Tg lately I've been pitching ideas for a setting starting from stone age to magitek, with each great innovation having a corresponding type of magic, but I just can't figure out what I'm missing.
Here's a few examples of what I have in mind.
Fire magic
Agricultural based magic
Metallurgy
Language
Burial
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Think animals and elements. More like druid powers
Fire earth water air fertility light darkness warmth cold
Mammoth bear wolf
I do think some animalistic powers would fit in well, as would elemental ones, but I wanna focus on a magic inspired by great leaps of technology and culture.
Cave drawings as runes similar to like FMA transmutation circles but used to cast spells and possibly later power tekky shit.
I was thinking that could be a less focused and more potent version of rune magic, but the problem is deciding what kind of drawings would do what.
I'm unsure of how general they should be and I was thinking of having it limited to two drawings per person on their back and chest, allowing them aspects of beasts.
Shamanism (Talking with spirits whether they be of ancestors, the hunt, great beasts, or the land itself)
Voodoo would be similar but with a darker twist
I'm actually in a prehistoric game. A friend of mine made an OSR game set in a fantasy prehistory, with a mythic history involving Serpentfolk, cosmic void Gods, and degenerate cave elves used as pets, livestock, and ritual components.
We were a bunch of random fucks given visions by a morlock deity that helped overthrow the Serpentfolk, and who needs worship to stay existing, but his morlocks are all dead. We went to go clear his temple and start a community. Our God is Vorm, a bird creature and erstwhile protector deity, though we've found out about some other "Parasite Gods" who helped defeat the Serpentfolk and free the morlocks, including a spider and a feathered serpent that makes the Northern lights.
Our party:
→ A demure and devoted herbalist... who crawled up onto Vorm's statue and bled on him, and is now mutated and beautifully birdlike
→ A mutant with an abnormal super genius brain and possibly a centipede for a dick and a member of the "Five Venoms" tribe
→ A priestess devoting herself to Vorm and carrying out his will
→ A cannibal shaman turned into a drider thanks to a magic set of teeth
Those were the original, though we've been joined by others, due to the difficulty of scheduling and holidays and school
→ A little hobo girl who talks to animals... and has squishy bones due to an octopus ring that she earned by reaching into a pool of water that turned out to be acid
→ A dumb, almost doglike, morlock (a cave elf, basically, with the ability to carve spells into their body)
→ (Soon) A Neanderthal of some sort
Notable NPCs include a morlock lich that lives in our attic and, as of last session, a talking Cockney eel that can see magic and (poorly) explains the metaphysics of the world.
Currently on the To-Do list:
→ Hunt some food
→ Bribe talking spiders
→ Meet the Spider God
→ Trek to the frozen north
→ Talk to the Aurora serpent
→ Defend our Gods from the Serpentfolk Gods that are still about.
That sounds like Wolfpacks and Wintersnow. It's an excellent system OP, you should check it out.
That's the system. It was made by a Veeky Forums poster who's in the /orsr/ general thread a decent amount.
Worth looking into, although it's more paleolithic, whereas stuff with agriculture and metallurgy and stuff seems much more neolithic.
So notable things that have happened. Not all of this is part of the 'plot' directly. Really, it's a big sandbox with interesting things scattered here and there.
→Drinking from a magic fountain gave PCs Cosmic Visions that left them permanently altered.
→They found a shoggoth in an underground cave that proceeded to 1-shot two of the party; the mutant was only saved when the party wendigo lept in front of the blow to tank the hit. The morlock, meanwhile, got instagibbed and was only saved by a rapid retreat followed by desperate surgery - even then she was left with major brain damage.
→They went back armed with a bunch of nasty poisons and murdered the shit out of the shoggoth.
→They went sailing across a lake just in time for a howling blizzard to brew up and utterly wreck them.
→They recruited a whole bunch of followers from a village that traded amber and drugs. These formed the core of their cult, now a few dozen strong.
→A corpse turned out to be holding a rubik's cube-like puzzle box that seems to have Cosmic Power, but they've not solved it yet.
→The priestess tried to get Vorm to carry her across a gorge, fucked up, and ended up summoning a swarm of floating scorpions. After a few nasty stings, the scorpions were turned into breakfast and alchemical components.
→They stumbled into a cave with astrological markings carved in the walls, and looted some old relics. There's a huge deep pit there they've not explored.
→Horrible shadowy ooze-monsters started attacking the proto-cult and were driven off. This hasn't been investigated yet.
→They found signs that Abraxus - the lich in question - had a hand in a few of the other weird cults (like the spider cult) getting set up.
I already checked it out, it's what we're playing.
I'm the Wendigo that shoves magical items into her mouth.
>the mutant was only saved when the party wendigo lept in front of the blow to tank the hit.
Oh yeah, I forgot about my moment of badassery.
Also, let's be honest here, Long Ears brain was already damaged.
I was speaking to OP, not you. I already know it's what you're playing.
Tell us more of your journeys, I have toyed with the idea of a prehistoric campaign but sadly no one I know wants to play. Let me live through your fantastical journeys!
Oh. Also, ST posted and joked about shilling, but she forgot to link her shit:
drivethrurpg.com
>great innovations
What you said, plus
>the wheel, or geometry as a whole
>mathematics
>animal domestication
>sailing
>understanding the pass of time and seasons (prerequisite to agriculture)
That´s the main things we figured out in ancient times that support everything else we´ve done.
Making magic based on the wheel is something rather hard to translate to a gaming system;
>mathematics
Not sure how to make that into a magical system other than maybe altering the force of effects, and maybe using handsigns for multiplication, addition, subtraction, etc
>Sailing
I thought of that and the only thing I could think of was either vomiting sea water out at foes after drinking it, or taking power from the wind into ones body by standing outside on a windy day.
>passage of time
I'mm drawing a complete blank for a magic based on that honestly.
>I'mm drawing a complete blank for a magic based on that honestly.
Star calendars, astrology, oracles, great cycles
Maybe magic gifts can be gained from zodiac sign, moonphase, and season?
That's all I can think of so far.
We'll since I have some time now perhaps I'll share some rules of magic in the setting starting with fire.
Fire Magic will have the standard fire blasts and a few other traits thrown in like the ability to breath through any part of their body, and the need for air to acess their power at all. Channeling fire magic makes the body of the user car less durable, but able to heal far quicker using flamable materials. Other uses inlude smoke control and creation, making smoke signals that can project short messages, teleportation through fire and smoke, and a minor healing noon to those who rest near a flame with them.
>geometry
Arcane magic that changes the shape of things. Doesn´t necessarily have to stick to basic forms. Alternatively, a way to better channel and focus other magic types, probably used by the most developed people around, most likely a civilization with writing. So likely not yet discovered.
>mathematics/passage of time
Divination.
>sailing
Come on now, theré´s a fuckload of magic stuff related to sailing, starting with divination, passing through weather control, wind control, water control, sea life, directions...
You're right about sailing for sure, but I'm mainly focusing on the early bronze age tech, so animals, fire, farming and the like.
Take all the complex magic spells in the book that require high levels of thinkin/math. Like Fireball or Web. Go with basic spells. Healing spells and stat buff spells are good for that. Furthermore, make everyone that isnt a caster afraid of magic.
Idk if its been mentioned but Warlord Games are now selling prehistoric minis. Just a heads up
Basic is what I'm looking for first and formost since it's the dawn of magic for cave people, but how does one variety to what can be casted?