Primitive worlds and civilizations.
Examples include: Most of the tribal peoples found on the northern hemisphere of Caspia.
This tech level allows only the simplest of tools. Fire is not controllable in any way. Tools are all formed of single components – using a strip of hide to tie a rock to a stick to form a hammer is not possible. Clothing is not used, nor is it possible to construct a shelter. Medicine is nonexistent. Technology which requires multiple participants – digging a pit in order to trap a prey, for instance – does not exist. Only the simplest “tools to make tools” exist – for example, a rock with a sharp edge could be used to carve a point onto a stick to make a spear.
Most tools are considered disposable, and the lack of any kind of storage such as bags means that anything which cannot be carried is left behind. Tools are made when they are needed and used until they are expended or need to be left behind. Paint may exist, and well as digging stick
Fire can be controlled, but not started. Clothing of hides is known, but sewing is primitive. Simple tools combining materials and components exist and may be used as tools. Very basic herbal medicine is available (-2 modifier on all checks due to the highly experimental nature of the “remedies”). Spears are made well enough to be hurled, but bows are still in the future. Items can be carried in a tied hide. Simple lean-to shelters can be constructed. Primitive forms of personal decoration exist, such as a stone tied to a strip of hide and worn around the neck.
Tools are used to create other tools.
Fire can be made, and tools (including fire) are kept for future use. Herbal medicine is well-established, but not necessarily effective. Materials may be specifically sought out and processed for their use as tools (bone, horn, antler, hide). Complex tools can be made, as well as specialized tool-making tools (points, blades, floats) and may be engraved. Nets can be woven. Dugouts, hide-and-bone canoes, and lashed-together rafts ply the waterways. Domestication of small animals exists. Food is cooked. Tools are specifically designed to make other tools (awl, needle). Sewing with bone needles is common, and sacks and pouches can be made, allowing the transport and storage of multiple, specialized, tools and weapons. The “terror weapon” of the era, the bow, has been invented, and this enables the possessors of this advanced military technology to take on many of the more lethal creatures, peppering them with arrows and fleeing until the prey drops. Semi-permanent shelters are possible, from woven-reed huts to bone and hide long tents. Iconic imagery decorates cave walls and personal items. Animistic explanations develop to explain physical processes. Runners carry memorized messages with an oral tradition keeping records. Hides are tanned into leather (huts, tents, snares, hafted weapons, sling), and clay is used. Logs may be attached to create rafts and may be paddled. Tools may consist of multiple parts (hafted blades, spear-thrower, barbed spear, staff-sling). Whole number mathematics are possible, but limited without a defined symbology.