Post/Author/DateTime	Post
pbradley179 06-25-07, 04:06 PM	Our group has begun playing in a "low level" style of world, set a bit more historically than D&D typically is, ~650-900AD. No ancient civilizations, no great amounts of magic as the highest level heroes tend to sit at around 10th-12th level. Technologically, most of the D&D core equipment exists: full plate mail's a rarity, specialty crossbows belong only to an engineering prodigy's sketchbook, boats basically amount to triremes and war canoes, etc. Culturally, there are very few well-established kingdoms and civilizations, mostly smaller tribes that have only begun banding together under different forms of governance. Most races are from "their" home region, as cosmopolitan hegemony hasn't really been an option. Because of the semi-artificial cap on level, magic over level 4 is almost unheard of, and magic items with a minimum caster level over 10 is usually some god-granted relic created by some sort of epic act of heroism/religious significance. The plane's cut off from the rest of the multiverse due to an act of the gods, who fled an unamed event that killed the dinosaurs, orcs, and gods knows whatever other races there were back then. Planar visitors and outsiders are limited to the brief windows offered by summoning spells. What are some concerns that the average adventuring party, and/or commoners, might have in such a setting?
Johnny_Angel 06-25-07, 04:09 PM	A lot more of the mundane equipment (bags, poles, shovels, rope, etc) becomes a lot more important. Usually I tend to have my characters carry those type of things anyway, but I think this style of campaign makes them even more important. Also, healing will become a bit tougher.
elondir 06-25-07, 04:36 PM	I did some level advancement simulations a while back and found that the level cap should indeed be 10th to 12th level, using the guidelines in the DMG for random encounters. I would add in the Treat Injury skill from the d20 Modern SRD. It will let your characters heal wounds without magic. Adepts will be the primary source of magic item creation, and those will be mostly healing-related items. Anything requiring caster level 10 or higher should be treated like a minor artifact and considered unique.
pbradley179 06-25-07, 05:18 PM	I was more looking for what you'd expect them to face.. our group paid a generic 100gp sum for an adventurer's cart that holds just about every mundane item we're going to need in the future.
Heros_Backpack 06-25-07, 08:00 PM	Think Vikings for this sort of era (they were around from late 700s to early 1000s). Raids, Counter-raids, threatening to raid (Pay me lots of money or I burn down your hall/village/town/fort), trade missions up and down the major rivers, spying missions for one side or the other, long voyages of exploration and so on. Outside of that, you probably have animals and dire animals giving villages trouble, bandits in all shapes and sizes, survival treks following the larger herds of deer/reindeer etc.
Hochiu 06-27-07, 03:25 PM	More Charles Martel and Charlemagne than Vikings. Battle of Tours was 732, for instance, which was Charlemagne's grandfather's great stand against the Moslem invasions coming up out of Iberia. While the 790's through to about 1066 was the time of the Vikings, there was a lull in the late 800's/900's for about sixty or so years where the Vikings were fairly quiet. It's characterised because the first Viking sailors came from Norway and in the second wave they were mostly Danish IIRC. Carolingian Europe overlapped with the Viking period for only a few yeras or so, so it can go either way, I guess. Generally, education would be nil outside Religious instutitons, unless you do have an emperor like Charlemagne that institutes a school system for the lay-people instead of those in the Church. The Magyars are really the last group of barbarians to move into Europe in this time period, so the "barbarian waves" have mostly ceased, but that's in the real world. Just remember that the "Dark Age" title was generally a misnomer.