D&D 5E (2014) African deities/campaign setting or area?

[Elderbrain]

Is there a published campaign setting (or area in a campaign setting) which features African deities (other than Egyptian) and characters? I'd like to add such an area to a campaign setting and am wondering if anybody has done this before and/or has suggestions on how to do it. I could use actual, real-world deities, or make up some. Right now I'm leaning towards using real ones, the way the PH uses the real-world Celtic, Egyptian, Greek and Norse deities. However, I don't wish to offend anyone, as some of these deities are still currently worshiped (i.e. the Yoruba pantheon). On the other hand, Planescape uses the Hindu, Chinese and Japanese pantheons, which are still worshiped, so...

 

[I'm A Banana]

Is there a published campaign setting (or area in a campaign setting) which features African deities (other than Egyptian) and characters? I'd like to add such an area to a campaign setting and am wondering if anybody has done this before and/or has suggestions on how to do it. I could use actual, real-world deities, or make up some. Right now I'm leaning towards using real ones, the way the PH uses the real-world Celtic, Egyptian, Greek and Norse deities. However, I don't wish to offend anyone, as some of these deities are still currently worshiped (i.e. the Yoruba pantheon). On the other hand, Planescape uses the Hindu, Chinese and Japanese pantheons, which are still worshiped, so...

First: Nyambe. You could literally just drop that into an existing campaign setting and it would work pretty well.

Second: If you're concerned about presenting fantasy versions of real-world religions in a sensitive way, consider going whole hog on what is suggested on Pg 297 of the PHB: use the real-world religion for inspiration, but make it completely unambiguous that this is a fantasy version made up for RPG play and is not meant to be an accurate representation of what that deity / religion is actually like. Change the names and throw in a few explicitly fantasy elements (clerics?) to get some distance. D&D hasn't always been the best about this, but if your concerns are just to be respectful and your audience is just at your table, that should be fine. Use it as a launching point to discover more (I'm especially fond of how Yoruba religion joined up with Christianity of various flavors to create the folk paganism of slaves in the Carribean and how that has continued to influence the culture of that area, including the southeast coast of America). If you're looking to publish this more widely, I'd be a bit more cautious than that, but that might be overkill for just adding some deities to your homebrew world for your own group.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

D&D hasn't always been the best about this, but if your concerns are just to be respectful and your audience is just at your table, that should be fine.... If you're looking to publish this more widely, I'd be a bit more cautious than that, but that might be overkill for just adding some deities to your homebrew world for your own group.

This. For private use, as long as none of your players are likely to be offended, and you make a good-faith effort to present it with accuracy and dignity, then I don't think you have any reason to angst over the matter.

Hell, I hate to say, it, but putting in any effort at all is still putting in more effort than some major published works of fiction have done. Thumbs up to you for caring.

 

[Shiroiken]

I would suggest picking up a copy of the 1E Legends and Lore (Deities and Demigods is better, but MUCH harder to get). It has an African pantheon, IIRC. Unfortunately, most of the book is written more like a monster book rather than a how-to for priests, but it can provide some information.

Another useful resource (if you can find it) is old Dragon Magazines. I recall at least one article discussion an African campaign. I have absolutely no idea what issue (or even year) this was in. Sorry. If you or someone you know has access to a lot of older issues, you might glace through the tables of contents looking for it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I admit it's been a while, but I don't recall any African pantheons in the old De&De. In fact, now that I think about it, that's sort of an egregious and unfortunate omission.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

There is an article in Dragon #191 about West African deities.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

I admit it's been a while, but I don't recall any African pantheons in the old De&De. In fact, now that I think about it, that's sort of an egregious and unfortunate omission.

Unless you count the Egyptian pantheon, no. But since it presented the "Native American pantheon" as a single mythos, it'd probably just have done the same to Africa anyway.

 

[Li Shenron]

I could use actual, real-world deities, or make up some. Right now I'm leaning towards using real ones, the way the PH uses the real-world Celtic, Egyptian, Greek and Norse deities. However, I don't wish to offend anyone, as some of these deities are still currently worshiped (i.e. the Yoruba pantheon). On the other hand, Planescape uses the Hindu, Chinese and Japanese pantheons, which are still worshiped, so...

Personally I try not to use contemporary real-world pantheons, but it's more because I prefer the feeling of old religions which most people have heard something about from school, but nobody takes seriously anymore.

Generally I get the feeling that people are very often interested and fascinated by the idea of learning about cultures from the past (and I don't just mean while gaming!), about which they don't need to "take side" or judge.

Instead, if you include cultures from the present, there is always someone who already has a moral opinion or has taken side (positive or negative) either on a specific religion or on the religious idea as a whole. You might just have people who are strongly religious vs strongly atheist in the same group, and if you have (any) contemporary religion in the game, the two may not get along well if they start arguing how to deal with them.

But if you use Greek and Egyptian and Norse, nobody really cares and nobody argues. The atheists just treats them as false by default, the religious treats them as false by mistake.

 

[Ezequielramone]

I think the forgotten realms have some deities from other continent which is not faerum that you could use.
The 3e deities and demigods is the best resource I know for creating your own pantheon and it has Egyptian deities to. It really have good info on how to create deities beside mechanical stuff you don't need.

In the end I think that maybe Wikipedia is your best source.

 

[Charles Rampant]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/thes...the-best-gods-youve-never-heard-of#.daOY3KoJL

I recommend this article for inspiration. Someone did a photoshoot of a series of African deities, and these pictures alone would be amazing for player handouts.