[Ice Age] TL0 Gadgeteers and Civilization-Building

[Anders]

Ayla from the Children of Earth series is a gadgeteer. She invents the spear thrower, animal taming and flint sparking.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Anders

Ayla from the Children of Earth series is a gadgeteer. She invents the spear thrower, animal taming and flint sparking.

Atook from the movie Caveman is a gadgeteer. He invents the wheel, a sedative delivery system, slings, and the treebranch-powered animal snare, and assists in the creation of lever-based weapons, armor, animal-taming, cooking, and fire.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Anders

Ayla from the Children of Earth series is a gadgeteer. She invents the spear thrower, animal taming and flint sparking.

And the linkage between sex and reproduction.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

And the linkage between sex and reproduction.

Well, no., that one already existed.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

And the linkage between sex and reproduction.

And horse-riding and the travois. Also, suturing. Besides which she met the woman who invented tanning.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Anders

Ayla from the Children of Earth series is a gadgeteer. She invents the spear thrower, animal taming and flint sparking.

By Jean M. Auel, starting with Clan of the Cave Bear.

The series is pretty much required reading for any semi-realistic TL0 Gadgeteer campaign, although Ayla's inventiveness and skill set gets increasingly cinematic as the series progresses.

[Prince Charon]

Thinking about The Flintstones in regard to this concept (because something vaguely like it could perhaps arise from the descendants of the Neanderthal band in the OP). The town of Bedrock is largely a TL(0+7)^ setting, but while some elements are basically sitcom superscience (the TV and phone which are equivalent to the 1960s CE versions, some of the ways animals are used, arguably also the presence of non-avian dinosaurs), some of it is not really that far off from what a Neolithic civilization could have built. The cars are an example: They work better than they should, but wheeled vehicles propelled and braked by the riders' own muscles are plausible at late TL0 (and may explain the proportionally large feet and legs of the men), even if they're ridiculously inefficient for a civilization that has mastered domestication of animals to the degree that the Bedrock Culture has... unless there's some TL0^ superscience advantage to them.


Thoughts?

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

I suggest that no 'magic' system should exist, but if you include TL^, inventing a magic system or systems is not that much more ridiculous than some of the other stuff you can do with unrestricted TL^ gadgeteering.

Thinking a bit more about this bit from the OP. The concept of PC designed (as opposed to player-designed) magic systems is a potentially interesting one. Perhaps mana (or sanctity, or spirits) already exists, and the gadgeteers develop ways to take advantage of it. Perhaps it doesn't, and they superscience up a magic system or systems that won't need it (e.g. psi powers). The question is what would be believable for them to think of (along with what the GM would allow, which is highly variable)?