What are some good quest ideas for a bronze-Age campaign?

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Mythic Fantasy.

much the same as regular fantasy. But no one has any iron.

I always thought it was weird that DnD and the typical fantasy games are based on feudal europe rather than the bronze and iron ages..it's also weird that almost every fantasy setting is polytheistic thought he medieval europeans were christians.

When I think of 'adventurer' Odysseus and Perseus come to mind, no medieval figure. Also plate armor is just anti-adventure. Can't jump a chasm or climb a robe when you're dressed like that. Cyclops, colussus, hydra, minotaur...medieval europe just has the dragon? And there's more seafaring adventures than in medieval settings, that's for sure.

There's lots of good quest ideas, but one thing i think is true is that your ideas don't need to be as good/clever in such a setting. You can literally just have 'achilles is badass and kills a bunch of people' and 'you have to defeat this minotaur/cyclops/medusa/whatever that's terrorizing our people. Literally you just have these creatures living in a cave or a dungeon or a labyrinth or whatever it is.

And dont' forget the middle eastern stuff from the same time period.
When your story takes place in a place with all these independent city states plus 1 or 2 powerful empires...adventurous quests feel 'normal' to me somehow.

Feudalism feels too constricting

The Rape Goddess has just sent The Bull of Heaven to annihilate the City, and only the Party has enough collected Demi-God-ness and whoopass to bring it down!

Or this, no joke.

>The Rape Goddess has just sent The Bull of Heaven to annihilate the City, and only the Party has enough collected Demi-God-ness and whoopass to bring it down!

And if that doesn't work, she'll tear your fucking walls down with magic and sorcery, and grind your priests' bones to dust under iron boots.

Evil Villain stole all the bronze!

Underword god has kidnapped a goddess

Are you a bad enough bunch of dudes to literally go to hell and get her back?

>Sumer and Akkad
Shit son, the Middle East at the time was pretty depressing. Didn't the Epic of Gilgamesh state that the afterlife is so utterly shit that the dead envy the living? Their worldview must've been "be happy with what you got, because in about 60 years it'll get A LOT worse".

A culture that believes in paradise after death is probably more desperate

There is a comic called Age of Bronze. May help you to gain ideas for your campaign.

I’d like to play Glorantha, but all the rulebooks are out of print and 13th age is vaporware.

What system would you guys use for a bronze age type setting?

Remind me why we worship the Rape Goddess again?

It depends, but BRP or Runequest are very good for that feel of high adventure but high mortality/maiming, it's the best imho for sword and sorcery kind of games.

Because you don't want her to get pissed off with your tribe of course.

Late plate armor harness was lighter and easier to move in then most previous armor types, and is far less uncomfortable and restrictive then chain, quited fabric or scale, with some types of scale being among the heaviest armor that humans have ever engaged in combat while wearing.

It's heavier then clothing, but lighter then modern plate carrier armor with auxurllery protection for groin, deltoids, ect.

GURPS handles it really well and there's a sweet brutality to bronze age combat, where you can do battle with staff and sling or a spear and you are a serious threat rather then a joke.

For a non-mythic game, maybe play up the gift exchanges that were part of many bronze age cultures? To keep the peace between your people and a nearby city you have to escort a great white bull to their temple.

Start with an attack by a poor tribe that wants to steal the sacrifice for their own god to give some good fights to start the story off, then follow up with some politics, a person from your people trying to convince you to sabotage the gift exchange because the city is weak at the moment and vulnerable to attack. Better to raid them for as much tribute as you can carry then seal an alliance. Make the players chose between wealth and honor.

She's pretty hot

Glorantha is a good setting for what you want.
Even if only as something to get inspiration from.

Have you checked Chaosiums website? Most Glorantha related stuff can be bought there, even if only as PDF.

Raid Egypt
Raid for other people's cattle
Try to negotiate a deal for lumber with a king in an ancient country who has little to fear if he decides that it's more convenient to just rob you and feeds you to his dogs
FIGHT CHAOS BY SPREADING YOUR DOMINION OVER THE KNOWN WORLD

>Tolkien is based of feudal Europe
>all fantasy is a ripoff of Tolkien
>all fantasy is based of feudal Europe
Simple as that son. There isn't a lick of originality left in this entire genre.

No one mentions Savage Worlds enough

>medieval "fantasy"
>God hates you and nailed his son to a cross also praise the pope
>bronze age fantasy
>are you a bad enough dude to bone the goddess of sex and then chariot race away from her jealous god boyfriend in time?
it's really no contest

Tolkien is based off of pre fuedal Northern Europe.

>are you a bad enough dude to bone the goddess of death and ask her to race against your neighbours' cows once she's right and proper pregnant?

