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[Let's Read] Nyambe: African Adventures
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<blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7634984" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/IO6wOX8.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>Weapons, armor, and mounts oh my! Here we not only see new gear in Nyambe, we also see how existing ones are reflavored from a Fantasy European to a Fantasy African context.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Trade Goods</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>First off, most of Nyambe-tanda uses one of three forms of currency to varying degrees of mixture: the gold/silver/copper piece standard that is the D&D default and most common in the Empire of Mabwe and big cities; bartering or cowry shells, which are worth one silver piece per shell and most common in rural and poor areas; and finally livestock, most common among herding and hunter-gatherer cultures. We even have several common varieties of cattle and their gold piece list, from cheap as dirt two copper piece chickens to princely 15 gold piece cows and 25 gold piece oxen.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/0oP4Egl.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>New Weapons</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>I mentioned this back in the Feats chapter, but Nyamban weapon proficiencies use their own category in this book. This means that those found in the Core Rules or other supplements are culturally foreign and thus fall under Exotic Weapons. This is not all-purpose: some of the more simple and utility Player’s Handbook weapons, such as bows, daggers, maces, sickles, quarterstaves, and even scimitars have been transferred over, but more explicitly European or Fantastical items such as the Greatsword did not.</p><p></p><p></p><p>We do get new weapons to make up for this loss, covering the more interesting ones. The <em>wrist knife</em> is an oval blade worn like a bracelet that treats strikes as unarmed but lets you deal slashing damage; <em>elephant axes</em> are huge crescent-shaped blades Nibomay infantry use to hamstring Mabwe elephants dealing a lot of damage (1d12/x4 critical) with 10 foot reach but are so large they impose an additional -4 to hit; <em>returning and throwing clubs</em> are two thrown weapons, the former able to fly back into your hand after being thrown and the latter capable of doing nonlethal damage despite being a ranged weapon; <em>bolas</em> which can grapple at range and reduce an airborne creature’s flight speed to 0 if grappled; <em>dagger-swords</em> which are copied from Far Eastern chijiriki and consist of a sword and dagger connected by a cord, capable of being used as a dual-wielded weapon or as a dagger capable of trip at a 10 foot reach; <em>barbed spears</em> which cause targets to bleed for one point of damage for 1d4 rounds if they fail a Fortitude save; the trademark <em>razor swords</em> of Niomay Amazons which are one-handed yet deal a large amount of damage for their size (1d10/18-20 x2 critical), yet the wielder cannot apply one’s Strength bonus to damage (lame!); and the <em>javelin thrower,</em> which is a grooved stick with a notch for holding javelins to throw with greater force and range: javelins thrown this way have range increments of 40 feet, threaten a critical on 19-20, and deal triple damage!</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/13MUWfb.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>New Armor and Shields</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>Most Nyamban armor and shields are entirely new, with only a few such as leather and hide-based armor making the transfer. There is no heavy armor made domestically, although in the Ancestral Vault supplement it’s explained that a few specialized smiths have been learning to make foreign metal and plate armor with fire resistant magical enhancements to negate the perils of heat and humidity.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Our new armors include <em>beaded armor,</em> highly decorated pieces made from beads and woven leather cords and thus the kind most often worn by noblemen and stylish adventurers; <em>fetish armor</em> which is not S&M gear, but clothes made up of tiny pouches for holding magical components. It has no inherent armor bonus but can be enhanced as magical armor; <em>iron mantle,</em> which is the heaviest kind of Nyamban armor commonly found and is made up of iron plates held together with leather straps; <em>wooden plate armor</em> which is the same but made up of wood; and finally <em>woven cord</em> made from raffia fibers. All of these armors reduce the Fortitude save penalty by as much as 1 or 3 for operating in hot environments due to superior ventilation.</p><p></p><p></p><p>For new shields we basically have leather shields replacing iron ones, bucklers are made out of wood, and we have a new <em>leather body shield</em> which provides a +3 shield bonus and is the half-way point between a heavy and tower shield. Tower shields exist in Nyambe, but it’s unclear whether they’re made of iron or the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguni_shield" target="_blank">cow-hide Nguni shields</a> which is what I think of when I think of big African shields.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qGFC2sC.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>New Adventuring Gear, Kits, etc.