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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009848" data-attributes="member: 18387">By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer, d20 Magazine RackSizing Up the TargetNyambe: 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 BloodWhere 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 HitsWithout 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 MissesI 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 GraceThe 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 <a href="http://www.d20zines.com" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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