Help with campaign idea

[TheThan]

Ok I recently came up with a great idea for a new dnd campaign.

That idea is to create a literal brand new world. This world would be populated with races that have access to Stone Age technology and very limited use of magic. The heroes would all be part of the same tribe (think hunter/gatherer society) and will be charged with ensuring the survival of their tribe.
Major adventures could include:
Making peaceful contact with other tribes (and races)
Fending off hostile tribes or monsters
Securing enough food for the winter
Building the basic building blocks of their society (such as mastering fire, the plow etc).


Then after this campaign runs its course I wanted to accelerate the timeline of this world and advance all the (surviving) races to a Bronze Age era. Where the same society has developed and magic and technology has increased substantially.
Now I’m not going to list any adventures for now, but I was thinking the players’ characters could become part of their society’ culture, sort of like a legend or mythos.

Then after that campaign is over, I was going to keep moving the time line forward and run campaigns in a medieval version of their world, a renaissance era (steampunk), a Victorian era and finally a modern world.

I think this is all great and should prove fun for my players. But to begin with I find myself at a bit of a bind.

I need stats on Stone Age and bronze age weaponry, armor and stuff. I can find some of what I’m looking for in supplements like Frostburn and Sandstorm. But not everything I need is covered. The DMG isn’t much help, because its’ suggestions are rather lousy.
I figured I could use the generic classes in the srd (expert, warrior, spellcaster) and probably use the class defense bonus and armor as damage reduction rules.

So does anyone have any ideas where I could find stats for weapons, armor, and equipment that would fit in a Stone Age world?
My current list of appropriate weapons is as follows (assume everything with metal to have stone or flint instead):
Unarmed strike, Club, Great club, Dagger, Short spear, Spear, Long spear, Quarter staff, Darts, Sling Blowgun, Throwing Axe, Hand axe, Great axe (maybe), Longbow (no composite version), Short bow (no composite version) Plus some weapons from sandstorm and frostburn.
For armor I’m thinking Hide, leather, studded leather (maybe), and bone.

For races I’m thinking:
Human (maybe Neanderthal but I doubt that), elf (probably wild), dwarf (probably wild), and full orc. Other races I’m not so sure as I’m having trouble imagining them in a Stone Age environment.

So does anybody have any ideas or suggestions to throw my way?

[InaVegt]

Arms and equipment guide has guidelines for pre middle age technology, even though it's 3.0 it's still very usefull for that. As for classes, ban wizards, paladins, monks and clerics and remove all named spells from the sorcerer, druid and bard spell list. The reasoning for this is that magic either would be a gift you were born with (sorcerer), very basic (bard) or shamanistic (druid and ranger), as well as a lack of monasteries for monks. Limit magic items somewhat, as in "no you can't buy them in every settlement." and make them adventure rewards, keeping in the standard equipment/level tables.

[Jack_of_Spades]

For stone age you have some advanced weapons.

I'd say.

All clubs, all spears, quarterstaff, handaxe and battleaxe (-1 to hit because of stone head), unarmed strikes (you may want to make the Improved Unarmed Strike feat a bonus for warriors), rocks (1d4 range 10 -1 to hit and can also be used in melee), javelins, sling, and the atlatl (the sling and atlatl would increase the range of the rocks and javelins to 30 and 90 feet respectively)

Allow the blowgun as an exotic weapon.

Hope my suggestions help.

[mikeejimbo]

Minor point, but I'd make the Steampunk era more Late Renaissance into the Victorian Era. For some reason, I think of Clockwork more than Steam Power in the Renaissance.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

looks like you're creating an RPG version of Civilization to me.

[TheThan]

I wanted to avoid negatives to hit. For some reason I don’t imagine stone axes being more difficult to land a blow with than steel, same goes with obsidian arrows or spear heads. Anyway I also noticed that it is a lot like civilization or age of empires. However the idea is to run several campaigns, one in each new part of the time line. As far as the steampunk time I was really thinking late Renaissance and early victorian era, sort of mix the two, like you suggest.

[mikeejimbo]

That seems good to me, for the steampunk time.

I believe the thought behind the stone weapons wouldn't be that it's harder to hit, just that it's harder to do damage. Given that no one is wearing armor anyway, the ACs should be lower, so it shouldn't hurt to lower the to-hit bonus.

[Indon]

Have you ever read a book called "The Lands of Rice and Salt", by Kim Stanley Robinson?

