Nyambe: African Adventures

[Messageboard Golem]

In the land of the Overpower, the jaws of the crocodile are the only reward for the unwary.


Nyambe™ is a vast land of exotic creatures and wide expanses, where ancestral orishas cry for brave tribal warriors to carve out the hearts of foul mchawi wizards, and where dragon-blooded sei sorcerers once joined the fierce Amazons of Nibomay in the bloody Rebelling Time to win their freedom. This eagerly anticipated campaign setting for the D20 System™ brings together high fantasy and African myth, legend, and history in a hardcover sourcebook of epic proportions for both players and GMs.


Nyambe: African Adventures includes:

• Twelve new human tribal cultures and six variant non-human races, like the brown-skinned, tailed Wakyambi elves who meddle in the affairs of men from the depths of the bIda rainforest.

• New core class variants and prestige classes change druids into shamen who worship the natural orisha spirits and are as comfortable in the skin of a panther as in humanoid form.

• New skills and feats like Ancestral Blessing, Drum Dancer, Elephant Warrior, Fire Blood, and Ritual Cannibalism are the heritage of every Nyamban, as well as new weapons, armor, and equipment designed for a tropical climate where the heat of the vast savannah is more dangerous than an enemys spear.

• The spirit-worship of the mortals has called upon the orisha for new spells and domains such as Darkness, Exile, Fertility, Lightning, and Plague ever since the Dark Time when the Overpower ascended into the sky on the web of a giant spider.

• Mad omurogo wizards contemplate the contents of mojuba bags to prepare their divination spells, and new magic items like zombi powder turn fallen warriors into true zombis that keep a hideous memory of their former lives, ritual masks let the wearer become an orisha, and vodou nkisi statues hurl powerful curses at those who dare to use them.

• And in the dark interior of the continent lurk creatures never before seen by the men of the tamed north lands ... ravenous beasts of the jungle and desert are only the beginning of the danger that awaits those who walk the lands of Nyambe!

Stock Number: AG3700 • ISBN 1-58978-023-X • SRP $37.95 (US)
Description: 256 pages (including 16 interior pages in full color), casebound
Author: Chris Dolunt • Cover Artist: Mike Dutton


A Major New D20 System Hardcover
Shipping to Distributors August 2002

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Nyambe is Atlas Games' take on an African-influenced campaign setting.

Nyambe is a 256-page hardcover book, and at $37.95 this is fairly standard pricing for its size and type. The first chapter is done in full colour, in a similar style to the Dragonstar sourcebook. Font size, margins and white space are all reasonable, and generally good use of space is made. Artwork ranges from poor to superb, with most being good. Writing and editing are also good.

Chapter 1: Land of the Overpower, begins with an in-character overview of the campaign setting. The setting is designed to be integrated into a larger campaign world and there are references to Middle East-, Far East-, European- and Egyptian-type cultures. There are twelve human sub-races, but the setting also includes non-human races - variants of halflings, gnomes, half-orcs, dwarves and elves, plus a sorcerous reptilian race descended from dragons. Various savage races are also described such as half-lions, a race descended from were-hyaenas, and yuan-ti. Animals, plants and monsters are discussed in relation to the setting. The religion of the setting centres on a belief in immortal spirits, called orisha (who grant spells), whilst Nyambe (the only god as such, but also the name of the land) does not grant spells. Orisha can be celestial, fiendish, natural, elemental, and ancestral. The cosmology of the setting allows for the material world, the shadow world (a grim mixture of the ethereal, astral and shadow planes) and the spirit world (the home of the orisha). Most magic is divine, relying on the orisha, though there are a couple of outlawed arcane spellcaster types - necromancers who sell their souls to fiendish orisha for power, and sorcerers who gain their power direct from Nyambe due to their dragon blood. The chapter ends with a discussion of technology levels, and some insights into the importance of family and social life.

