Races for an African-style campaign?

[pawsplay]

What about different variations for different human tribal groups? That works a lot better in the context of an isolated, mythic setting than it does for a more cosmopolitan world like D&D assumes.

There are human ethnicities in Africa that are nearly Small in D&D terms, so I don't see any problem with using halflings as is, and simply changing their subtype.

Gorillas were once believed by Europeans to be fictitious. I think a race of feral ape people based on this misapprehension would be a lot of fun.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

the old 2nd edition Chult had a great spin on goblins.

Dragon Magazine 189 also had great stuff on african adventures

and of course you can have a lot of fun using the adventures of john manville for that european perspective of the dark continent.

here's a link for mythical beasties in ethiopia
http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasios/TheresAithiopikoi.html

I do agree with the varana - very neat concept that we can thank the lion king for.

Cat races are fun, but kinda overdone. Still love wemics and litorians though.

Spirit folk would be fun. Bamboo could be turned to jungle, river do not need a change and could be used to cover waterfalls (considered a very dangerous area), in fact their is this legend called the mamba mumbo. Sea spirit folk would not be nearly as common. If you could make a version that was lightning you could have serious fun. Many african cultures associate lightning as revenge of the gods. In fact in some areas, you can pay to have lightning quite literally strike somebody down.

How about a kong like race located in the depths of the kongo? Smaller but still big...perhaps based on the goliath.

remember much of african "supernatural" is based on people being booted out of your tribe. A couple of prestige classes showing the evolution of these outsiders to monsters might be fun.

also cannibal stories are common. whether you decide to make a sentient eating race or another tribe is up to you.

If you go savage species, a race that would be a blast today is the flying jackel. They have wings and are pretty much a jackel in form, but have hands on their forepaws. They are also tricksters. They shouldn't be too high an ecl and most tricksters type races translate better then more physical types.

 

[Dykstrav]

What about different variations for different human tribal groups?

This is basically what I had in mind to begin with. The Matumbo are cultured and elegant artists and craftsmen, so I was thinking that they might come across as somewhat elven. The Tikwa are fierce warriors and stalkers that inhabit the savannahs, so seem half-orcish. The Danubi are merchants and traders who travel the rivers, and could be sort of halfling-like. But rather than seperate 'races,' I was going to do them more like the clans of Oriental Adventures.

 

[MadMaxim]

I'd think most of the variations from Unearthed Arcana and Sandstorm would put a nice spin on the standard races. Other than that I'd perhaps try Shifters from Eberron. I think they'd be very suitable for "light" kind of lycanthropes.

 

[phindar]

Also, take a look at the races from Wargods of Aegyptus. It's a minatures wargame, but its based on a mythic version of ancient Egypt, and that's a pretty good jumping off point. Most of the races are very similar to existing ones: Anubi and Basti are like Sibeccai and Litorians from AE, Heru and Khemru are like Kenku and Goatfolk from MM3. To-tanum would most likely stat out as Warforged, being living elementals rather than living constructs. Sebeki are lizardmen with croc heads, though you could make them nastier or use the Blackscale lizardmen from the MM3.

Wargods ties them altogether with a mythic North African style culture. Personally, I like all the AE races, so I feel you can't go wrong there as well.

 

[DeadlyUematsu]

I would have recommended finding a copy of Dragon #202 and reading the Races of Mythic Africa article written by Michael John Wybo II (who wrote several other articles detailing the warriors, priests, wizards, and deities of Africa) within, but a lot of ideas written in that article were already said here in this thread. Nevertheless, here is a list of races that can be found in the article: animal spirits, animal-men, ape-men, bird-men (hawk and ibis being the two main types), cat-men, elephant-men, mantis-men, scorpion-men, snake-men, zebrataurs, chameleon-men, bat-men, and african dwarves.