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View Full Version : Prehistoric Resources (Stone, Ice, Bronze, and Iron Age)



Yora
2010-05-01, 06:40 AM
I've become very fond of the epics of ancient greece and india, as well as other kinds of archaic fantasy, like Conan or the very early history of other fantasy settings like Forgotten Realms, Eberron, or Azeroth.

Unfortunately, most modern fantasy is based more on medieval and renaissance europe and east asia with very few resources explicitly referring to these earlier ages. So I'd like to create a kind of index for such materials, but as I don't know much about lesser known publications, I hope there will be lots of contributions by other people as well.

Frostburn: Frostburn deals primarily with arctic environments in general, but also includes lots of material on primitive societies and their weapons and other equipment. If you wan't to play an ice age campaign, this is the book for you.
Lost Empires of Faerūn: This book coveres several ancient empires of the Forgotten Realms setting. As the realms are effectively timeless when it comes to technology and society, it's not that drastically different, but I still think it's a very good read.
Secrets of Xen'drik: This book is very different than the regional splatbooks of the FR and even Secrets of Sarlona. It's primary focus is on the exploration and treasure hunting of modern adventurers, but it also has quite some infos about the really old ancient kingdoms of the continent and many locations that still hint at what they once were.
Races of Stone & Races of the Wild: These books do not actually refer to a different time frame than other 3rd Ed. publications, but I think their representation of elven, halfling, and goliath society (not so sure about dwarves and gnomes) fits very much into an archaic fantasy setting.

TheMadLinguist
2010-05-01, 06:49 AM
Arms and Equipment guide has a whole section on that.

erikun
2010-05-01, 07:52 AM
If you don't mind visiting the d20 general system, there is Frost and Fur (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10572.phtml) and From Stone to Steel (http://www.dmperez.com/highmoon/products-monkeygodpresents-fsts.html).

Yora
2010-05-01, 07:56 AM
I've heard lots of good things about them before, but they seem almost impossible to get.

gdiddy
2010-05-01, 08:29 AM
Putting aside the religious subject matter, there is a 3.0 book called Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era. Good rules for alternate mage classes that work on astronomy. Valuable information and rules about Bronze Age culture.

A friend of mine used it to run a campaign, with basic reflavoring.

Iron Heroes often has a very primitive feel to it, even though there is no place in history it truly belongs.

Conan (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1905850069/newbooks-20/ref=nosim) itself is a great game, built on a solid system.

Rappy
2010-05-01, 08:36 AM
I've heard lots of good things about them before, but they seem almost impossible to get.
While they are damnably hard to attain in print, they can be bought in PDF form at RPGNow for about $15 each.

EDIT: I should say WERE. I just checked, and for whatever reason, they were pulled. Sorry. :smallsigh:

erikun
2010-05-01, 01:56 PM
Iron Heroes often has a very primitive feel to it, even though there is no place in history it truly belongs.
I'm not sure about primitive, but the classes are mostly martially-based and run more off class abilities than equipment. Something like the Armormaster and Sniper (actual names forgotten) wouldn't make much sense with spears and hide armor, but the Hunter and Fighter are quite appropriate.