* the heyday of elves and dwarves. Maybe our heroes travel far from their homelands to look for trading partners, or foil their slaver kin, which is about to rip elf society apart. Whatever the case, they find themselves among humans, this new growing power whose bronze technology and hero-led warbands seem so unlike home. I'm imagining something like Sinuhe, traveling among Mycenaeans.

* the coming of adventurers. For centuries, wizards and armored knights were how society fought back big, physically powerful adversaries like giants and dragons. But with the expansion of towns and the middle class came the rise of professional adventurers. Your party is one of those first attempts to prove to local lords that this, not the old system, is the way of the future - and you probably face very angry nobles as well as the monsters.