5e Bronze Age

[Ralcos]

As the title suggests, I'm wanting to run a 5e game in a Bronze Age setting. As I'm updating a setting I have already made, it's not that big of a deal.

I'm just wondering what problems I need to watch out for, and what support/homebrew that can be used to help with that. Any thoughts?

[Blake Hannon]

No crossbows or other such contraptions. Those only date back to the first millennium BC or so.

Less feudalism, more city states and empires. The latter generally asserting dominance, either economically or militarily, over the former.

No heavy armor, except maybe as rare artifacts from more advanced civilizations. Although I guess heavy bronze armor may be doable with magic.

For weapons and other items, just use the existing stats for bronze items, and treat any iron or steel ones that exist as masterwork.

[Yora]

Early steel did not have superior properties to bronze. The only advantage steel had over bronze (for weapons) until reletively recently was that it is much cheaper once you have the skills and equipment to make it. If money is not an issue, bronze weapons would probably even be superior over steel weapons for a long time.
With the exception of chain armor (which is very difficult to make from bronze), the choice of metal for armor makes no real difference until you get to late medieval plate armor.

For a bronze age setting there is little need to differentiate between the metals from which wapons are made.

[Ralcos]

For weapons and other items, just use the existing stats for bronze items, and treat any iron or steel ones that exist as masterwork.

Can you link those existing stats? I was wondering how 5e handles such materials and I can't find them in the core rulebooks.

[BootStrapTommy]

Can you link those existing stats? I was wondering how 5e handles such materials and I can't find them in the core rulebooks.
DMG page 246 - 247. I'd put it somewhere between stone and iron. 18AC and Resilient hit points?

Chain shirt and chain mail are likely nonexistent, for metallurgic reasons (not impossible, just labor cost prohibitive).

Plate and Half-Plate are questionable, depending on how you definitely them. And, honestly, probably cost prohibitive (half-plate less so).

Rapiers are probably non-existent (given bronze's metallurgic qualities). A war pick too would be a tad of a stretch. For smithing labor reasons, scimitars would be more common than shortswords.

The earlier statement that crossbows are out, however, is mildly untrue. Earliest crossbows were in 6th century BC China. During the Warring States period (475-227BC) mass produced crossbows with bronze parts were common. Technically early Iron Age, but since early crossbows were usually made with bronze instead of iron (bronze is more corrosion resistant), it's kind of a moot point and up to discretion.

Shipbuilding technology would be greatly effected to. Open sea sailing would be risky, while open ocean sailing would be viewed as suicidal.

[Sky]

This ( http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?388759-Campaign-setting-in-ancient-era) is a rather old thread that has some good pointers in it. Not a whole lot of mechanics, but good ideas to think about.

[Ralcos]

Thanks for all the help guys, but there's still one question on my mind:

I make it so casters prepare their spells using tokens (such as ropes of hair, or marked clay disks, etc.), but I'm not sure how I should handle the knowledge of high level spells.
I want this campaign to be high magic, but that somewhat requires thousands of years of arcane experimentation and discovery.

Should I "force" the player-controlled casters to learn and create their own spells beyond 5th level casting, or should I go a different route?

[Sky]

Should I "force" the player-controlled casters to learn and create their own spells beyond 5th level casting, or should I go a different route?

I'd make the mechanics reflect the fluff. If you have divine casters that get their magic directly as divine gifts, they probably wouldn't have to research spells. If your casters are drawing on some inner well of magic to power the spells (like sorcerers), then I wouldn't have them research spells either. If your casters are more along the lines of wizards or alchemists, and are figuring out how to reshape the universe, that seems like it would require some research.

[Xuc Xac]

I want this campaign to be high magic, but that somewhat requires thousands of years of arcane experimentation and discovery.


No, it doesn't. It's magic. It can work however you want. Just say that magic is powerful and common. Done. You can define it any way that you like.

Maybe that experimentation and discovery had been happening since the stone age. Maybe the world is young so there's still more magic in it. Maybe this world just has a higher default level of magic compared to other fictional worlds, but the inhabitants don't know about those other worlds so they don't think it's unusual. It's normal to them.

[Mr.Moron]

I think it depends on what exactly you're trying to do.

Are you looking to have a history-geek accurate verison of bronze age, without being focused on emulating specific cultures or are you looking to make something have the look/feel of particular cultures as they were in the bronze age.

[Ralcos]

I think it depends on what exactly you're trying to do.

Are you looking to have a history-geek accurate version of bronze age, without being focused on emulating specific cultures or are you looking to make something have the look/feel of particular cultures as they were in the bronze age.

I have an old thread I made with a campaign setting I was focusing on building for 3.5e.
Hopefully this helps on what I wanted to do for the game.



http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?375778-The-Bronze-Age-of-Basetra-(AKA-Basetra)

[Erechel]

As the title suggests, I'm wanting to run a 5e game in a Bronze Age setting. As I'm updating a setting I have already made, it's not that big of a deal.

I'm just wondering what problems I need to watch out for, and what support/homebrew that can be used to help with that. Any thoughts?

Look at the Ancient Armoury file in the DMs Guild, with bronze age weapons and armor fully converted to D&D. If you like them, please make a review.