Nyambe
Nyambe is different.
The first thing that hit me upon reading Nyambe was that it was a little complicated. And then I realized it was because I was comparing it to Rifts Africa, and Nyambe was *good* whereas Rift Africa was *Bad*. For starters, while lesser supplements would portray their africanesque people as homogeneous, Nyambe gives at ten different African flavored peoples. From your jungle dwelling pygmie folk to your empire building worker folk to your family oriented nomads.
So the first thing you gotta do is keep 'em straight. It seems hard at first since you're not used to it (seeing African people as diverse!? What COULD they be thinking!?). But once you realize it's no different from keeping all those different kinds of white folks straight in The Forgotten Realms, you get on with your life and realize it's actually quite fun. Some of em are into ritual scarring, some aren't, but as ritual scarring can be used to increase your statistics (at the cost of charisma or hit points), the power gamer in me gives it a definite thumbs up!
Then comes the different flavoring. Characters get their powers from different sources in Nyambe. Armor isn't used that much, but characters do have innate abilities to increase their AC. Scrolls are out, Gris-gris is in. Characters can make or buy magic masks to increase their abilities. Undeads and Serpents are connected to one another (As opposed to Realms based from European roots, where undeads and soil is connected). Different things are important, Nyambe Zombies take damage from salt. The monster section is all naturalistic, even the demons are agglomerations of different animals. The biggest baddie is a big tree (and to be honest, I thought it was the best botanical beastie I'd ever seen in a gaming book).
Oh, and the Mangabangabana! Don't forget the Mangabangabana! They aint half-bad (oh look, I made a funny! buy the book to get the joke). Scary lookin abominations, but sure fun to say!
Ancestral Vault steps up the fun because it is where you go for high power Nyambe characters. Whereas an Forgotten Realms character gets his abilities from his weapons, armor, amulets, rings, ect.... Nyambe characters are a bit different. All of those other things do exist in Nyambe, but your Nyambe guy is using ritual scarring, fetishes, and beadwork. A nyambe cleric with a high beadwork skill is a source of excellent items for The Party. And if that aint fun, I don't know what is!
Yes, there are rules for ritual circumcision, yes it gives you a +1 constitution. find another fantasy sourcebook with THEMS apples!
I gave Nyambe and Ancestral Vault a definite thumbs up, and am bugging my local gamers to start a campaign in it.