But D&D rips from Howard and Vance more than Tolkien

I've never read anything by Vance, but D&D doesn't rip off Howard in the least, except arguably the Barbarian class, which I suspect was also based on the Arnold movies.

Read the book of Judges in the Bible. It's good some good adventuring ideas.

Correct. Specifically Germanic myths

how much damage would the jawbone of an ass do in DnD or Savage Worlds

1d8. But you forget, Samson had a MASSIVE strength bonus to hit and damage and a rage bonus to boot.

upvoted

Spell slots are ripped straight from Vance

anything from the book of judges (maccabees). seriously, there's even a chapter where a rebellious Israelite stabs a king who was so fat that dirt came out instead of blood. seriously, this king is the only one in the text that is actually described as being "a very fat man."

every military victory comes about because God intervened in some way (this is very fitting for bronze age campaigns). even down to just because you doubt my power I will have a woman completely show you up and kill your enemy for you.

the other books in the text also have some great plot hooks. the description of the Israelites under Joseph makes for a great description of a militaristic society on the move and the customs and traditions they're likely to follow.

be gentle it's my first time baiting
thanks for the (you)

An Assyrian Prince does something that pisses his father off. In punishment he sends him on a massive redemption quest.

1. Tour the entire Empire and take stock of the reality on the group and clean up corruption.

2. Make diplomatic contact with the great regional powers and asset Assyrian interests (Egypt, Hitties, etc...)

3. Asset dominion over vassal states

No one actually thinks the prince will survive this mission but he does it anyways because Assyrians are headstrong. He brings his war chariot as well as his closest sworn brothers. Here you have other PCs that can take different roles from fighting, trading, religious priest, envoy or even scribe.

If you really want to up the difficulty, have it take place during the bronze age collapse and having to adventure through destroyed and ransacked lands where roaming war bands of sea peoples hunt you down.

S E A P E O P L E S

The Bronze age facilitated a great deal of international relations and trade.

Tin and precious stones from Afghanistan was found around the mediterrean.

All to dust and ash, as the sea people tribes ended city after city.

Assuming they're the cause, and not the symptom.

Some have suggested there were major famines going on, and that the Sea Peoples were essentially just people lacking food, going to raid for more, and the whole thing snowballing from there.

>bronze age civilizations were powerful and stable
>literally destroyed by starving peasants in boats

Isn't that cRPG Tyranny a bronze-age setting?

This tbqhwy senpai

D&D literally uses Vancian magic...

Bro. Heroquest Glorantha is in print, and both the new Runequest and 13th Age in Glorantha should be released by the end of the year.

anything out of conan basically

just play MYFAROG

yes

>vargposting

I thought that that was a euphemism for the king shitting himself when he died.

>Some thief or neighbouring people have stolen your temple's idol, and now your crops/herds are failing
>The local ruler is heirless, and promises his land to someone who can undertake some great task. there is much competition from other gangs of adventurers and claimants.
> some hideous beast stalks the hills, eating villagers.
>A blind prophet declares that the current plague is caused by some great sacrilegious pollution in the area. you need to determine the source and cleanse it.
>there is a war in heaven, and people are taking sides.
> your lands have been ravaged by strange invaders, and you must undertake a great journey with the survivors to claim a new kingdom.
>because of impudence, a sorceress has cursed you, and you must complete tasks for her amusement in order to lift it.

Chariots need to be included at some point.

Because our civilization is scared as shit of her so we designated some sect of whores to do ritual bullshit or something to appease her, but eventually they forgot what the reason for their existence and started doing it honestly.

Post collapse all the way to early iron age would be interesting as well. Because there are these huge cities just kind of lying around abandoned.

"[T]hey marched... to a great deserted fortress (which lay over against the city), and the name of that city was Mespila (3). The Medes once dwelt in it. The basement was made of polished stone full of shells; fifty feet was the breadth of it, and fifty feet the height; and on this basement was reared a wall of brick, the breadth whereof was fifty feet and the height thereof four hundred; and the circuit of the wall was six parasangs [~15 - 18 miles]. Hither, as the story goes, Medea (4), the king's wife, betook herself in flight what time the Medes lost their empire at the hands of the Persians. To this city also the king of the Pesians laid siege, but could not take it either by length of days or strength of hand. But Zeus sent amazement on the inhabitants thereof, and so it was taken. "

-Anabasis

Imagine walking by a place, bigger and grander than anything you or yours have built. "Yeah, god fucked that city up a while ago." It's just kind of sitting there abandoned. That experience was common enough that it rated a paragraph in a travelogue. Admittedly one where they were fleeing for their lives.