</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>A lot of this is a remix of old and new material. For example, we get explanations of how iconic gear such as the backpack is made from woven plant fibers, how ostrich eggs and calabash gourds are used instead of glass for drinking vessels, and due to pillows being unsanitary in humid and sandy places carved wooden headrests are used which support a person’s head when sleeping. The most common musical instruments include bells, clappers, drums, fiddles, flutes, gongs, harps, talking hand drums, and the xylophone! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd9xha3vk58" target="_blank">A new and innovative way to Inspire Courage</a></p><p></p><p></p><p>Also the most common board games in Nyambe include mancala, boa, and oware, which can all be easily played with seeds or polished stones and involve rules for “capturing” other player’s seeds as a means of resolution. The art of gaming holds special properties when it comes to divination, and casters gain +2 bonus on all scrying rolls when using a board game as a magical focus.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/SSPpXjx.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>New Mounts</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>A lot of core rules animals can be found as mounts in Nyambe, from riding dogs and mules to horses and camels. However, the most interesting addition are the engargiya, a new creature in this book which is akin to a larger and tougher horse, and the elephant (both normal and wartrained)! An interesting thing to note are that elephants are relatively cheap to get for their power; an elephant for labor is 150 gp, whereas a war elephant (one trained to fight and carry riders in battle) is 400 gp. A heavy warhorse from the Player’s Handbook costs the same amount as a war elephant, but an elephant is a strong <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elephant.htm" target="_blank">Challenge Rating 7 beast which can dish out a hellish amount of damage with its tusks or trampling enemies in a charge.</a> The only comparative downside is that they are far more expensive to feed than horses and camels, with daily feed costing 2 gold and weighing 300 pounds. Elephants can graze for grass and plants in more fertile regions, but even then they can spend as much as 16 hours a day doing nothing but this.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The engargiya, by contrast, costs 200 gold pieces to buy, and is a Challenge Rating 3 beast which is not much stronger than a heavy warhorse but has Darkvision and Scent.</p><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/qFDwBv0.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>New Special Items and Poisons</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>This details alchemic and poisonous items. For those that played D20 before Pathfinder came along, you’d recall that alchemy was overall a low-powered novelty. Wizards of the Coast made alchemical items craftable only by magic-users, but in comparison to actual magic they just never amounted to much. Unfortunately Nyambe is the same, its new items pathetic in this regard: <em>healing salve</em> converts 1d4 lethal damage to nonlethal, but can be used once an hour per applicant and makes users feel drowsy for -1 on all d20 rolls. <em>Marsh water,</em> which is actually made from distilled water found in tree bark, allows the brinker to take 10 on saving throws against malaria. <em>Sunscreen</em> is made from hippopotamus sweat and grants +4 on Fortitude saves vs. heat exhaustion for 24 hours.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Now we get to poisons! A special note is that unlike standard D&D poison is commonly employed by people of all alignments and is not considered evil to use unless done in a cowardly fashion or in furtherance of an evil deed. We get a comprehensive one-page spread of Nyamban poisons which sadly are mostly copy-pasted from the Dungeon Master’s Guide but include a few new ones: <em>aboleth mucus</em> grants you the ability to breath underwater at the expense of suffocating in air; <em>carrion crawler brain juice</em> can paralyze you for 2d6 minutes, while <em>jellyfish sting extract</em> dazes you for 1 round initially and can stun you for 2d6 rounds as a secondary effect; <em>poison frog secretions</em> deal 1d6 Constitution on initial and secondary damage and 1 to 2 points of said damage can be a permanent drain; <em>raw sewage</em> of all things is a new poison which can nauseate you for 24 hours, and <em>spoiled food</em> for 1d10 hours; <em>spitting cobra venom</em> and <em>spotted toadstools</em> have a chance of blinding or deafening the victim respectively, said affliction becoming permanent on a secondary failed save.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The new poisons are quite deadly and innovative, but suffer the D20 problem of most: namely they’re expensive one-use items which may have effects too delayed to be practical in combat. Fortunately the Soroka prestige class obviates the money concern, but the time delay will require game mechanics from elsewhere to overcome.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Thoughts So Far:</strong> Overall I like this chapter, my main complaint being that the alternate weapon proficiency rules may be too restrictive. This is especially the case given that many new supplements released over the course of 3rd Edition will put more options out of reach barring Foreign Weapon Proficiency. As time goes on I’m not really fond of the concept of weapon proficiencies in general, in that I do not see why a longsword would be harder to grok than a scimitar.