Chapter 2: Mythology And History, tells the story of the continent from creation myth to the prophecies of the future. The current time frame sees an influx of foreign influences previously unknown to the continent, including orc slave traders from the north, wildlife hunters/traders from the Far East, and Yuan-ti.

Chapter 3: Races And Cultures, begins with information and statistical changes to the twelve human variants from the Azzazza to the Zamara. The different cultures tend to reflect their different environments where appropriate, from deserts to jungle to plains. Each culture has information on such aspects as art and food, as well as the more traditional information. The same is done for the non-human races. Interestingly, the halfling variants are furred, clawed warriors and the elven variants have prehensile tails.

Chapter 4: Core Classes, begins by discussing the standard D&D classes in a Nyamban campaign - all these classes are deemed to be foreigners and there are limitations to language, feat and weapon proficiencies for these characters. Five new classes are introduced instead, native to the setting - they are esentially variant classes of the fighter, wizard, rogue, cleric, and sorcerer. Of note is that the wizard variant has a definite necromantic bent, the cleric variant has a druidic sub-variant for those who worship nature or elemental orisha, and the sorcerer variant has different class features dependent on what type of dragon blood runs through their veins.

Chapter 5: Prestige Classes, gives 11 new prestige classes:
* Dembe - ranger variant, monster hunters
* Engolo - masters of unarmed combat
* Inyanga Yensimbi - 5-level masters of iron
* Leopard Cultist - 5-level wereleopards and cultists devoted to opposing trade with Far Easterners
* Magic Eater - wizard slayers
* Mask Maker - 5-level creators of enchanted masks
* Mganga - witchdoctor specialised in fighting evil magic
* Ngoma - bard variant, skilled in drumming and dancing magic
* Nibomay Amazon - female warrior
* Soroka - divines by analyzing death throes of poisoned animal
* Zombi Cultist - evil necromancers who work with fiendish orisha of serpents and the undead

Chapter 6: Skills, Feats And Combat, gives a new skill table for the new Nyamban classes. Alchemy is replaced by the Natural Medicine skill, which creates the same effects as Alchemy but using more naturalistic methods. The Scry skill can be used for reading omens, and there is expanded information on languages under the Speak Language section. 59 new feats are offered, including several under the new feat type 'Racial' which limits feats to certain races. Feats include variants of Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, and Improved Evasion, as well as more setting-centric feats such as Create Gris-Gris, Drum Dancer, Ritual Cannibalism, and Prehensile Tail. A mixed bunch - some good, some bad. The combat section deals with setting brush fires as a tactic in warfare, ritual warfare using blunted weapons, cattle raids, nuba matches (a type of wrestling), and engolo duels (nuba match to the death, with weapons).

Chapter 7: Nyamban Equipment, gives a table of costs for trade items and a stat table for Nyamaban weapons before a more thorough description of these weapons. New weapons include throwing club, blowgun, barbed spear, returning club, and bola. The same is done for armour - no heavy armours due to heat, but such items as beaded armour, wooden plate and a wider selection of shields increase choice. A full page table of new equipment (or variants of standard equipment) including adventuring gear, class tools and kits, nyamban clothing, food, drink and lodging, and mounts and related gear (featuring stuff for camels and elephants). This equipment is then described. A section on superior and special items includes healing salve and marsh water (a protection against malaise (malaria)). The chapter ends with a good selection of Nyamban poisons, including a range of animal venoms, raw sewage and spoiled food.

Chapter 8: Spirits Of Nyambe, gives a listing of the Orisha, with their alignment, domains, favored weapon, typical followers, and times for prayer. The Orisha act much as deities do in a standard campaign. I would have liked to see more information on the spirit world in this section and the role of Orisha in society. Its a little short.

Chapter 9: Nyamban Magic, begins with some minor alternate magic rules regarding summoning spells (limited to dragons and elementals), resurrection and reincarnation (limited circumstances), armor spells (require gems as spell components), and mojo bags (a spellcasters equivalent to a spellbook). 16 new domains are given - birds, confusion, dance, darkness, exile, fertility, fish, flesh, greed, hunting, iron, lightning, love, plague, serpents, and wisdom. Most of these use some of the 40 new spells found in the remainder of the chapter, including nine spell levels of summon dragon and summon elemental.

