Stone Age or Savage Cultures

Stone Age cultures are rare in most AD&D campaigns. Only the most isolated areas can be considered to be in the Stone Age. In our own history, most Stone Age cultures disappeared thousands of years ago—but those that did survive still live today, in the remote areas of Malaysia and South America.

Just because a culture uses Stone Age technology doesn’t mean that it is primitive or barbaric. Native Americans enjoyed complex, advanced societies without metal tools or weapons. Therefore, this category can also be used to describe Aztec-like civilizations that exist as contemporaries of societies with more advanced technology.

Savage settings are found in physically remote areas where primitive societies have gained access to metalworking technology. This is a good catch-all category for equipping barbaric jungle tribes, fierce nomads, or tribes of cannibals. Historically, many African, Asian, and Malaysian nations were considered “savages” by Western European explorers as late as the early part of this century. These unique cultures suffered terribly at the hands of their supposedly more-civilized visitors.

Stone Age weapons include a variety of missiles developed from basic hunting tools. They tend to be inferior to even Bronze Age arms, which were designed as implements of war. Armor is light or nonexistent and consists of a hide-covered shield and leather, hide, or cord body armor at best.

Savage arms include improved metal-headed versions of many Stone Age weapons. Savage armor is also light, but includes copper or bronze reinforcement. In some cases, very sophisticated lamellar or scale armor of wood, bone, or leather may be available. Historically, chain mail appeared in the 18th and 19th century among Malaysian and Asian tribes, hundreds of years after Europeans abandoned its use.

Stone Age and Savage Settings

	Adze	3 gp
	Axe
	Battle	15 gp
	Hand/throwing	6 gp
	Stone	5 sp
	Blowgun	1 gp
	Barbed dart	1 sp
	Needle	2 cp
	Bolas	5 sp
	Boomerang	5 sp
	Bow
	Short	15 gp
	flight arrow	3 sp/12
	stone arrow	3 cp/12
	Club	—
	War	2 gp
	Dagger	2 gp
	Bone	1 sp
	Stone	2 sp
	Dart	5 sp
	Harpoon	20 gp
	Bone	1 gp
	Javelin	5 sp
	Stone	5 cp
	Knife	5 sp
	Bone	3 cp
	Stone	5 cp
	Throwing	5 gp
	Lasso	5 sp
	Parang or Machete	8 gp
	Quarterstaff	—
	Rock	—
	Sling	5 cp
	Stone	—
	Spear	2 gp
	Stone	2 sp

Italic entries are only available in metal-using Stone Age or savage settings.

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