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I feel that elephants may be a bit too cheap for their power, even despite the inherent weaknesses of their size and lack of ranged attacks. But every PC party worth their salt will want to unleash a war elephant on an enemy at some point, so I think a more reasonable price would be somewhere around 1,000 to 3,000 gold pieces.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Join us next time as we get mystical and contact the Spirits of Nyambe in Chapter Eight!</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Libertad, post: 7634984, member: 6750502"] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/IO6wOX8.png[/img][/center] Weapons, armor, and mounts oh my! Here we not only see new gear in Nyambe, we also see how existing ones are reflavored from a Fantasy European to a Fantasy African context. [center][b]Trade Goods[/b][/center] First off, most of Nyambe-tanda uses one of three forms of currency to varying degrees of mixture: the gold/silver/copper piece standard that is the D&D default and most common in the Empire of Mabwe and big cities; bartering or cowry shells, which are worth one silver piece per shell and most common in rural and poor areas; and finally livestock, most common among herding and hunter-gatherer cultures. We even have several common varieties of cattle and their gold piece list, from cheap as dirt two copper piece chickens to princely 15 gold piece cows and 25 gold piece oxen. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/0oP4Egl.png[/img] [b]New Weapons[/b][/center] I mentioned this back in the Feats chapter, but Nyamban weapon proficiencies use their own category in this book. This means that those found in the Core Rules or other supplements are culturally foreign and thus fall under Exotic Weapons. This is not all-purpose: some of the more simple and utility Player’s Handbook weapons, such as bows, daggers, maces, sickles, quarterstaves, and even scimitars have been transferred over, but more explicitly European or Fantastical items such as the Greatsword did not. We do get new weapons to make up for this loss, covering the more interesting ones. The [i]wrist knife[/i] is an oval blade worn like a bracelet that treats strikes as unarmed but lets you deal slashing damage; [i]elephant axes[/i] are huge crescent-shaped blades Nibomay infantry use to hamstring Mabwe elephants dealing a lot of damage (1d12/x4 critical) with 10 foot reach but are so large they impose an additional -4 to hit; [i]returning and throwing clubs[/i] are two thrown weapons, the former able to fly back into your hand after being thrown and the latter capable of doing nonlethal damage despite being a ranged weapon; [i]bolas[/i] which can grapple at range and reduce an airborne creature’s flight speed to 0 if grappled; [i]dagger-swords[/i] which are copied from Far Eastern chijiriki and consist of a sword and dagger connected by a cord, capable of being used as a dual-wielded weapon or as a dagger capable of trip at a 10 foot reach; [i]barbed spears[/i] which cause targets to bleed for one point of damage for 1d4 rounds if they fail a Fortitude save; the trademark [i]razor swords[/i] of Niomay Amazons which are one-handed yet deal a large amount of damage for their size (1d10/18-20 x2 critical), yet the wielder cannot apply one’s Strength bonus to damage (lame!); and the [i]javelin thrower,[/i] which is a grooved stick with a notch for holding javelins to throw with greater force and range: javelins thrown this way have range increments of 40 feet, threaten a critical on 19-20, and deal triple damage! [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/13MUWfb.png[/img] [b]New Armor and Shields[/b][/center] Most Nyamban armor and shields are entirely new, with only a few such as leather and hide-based armor making the transfer. There is no heavy armor made domestically, although in the Ancestral Vault supplement it’s explained that a few specialized smiths have been learning to make foreign metal and plate armor with fire resistant magical enhancements to negate the perils of heat and humidity. Our new armors include [i]beaded armor,[/i] highly decorated pieces made from beads and woven leather cords and thus the kind most often worn by noblemen and stylish adventurers; [i]fetish armor[/i] which is not S&M gear, but clothes made up of tiny pouches for holding magical components. It has no inherent armor bonus but can be enhanced as magical armor; [i]iron mantle,[/i] which is the heaviest kind of Nyamban armor commonly found and is made up of iron plates held together with leather straps; [i]wooden plate armor[/i] which is the same but made up of wood; and finally [i]woven cord[/i] made from raffia fibers. All of these armors reduce the Fortitude save penalty by as much as 1 or 3 for operating in hot environments due to superior ventilation. For new shields we basically have leather shields replacing iron ones, bucklers are made out of wood, and we have a new [i]leather body shield[/i] which provides a +3 shield bonus and is the half-way point between a heavy and tower shield. Tower shields exist in Nyambe, but it’s unclear whether they’re made of iron or the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguni_shield]cow-hide Nguni shields[/url] which is what I think of when I think of big African shields. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/qGFC2sC.png[/img] [b]New Adventuring Gear, Kits, etc.