Chapter 10: Lands, Nations And Societies, begins by breaking wilderness areas down into different environments, providing comprehensive random encounter tables for each major area. After a brief discussion of weather, mainly centered around heat exhaustion, sixteen nations are discussed - each has small paragraphs or sentences on government, trade, population, military, languages, religions, allies & enemies, history, and conflicts & intrigues, plus a general overview. The final section on Nyamban societies discusses craft societies, fertility cults, fiendish cults, magical societies, mask-making societies, temples and shrines, thieves' guilds, and warrior societies, with a couple of paragraphs dedictaed to each.

Chapter 11: Adventures In Nyambe, begins with some advanced disease rules, defining the method of exposure, and discussing treatment and recovery. Twelve new diseases with stats including CR's, prevention methods, and races affected, are given, along with random exposure tables for different environments. A section entitled Secrets Of Nyambe expands the information in the conflicts & intrigues for the nations in Chapter 10 by giving further plot hooks and adventure seeds for the different lands. A final section on Nyamban treasure discusses art objects, gems and beads, mundane items, and magic items, with accompanying random generation tables.

Chapter 12: Magic Items, deals with magic armour and shields (armor of cowries, shield of arcane warding), magic weapons (death cult dagger (death knell effect), spear of heart-piercing), potions (plague powder, zombi powder), rings (fertility, scent), rods (darts, rust), staves (of domain use), and wondrous items (including masks). There is also a section on the gris-gris (Nyamban equivalent of a spellbook). The chapter ends with further examples of cursed items, minor artifacts, and major artifacts.

Chapter 12: Monsters Of Nyambe, takes up nearly 60 pages of the book. After a discussion of the use of standard D&D creatures in Nyamban adventures. There are over 50 new monsters suitable for the setting, ranging from CR 1/6 to CR 17 (though most are in the range CR 1-7), and from most of the monster categories (with a prevalence of animals, beasts, and magical beasts). Monster sections follow on one from another - none is dedicated its own page. There are also several templates, including wereanimals such as werelions, wereleopards and werehyaenas, and also a type of vampire appearing as a skinless human.

The book ends with an index broken down by category.

Conclusion:
If you're after a well-developed African-influenced setting, Nyambe is highly recommended. It plays quite heavily with the standard D&D rules, particularly in terms of race, class and religion, but these areas seem to work fairly well. The skills and feats section I found a bit weak whilst the sections on disease and poisons were particularly good.

 

[radferth]

On the whole, how balanced are the variant Nyambe classes vs. stadard D&D classes?

 

[Simon Collins]

Hi Radferth

Thanks for the question. The whole issue wouold need proper playtesting to do a fair comparison, but here are the basic differences:

Gamba vs Fighters: Same BAB and saves, and weapon specialization. d12 Hit Die, 4 class skills per level. Reduced number of bonus feats (every 3rd level starting from 2nd), fast movement (similar to a barbarian). Dodge Bonus to AC equal to BAB and Damage Reduction of +1/- every 3 levels starting from 10th level (to make up for reduced armour).

Mchawi vs Wizard: Same BAB, saves, hit die, spell mastery access and skill points. Equivalent to scribe scroll gained equally, mchawi gains summon familiar equivalent one level later and bonus feats start at 6th level and increase every 6th level (so one less). Mchawi gains AC bonus equivalent to BAB (like the gamba), is as if specialized in the necromancy school (no divination), and is re-incarnated as an animal if killed after 5th level. Spell access is similar but mchawi can gain limited access to some divine spells.

Nanala vs Rogue: Same BAB, saves, hit die, skill points, and sneak attacks. Bonus feat every 2nd level from 2nd level, Dodge bonus equal to BAB, but no uncanny dodge, evasion, special abilities, or traps abilities.