In all honesty we've kinda been relying on the sect of whores to distract the king when he decides being king means he gets to bend everyone over. We've found it hard to keep a city going for very long without getting some crazy high-born bitches organized to distract the crazy high-born men.

holy shit qt alert

What features of ancient timesy war meta caused chariots to be so good and then stop being a viable strat? Dumb phrasing, serious question. I like chariots but if I understand them better I can put them in stuff without it being stupid.

So, ideas for Bronze-Age 5e D&D

Races:
Humans (naturally)
Centaurs
Satyrs
Amazons (human subrace, or entirely new?)
Goliaths
Demigod?

New Archetypes for Classes:
Bard (College of the Sacred Prostitute)
Cleric (Prophecy)
Fighter (Charioteer)
Wizard (Astrologer)

Bigger horses.

They started breeding programs so that they could have horses capable of carrying heavier armour, so that cavalry would be more useful.

Sea peoples eschewing expensive horses and charioteers for hordes of naked javelin tossers

>Amazons (human subrace, or entirely new?)
Entirely new. They're women, except not incompetent.

Not him but to add to that...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przewalski's_horse
This is the closest living relative of the early wild horse from which most domesticated breeds are descendants. These horses are absolutely tiny. You can't really imagine a dude in full armor sitting on its back, can you? Those tiny beasts dragging a chariot also looks a lot less impressive than modern horses dragging a chariot like in modern day movies and vidya. Imagine how silly the race scene from Prince of Egypt would look with itty bitty horses.

How about Barbarians of Lemuria?

Isn’t Thed supposed to be goddess of rape?

Isn’t this one more like goddess of cultural marxism?

Yeah, some people have weird ideas on the Red Goddess, but she's just a goddess of illumination, glamour, cosmos and chaos.

Greek mythology is the best kind of setting for DnD.

My DM typically bases his campaigns on it and it's generally super fun, if a bit insane sometimes.

I am still mad he ended up not doing a daughters of Thespius-like quest because he thought it'd be too magical realm-y.

I mean Teelo Estara was raped by Wakboth before she became Sedenya, so...

>Yeah, some people have weird ideas on the Red Goddess, but she's just a goddess of illumination, glamour, cosmos and chaos.
>just a goddess of illumination, glamour, cosmos and chaos.
>JUST
She is Gbaji returned.

>literally destroyed by starving peasants in boats
sic semper tyranus...

>good quest ideas for a bronze-Age campaign?
you play a band of phenician warriors-merchants tasked with retrieving a royal artifact on a archipelago of small islands

>phenician

>The life giving river has dried up, you have been tasked to find the cause of it and fix it.
>The holy cattle that was gifted to your people by the gods are gone. Find them and whoever took them.
>Strange foreigners with equally strange gods have come to conquer your people. Fend them off.
>You are the ones invading a faraway strange country with strange gods. Loot and conquer!
>By order of your King/God you have been tasked to steal a magical item/creature from a monster/rival city/rival god to bring prosperity and glory to your people.
>You are merchants/explorers/warriors setting out to travel beyond the borders of the civilised world to find what lies beyond. Meet alien civilisations both human and not, discover ruins from before time and challenge monsters guarding untold treasures.

desu the cleric divine domain system is already perfect for pre-medieval stuff

that's the one thing about these medieval fantasy games that's very bronze age rather than medieval, the religious stuff

More like
S A R D N I G G E R S

Yeah, it's a very suitable class. There is the question of what to use for magic users, Favoured Soul would work nicely for some. Others might be more suited for warlocks.

Look at ancient hero myths like Perseus, Theseus, or Odysseus. There's some good shit in Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythology as well.

Also look at history. Your players could be ancient Egyptians dealing with the Sea Peoples or you could have the BBEG be a Rome/Assyria proxy that have iron while the PC's nation is still stuck with bronze.

Also, check out pic related. It's a Diablo-esque RPG that takes place in ancient Greece, Egypt, Babylon, and China. It's got a lot of cool shit, and some quests that would probably work for what you're describing.

>Those fucking colors

Age of Mythology might give you some inspiration as well.

>maccabees

What are the best intelligent monsters for a Bronze age game?

Trolls.

Neat!

captcha: limit roman
Whaaaat?

Centaurs, Satyrs, Harpies, Sirens, Sphinxes. Cyclopses, Hecatoncheires, Gorgons

PROSTAGMA?

She can tend my flock any time.

skee pan

Atlanteans OP, pls nerf Citizen

[ANGRY DOG NOISES]

G I L G A M E S H
I L G A M E S H G
L G A M E S H G I
G A M E S H G I L
A M E S H G I L G
M E S H G I L G A
E S H G I L G A M
S H G I L G A M E
H G I L G A M E S

Also Dwarf Fortress' world generation is sick.

