Bronze Age RPG (Outline) (Patreon)

Outline: 

Name options:
Swords & Sandals - Cities & Crypts - Bronze & Broadswords  - Copper & Crypts

Elevator Pitch:
An RPG set during a Fantasy Bronze Age equivalent, where each city or territory has its own god or protective spirits and the lands outside is rife with enemies and adventure.

Motive:
To create a fantastical setting where the career of 'adventurer' is actually sustainable; workable in this setting thanks to the small territory surrounding city's, the rivalries between them and hostile world surrounding them all.

Environment:
A vast arid land resembling Mesopotamia, rivers great and small trail across the vast planes and provide succor for the city states that dot the land. But be wary, for floods can wash away a city, stray to far and you will find yourself in the badlands, mountains are home to mighty beasts and the deep forests are home of horrors old and new.

Zones:
The world of play is divided into four colors.
Green indicating a safe zone where threats are rare or invited upon one's self. Yellow to hint at low level dangers like mortal bandits and large beasts, spirits and undead. Orange indicates greater dangers, low level demons, monsters and traps. Red indicates great danger, ancient beasts, true demons and living catastrophes. As one would expect, the further one strays from settlements, be it a tribe, a camp or city the more danger grows. 

Safe Zones:
These come in three flavors, each with their own unique benefits to the player starting out there. 

Nomads:
Travelling the vast planes by foot or on the backs of beast and cart, nomads are a tough and hardy people to the last. 

The player has a stamina bonus regardless of class, lay of the lands perk and a mount. 

Downsides include 'home' being hard to find and a reputation penalty outside the clan. 

Camps:
Settled but not fortified, the tribes who settle in the wild lands rely on charms and deals with spirits to protect their homes. 

The player has a strength bonus regardless of class, a herbalism perk and a protective talisman. 

Downsides include 'home' being vulnerable to attack and a trading penalty at bazars. 

City States:
Built along the great rivers, the city states are fortified homes of trade and learning, with great temples to house their gods. 

The player has a health bonus regardless of class, a language/scholarly perk, and a pouch of coins. 

Downsides include 'homes' inclination to start wars and a penalty to foreign diplomacy. 

Protection:
Each Safe Zone also benefits form some form of protection beyond the mortals within, which include:   
Nomad:  Ancestor spirits guarding caravans and riders.   
Camps:  Contracts with the local elements & spirits.   
City States:  Singular City Gods that oversee their domain

Classes: 
There are a myriad of classes to play some specific to certain starting zones. Those that don't directly involve magic involve the embrace of 'Asha' or Spirit, that is one's inner strength, along with enchanted items. 

(All)
Scholar
Students of history, runes and arcane lore, they enchant tool & blast their enemies with ferocity! 

'Alchemist'
A brewer of potions and poisons, they support & heal their allies & sabotage their enemies. 

Cutthroat/Slayer
Stealthy assassins, who can sneak, steal and slit the throats of the ill prepared & unsuspecting. 

Archer
Masters of sling, spear and string, these long range fighters rain precise & deadly blows

(City state)
Myrmidons
A powerfully built warrior, bedecked in sturdy armaments' and wielding heavy weapons.
'Priest'
Blessed by their gods with magical might, they purify their allies and blister their foes. 

(Camp)
Beast Master
Bonded with the animals, they embrace the claw of their partner beasts & fight alongside them.

Speaker
A speaker of spirits, a maker of deals and contracts, they call upon the elements to aid them.

(Nomads)
Cavalry
Mounted warriors in leather armor, they run down the enemy, striking suddenly & circling around.

'Necromancer'
A shadowy contractor of the dead, spirits, skeletons and corpses' come to their aid in battle

Threats:
Green Zone:
Cutthroats, mutated fauna reside in city streets or below & can prove a danger to the unaware.
Thieves, Beasts, angry elemental sprites & the restless dead can prove a danger on the open planes. 

Yellow Zone:
Gangs, Dire beasts, Monsters and malevolent elementals make the planes their home, even the roads may not be safe. 

Orange Zones:
Demons, Guardian Monsters, Greater Undead and living storms rule these places, be wary, be strong, & be ready to run!

Red Zones:
The domain of dead armies, fallen gods and ancient horrors, only the mightiest may step into these domains and survive.

NOTES: 

True demons are the result of gods having lost their place of worship and clung to life through immoral means, or dead gods returning to life rather than moving onto the next plane & the endless riverbank. They are vile, hungry and wicked creatures, bereft of the nobility or mercy that defined them in life, at times even inversion of their past selves. Lesser demons are their creations or even children. They make their homes in fallen temples and ancient city's. 

Monsters & Guardian Monsters are creatures crafted by gods or born from the furious elements themselves endowing greater essence into ancient or unknown creatures. Often born of conflict or as sacred guards, the Guardian Monsters make their homes in deep forests & great mountains, & defend their territories with ferocity, while monsters spread across the land. Some can be amicable, but this is rare, as their minds are not akin to that of mortals.

I think I might cut out the camps and keep it to a City State & Nomad set up and reduce the number of classes via that method. The way I handled the camps feels kinda hokey and it lacks the degree of contrasts the Nomads & City States do. 

Sources for monsters, demons and deities would come from ancient Sumerian, Mesopotamian and Hittite religion/mythology