N'anga vs Cleric: Same BAB, saves, spell progression, domain access, restricted alignment spells, and bonus languages. Gains specific Orisha powers (varies with Orisha chosen), but includes an option for turn/rebuke undead and spontaneous casting with celestial orisha. Also gains Dodge bonus equal to BAB.

Sei vs Sorcerer: Same BAB, saves, hit die, skill points and spell progression. Gains Dodge bonus equal to BAB and special abilities (dependent on dragon blood type - 2 or 3 gained at low, mid and high levels) instead of summon familiar.

Hope that helps.

Simon Collins

 

[Archer]

This is the most impressive 3rd party product I've seen since Dragonstar. I like variant settings in which the underlying principles of the core rules are present but everything is reinterpreted. Most settings are variations on a theme but Nyambe could be considered a full reinvention.

All cultures have been address at one point or another in roleplaying except African. There was traditional European, then oriental (Kara-Tur, Rokugan) followed by American (Maztica).

I find the alternate core classes and prestige classes to be superior in many ways to the originals. There is a fighter/barbarian hybrid which is how a lot of core rules players end up going and a rogue with the feats of a fighter and the sneak attack of a rogue without any of the rogues other special abilities. You choose when you get certain abilities like evasion, improved evasion, uncanny dodge, opportunist and so on and if you want them at all.

There is a lot of material you can pull into your regular game if you choose not to have a campaign based in Nyambe. I find the material to be well balanced and interesting and innovative. A lot of 3rd party publishers have started rehashing a lot of the same material without really expanding the boundries of game. Nyambe expands the boundries giving example of rangers, monks and bards as prestige classes instead of core classes which looks to be a much better way of handling it.

I would never heard of this product if Monte Cook hadn’t recommended it and I must wholeheartedly agree with him and give it the strongest possible recommendation myself.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Nyambe
African Adventures
Written by Chris Dolunt
Published by Atlas
256 pages
$37.95

So what do you get when you buy Nyambe? You get almost everything you need to start a campaign in the Land of the Overpower. The book starts off with a 16 page full color section that provides a quick overview of the land and its peoples ending with a full color map of Nyambe-tanda. It’s an excellent primer and gives you a good idea of what adventuring in this land involves.

The rest of the book is broken up into chapters that make finding information easy. Want to know about the classes for this setting? Go to chapter four, Core Classes. Want to know about the Magic Items? Go to chapter eleven. The tight focus in each chapter allows the GM to just look for crunchy stuff or look for the ‘fluff’. For example, Chapter Two is History and Chapter Ten, Lands, Nations, and Societies.

So what is Nyambe anyway? It’s a setting loosely based on African mythos and history. It’s broken down into broad areas and is surprisingly open to a number of crossover potentials. For example, in times past, the Water People had land here and their ruins are still standing. For those not in the know, the Water People are any Egyptian like people. By avoiding specifics, Nyambe makes it extremely easy to merge or add different settings to this one. Imagine a Necropolis Nyambe crossover. Yeah, pretty cool eh? Another interesting thing is that the history ends in the now phase where a lot of things are all happening at once. Take north orc invaders. If you have Races of Evermore or Sovereign Stone, both have orks that love the water. Heck, Freeport orks might be the ones behind the recent attack. Another good crossover point is the Far Eastern traders and merchants who set up here to take advantage of trade. Rogukan anyone?

The new races and cultures showcases how the races, most of ‘em the standard ones, are different in Nyambe. Each race has name, personality, physical description, relations, alignment, lands, authority, religion, rituals, arts, food, language, names (male and female), adventurers, appropriate classes, and feats. Now that’s a lot of information to take in at one setting, especially when you consider that the racial traits are blocked off in addition to this information. The good news is that it’s easy ready and the races are illustrated so you can quickly read through and pick and chose what you want to add. One of the interesting things is that like several other recent settings, Nyambe breaks humanity up into different cultures. No changes to the stats mind you, but the fact that you don’t have to play a ‘human’ is nice and it’s cool to get separate names for each grouping. Of the races that don’t match the standards in the PHB, we’ve got the Unthlatu Dragons, a race with a touch of dragon and reptilian blood coursing through their veins.

