Races for an African-style campaign?

[Dykstrav]

I'm starting to put together a mythic-Africa style area for my campaign and am kinda stuck for PC races.

I have Nyambe, but blunty put, the races presented therein seem like the same old Player's Handbook races with a fresh coat of paint. That's not what I'm looking for. I don't want "African dwarves" or "African elves," I want some new PC races that are at least tangentially based on mythology or folk tales. I'm willing to design the game mechanics myself if I can find some good mythological references to draw on.

Any suggestions?

 

[Sound of Azure]

Vanara, from Oriental Adentures ( ... ) seem like they would fit. You could have a few different types, perhaps. I've heard a lot of good things about Litorians from Arcana Evolved.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Nyambe, Nyambe, a thousand times Nyambe!

Though there are a lot of "african X's," there's a wealth of usable information about the different tribal cultures and mythic beasts.

 

[Asmor]

How about some spider people named Anansi? Anansi's the only african folklore I know, of course...

I'd probably have a a couple variations of cat people. Strong, noble lionfolk. Small, fast cheetahs. Relatively balanced Jaguar/pantherfolk. They'd all be very dextrous, of course.

Elephant people would be pretty cool. I'd probably just steal the loxodon from Magic.

I don't think I've ever seen an anthropomorphic crocodile/alligator people. That would make a good villain race, I imagine.

 

[Jeremy757]

I second the cat people.

The spirit folk from Oriental Adventures would be good too, anything fey or spirit themed would work.

Raptoreans, from Races of the Wild, would probably work well too.

There are always pygmies

And you could go threw the list of african mythologies on wikipedia for some ideas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mythologies

 

[Dykstrav]

Catfolk will probably be in, although I'll most certainly change it from the catfolk presented in 3.5 sources to date. Thanks for the suggestion! I've already got ideas for the subraces, including tiger-folk, lion-folk, cheetah-folk, et cetera. Seems almost natural that they wouldn't get along with the jackal-headed Anubites (although the latter are Egyptian in flavor, I think it fits).

The spider folk might be cool, especially if I give them a shapeshift ability similar to Eberron's shifters.

I'm currently reading through the wikipedia stuff about African mythology, but it's alot of material to cover.

 

[Kunimatyu]

The spider folk might be cool, especially if I give them a shapeshift ability similar to Eberron's shifters.

Well, you're in luck, because the aranea(spiderfolk) come built in with shapeshifting ability!

I have to say, though, that I'm not a huge fan of merely making the cast of "The Lion King" bipedal and calling them new races. It seems like there's gotta be a better way.

 

[Jeremy757]

Catfolk will probably be in, although I'll most certainly change it from the catfolk presented in 3.5 sources to date. Thanks for the suggestion! I've already got ideas for the subraces, including tiger-folk, lion-folk, cheetah-folk, et cetera.

You don't need to necessarily make them separate races. You can do it like shifters, you have the Catfolk race and then several special abilities to choose from that determine what tribe you are in. Catfolk from the Cheetah tribe get a bonus to speed, Tiger tribe members get bonus to swim and climb, the Lion tribe get bonuses to diplomacy and intimidate.

 

[Wik]

what about Wemics? They're pretty "african".

Really, though, I don't know if non-humans really "work" in an African setting as is. This is a good thing, though - because there's no pre-conceived notion of what is "african", you can play with it a bit. I'd suggest throwing in some of the weirder races - plant people (needlefolk, from MM2, could work, or maybe vegepygmies?), Saurials (from Dark Sun), Thri-Kreen, maybe even Goliaths... they'd all work. I'd also suggest the Aranea, because they're so freaking cool.

 

[Trench]

Personally, I'd check out Litorians for your lion-man race. The Litorian culture even lines up with your setting. And just take lizard men and modify the stat adjustments (Maybe +2 to STR instead of DEX) and give them the bite ability that those Stormwrack shark-men have and you have your croc-man race good to go.