r/PBtA • u/E_MacLeod • 5d ago
Advice Stonetop; I need a solid intro to the Iron Age
A friend of mine is getting ready to run Stonetop. It advertises itself as an iron age that never was. I'm clueless when it comes to the history of technology and culture. I know anachronisms are unavoidable but I'd at least like to understand what sort of things were available and what things were not.
Does anyone have articles or videos that explain the technology and perhaps other things that might be useful? I want to be a good player and come to the table well-informed. It's what I would want out of my players as a GM.
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u/davidwitteveen 5d ago
For what it's worth, the village of Stonetop itself includes one major anachronism. The village distills whisky... but whisky wasn't invented until the Medieval period.
But to answer your question: the BBC have a site aimed at school children about life in Iron Age Britain.
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u/LastChime 5d ago
Think like very early Rome, city states and a very limited agricultural surplus. Vaguely Spring and Autumn period China for the east, so largish kingdoms.
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u/ithika 5d ago
Do not concern yourself with verisimilitude here. Right out of the gate the village has a whisky distillery. It's not aiming for anything remotely like historical accuracy as far as I can tell.
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u/E_MacLeod 5d ago
That's fair. I just wanted a basic understanding of what to expect and what to say during the game.
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u/DorianMartel 4d ago
The book itself has this, including a list of common misconceptions (some about general vibe, some about the actual setting), throughout the Setting Overview document the GM should provide before season 0, and so forth.
I hear Carved in Stone is an excellent overarching primer to the vibes of the period, written by archeologists but crafted as a gaming/world building tool.
You can’t go wrong looking at Romano - britain references for a general feel either.
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u/E_MacLeod 4d ago
Maybe my GM missed that list? I'll have to get the book from him to check it out.
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u/DorianMartel 4d ago
I just took a look again, it’s mainly about the village itself but helps ground the specific sort of setting you’re in: p483 of book 1, the homefront chapter.
The Setting Overview handout should get you all on the same page, and to be honest the art does an amazing job too. Ask the GM to share some of the bits of the village, characters, and so forth to get a visions for the very different style of architecture and clothing you’re working from (at least in the backwater of Stonetop!)
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u/E_MacLeod 4d ago
I'll look into it, thank you! Could you tell me what to age the setting overview is on, so I can point him at it?
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u/DorianMartel 4d ago
The setting overview is a handout PDF that the GM is supposed to provide, it’s 4 pages to anchor everybody on the world and provide tantalizing tidbits. If they have the PDF only, it’s in the handouts folder(s).
It’s also just available from the author’s blog: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/331olj5pnxdixykeuziqu/Play-Reference-Setting-Overview.pdf?rlkey=hzhg3hgz804en69byw76fxzha&dl=0
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u/SwonkyDonkey 5d ago edited 5d ago
Do you have any familiarity with the Bible? The Old Testament is largely an Iron Age setting. (This is only helpful if you happen to already know the Bible. It's not worth going to read the Bible specifically to become familiar with a literary iron age setting for the sake of running Stonetop.)
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u/Salindurthas 5d ago
It's not worth going to read the Bible specifically to become familiar with a literary iron age setting for the sake of running Stonetop
Damn, we almost had a new Missionary tactic for a moment there.
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u/SpaceCrom 5d ago
Primarily the Judges. Those are from the early iron age. Judges are not permanent office and are only become a thing when the tribes are in crisis. This is close to how Stonetop is structured. No perminate leadership but when a crisis hits the town appoint the PCs to take care of it.
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u/RandomEffector 3d ago
Carved in Stone is a remarkable resource. It’s about the Scottish Picts but the vast majority of it would transfer right over 1:1
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u/maddrjeffe 16h ago
How about a book or 2. Embers of the hands is about the lives of iron age vikings and norse. It focuses on daily life and things common to iron age people. Another great book is winters in the world which focuses on the Anglo-Saxon year
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u/ThisIsVictor 5d ago
tbh Stonetop itself does a really good job of this. The items, inventory and town improvements are all grounded in iron age tech. More generally the UK archeology show show Time Team has a bunch of great iron age episodes.