For those wondering what I was talking about earlier with different core classes, yes, it’s true, much like any other specific setting, there are new core classes here, as well as notes of how to incorporate all the standard PHB classes. One of the nice things about having individuals from the Far East is that these traders and merchants are the originating point for classes like Monks and Psions, which are mentioned by name. Unfortunately, since Oriental Adventurers itself hasn’t hit the gentlemen’s stage yet, all of the OA classes are left mysteriously unmentioned.

The new core classes in Nyambe almost all take into account the heat factor that makes wearing armor difficult in this setting by giving them the Sanguar Feat, a greater dodge feat that augments the armor class of the individuals. It doesn’t’ go quite as far as some of the Swashbuckler handbook feats did in terms of granting an armor class bonus, but it should help characters survive a bit. The classes include the Gamba, almost a hybrid between the barbarian (higher hit dice, faster movement) with the fighter (bonus feats and weapon specialization.). The Mchawi, the wizards of the setting who are often evil and looked upon with distrust. The Nanala, the rogues of the setting, who gain numerous bonus feats and sneak attack abilities. The N’angas, the clerics of the setting who deal with the orisha or spirits of the setting. The listing provides a quick name, alignment, domains and typical followers so that players and GMs can quickly determine what they’d want out of the setting. The Sei is the alternative versions of the Sorcerer, and is also distrusted by many in this setting.

For Prestige Classes, I’m impressed that Atlas actually covers the core PrCs from the DMG by providing some incorporation notes making the GMs job just a little easier. The new PrCs include the Dembe, a monster hunter that seems to be a ranger variant. More exotic are the Leopard Cultists who have to be lycanthropes. The Magic Eaters are warriors who hunt down spellcasters. The Mask Makers are specialized spellcasters who focus on the crafting of unique masks. The Mganga are ‘witchdoctors’, divine spellcasters who use spells from the wizard/sorcerer list. The Ngoma’s are drummers who are social spellusers, filling the same role that bards often do. There are more PrCs that players can strive for like the Nibomay Amazon and enough goods that most players and GMs should enjoy the feel that these PrCs give the setting. The PrCs seem balanced with the core classes and since the core classes all get the specialized dodge feat, these classes too will benefit from it.

If you’re looking for new skills, feats and combat rules, then Chapter Six has you covered and provides a lot of goodies for feats. Some new skills help flesh out the setting like Natural Medicine and Scry, but I know players, they’ll be flipping through the Feats section before the skills section. There are several feats that could see use in almost any campaign. Rogues will all want to take Crippling Strike, a bonus to your sneak attack that drains your target of 1 point of temporary Strength. The feats provide a nice mix of combat related and skill related augmentation and players should be able to customize their characters enough so that no two need be alike.

GMs of course should carefully read the new combat rules. The information on brush fires, ritual warfare, castle raids, nuba matches and engolo duels will come in handy and the rules for brush fires can be used in any ampaign.

Nyamban Equipment includes a lot of new standard equipment but players and GMs will both want to flip immediately to the weapons and armors section. We’ve got bolas, blowguns, battleaxes, leaf spears, dagger swords, and two-bladed swords. Most of the weapons are illustrated with clean illustrations and it’s possible to see why the Elephant Axe is probably one of the most used weapons of the setting. New armors included beaded, iron chain shirts, woven cord, hide, iron mantle and wooden plates. A wide array of shields rounds out the armor section.

Of course somewhere out there some role player is disgusted with my attention to the new weapons and armor as he’s busily flipping through the gear. You’ve got game boards, backpacks, papyrus, egg bottles, head rest, stools, and of course, natural medicine kits. Why there’s even a section on Nyamban clothing and mounts. The Engargiya is one of the strangest mounts I’ve seen but we all know that players are going to be looking for that mighty Elephant.

