Sunday, July 10, 2005

Would anybody else be interested...

in D&D if it was set before the Age of Steel? It seems to me that the game has suffered by cleaving unto a late-medieval/early Ren faire setting for so long. Wizards seems to want to push the tech forward, considering Eberron's robots and locomotives. But I think a lot could be gained by turning the primitive savagery to eleven. Like perhaps a game set in stone-age Sumeria or elsewhere in the Middle East of the Old Testament. Greek Age of Heroes, anyone? Bueller? Or maybe a game set in a different culture like that of Nyambe's pseudo-Africa or some sort of Vedic India type thing or maybe Aztecs & Axes. There's been at least one Dragon article (from the 1st edition era) on D&D during the last Ice Age. A dinosaur game with Sleestak's would also rock out. The Polyhedron mini-games like Omega World and Iron Lords of Jupiter also have their appeal. D&D these days just might work for a Thundarr the Barbarian style post-apocalyptic adventure.

I don't think most of these ideas could sustain a lengthy campaign, but Nyambe's got some two ro three available modules. The rest might work on a one-shot basis, like at a con. About a decade ago I ran a 2nd edition AD&D game set in Bronze Age mythic Greece. That turned out fairly successfully. Maybe I should redo that project for 3.5 and run it again. Making semi-divine hero-kings should be much easier under the new rules.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:49 PM

    Sounds like fun to me! A few years ago, I was reading up on the golden age of Sumer for a campaign that never happened. That period would make a great basis for low-tech fantasy.

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  2. In the otherwise uninteresting issue on Westernos in Dragon, one of the parts of W. was essentially the Ice Age, and there were some bits on Ice age opponents and tech. Maybe the trick is dwarfs, elf, lizardmen, etc.
    as PCs, with some legacy humans in multiple settings,
    like the end of the ice age, bronze, Greco-Aelven, steampunk Victoriana, etc. Maybe a little Wold-Newton Timeline, and Vandal Savage/Per Degaton in the mix.

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  3. Sort of a multigenerational epic thing? I can dig on that.

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