I hope to run a small pen-and-paper roleplaying game, set in the upper
paleolithic era. We are using the GRAPE
rules.
That said, don't bother about reading/learning/buying any rules. It's the
GM's responsibility to know and enforce rules when s/he feels like --
players just need to know the genre and their own characters' personalities.
The land where the game takes place is called "Etzu." Etzu is a
large land mass and glacier with high mountains and powerful rivers,
populated by mammoth, caribou, salmon, halibut, rabbits, wild dogs, etc.
There are several semi-nomadic tribes in the area.
An artic sea exists North of Etzu, another sea is on the South, to the
West a great land mass continues, and to the East the land narrows and
becomes somewhat less hospitable.
There are many sturdy bushes and evergreen trees. Vegetation grows quickly
in the spring; grasslands, flowers, roots, berries, diciduous trees, oats.
The spring thaw brings muddy marshes.
Summer temperatures regularly reach as high as 70 degrees farenheit, and
average about 55 degrees farenheit. Winter temperatures regularly reach
as low as -15 farenheit, and average about 0 degrees farenheit.
The four largest tribes, with about 180-220 members each, are named for
the hot springs which they inhabit -- Spit, The Vole's Touch, Halitosis,
and Mud -- where the vegetation is lush year round.
In addittion to the four hot springs, there are also two active volcanos
-- Red Eye (estimated one eruption per 5-15 years), and Steam (estimated
one eruption per 20-50 years and periodic venting of steam every few
years).
The characters are from one of the many smaller tribes, the Mali. The
Mali tribe has about 90 members -- it was founded 6 generations back by
members of the Spit tribe.
Members of the Spit tribe preferred a sedentary life, and spent only a few
hours a week cultivating and thresshing grains, and keeping up their
semi-permanent lodges and huts. The Mali split from the Spit tribe over
two main issues -- the Mali preferred to work nine or ten hours per week
in order to bring in meat fish and a wider variety of foods, and preferred
to engage in more active trade with other tribes.
Since splitting from the Spit tribe, many of the Mali have become skilled
artisans of obsidian jewelry which they trade with other tribes. The Mali
have become an avunclular society wherein fathers have less to do with
providing their own children than they have to do with providing for their
sisters' children. If a family has multiple sons, the second son is
expected to leave the tribe to join another tribe. By the same token,
some males from other tribes marry Mali women after having been formally
accepted into the tribe.
Please see:
For more information, please contact Scott David Gray.