Those wanting more information on the Orisha’s than provided by the cleric class will read over Chapter Eight, the Spirits of Nyambe. I’m not a super knowledgeable about African myths but was disappointed that Shango wasn’t listed but then again, I’ve seen Shango as the god of thunder and as a powerful mortal so I can see where the author didn’t want to cause confusion. The information here is similar to the player’s handbook in that it provides a symbol, deity stat block information and some background to incorporate the material quickly.

Nyamban Magic introduces some quick new rules for the setting. Resurrection is a little different here, and armor spells need a component of 25 gp per level of the spell. It’s a way to try to capture that authentic feel but seems a little forced. New Nyamban Domains should be able to go into almost any game: Birds, Confusion, Dance, Darkness, Exile, Fertility, Fish, Flesh, Greed, Hunting, Iron, Lightning, Love, Plague, Serpents, and Wisdom.

The spells start off in alphabetical order. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get a master spell listing broken down by class, level and then alphabetized with brief details ala the Player’s Handbook. It would’ve made searching for spells a little easier then going through the list one at a time. Still, you’ll find a wide variety of magics, both offensive and miscellaneous that can add color and background to the setting. Bit of the Plague Rat anyone?

Chapter Ten provides the reader with information on the setting, ranging from the terran in general terms and the typical encounters there, to the specific nations of Nyambe. Each nation has it’s own stat block, history, conflicts and intrigues, and special notes so that GMs can start using the material right away. About the only thing I’m disappointed in is that the book didn’t focus on a specific area that could be friendly to players of almost all classes and races so that the campaign can at least start with a bit of focus. It suffers a little because this isn’t the same old same old setting where you might expect to start in a bar, but rather like Rogukan where things aren’t quite the same.

One of the things that surprises me about Chapter Eleven, Adventures in Nyambe, is that there aren’t any brief little adventures but rather, rules for disease, secrets of the setting, treasures like gems, beads, and mundane items.

Those GMs looking for more information on rewards will enjoy Chapter Twelve, Magic Items. There are several new properties for different items as well as several new specific ones. For example, the Spear of Heart-Piercing strikes a foe in the heart on a critical. Minor and major artifacts are included so that GMs can provide tales of these items of power to their characters long before those players ever see a Blade of Scarring or a Greater Nail Figure.

The chapters close out with a meaty monster section that provides GMs with a lot of opposition to throw at the players. Thankfully, we’ve got a breakdown of creatures by category and by challenge rating so you can pit low-level characters against the boman, small blood sucking bats, and higher level characters against the Lau, a huge snake with grasping tentacles.

The book closes out with an appendix for just about everything. I was a little surprised that while all of the Dragon issues with the various African themes got covered that good old Role Aids with it’s Myth and Legends II wasn’t mentioned. The index is a massive three-page beast that should help you master the book quickly.

Art is good in many cases with a few great illustrations, especially in the full color section. The layout is generally the standard two-column beast that we’re all used to in our RPGs. Text to page ratio is fairly good and use of white space is good. Editing is pretty strong and the only thing that caught my eye was one of the chapter headings being wrong as I used it for reference.

Overall I’m quite impressed with the ‘whole’ factor of the book. If there had been a few more tweaks and some home based setting, the book would rate a solid 5. Some GMs though, just aren’t going to know what to do with the setting. I’d suggest the ‘foreigner’ campaign just to keep it familiar until the players are settled in and then have them switch to standard characters. On the other hand, GMs and players can both take classes, magic items, and spells from this setting and play ‘foreigners’ in the standard setting for a change of pace.

If you’re looking for something a bit more exotic than another European dark ages setting, then Nyambe brings a lot to the table.

 

[malladin]

I'm a big fan of this book, mainly due to my strong interest in African mythology. I have been spending the last 3 years slowly developing my own african-fantasy setting, Its a shame Atlas beat us to it .

