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Author Topic: A good plot (+ genre) for a Caveman Campaign that feels like a Caveman Campaign?  (Read 2442 times)

Scoops Novel

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I need someone professional at spicing thing up.
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Cathar

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Behold my very professional synopsis

Characters are members of semi-nomadic tribe who have suffered a severe drought and so their proto agriculture failed due to poor irrigation. Oh yeah also dissentery because someone peed on the river or something.
They are kind of screwed, because the greener pastures they would normally go are occupied by bigger, meaner wartribe who have access to copper work, and fighting them with sharper rocks just ain't gonna cut it.

Good thing, the shaman said that on Mount Hunga-Bunga, the legendary flower of Macguffinus grows and its sacrifice would appease the gods  of drought and cause them to fuck right off, so the tribe can survive. The PCs are sent on that sure-shot mission.

On their way they will have to fend off wolves, and other tribes. They will have to forage their supplies, negociate with their neghbour the right to pass through their territory. Also the Mount Hunga-Bunga is not only the territory of even bigger, meaner tribesmen, but also have manhunting fauna everywhere on it.

Of course, the MacGuffinus doesn't exist. An exact science shamanism aint. But on their travels, the PCs will accumulate allies and discover stuff about the world that would eventually lead to the solution of their problem - either they make friends with a bigger tribe and develop commercial relations, or they learn the principles of irrigation from sedentary tribes etc.

EuchreJack

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Or they learn to kick the ass of those big meanies on that nice arable land. Copper is for wusses!...who don't learn the secret of iron from the mountain

Enemy post

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Planegea should be just about to release, I just got the PDF version. Great art, and there’s a lot of inspiration for a caveman game in there.
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King Zultan

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Replacing all weapons with rocks and sticks, and making all buildings mud huts and caves.
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brewer bob

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If you're going for a 80's style caveman campaign, just steal the plots (and/or get inspiration) from some crappy movies like 'Yor, the Hunter from the Future', 'The Clan of the Cave Bear' or 'When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth'.

King Zultan

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What about reenacting the Flintstones?
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
Quote from: Leodanny
Can I have the sword when you’re done?

Shazial

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* Children of the tribe are starting to go missing for reasons unknown. The party looks into it 'cause the next disappearance hits too close to home, and children are precious in these trying times. They trace it down to a rival tribe doing sacrifices in a ritual to appease a deity that's been killing their tribesmen. The deity turns out to be a huge lone predator beast that has gotten a taste of human flesh. After killing the beast they bring peace to lands, or so they think...
...later on a similar beast starts attacking their own tribe and they realize someone's sending these beasts out, and so begins the epic tale of wandering out into the wilderness to track down who's capable of taming these man eating beasts and why they are trying to destroy the tribes directly or by inciting wars between them.

* Could also do a simple tale of group of weaklings wanting to be recognized by tribe elders, and have them take on a series of trials to become full fledged hunters. On the way there they could have options to develop their tribe and standing, earning them more companions, mates, new living areas, and such. Maybe in the end one of them might even come to stand as the chieftain of their tribe.

* Maybe a group of stragglers that got abandoned by their tribe for some reason, or got separated from them, or whatever happened in character background are looking to assemble their own tribe, and need to find or conquer a hunting ground, living space, and find vital tribe members to ensure their survival.

* The party starts out at a slaver camp. Maybe they were each from different camps, captured for who knows what purposes. But after being taken, they have been dragged half a continent away from their homes, and now they need to plot an escape and try and either find their way home, or settle for a life on a new and strange land full of people and creatures they've never seen before.

If you want a really interesting dark fantasy/horror world setting, you could look into Belly of the Beast. It's an interesting world set-up, where your adventures take place inside the innards of a hulking all-consuming beast. Lakes of stomach acid, mountains of muscle tissues, all sorts of nasty stuff and varying levels of civilizations that have all been swallowed by the gorger.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2022, 05:47:46 am by Shazial »
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EuchreJack

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The fundamental problem with a Caveman Campaign is that Cavemen failed to understand concepts that at least one player is going to know.
Like...how to make fire. 
You could have a whole campaign about Cavemen having to chase and fuel fires caused by lighting. 
But some spoil sport is going to say "Why not rub sticks together/pound rocks?"

How long before a Caveman Campaign devolves into the Flintstones due to the players trying to "invent" stuff?

Cathar

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You overestimate the ability of the average city dweller by a wide margin. Most people can't make a fire consistently with a bow if you give it to them, as for banging silexes together... long story short this is not going to happen without someone teaching them.
Making a fire from scracth recquire a lot of preparation and a lot of material, and if your players are average joe, they have no idea what those are and are probably not capable to light a fire in a shelter if it's raining, provided they even know what they are doing and have a lighter at hand.

As a GM you a perfectly within your right to tell them "you don"t know what a silex is" if your characters are living in pre fire-domestication society. Then to remind them of what they actually know as a character and invite them to fill their character shoes and let their knowledge as a 21th century internet-man at the door if they are to roleplay - that's the basis of roleplay.

Edit : As a side-note, the best tool at your disposal when you are GMing is knowledge of your topic. If you have a survival experience and have been in the situation where you had to find a shelter in the rain and look for sources of heat, or if you had to camp on a slope and be waken up by rain water streaming downhill, you are in the best position to tell them "you bang two rocks together. You feel like an idiot and nothing else happen". Wikipedia is your friend also. If ou find a lot of documentation on ancient society they will also help. Know your topic as much as you can, as a GM you are the link between your players and the world.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2022, 07:30:27 am by Cathar »
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