The Fantasy Trip in The Stone Age

[Jim Kane]

This evening, after looking through the gaming file cabinet for something else, I started looking over the beautiful cover art for GURPS: Time Travel - which features a fantastic Pre-historic scene, painted by John Zeleznik - which led me to begin looking for my *antique* copy of Metagaming's: Sticks and Stones, by David Ray, which does not seem to be in my file-cabinet any longer (arrrgh!), and a thought began to occur to me, so I thought I would bring it to the forum.

I imagine that the vast majority of people play TFT as some sort of a cross between an Iron/Bronze age meets Arthurian/Tolkien/Howard time-period; but I am wondering if anyone else is interested in TFT adventuring in something along the lines of the seven book, Edgar Rice Burroughs', Pellucidar series; being set inside a hollow-earth, during an imagined and fantastical Stone-Age period.

How do others feel about this type of trope-filled literary/fiction Stone Age period for TFT adventuring as a campaign or adventure setting?

Thoughts?

JK

[Rick_Smith]

Hi Jim, everyone.
When SJ was writing up GURPS: Man to Man, he set it in a Stone Age campaign, I believe. (Simple combat, no magic, etc.)

I think that the back ground would be too simple for my group tho.

Warm regards, Rick.

[Kobold Curry Chef]

I think that would be a very good setting for TFT, either magic-free or magic-full.

[larsdangly]

I really like that TFT is exciting, fun to play, and well balanced for tech levels from clubs, spears and bolas to pikes, arquebuses and fencing masters, with or without magic. It is kind of miraculous how hard it is to find a 'mode' of TFT combat that feels broken.

[Skarg]

You could check out GURPS Ice Age and convert its mechanical bits to TFT easily enough. It's a really good book.

[larsdangly]

Agreed; GURPS Ice Age is exceptional.

[Dave Crowell]

I would certainly play a stone age TFT. It would offer quite a change from the usual fantasy options.

[The Colonel]

The stone-age setting would likely be very alien to most players - as noted in GURPS Ice Age a setting with no society to speak of, no economy and very little gear would leave a lot of people quite puzzled. Essentially every game becomes a wilderness survival adventure.

Although, strictly speaking "stone age" could include the majority of the pre-Columbian Americas or pre-contact Australia and the Pacific as well...

[Steve Jackson]

Actually, the original GURPS campaign was after-the-holocaust, worked back up to an Iron Age, with occasional "magic" weapons that had survived from the fateful armies of the High Builders. I don't think anyone was reloading yet, though.

A thing to recall in Ice Age campaigns - There is probably no warrior class. There is a hunter class, but nobody gets much practice in fighting other humans, by the standards of later eras. And the tribe would look down severely on anyone who dueled in a risky way; every member is precious.

In my low-tech worldview, anyhow.

[Dave Crowell]

To say that stone age settings would have no society does the actual societies of the stone age a great disservice. Trade networks were extensive.