African D&D Settings?

[mythusmage]

Better yet; Doug, go ahead and start a Northern Crown thread. Then we can start talking about Africa again in this one. That sound like a plan?

 

[dougmander]

Northern Crown -- sweet! This goes high on the "things to look for this summer" list.

Doug, is it going to use the regular d20 magic system? Any notable rules variants? What about the Five Nations?

Feel free to pimp the setting some more.

Yes, it uses the regular d20 magic system, with the following changes:

Two new core classes with unique spell lists
A modest number of new cleric and wiz/sor spells, including some exclusively for native spellcasters, and some related to guns or machines
A major reconceptualization of druidic magic that explicitly ties druids' power to the health of the natural environment

There are few major rules variants in terms of messing with the basic mechanics of feats, skills, combat, and so forth. I was going for "out-of-the-box" playability for anyone who has played D&D. But there are:

seven new core classes
nine prestige classes
rules for fencing and black powder weapons
rules for creating fantastic baroque-era inventions like flying machines
lots of monsters from American lore, like haints, wendigo, and headless horsemen
stats for legendary NPCs like Paul Bunyan and Mike Fink

The Five Nations, once warring nations now united by the principles of the Great Tree of Peace, are of course a regional power in the game world, trying to corner the northern fur trade and preventing incursions from the Puritan Commonwealth and other European invaders. The Mohawk, aka the Keepers of the Eastern Door or the People of the Place of Flint, are one of 17 PC culture backgrounds detailed in the book. One of the two narrators who introduces each chapter in the book is a Mohawk rakarota (bard in d20 terms) named Okwaho.

Any other questions about the setting?

 

[dougmander]

Better yet; Doug, go ahead and start a Northern Crown thread. Then we can start talking about Africa again in this one. That sound like a plan?

Makes sense! If anyone has any further questions about NC, please put them in a new thread.
OK, back to Africa. What's Nyambe like in actual play, for those of you who have done it? What sort of adventures did you have? Who are the PCs?

 

[Lazybones]

A few early Dungeon mags had a few adventures by David Howery set in an African-like setting:

The Elephant's Graveyard (#15)
The Leopard Men (#22)

http://www.patman.org/ADD/resources/dungeons.asp

 

[BryonD]

Atlas is done with d20 so nothing new from them for this

Has there been any rumor of a pdf release?

Atlas has stuff on rpgnow + Atlas not doing d20 any more = reason to hope?

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Better yet; Doug, go ahead and start a Northern Crown thread. Then we can start talking about Africa again in this one. That sound like a plan?

Northern Crown Thread started here:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=121541

 

[Mark Plemmons]

You can expect a really thick supplement from us on the continent of Svimohzia, later this year. Imagine Zulu and Masai tribes with 1,000+ years of civilization behind them, making their culture as advanced as that of Imperial Rome. Plus D&D magic and monsters, of course. Should be very cool.

 

[Talonne Hauk]

In my view, it's not really necessary, given the OGL. If anyone wants to do African-flavored stuff, they're free to under the terms of the OGL already -- and they can use content out of Nyambe under the OGL as well. One of the nice things about using the OGL is to allow independent people to do supporting work without having to spend time and money drawing up individual licenses or new licensing schemes for them. (Even if a license is free and/or non-commercial, just writing it up costs a company money.)

While I admire the spirit of sharing, it would definitely upset me were someone to use material originally presented in Nyambe and turn in a substandard product. The dilution of a brand name is not something to be taken lightly, methinks.