Allow me to import from the thread about technology: Research, tech tree, or just leveling up?
- An event pops: “A villager has made a discovery! Young Ugga-bugga was playing in the forest and discovered a strange new rock”. Turns out there is a small amount of natural occurring native gold (“pure” gold, visible with the naked eye) near the village, and a kid stumbled upon it.
- Some time later a new event: “A villager has made a discovery!”. Someone accidentally, or purposely, put some of the native gold in the fire, and it turned liquid… but then became hard again when cooled. Metallurgy! A miracle!
- Then, someday if you’re extremely lucky, and there’s native copper nearby, a new event will pop: “A villager has made a discovery!”, and you’ve discovered copper.
- Since your villagers already know of melting one strange stone, they might try it with copper. Of course, it would take a very long time till copper became tool rather than luxury…