It has an 'age of mythology' where civilization is weak and there's tons of powerful monsters (many of which are from bronze age mythology).
If, during history generation, a significant amount of monsters die as civilized population grows (and heroic historical figures become famous because they slew some of these monsters), it enters the age of legends, and if this goes even further, it enters the age of heroes, and then when tehre are almost none of these 'megabeasts' left and the world map is covered in civilizations it enters 'The Golden Age'.

Age of Mythology = Ancient crete, the minoans, palace of Knossos, etc., the entire history from this era is steeped in myth after being passed down orally. Dwarf Fortress simulates this historical effect by making it so that era in a randomly generated world actually did have those monsters..and a few heroes who slew them
Age of Legends = Myceneans, Trojan war stuff, mroe heroes like Achilles and Odysseus, more magical monsters dying
Age of Heroes = at this point historical events are more recent relative to the classical Greeks who decided to write all this shit down. way less mythical monsters and stuff, more war heroes stories. Also civilizations have become bigger and there's more warfare to talk about, for example Marathon and Thermopylae

Golden Age = hellenistic period and the Roman empire. No more magic, just politics and war.

Horse riding was rather new then. Chariots were a way to make two to four small horses into a unified engine. Larger horse breeds emerged in places and allowed a single rider to a single horse. This higher mobility and number to the mounted core of warriors made for dangerous raids by swift soldiers. Settled places were great because they either moved only a few miles to chase the ever changing river banks or remained on the banks of a much larger, permanent river. These men wielded lassos and bows on horse back. Arrows to drive the infantry phalanxes into denser and denser blocks and lassos to snag stragglers or disrupt the battle line


>Go to the city of Ur'Anshah
>Claim to know a way to stop them, roll to accomplish
>Get in, tell the guards to take you to the king
>Tell him you can help stop the beast men in exchange for grain and women
>Fuck wenches, acquire currency

Seeing this shit almost makes me want to devote a few weeks/months creating an alphabet for my players to decode in-game while diving through ruins.

Almost.

Let's file that under "things DMs think are good ideas that will make their players kill them in about five minutes."

Either of you Greek guys have love for the Hellenistic Era? You've got the remnants of a dead empire, Scythians and/or Sarmatians in the wilds of the north, the Carthaginian trade dominance and it's conflict with upstart Rome, Greek colonies and cities all the way from Spain to Tajikistan, Pirates all over the place, abundant opportunities for mercenary work.

Shit's badass.

Hence, almost.

I was just affirming your very correct decision.

Alternately, "Things DMs think are good ideas that will instead crush their soul when the dead language they spent a month crafting is ignored in seconds for a skill check."

Hellenistic era feels a little too advanced, what with all the iron tech.

Gotcha.

>Hellenistic era feels a little too advanced, what with all the iron tech.
Then go with Mycaeneans/Achaeans. Bronze axes, horned helmets, raiding your neighbours for cattle, massive colonization on the Agaean, trade empire on Crete and so on

That's what I was saying.

It wasn't really the size of ancient horses. Breeding a bigger horse is fairly simple, and something which ancient peoples would have been capable of, and very likely engaged in when it was suitable. (also, even a modest sized horse can still carry a man). Much more difficult is breeding horses with the correct temperament to be ridden in combat. Animals tend to not like having other animals (such as hoomans) sitting on top of them, and they definitely don't like it when there are hoomans sitting on top of them while there are also other hoomans trying to kill them.

Like, a person technically CAN ride on top of a rhino or a bull or whatever, but that doesn't exactly mean that they make for good mounts. War elephants existed for a long time, and have been utilized by many peoples, but they've never been more than a meme. They were pretty much always for showing off rather than as an actual effective weapon, because elephants are extremely uncooperative as battle mounts. Early horses would have had a similar attitude, and it took perhaps 2,000 years for this to be bred out of them.

Also, without a tradition of horse riding, it's not all that intuitive to begin doing so, even if you had a big horse. Lindybeige can be cringeworthy, but his video on cavalry is pretty good.

Some info: the domestication of horses occurs around 3,000-2,500 BC, but the earliest evidence we have for cavalry dates to only 800 BC. It's almost a certainty that cavalry existed earlier than this, and that people were riding horses long before they were fighting upon them, but the length of this gap, and the fact that no other animals have been EFFECTIVELY utilized for combat should be pretty instructive.

Dude, the Bronze Age was wild.

(actually, pre-modern people of all ages and places tended to dress and decorate very colorfully. For some reason*, modern media likes to depict everyone as wearing only black and brown)

(*GRITTINESS!!1)

What, do you prefer the hollywood leather, mud and shit look? People back then loved gaudy stuff, specially the military. Heck, until the first world war soldier wore the prettiest stuff if they could afford it. Clothes were sure way to display statues and the like.