Runequest for Fire

[johnmarron]

I posted this over on RPGNet, but thought I'd try my luck here as well:

I was reading some old threads on Mongoose Runequest II yesterday, and someone mentioned that they wanted to use the game to run a stone age campaign. This got me thinking I'd like to try the same thing.

I'd use our own Mithras' excellent game Totem (available free here) as a starting point (lots of good ideas on what to do in a stone age game).

In terms of rule changes I'd need to make, I'd probably create a slimmed down skill list (although, not that much change is needed), and a new (much) smaller weapon table, with probably new Armor Point/Hit Point values for weapons (I'm thinking the Damage Weapon Combat Maneuver would get more of a workout in this setting). I'd start everyone with a few points of Common Magic, and a + to the Common Magic skill (a la Gloranthan characters) to represent little rituals, charms, etc., and reserve Spirit Magic for actual Shamans. Drop Divine and Sorcery. I could recast silver pieces as "barter points" or something, but probably just handwave gear since I'd urge all characters to take at least some basic crafting skills. I guess everyone would have the Primitive cultural background, although I'd need to look at that to make sure it reflects ice age culture well enough.

Anyone tried this? Any thoughts on other rules tweaks that might be necessary?

John

 

[Deleriad]

Anyone tried this? Any thoughts on other rules tweaks that might be necessary?

John

I would actually be tempted to drop common magic too but make fetishes very common so that everyone has maybe 1-3 provided by tribe's shaman. If everyone knows some sprit binding and spirit walking then it would make spirits much more central.

I would also gloss it in such a way that magic doesn't have observable effects so it might all just be psychosomatic. It would cut down the magic level of the campaign majorly.

 

[languagegeek]

I was reading some old threads on Mongoose Runequest II yesterday, and someone mentioned that they wanted to use the game to run a stone age campaign. This got me thinking I'd like to try the same thing.

That would probably be me.

I'd use our own Mithras' excellent game Totem (available free here) as a starting point (lots of good ideas on what to do in a stone age game).

I did pick that PDF up, and did take some stuff from there (I like the manufacture times chart).

"Stone Age" as a term is pretty broad. I am looking at more meso- neolithic, well past the ice age. Economically speaking, societies are relatively settled with some cultures focused on farming (neolithic Adena-like culture), for some non-agriculturalists the fishing is good enough to sustain permanent villages (think British Columbia), and others stick with successful hunting/gathering while not being nomadic. Culturally, the societies stem from a mishmash of meso-/neolithic history and mythology and some original musings.

In terms of rule changes I'd need to make, I'd probably create a slimmed down skill list (although, not that much change is needed), and a new (much) smaller weapon table, with probably new Armor Point/Hit Point values for weapons (I'm thinking the Damage Weapon Combat Maneuver would get more of a workout in this setting). I'd start everyone with a few points of Common Magic, and a + to the Common Magic skill (a la Gloranthan characters) to represent little rituals, charms, etc., and reserve Spirit Magic for actual Shamans. Drop Divine and Sorcery. I could recast silver pieces as "barter points" or something, but probably just handwave gear since I'd urge all characters to take at least some basic crafting skills. I guess everyone would have the Primitive cultural background, although I'd need to look at that to make sure it reflects ice age culture well enough.

The skills were really easy to manage. We went with primitive origins, and all the common skills. Advanced skills were just common sense (i.e. no mechanisms). I didn't have to formalize anything here.

I did a major overhaul of weapons and equipment, incorporating different materials, weapon/armour types (garnered from stone age cultures world-wide), and so on. I created my own weapons charts and stats: the Arms and Equipment book came in handy. Oddly enough, I didn't think I'd be remotely interested in this kind of restatting but it was fun.

Magic: Everyone gets common magic. Hunters/Gatherers get spirit magic (of various persuasions exist in the culture). The Farmers have developed ancestor worship into more of a divine cult, so divine magic works well there. None of the PCs were interested in Sorcery (available to both, kinda), but I have plans for making Sorcery a reality for them in the future.

Plus I'm a linguist, so language stuff abounds

One of the players is keeping a log of our adventure, I'll see if he wants to make it public for this forum.

An important question, what is your stone age? Do you want to play early-human stone age? Popular-fiction-esque ice age / stone age? Anthropologically accurate stone age (which era of stone age, which part of the world)? Mythological stone age? Fantasy stone age? All would be great fun. Mine includes mostly anthropology and mythology which are fields of great interest to me. Cults of Glorantha ended up being very handy for how I want to manage dreamtime.