Your campaign idea sounds kinda like the basic premise of the novel.

[TheThan]

Have you ever read a book called "The Lands of Rice and Salt", by Kim Stanley Robinson?

Your campaign idea sounds kinda like the basic premise of the novel.

nope can't say i have, just something I randomly thought up.

[blackout]

For your modern age idea......Kobolds with guns! KOBOLDS WITH GUNS!
Edit: Oh, and another idea. When you get done with the modern age period, go for the future! Other planets! Spaceships! Pirates of the space lanes! KOBOLDS WITH BLASTER RIFLES! *totally wants to join*

[TheThan]

For your modern age idea......Kobolds with guns! KOBOLDS WITH GUNS!
Edit: Oh, and another idea. When you get done with the modern age period, go for the future! Other planets! Spaceships! Pirates of the space lanes! KOBOLDS WITH BLASTER RIFLES! *totally wants to join*


Honestly I was thinking dwarves, basicly so i can make Yosemite Sam... but that's just me.

[magic8BALL]

I wanted to avoid negatives to hit. For some reason I don’t imagine stone axes being more difficult to land a blow with than steel, same goes with obsidian arrows or spear heads.

They are only negatives to hir versus steel armor. Against lesser types of armor, they are just as effective. If the heaviest armor you can get is Hide, a -1 to hit with a rock isnt going to bother you mutch.

That said, what about Stoneplate from the Races of Stone? Or Mamoth Hide? Heavy and medium armors. And allowing wooden shields, while not very historical, will help boost what wil be some very low AC's. But hey, it's your world, you decide how fast technology progresses, last I looked, theres nothing anywhere about stone age cultures casting spells or making magical items.

[Mike_Lemmer]

Why not make it a time travel campaign? You could rip a page from Crono Trigger and let them jump back & forth, constantly changing the past to influence the future. It would also remove the inevitable arguments about how easy it would be for them to invent fire or the wheel. The challenge changes from "How can I make an excuse for inventing fire?" to "How do I convince these primitives to use fire?"

[Darkshade]

Why not make it a time travel campaign? You could rip a page from Crono Trigger and let them jump back & forth, constantly changing the past to influence the future. It would also remove the inevitable arguments about how easy it would be for them to invent fire or the wheel. The challenge changes from "How can I make an excuse for inventing fire?" to "How do I convince these primitives to use fire?"

you know that actually sounds like a fun campaign idea

[ShneekeyTheLost]

The reason behind the penalty to hit with a stone weapon is simple:

AC is not just the ability to avoid a hit, it is the ability to avoid damage. If a stone weapon hits at the wrong angle, the head will shatter and the weapon will be useless (Seen it happen before with obsidian/flint arrowheads before).

Perhaps, on a natural 1 on a to-hit, the weapon is destroyed on an attack? Magical stone weapons would not explode, or would give the weapon a save to avoid it.

Tribal Halflings are a very viable idea... ever heard of the Pygmies?

As far as Steampunk... when you mix magic and technology, you get Magitech. See also: FF VI. Guns with enchantments being prevelant, using the ranged weapon table. A heat-producing variant of Continual Flame being used in a steam engine to obviate the necessity of coal. The best pistol duelists having a way of casting Protection from Normal Projectiles on themselves. Hell, you could have a whole seperate 'Wild Wild West' campaign with the Indians being Rangers, Druids, Shamans, Sorcerers, Fighters, and Barbarians; wheras the Cowboys could have Rangers, Fighters, Rogues, Wizards, and Clerics working for them; in a battle over who controls the uncivilized lands.

[TheThan]

Crono Trigger is one of my favorite console RPGs so I just may have to borrow a page or two from it.
I have considered obsidian being used. I’d have to say obsidian would be masterwork weapons, as it takes a surprising amount of skill to nap it out of a chunk of obsidian. So I like the idea that masterwork (read obsidian) weapons grant a +1 to hit but they shatter on a natural 1. Seems fair to me. also this would make all enchanted weapons obsidian weapons. Though I suppose I could ignore the shatter effect, since they are magic after all.

I also like the idea of halfings (or gnomes) as Pygmies, some reason that amuses me.

I haven’t played that many FF games, so I have nothing to fall back on for ideas, however I see your point. I also had an idea to do a cowboy dnd game in the past, but I don’t have notes for it but I think if I try to recall hard enough I could come up with some of my ideas again