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The economy of god granted favors being tradable kind of reminds me of spell slots. Who am I worshiping today? Enlil. So I get lightning bolt, if I'm above ground, control weather, and invisibility.

You're going to use the small wheeled Sumerian war cart, you better live on an alluvial floodplain. I would add that both Egypt and Assyria had nation state armies. The commonality of the equipment between the troup types indicates this was not a band organized around individuals, but a national organized effort. The bulk of losses in hand-to-hand combat taking place at and shortly after the moment one side breaks is ubiquitous throughout history. This remains a universal truth up to and through the American civil War.

Laughs in Dark-Sun

I work on a setting set in a fantasy bronze age in my spare time

Campaign of North africa game anyone? It'll be a quick one, I promise <3

So would it be accurate to say I could debase a gods temple and reasonably expect only a segment of the population will want to use my head as a hood ornament as punishment for it?

Never played 4E or 5E D&D and never will. It just doesn't interest me so I don't want to devote any time or effort to it. Also they are owned by an awful company who I do not care to support. I am however using the Dungeon Crawl Classics system for a Dark Sun campaign. So I don't know if that counts as "D&D" or not.

My bronze age world is a year old, and it's incredible, my favorite setting BY FAR. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

An idea I never got around to developing to any real appreciable degree was that precious metals and gemstones are considered 'precious' because they could store magic in a world where magic was otherwise instantaneous; you do spell and spell immediately happens. Thus, gold might store the "most" magic (whatever arbitrary amount that is; perhaps enough to summon the rains during a drought), but that made it far too precious a resource to use as currency save as a flex. You then have silver, copper, various alloys like bronze, rubies, sapphires, etc, each that could store a certain amount and favoring a certain type of magic... ...and then iron is refined and, eventually, steel. This brings in a metal that is neither precious nor stores magic; on the contrary, it disrupts and "dispells' magic. And boom; I have either the weapon of choice for an existential threat (a horde of iron/steel armed barbarians) OR I have the "maguffin" for the protagonists to use against a corrupt world (a steel sword forged long ago and hidden away for its horrific implications).

Playing bad games (especially popular bad games) is how Dungeon Plunder Specialists got its start. I recently got asked what my inspiration was, and the best I could answer was it was inspired by the holes in games I played, particularly D&D (all editions) Pathfinder 1, Runequest, Iron Claw, and Mutants & Masterminds. Part of it was homebrew machanics I was already using to mush those games together with 8 or so other games (my Pathfinder Garbage Fire Edition) but most of the original mechanics are me answering my own questions, like "why am I rolling 3d6 or whatever to get a number that only exists to provide a result on a look up table for another, more important number?" "Why am I rolling another, smaller die for damage and letting the small number make me feel sad if it's too small?" "I like random dismemberment, but is there a way to do it without a non-zero chance of accidentally and unpreventably killing a completely new player's character and turning them off this hobby?" and my personal favorite, "why is the only difference between a battle axe and a long sword coming down to the axe being cheaper and therefore objectively the better starting weapon for the exact same result?"

This video brought to you by Lines and Veils like a ttvpn. (This is good)

I remember playing DARK SUN back in the day and the use of ceramic pieces; specially crafted, colored, kilned, imprinted on with official seals, and breakable into 10 ceramic pieces (bits). We temporarily hijacked the DM's game by running a forgery racket in a hidden (escaped) slave village, gaining entry to the various city-states (mostly Tyr but others as well) and trying to build up a fortune - at least by Dark Sun standards - crafting deals with various merchant families to provide them our 'authentic pieces' and get around exchange-rate taxes. Needless to say, psionic Templars eventually found us out and put us back on the railroad, but I loved that we essentially created our own little mini-adventure within the campaign because of the unique nature of currency in a metal-poor universe.

The Bronze Age, not just in our real world, is a fascinating period. I definitely want to homebrew my own one day. One thing that is great, is that the people really weren't that different, intelligent, skilled, curious, civilised. But the most difficult part of it is the different life they lead. Even medieval fantasy is strange to us, but still relatively comprehensible. But Bronze Age is a strange, fantastical time, both too primitive and too technological for us to fully understand

you lost me with the checklist.

