I wanna run a "hunters & gatherers" RPG where players are caveman in a prehistoric world with beasts and dinosaurs.
>What's the best system for it?
>What archetypes or classes would you expect to find in such a setting?
>What kind prehistoric flora and fauna should the players encounter?
>What kind of adventures could the players engage with in a typical session?
>What's the best system for it?
The one you make for that specific purpose and theme. Otherwise, you'll have to put an RPG you're familiar with in a chokehold to try to adapt its mechanics to this.
>What archetypes or classes would you expect to find in such a setting?
I would expect the ones I would make, if I were to do such a thing.
>What kind prehistoric flora and fauna should the players encounter?
Wild and dangerous, untouched by human influence. Don't hinge on historical accuracy; exaggerate and give things a bit of mysticism.
>What kind of adventures could the players engage with in a typical session?
Ones suited to being a hunter-gatherer in a prehistoric world with beasts and dinosaurs.
>What's the best system for it?
Honestly? Id just adapt B/X hexcrawling rules with a caveman overcoat. There is even a Neanderthal monster
>What archetypes or classes would you expect to find in such a setting?
Fighter, Shaman, Long distance lance thrower. Thats It.
>What kind prehistoric flora and fauna should the players encounter?
Giants mammals and reptiles, carnivorous birds and other tribes
>What kind of adventures could the players engage with in a typical session?
Cave crawling, hex exploration for food and shelter, Lair clearing and stealing from other tribes.
Wars against bigger tribes might be Nice too
Though you may like to attach leveling up to establishing your own tribe and "army"
There was an OSR hack called Wolf Packs and Winter Snow IIRC.
>What's the best system for it?
One you make.
>What archetypes or classes would you expect to find in such a setting?
Spearchucker. Rockbreaker. Berrypicker. Woodsplitter. Firetender. Open class system which allows learning from any tree but gives different benefits for specialising or diversifying.
>What kind prehistoric flora and fauna should the players encounter?
Humans, neanderthals, australopithecus for cavemen. Mammoths and sabretooth tigers, giant flightless birds, snakes the size of freeways, the last vestiges of dinosaurs.
>What kind of adventures could the players engage with in a typical session?
Could set it in the tail-end of an ice age. The tribes come out to a mostly unclaimed world and start hunting, gathering, building up settlements and raiding each other. Players establish their tribe amidst several others and build up their group culture together by fighting cavemen, hunting unique beasts, building and making, searching the ruins of cultures that died out in the cold.
>Spearchucker. Rockbreaker. Berrypicker. Woodsplitter. Firetender. Open class system which allows learning from any tree but gives different benefits for specialising or diversifying.
System too hard, too many option. My rock they play old rules. You Hunter or you Gatherer.
Dogman walks cave at night. Dogman walks alone. He says snuffalufagus not coming back this winter. Spends too much time in Dark. But he only one who find food this moon. Hunt today. Longtime Dogman gone. Find food no need Dogman. If no find food, find Dogman.
>Hunters & Gatherers
so what would each of those mean?
yeah hunters are good at hunting and maybe hiding from predators, but what about gatherers? they can pick berries, but what else?
>Ungas & Bungas
this one seems easier to interpret: ungas are the jocks (rock-smashing, hit-taking) and bungas are the nerds (tool-wielding, smart-thinking).
>but what about gatherers? they can pick berries, but what else?
>Identify which berries are poison (not just to avoid eating; can use them to coat spears or arrows)
>Know the best location to look for specific types of plants that are used for making the best bows, the best spears, etc.
>Ability to find edible objects in barren terrain
>Religious stuff because they tend to have more idle thinking time
yeah, I think I'll stick with Ungas & Bungas. Hunters and Gatherers seems like good way of turning your caveman game into hours of obligatory poison coating and active searching of poisonous berries and crafting materials.
>hunters and gatherers
Gatherers know speak to leaf. Leaf tells you what it do. Yellow leaf says it cures sick. Prickly leaf help itch. Mix red and green leaf make heal.
I try mix leaf, no work. Leaf green, must work! No gatherer tell me leaf no speak. Stupid.
Gatherer knows good Water from bad. Leans close to water and listens. Gatherer speak Fire into wood. Whisper.
Hunter kill food, Gatherer knows Water and speaks Fire. What more you need?
Follow Dogman in Dark, will need Spear AND Fire.
Unga superior archetype. Me Unga, me better hunter. Me better gatherer also. Bungas stay in cave kitchen, cook meat and make me weapon. Want know if fruit poison, make Bunga eat. Bunga die, poison fruit. Bunga not die, good fruit. Good fruit, good meal, eat fruit and cooked meat by Bunga wife. Unga have many wife, last wife dead, eat poison fruit.
>ha ha Bunga poke me with tiny spear
>*dies from bad berry on spear*
Bunga wrong. Me see Unga brother tank pointy rock. Unga brother laugh, smash Bunga with rock. Bunga use dark magic, curse Unga brother. Unga brother weak now, mouth leak blood. Unga brother dead. Hate Bungas, me kill all Bungas now.
Hunter-Gatherer tribe, Hunter use both hand for Spear, Gatherer use one hand for Fire, one hand for club or tool. Need both. Throw bones at Rock. Tell story.
Unga-Bunga tribe tell no story for Rock. Unga-Bunga tribe just easier for stupid say than Hunter-Gatherer.