Anyway, the point I wanted to make, because I've read many reviews of this book and no-one seems to have spotted it yet, is just how good the basic classes are. The Gamba, Nanala and N'Ganga are so cleverly put together you could almost use them instead of their standard D&D counterparts.

Perhaps people have not studied the feats section fully yet. This section includes a wide variety of 'class abilities' converted into feats that anyone can, throetically, pick up. Evasion and Traps are good examples of this. This means that your Nanala can be a typical rogue a non-magical bard or an assassin with equal ease. A Gamba can make a gladiator or barbarian class, with a multiclass between the two covering most ranger concepts. The best of all, however, is the N'Ganga, which makes you either a druid or a cleric or a demon-worshipping-cultist or just about any other kind of divine spellcaster.

Anyway, just thought I should get it off my chest. Its a fantastic setting, but its so well designed and put together that you can get so much more out of it than just an african setting.

 

[Voadam]

Joe,

Scry is a new skill?

How is natural medicine different from or interact with healing and profession herbalist?

When you talk about new combat options, did you mean to say cattle raids instead of castle?

 

[Archer]

Natural Medicine is the Nyambe version of Alchemy.
Scry has new uses for analzing omens.

He meant cattle raids. (pg 38)

I did point out how good the basic classes were in my short review.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer, d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing Up the Target
Nyambe: African Adventures is a 256-page hardcover release from Atlas Games that retails for $37.95. The work is written by Christopher Dolunt, with contributions from David Howery, Travis Laney, and Frédérick Leneuf-Magaud. The beautiful cover illustration is painted by Mike Dutton and a great many talented folks contributed to the interior art.

First Blood
Where to begin? Let me first say that I’ve been awaiting this book since Nyambe was a PDF document on Chris Dolunt’s website way, way back at the beginning of 3E. Yes, I can remember when the original document was freely available (in fact, I think I still have it somewhere). I knew right off that Chris was a person whose work I needed to watch. Apparently, so did Atlas Games.

Nyambe needed to be done. Why? Because there are too darned few fantasy settings based on Africa, that’s why! In fact, I can’t think of a single one, especially not one with the detail that this one has been given. But I have to be explicit. Nyambe is not a sourcebook about Africa. It’s a sourcebook about an Africa-like fantasy setting.

Nyambe takes you deep into the heart of a fantasy landscape that is as far removed from the stock Euro-medieval as you can get. This is the Land of the Overpower, Nyambe-tanda, a land of steaming jungles, burning deserts, and strange beauty. Humans and other creatures, both strange and deadly, call these lands home. It is a place where the unwary will find danger at every turn. In short, Nyambe does for Africa what Oriental Adventures did for the Far East.

Now, some of you may think that a fantasy Africa has nothing to offer in the way in the way of adventure. You’d be wrong! Nyambe offers more adventure than you can handle in a lifetime. Don’t make the mistake of overlooking this fabulous book simply because you think that it holds nothing for you. Even if you’re just looking for some stuff to spice up your campaign and not an entirely new setting, chances are good that you’ll find something here to suit your needs.

The first chapter is 16 glorious pages of full color, which describe the lands of Nyambe-tanda to the reader through the eyes of a native, Shomari of T’ombo. Shaomari guides you through a brief overview of the Land of the Overpower, describing the people and cultures you will encounter, the flora and fauna that you will see, and the cosmology and magic of this strange land. Your tour ends with a full color map of Nyambe.

Therafter, the book takes a more traditional turn, delving into game mechanics liberally interspersed with flavor text. The history and mythology of the land, from the beginning of time to the modern period is a delight to read. Nyambe sports a very rich history and the extent of work that has been put into this product really shows through here. Where the history of some campaign seems cobbled together from a rough collection of ideas, Nyambe’s history flows like a river, making the reading not only informative, but also enjoyable.

