D&D General Favorite Fantasy Africa stuff

[David Howery]

Would you say that Stygia fits the mold for a black kingdom?

Stygia was ancient Egypt. The black kingdoms were Keshan, Kush, and Zembabwe, which are shown on the map. Plus there is the barely mentioned 'island kingdoms' where Belit got her crewmen from....

 

[Voadam]

Would you say that Stygia fits the mold for a black kingdom?

Egypt type stuff in general is its own niche, part of Africa but partly identified strongly as its own thing in a fantasy archetype sense. Part of this is Ancient Egypt as a superpower empire being known and important to the Greeks and Romans and so to Western civilization while most of the rest of Africa was mostly unknown, part of it is Egypt being predominately Arab and associated more with the Middle East.

 

[Flamestrike]

I find most 'fantasy not Africa' contains a heck of a lot of Western stereotypes about the region, in much the same way as 'fantasy not Asia' does.

As an Australian, I also find RPG depictions of 'fantasy not Australia' to be rife with stereotypes about Down under, that are cringeworthy and simple at best.

It's often just lazy stereotypes.

I honestly prefer totally made up cultures, with no real world analogue to compare it to.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I find most 'fantasy not Africa' contains a heck of a lot of Western stereotypes about the region, in much the same way as 'fantasy not Asia' does.

Or, indeed, most fantasy settings.

 

[Voadam]

I liked the feel of Kalamar, but have not seen or played most of the rest. Each region book of Kalamar seemed to give me enough flavor to get what I needed. Not sure how 'realistic' the flavor was, but I thought it was fine.

I've got the main Kalamar setting and a couple of the modules but not the Svimohzia specific sourcebook. Anything specific from it that particularly stood out?

 

[Flamestrike]

Or, indeed, most fantasy settings.

Indeed.

Using real world cultures as a baseline for a fantasy culture invariably leads to stereotypes being applied.

For Aussies, its always some kind of 'Road Warrior meets giant marsupials, meets the Outback' vibe.

Africa gets 'noble savages'. Asia gets 'martial arts land'. And so forth.

Its why I like cultures like (say) the Suel empire in Greyhawk, and how they have evolved into the Scarlet Brotherhood - Arayan racist/ xenophobic Monk/ Assassins who now live in a jungle, wear Red, and are attempting to reclaim the lost empire.

You cant really pin a 'real world' culture onto them.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Indeed.

Using real world cultures as a baseline for a fantasy culture invariably leads to stereotypes being applied.

You're always using real world cultures and references, though. For some people, concepts like "kingdom", "knight", "guild", "religion", "common tongue" or even "gold pieces" could already be considered problematic.

 

[Flamestrike]

You're always using real world cultures and references, though. For some people, concepts like "kingdom", "knight", "guild", "religion", "common tongue" or even "gold pieces" could already be considered problematic.

Yet we never see 'fantasy Africa' an advanced society with knights, guilds and so forth. They're invariably always 'noble savages' containing a pastiche of real world African stereotypes.

Have your 'not Europeans' be where martial arts originated, due to 'not Africa' being your 'not Rome' and a highly advanced civilisation of knights and so forth and banning weapon use by their conquered peoples.

Create actual different cultures that are not real world cultures replete with racial and cultural stereotypes.

For a clear example of what not to do: The Vistani from Ravenloft.

 

[David Howery]

Its why I like cultures like (say) the Suel empire in Greyhawk, and how they have evolved into the Scarlet Brotherhood - Arayan racist/ xenophobic Monk/ Assassins who now live in a jungle, wear Red, and are attempting to reclaim the lost empire.

You cant really pin a 'real world' culture onto them.

they always struck me as 'Nazis mixed with the Assassins of Alamut"..

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Yet we never see 'fantasy Africa' an advanced society with knights, guilds and so forth. They're invariably always 'noble savages' containing a pastiche of real world African stereotypes.

Have your 'not Europeans' be where martial arts originated, due to 'not Africa' being your 'not Rome' and a highly advanced civilisation of knights and so forth and banning weapon use by their conquered peoples.

Create actual different cultures that are not real world cultures replete with racial and cultural stereotypes.

For a clear example of what not to do: The Vistani from Ravenloft.

I agree. It's great when you play often and when your players make the effort to engage with the material and all its weird and unusual idiosyncrasies. But for casual gamers, "not Rome" is not always the worst solution.