Nyambe: African Adventures

or Go Back to GM's Call.

Game Type: RPG supplement for D20
Author: Chris Dolunt
Publisher: Atlas Games
Medium: 258 page Hardback
Price: $37.95
Reviewer: Gary Conway

   Inspired by Africa and its folklore, I found Nyambe: African Adventures to be just that - inspired.

   Not that it's an anthropology textbook. It's set in the high fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons continent of Nyambe, not historical Africa. However, Nyambe is one of the most unique and original high-fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons continents around. I'll freely admit I know almost nothing about African culture or mythology, but I do know that the peoples, background, and "feel" of this world are different from any other Dungeons and Dragons world I've seen. Considering how easy it is to do Dungeons and Dragons cliches, (or to incorporate Tarzan's Africa cliches into a Dungeons and Dragons game), that's saying a lot. The author had to have been doing his research into the real Africa to write this book. It has too many surprises.
   Examples? Most people think of historical sub-Saharan Africa as a "Stone-Age" setting - but there's a prestige class "Iron Doctor" that can compete with any European fantasy blacksmith. There are the expected "witch doctors" - but they are always the good guys, fighting against evil magic. There are non-Greek Amazons who ritually scar themselves. There is a mythological explanation for the difference between divine and arcane magic that is more believable (and better yet, more dramatic and adventure driving) then any explanation found in the Player's Handbook. Even when the author does use elements from the standard game, they are often completely transformed by the setting. Elves in Nyambe become the Wakyambi, who can climb like monkeys and have the prehensile tail to match. Wizards become the evil Mchawi, who reincarnate as man-eating, shape shifting animals when they die. These same "wizards" prepare spells like European fantasy Dungeons and Dragons wizards do, but not with spellbooks. They use "Mojuba Bags" that hold seemingly ordinary objects that make a spell. And these are only a few examples. Between the cultures, monsters, and magic, there are dozens more.
   The result is a Dungeons and Dragons "culture book", like Oriental Adventures, except that this culture hasn't been done before. If you're worried that playing in Nyambe will exclude standard settings and characters, the way Oriental Adventures seems to assume little contact between East and West, don't be. The theme of outside cultures making contact with Nyambe runs through the whole book, creating adventure ideas based on culture clash and, along with the Prestige Classes, allowing a broader range of PC's then the list of native core classes in the book suggests. Nyambe can be used to expand a European, Middle Eastern, or Oriental campaign as well as replace it (I already have ideas on how to link it with my campaign-in-development), and would be a great sourcebook for anyone wanting to flesh out the "Southern Lands" on the bottom edge of a campaign map.
   Overall, then, I thought Nyambe an excellent game setting, both as the heart of a campaign and as a expansion to it. There are a few places where I thought the collision of Dungeons and Dragons and African mythology was awkward, and the implications not fully worked out - but there are many other places where they I thought they combined into something completely new, with a lot of potential. I strongly recommend Nyambe for anyone who wants to stretch fantasy games in a few new directions.

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Gary Conway, 08/06/02