From the twelve new human culture and six demi-human races to a completely new selection of classes, the feel of African adventuring is beautifully captured in this book. New weapons, spells, feats, skills, and equipment are described in great detail, bringing fantasy Africa to life, even for those completely unfamiliar with the setting. The book even includes a mini-bestiary and encounter tables, so the DM can begin a campaign with a minimum of effort. I’ve seen campaign settings from Wizards of the Coast that are given less attention!

From the races to the spells and magical items, Nyambe is a completely different world from the one that is described in pseudo-medieval campaigns. It’s very easy to immerse oneself in the thought of playing a beaded-armor wearing gamba (fighter) with his bone-tipped ikilwa (spear), stalking his prey through the undergrowth. The amount of real-world research that went into Nyambe shows in even a brief perusal of its pages.

The book is lavishly illustrated throughout and the arrangement is vaguely familiar, being set up similarly to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting that was released by Wizards of the Coast. This makes it much easier to read and the layout flows naturally, making locating a particular section quick and painless.

The way that the author has constructed it, Nyambe slides seamlessly right into any fantasy setting. Though foreigners are referred to throughout the book, they are always spoken of in terms vague enough that fitting them in will be no problem for even an inexperienced DM. Too often, particularly one with as rich a history as this one sports, is invasive and requires great changes and upheavals to fit into the DM’s milieu. Fortunately, Nyambe does not suffer that problem, being as generic and flexible as it is brilliant and unique.

Critical Hits
Without doubt, this is one of the most comprehensive campaign settings I’ve yet seen. From the cultures, to the lands, to the very cosmology, no detail has been overlooked. And what makes it even better is that it is Africa, and yet it isn’t. That is to say, it’s a completely original look at one of the world’s oldest cultures and what it might have been. Like I said at the beginning, this book needed to be made!

The way the races are handled stands out particularly well. It would have been very easy to simply rule that no demi-human races exist (given that Africa isn’t known for it’s legends of elves), but the author doesn’t take the easy way out. Instead, he reimagines the demi-human races and designs cultures that are unique and appropriate to the setting. Furthermore, each of the twelve human ethnic groups is given the same loving detail. The result is that, though all humans are alike from a mechanical standpoint, they are startlingly different from a role-playing view.

I guess that’s the big selling point is the attention to detail that has been given here. The way that magic works, the cosmology of the culture, the differences in magical items, all of this is so delightfully alien. I know a history professor whom I used to have that would love to just browse this book (and he doesn’t play RPGs)!

Critical Misses
I can’t do it, and Lord knows I’ve tried. I hate to give any product a perfect, because I believe that perfection is a very difficult goal to achieve, but I’m damned if I can find anything I don’t like about Nyambe. I honestly believe that Nyambe is as close to perfect as anyone can hope to get.

If anything is missing or bad, I guess I’d have to say that I really would like to have seen some alternate (culturally appropriate) names for the spells in Core Rulebook I. Little is said about them other than Nyambans use the same magics that other cultures do. Providing alternate names for even a few of the spells from standard D&D would have gone the extra step in making Nyambe worlds apart from other products.

At first glance, the price seems a little steep, but consider that this is a massive 256-page volume that contains an entire campaign setting in rich detail and has sixteen full color pages of introduction! It’s still less than Wizards of the Coast’s Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting and pretty close to Oriental Adventures, which was released last year. I’d say that it could be a little less expensive, but not by much.

Coup de Grace
The amount of Open Game Content is respectable, including all game mechanics (crunchy bits) and pretty much everything except the art, the introduction, and some bits of Product Identity. The book adheres to the accepted d20 standards with a great amount of attention to detail. As for originality, Africa is one of the least-touched upon cultures for a gaming supplement. If I could give higher than a 5, I would.

Whether you’re a player looking for something a little different, a DM looking for a new fantasy setting that isn’t “the same old thing,” or just looking for some new feats and magic items, Nyambe has something that will suit you. It can honestly be said that this book offers something for everyone. You simply can’t go wrong with this purchase.

To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.