I don't know about there not being any stirrups until 200 AD... They could've been made of something that just rotted away such as wood, or made in such a way that they weren't recognizable as what they were (like if they were just straps or ropes) and if they weren't then buried with a saddle or horse stuff there wouldn't be any way to tell that they were actually used as stirrups. But stirrups I think, aren't even the most important part of equestrian gear related to an impact charge: it's the high-backed saddle. The stirrups just let you stand up, the high-backed saddle is what is really going to ensure you don't fly off the back of your horse rather than knocking the other guy on his ass.

11:04 Isn't that a minoan ruin? Pretty sure those columns and mural are minoan, but I could be wrong.

I thought genocide were rare during the bronze age. The Assyrians were really the only ones who did as they had mastered siege warfare and could actually conquer cities. Also if you want to add powerful artifacts. Use meteoric iron as that was often found. You mentioned Judaism. It should be noted that the ancient Jews were polytheistic. Yahweh and El. El was the high god and Yahweh was another god that gained cult status and supplanted El. You can notice this in the bible with the earlier passages having a more wrathful god. A lot of the gods had human ideas as they were actually warnings not people to idolize. This is something to account for as religions change too and aren't static forces.

Saying before I watch the full video so this video isn't only vindication. I love finding problems in games because I find them very instructive

I started the Oldest Stories podcast the same time i was getting into dnd. So i have always been inspired to make a bronze age, Mesopotamian when i eventually can DM. Cool video! If you're looking to cover more historic periods for inspo, i would be intrested in a vid about the competing families and city states of Renaissance-ish Italy. Ive been sitting on a Drow cutthroat political compaign until I can find some good sources for that

There's more you can learn from failures than from a success

I really recomend Mythras, or Runequest 6e for low fantasy and extremely gritty games. They are basically the same system, but the license for the name Runequest ran out and it launched without the proprietary stuff, and Runequest is made to be run in the world of Glorantha, a bronze-age-esq setting, but Mythras is mainly a tool kit, you can run all sorts of periods and do a lot of stuff, it is gritty, supports dangerous-to-use magic, separates skills in two layers (your culture, and your work), it is flat out amazing

Mythras, Runequest, and the Chaosium system handles Folk Magic very well. Somw settings it literally is called Folk Magic.

Ok. You made your point. The bronze age could make for an excellent dnd campaign

RuneQuest is the one that really tries to emulate the Bronze Age. D&D has always just tried to be Tolkien/Vance.

Mythras RPG, the best Bronze Age RPG out there.

Salt as currency? And the first time a mage with a water creating spell can wipe out entire economies.

Just clicked, I should point out that Mythras have Folk Magic and is very cool if used sparingly, also magic as rituals

Ah, nothng begins a saga like a good old fashioned trade dispute. The negotiations will be short

Been getting really into Lancer specifically and I think part of why is that it seems pretty easy to onboard for DnD players who enjoy the more crunchy parts of tactical combat. The systems are pretty similar (d20 with modifiers), but levels and damage is pretty static throughout, and it's REALLY easy to sell players on the concept of "you're a badass mech pilot" that offers a similarly strong power fantasy as DnD but in a totally opposite genre.

Do you think its possible to do a good early-modern D&D setting? Ive been thinking about running one for awhile but i just dont know if i can execute it properly or if the medieval fantasy elements will overwrite any sort of early modern feel im going for

CPRG fans eating good with Tyranny

48:00 populist leaders aren't necessarily bad, if you can use populist rhetoric to go after a group that is materially harming others then it can be a good narrative to rally behind See: Sanders going after "the owning class"

You take the flitlocks out? The video is great but that ban is BS, specially if you're playing WHF.

I have heard a lot that the Caucasus mountains were inspirations for Dwarves and having myths of being an early group to be smiths. Any truths to that?

Currently planning a campaign in Glorantha, which is a mythical bronze age setting. I aleady know this will be very helpful. Thanks! :D

Great video, great channel, and good performance.

I love bronze age fantasy. It is really underappreciated

Safety tools? Cmon bro. Nobody needs all that.

great video. i missed the part with the reasoning for adventurers existing or bein better placed in the bronce age than in medieval times. i listened to this like a podcast while cleaning and heard it later referenced, but if someone can point me to the place with the reasoning or can summarize it for me, that would be great. i find that interesting to use in my ttrp gamesnight.

Scythia didn’t have a warrior woman elite btw. Zero archeological evidence for it. It’s just myth or possibly insults from greeks.