2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great job for what it is., February 8, 2010
This review is from: Nyambe: African Adventures (D20 System) (Hardcover)
I agree with another reviewer that I wasn't sure what to expect after reading some responses here. I have more to say below but my opinion is that this book, which sets out to be a setting influenced by African rather than European culture, is a fun setting with enough solid background to let DMs immediately create some great adventures.
Chapters One and Two establish the setting and discuss the history of the land. This history feels much different from that of Faerun or Eberron, much more "Just So Stories" than "Brothers Grimm." Chapter Three introduces new takes on the races from the 3.5e Players Handbook (besides the half-orc) including twelve human cultures. None of the races are unrecognizable but they feel much different and more like the African legends I've read. I'm no expert in pre-colonial African culture but the twelve human tribes (no new stats, just backgrounds, languages, and suggested classes/feats) all seem interesting, reasonable, and varied without seeming like caricatures. Chapter Four gives some new classes, mostly re-imaginings of the core classes which are not revolutionary but feel very different and help foster the shift in theme. Chapter Five is for prestige classes and, contrary to one post here, there is more than just renamed core prestige classes. While some core classes are tweaked slightly, the majority of the chapter gives brand new prestige classes specific to Nyambe. Chapter Six introduces two new skills and new/tweaked feats to build off the new combat, magic, and environmental rules handled in earlier chaptes. Chapter Seven is new items including weapons, class tools, clothing, mounts, and poisons, all suited to keep you from having to put up with "Nyambean longswords" and "Nyambean plate mail". Chapter Eight deals with cosmology and religion, including the spirit orisha that are a more traditional approach to gods in an African setting. Chapter Nine introduces new magic options including domains, rituals, and, of course, seven pages of spells. Chapter Ten discusses geography (including random encounter tables) and nations in Nyambe-tanda, all with excellent hooks and a web of political inter-connections, as well as a number of cross-national societies for PCs and enemies. Chapter Eleven covers environmental dangers for the Dm including diseases, secrets organized by nation, and treasure. Chapter Ten gives new magic items including magic item tables, which are unfortunately mostly reliant on the core items. I think that some accessory books expand new items for the setting but, aside from wondrous items and a dozen new and interesting artifacts, DMs will need to have the DMG on hand as much as usual.
Chapter Thirteen was the only area that I think could have been improved a lot, though I can see why they did it this way. Like European folk lore, the stories they used for this book are varied, chaotic, contradictory, and some times incompatible. Unlike Europe, however, there haven't been as many attempts to gather together collections of stories (compared to the many volumes of Greek and Roman myth, German folklore, and even Gaelic stories). The result is a chapter of monsters (some good, some slightly silly) that I can see working an adventure around individually but I find difficult to put into a story together. I think adventures where monsters play a big role would turn into "The Story of the Hunting Ndawalo" or "The Village Plagued by Bomans." There doesn't seem to be as much room for campaigns equivalent to a trek into the Underdark to face drow, barter with duegar, and ally unexpectedly with kuo-toa to destroy the aboleth stronghold. I might feel differently when I plan out an adventure, but at the moment that's where I am. Arguably, this isn't a bad thing since you are trying to have a game based on folklore and not Forgotten Realms with more lions and fewer frost giants.
All in all, I think my feelings are summed up in the post title. This book wants to provide material, rules, and guidance for running a game in an African setting and I think it does that well. If you're looking for a brand new setting that will challenge players in totally unexpected ways, that asks you, the DM, to look at your game from unfamiliar angles, and that provides a rich background for both sides of the table to work with and create a brand new campaign, definitely check this out. If, however, you're looking at this book as a source to mine for new items and monsters, or as a source for new core classes to pester your DM about, I'd keep looking. Everything here is unique and together they make an impressive and cohesive new setting, but injected into a more European setting, they will probably just seem like "I'm a fighter but..." and "You see a creature that looks a lot like a yuan-ti, but..." If your on the fence about this book, I would encourage you to buy and and have a look through it. Right now it's only available on the marketplace and for really cheap. If you read through this book and never use it, I think the entertainment value alone is probably worth the five dollars most people are asking. If you do use it, though, it's an incredibly cheap dollar-per-detail value!
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Mediorce Journey Into the Heart of African Myth and Legend, March 28, 2008
This review is from: Nyambe: African Adventures (D20 System) (Hardcover)
Being a veteran Dungeon Master, I have sent my players on fantastic quests in Faerun, had them combat Sith Lords in the Star Wars universe, and even sent chills down their spine when I confronted them with the hellish things that inhabit the World of Darkness.
Searching for new material to give my players an enjoyable experience, I stumbled across "Nyambe" and decided to give it chance. Africa hasn't been exactly been a popular setting for fantasy role play-which is sad considering the country's rich history and legends-and I wanted to give my next campagin a more exotic feel. But when the book arrived, I found its contents to be satisfactory and not spectacular.
The prestige classes are merely renamed versions of the standard DnD archtypes. The cosmology of the world isn't explained. The history of the continent feels as though it was taken from the Kingdoms of Kalamar. The spells are not different from Faerun, and the monsters are too few for a book of this size.
Although "Nyambe" does contain an interesting section on Orishas, this does not remedy the problems that run rampant throughout the rest of the text.
I sincerely hope that Atlas Games thinks about reprinting "Nyambe" and adding more to it. This would actually make a phenomenal fantasy setting if it was done right.
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