possibly inventing writing in the process. :) All spells need to be researched by studying and experimenting. Spell likely backfire all the time, or don't work properly, or perhaps don't work at all. There are almost no magic items and creating them is much more difficult because there are no guides to research and development.
Casters like sorcerers have no mentors or even cultural background to help them deal with their emerging power - their magic should be dangerous and very hard to control, perhaps suffering some of the same drawbacks as wizards.
Clerics and divine casting types have a whole different set of problems: in the "young" world, Gods and Spirits walk abroad, and those who they grant spells to are fewer and far between. They might be much more meddlesome and demand much more of their holy men, demanding greater sacrifice - heck, perhaps ACTUAL sacrifices of some kind!
Combat is mostly limited by the fact that all equipment is going to be highly primitive and difficult to get. There is no buying and even bartering will be ultra rare - fighters will have to make everything they want to use themselves. Armor of any kinds if hard to come by, so they need to go for favored class hit points and the toughness feat and high CON. You may want to restrict or add additional pre-reqs to certain feats to represent the fact that fighting types are basically inventing "how to fight" in their world, just as the spellcasters are inventing magic and how it works.
I'm still obsessing over how to handle some of the problems like lack of currency.
Trade.
We tend to think of stone age cultures as being more isolated than they really were. In truth, stone age cultures moved a lot of material.
Obsidian in particular was a huge trade item, one of the first permanent human settlements was founded to mine for it. Salt has always been used for trade, being so necessary even to a stone age culture.
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From your last paragraph, are we to assume that these characters have no class, or you severely limited their class options?they are limited to barbarian, savage scald bard archetype, ranger, oracle, witch, and sorcerer.
the two characters that played the first game are a savage scald, and a ranger, but i have a few new players interested in joining the game after hearing the premise.
A friend is setting up a neolithic sort of campaign, He also added Rogue (Scout Archetype)) and Druid.
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So, maybe you can play a wizard,
Quite frankly, the NPC classes Warrior and Adept are more appropriate to a primitive game than Fighter, Wizard, or Cleric. Expert and Commoner for everyone else.
Maybe allow "prestige" classing into Barbarian, Ranger, Druid, Oracle, Witch, Sorcerer - but be fairly harsh on the RP and level requirements, and think long and hard about the power level compared to the NPC classes. Classes the require developed infrastructure, top-down organization, and reading of any sort (all the other classes) are vastly more appropriate to Bronze Age or later, not a Stone Age.
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As far as how wizards would keep a spellbook, look in complete arcane under different spellbooks. three examples come to my head with writing the spells down on crystals, useing string/rope and sifferent lengths between knots, and bones with carvings on them the bigger the bone the higher the spell I think it was(transport might be an issue with the bones). the knot spellbook though has promise.
I think trying to find a way to make the normal mechanics work might be the wrong way to go. The point of a game like this I think is the feeling that everything is primitive and different, where the normal rules that everyone is used to don't apply - or more likely haven't been invented yet...
This is exactly what I am going for, It will be helpful that most of them are good RPers when they need to be. Im gonna need to go find WoL Its buried somewhere with the rest of my 3rd ed books that never got used lol.
Also for those wondering why no druids, I felt that Druids where created to counteract civilization, and with no civ's there is no need for them. Also another one of my goals was to get my players to play some different classes, and it worked, the one never played a bard before and now he's going on about different bard concepts for other games.
I am grateful for all the input, It should help my game be better in the long run.
(I mention "GURPS Ice Age" because I don't know of any company, outside of Steve Jackson Games, that dealt with Stone Age roleplaying. Really, I wonder why that would be. Surely I couldn't be the only one who thinks the idea is intriguing. Does anyone know of any other good source?)
BTRC did a module for the game CORPS that was set in the stone age. You'd have to convert it or just mine it for ideas. It's available as a PDF here at Paizo for four and a half bucs (Basic Units of Currency, Silly).
Edit: converted link
Thank you, Firest and SlimGauge.