Hunter-Gatherer sit on Rock, make rules for bones. Unga-Bunga have no bones, no mate, no small ones.
Unga-Bunga have no story for cave wall.
Hunter-Gatherer tribe dumb. Me Unga, me hunt, me gather. Bunga also hunt, also gather. Hunter-Gatherer job, Unga do, Bunga do. Me use club on pointy fang cat, use fist on other cat. Bunga throw spear, lure big head lizard, lizard fall into hole, lizard dead, Bunga win.
Hunter-Gatherer tell story? Unga-Bunga live story. Unga forget, Bunga remember. Unga hand big, Bunga ask for Unga hand, Unga hunt make big lizard on wall. Unga proud, Unga talented. Bunga tell family, Unga-Bunga eat lizard meat. Unga-Bunga fill belly, Unga-Bunga sleep, happy.
Unga-Bunga tell story, but not tell story to Rock.
Dogman Hunter.
Hunter Gatherer big fight. Dogman yell, broke big fight.
Dogman not Hunter. Not Gatherer. Broke Spear, steal Fire. Go to Dark alone.
Can't hunt alone. Can't kill Big Bird, Snuffalufagus, or Fire Lizard alone. Dogman hunt alone in cave. Cave meat. Tell story Rock. Rock cannot hear story. Eat cave meat.
Dogman first Cave Man. Unga-Bunga want follow Cave Man? Dogman gone. No food. Must go in Dark. No Food. Lurker. Slurper. Feet. Bad water. Eyes in Dark. Need strong Hunter. Strong Gatherer. Strong Unga-Bunga.
>Post Disc-cord
>Only available middle days.
>2E is for small cavemen. Big cavemen play 2E
A riveting tale of betrayal and revenge
>Hunters & Gatherers
>so what would each of those mean?
Males (big game hunt) and females (gather berries, eggs, shrooms and sometimes stray wolf pups.)
>Hunters: Seek game or defend the tribe.
>Rock thrower
>Spear thrower (requires intermediate eyesight)
>Pivoting arm spear thrower (Requires intellect and eyesight)
>Tracker
>Trap maker (Requires intellect)
>Whooper: Hunter who makes a lot of noise to scare game torwards hunters
>Hunt leaders: Usually the smartest of the group or has seniority.
>Gatherers
>Fruit pickers
>Bug gatherer specialist
>All gathers have some crafting skill but some excel.
>spinsters: Specialist in making trinkets, decorations, baskets, etc.
>Weapon makers: makes better quality weapons and can treat, repair, or refine weapons.
>Brood mothers: Really just a mean, lazy female.
>Special MOS:
>Food tester: Will be the one to eat new foods to see if they are poisonous. High gastric stats
>Fire maker: can tend fires, must learn how to make fire or has to steal fire.
>Time Traveller: Must have man bun trait. Came from the future to escape some sort of crime. No useful skills, rolls a penalty for everything.
From the very brief description in the OP, the Barbarians of Lemuria system could work for you. The default setting and careers are not Neolithic, but the system enables such play. A game set in Primal's setting would work, for example.
Change the parameters of Lasers & Feelings to Hunters & Gatherers, or Ungas & Bungas.
The most interesting caveman RPG I've seen is this game called Totem. It has a very thematically appropriate game mechanic:
The GM has a small bag with two colors of stones (the stones are identical to the touch because they're just those decorative fishtank rocks you can buy at a pet store) and based on the difficulty you can draw 1, 2, or 3 stones. If you get more of the color you're hoping for, good things happen. If you don't get any of the right color, bad things happen.
>what's the best system for it
a new one
librarylets please
I like the communication rules.
>They ask their friends and they either explain how it works, or pelt them with rocks
Kek.
Finally a world without bullshit magic users.
A place where fighters & barbarians get to shine.
don't jinx it, you will summon the shaman and dark magic people.
>CTRL-F "wolfpacks & winter snow"
>0 hits
/tg/, I am disappoint.
>What's the best system for it?
Assuming you're serious, go with Conan 2d20 and have most of your players from the Picts.
beer and pretzels game
not a huge fan of the magic/meta aspect that allows characters to indirectly influence the world around them. I mean, I'm fine with a character being "lucky" and being able to reroll failed actions for something, but being able to essentially call for things to happen encourages thinking less like a caveman and more like a wizard with a tribal flavor.
Thinking like a wizard would be fine if you were wrong and died. Or if you were wrong but got lucky
yeah, but I'm talking about having actual "powers" or luck that might as well be real magic.
for instance, the shaman in
can grant "boons" to other players. this gets the player thinking "like a wizard" about how to manage a supernatural resource.
has a similar thing with "grunting", which let's you "grunt" once per scene and have things go in your favor in a very much supernatural way as well.
the distinction I draw between those examples and being able to reroll some of your own failures (being "lucky"), is that your resource is intrinsic to yourself and doesn't require your character to be or do anything in particular, and if your character does atribute this to a supernatural force then it is entirely based on the results and not on actions. a player could still somewhat "think like a wizard" in the sense that it is a resource to be managed, but the fact that it can activelly fail (unlike "grunting) makes it more reasonable to roleplay imo.
Play Kiroa
No idea but here is some cavecore music:
?si=k_Y4S4Egakewsy-H
D&D 4E, but only Martial and Primal classes are allowed.
GURPS Iceage, obviously. It even has the most detailed and nuanced examination of paleolithic through neolithic economies.