[/b][/center] A lot of this is a remix of old and new material. For example, we get explanations of how iconic gear such as the backpack is made from woven plant fibers, how ostrich eggs and calabash gourds are used instead of glass for drinking vessels, and due to pillows being unsanitary in humid and sandy places carved wooden headrests are used which support a person’s head when sleeping. The most common musical instruments include bells, clappers, drums, fiddles, flutes, gongs, harps, talking hand drums, and the xylophone! [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd9xha3vk58]A new and innovative way to Inspire Courage[/url] Also the most common board games in Nyambe include mancala, boa, and oware, which can all be easily played with seeds or polished stones and involve rules for “capturing” other player’s seeds as a means of resolution. The art of gaming holds special properties when it comes to divination, and casters gain +2 bonus on all scrying rolls when using a board game as a magical focus. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/SSPpXjx.png[/img] [b]New Mounts[/b][/center] A lot of core rules animals can be found as mounts in Nyambe, from riding dogs and mules to horses and camels. However, the most interesting addition are the engargiya, a new creature in this book which is akin to a larger and tougher horse, and the elephant (both normal and wartrained)! An interesting thing to note are that elephants are relatively cheap to get for their power; an elephant for labor is 150 gp, whereas a war elephant (one trained to fight and carry riders in battle) is 400 gp. A heavy warhorse from the Player’s Handbook costs the same amount as a war elephant, but an elephant is a strong [url=http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elephant.htm]Challenge Rating 7 beast which can dish out a hellish amount of damage with its tusks or trampling enemies in a charge.[/url] The only comparative downside is that they are far more expensive to feed than horses and camels, with daily feed costing 2 gold and weighing 300 pounds. Elephants can graze for grass and plants in more fertile regions, but even then they can spend as much as 16 hours a day doing nothing but this. The engargiya, by contrast, costs 200 gold pieces to buy, and is a Challenge Rating 3 beast which is not much stronger than a heavy warhorse but has Darkvision and Scent. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/qFDwBv0.png[/img] [b]New Special Items and Poisons[/b][/center] This details alchemic and poisonous items. For those that played D20 before Pathfinder came along, you’d recall that alchemy was overall a low-powered novelty. Wizards of the Coast made alchemical items craftable only by magic-users, but in comparison to actual magic they just never amounted to much. Unfortunately Nyambe is the same, its new items pathetic in this regard: [i]healing salve[/i] converts 1d4 lethal damage to nonlethal, but can be used once an hour per applicant and makes users feel drowsy for -1 on all d20 rolls. [i]Marsh water,[/i] which is actually made from distilled water found in tree bark, allows the brinker to take 10 on saving throws against malaria. [i]Sunscreen[/i] is made from hippopotamus sweat and grants +4 on Fortitude saves vs. heat exhaustion for 24 hours. Now we get to poisons! A special note is that unlike standard D&D poison is commonly employed by people of all alignments and is not considered evil to use unless done in a cowardly fashion or in furtherance of an evil deed. We get a comprehensive one-page spread of Nyamban poisons which sadly are mostly copy-pasted from the Dungeon Master’s Guide but include a few new ones: [i]aboleth mucus[/i] grants you the ability to breath underwater at the expense of suffocating in air; [i]carrion crawler brain juice[/i] can paralyze you for 2d6 minutes, while [i]jellyfish sting extract[/i] dazes you for 1 round initially and can stun you for 2d6 rounds as a secondary effect; [i]poison frog secretions[/i] deal 1d6 Constitution on initial and secondary damage and 1 to 2 points of said damage can be a permanent drain; [i]raw sewage[/i] of all things is a new poison which can nauseate you for 24 hours, and [i]spoiled food[/i] for 1d10 hours; [i]spitting cobra venom[/i] and [i]spotted toadstools[/i] have a chance of blinding or deafening the victim respectively, said affliction becoming permanent on a secondary failed save. The new poisons are quite deadly and innovative, but suffer the D20 problem of most: namely they’re expensive one-use items which may have effects too delayed to be practical in combat. Fortunately the Soroka prestige class obviates the money concern, but the time delay will require game mechanics from elsewhere to overcome. [b]Thoughts So Far:[/b] Overall I like this chapter, my main complaint being that the alternate weapon proficiency rules may be too restrictive. This is especially the case given that many new supplements released over the course of 3rd Edition will put more options out of reach barring Foreign Weapon Proficiency. As time goes on I’m not really fond of the concept of weapon proficiencies in general, in that I do not see why a longsword would be harder to grok than a scimitar. I feel that elephants may be a bit too cheap for their power, even despite the inherent weaknesses of their size and lack of ranged attacks. But every PC party worth their salt will want to unleash a war elephant on an enemy at some point, so I think a more reasonable price would be somewhere around 1,000 to 3,000 gold pieces. [b]Join us next time as we get mystical and contact the Spirits of Nyambe in Chapter Eight![/b] [/QUOTE]
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