What are some things I can focus on in my homebrew setting to

Civilization isn't big blobs. It's small, city sized blobs that sometimes coalesce into huge blobs. Countries aren't things. You don't say you're a Greek or a Mesopotamian, you're from the city state you were born in. Every now and then there will be a huge overarching empire, but they are exceptional.

You should read through the campaign material for the AD&D 2E Dark Sun setting. It's a desert world with pockets of civilizations spread between huge tracts of deadly wasteland. There are some good ideas about merchant caravans, water consumption, etc. that you could lift.

>>48409595
>Civilization isn't big blobs. It's small, city sized blobs that sometimes coalesce into huge blobs. Countries aren't things. You don't say you're a Greek or a Mesopotamian, you're from the city state you were born in. Every now and then there will be a huge overarching empire, but they are exceptional.
>tfw doing this with setting with roughly 1910s tech

>>48409541
Man, this is gonna be the hard road, but I'm telling you to read some classics.
Iliad can be a bit of a slog if you don't get into it, and Herodotus can be downright desert dry if you aren't into ancient history, but they are definitely recommended reading, if only to help get into the mindset of people from back then

>>48409719
I know Herodotus isn't exactly Bronze Age, but in terms of antiquity it does help. At least read books 1 and 2
Also Persian Fire by Tom Holland is a good pop history book about roughly the same subject matter

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OP, I'm gonna upload a rulebook for a game called Testament: Roleplaying in the Biblical Era. It's d20, but the book has a lot of ideas about different cultures of the period that you could crib from.

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>>48409830
http://www.mediafire.com/download/r24e41jygcrq0t0/Testament_-_Roleplaying_in_the_Biblical_Era.pdf

OK, here it is.

>>48409541
Somebody brought up city states rightfully, I want to throw in city states gods. It's more of a Mesopotamian thing, but you can also find it in greek city states: those city states had their own gods. Assur had... Assur, Babylon had Marduk, Uruk had Ishtar, Athen Athena. You could implement those in the backstory of the characters.

>>48409541
Thanks for all the help everybody! All your answers have already given me a lot of great ideas to use. Is there anything to know about technology? What kinds of armor and weapons are used, what architecture and tools look like, etc?

>>48409541
I'm reading Susan Bauer's History of the Ancient World right now, and it'll give you a good overview. >>48409719 has the right idea. If you want to capture the feel, you need to read about the old cultures.

You know, even if you let this setting happen in the bronze age, must not mean that there aren't iron weapons around. Modern archaeology has shown that the differences between those ages are fluent. You could make iron weapons high-end technology, while bronze weapons are normal. When it comes to armor you mostly have bronze plates that cover parts of the body, the rest is most of the time unprotected. Or you go full dendra panoply style, which would be the full plate of these ages.

>>48409541
Countryside is full of badmintons!

>>48409926
Chariots are worth mentioning. Afforded a measure of safety through speed. Allowed great speed through flatlands and places with leveled road, but could not go into hills, thickets, or swamp. Bandits expecting a lone chariot would pile rocks across a road around a bend, or would lie in wait behind the crest of a slight hill and then attempt to spook the horse.

>>48409719
Can I suggest the Anabasis? It's pretty much a campaign right there.