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Xyk
2007-11-21, 11:50 PM
I'm making a game set in the african savannah. I'm working on a basic template for everything. any suggestions? I got this much so far.


Metal costs 2x
barbarian gains endurance at level 1
all elves are wild elves (+2 dex, -2 int, instead of normal and favored class is sorcerer.)
gnomes +2 int, -2 str, instead of normal. they make every invention
Halflings 30 speed.
Humans have endurance as well as their bonus feat.
Bards use drums and horns more often than string instruments
druid animal companions are camel, donkey, wild dog, hawk, hyena, monitor lizard, baboon, owl, snake (medium or small viper)
Familiars include monkey with +4 int.
rangers woodland stuff turns into tall grasses. (such as camoflauge and hide in plain sight.)
crossbows are rare
rapiers are almost non-existent, rogues and elves extra weapon proficiency are the long bow and handaxe respectively.
No native arcane magic, the druid is essentially the mage and the spirit shaman is the divine caster (off the oriental shaman spell list)

osyluth
2007-11-22, 12:50 AM
NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Humans were overpowered enough before you came along and gave them endurance as well! :smallfrown:

Krimm_Blackleaf
2007-11-22, 12:57 AM
NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Humans were overpowered enough before you came along and gave them endurance as well! :smallfrown:

Heh... satire.

reorith
2007-11-22, 01:36 AM
woodland stride already allows rangers to walk through tall grasses and stuff

do monks get anything to make them more part of your savannah setting?

Icewalker
2007-11-22, 02:53 AM
The impression I got was actually that humans' bonus feat was automatically chosen as Endurance. Unless I misunderstood.


Sounds interesting. Except isn't a medium viper freaking gigantic for a viper? I mean, medium is the side of a person :smalleek:

Xuincherguixe
2007-11-22, 03:32 AM
I'm kind of interested in doing an African or African like setting. But I procrastinate like crazy, and I have other settings to do first. Also, I don't think I could make an interesting African game. Not least of which being that I just don't know that much about Africa.

You may want to expand to a bit more than just the Savannah. Throw in some mountains, jungles, and maybe a desert or two. But the Savannah could still be the center.

Or not.

NakedCelt
2007-11-22, 03:51 AM
Might it be worth researching African folklore for new creatures, races, and spellcasting classes?

Xyk
2007-11-22, 12:43 PM
yeah, endurance is a bad idea. they can be barbarians or rangers if they want that. medium viper is already a animal companion option. MOnks pose an interesting conundrum. Maybe change "wholeness of body" to heal others as well. I'm not sure. They also seem rather well-suited to a savannah environment. The Jungles may or may not be included. Mountains, i think not. Raptorans will be a major race as well. Goliaths will be the mountain people and will probably not be seen but may be spoken of. Wizards are almost unheard of, but if a player wanted to play one, he can be foreign. Sorcerers are also uncommon but are the most common arcane casters. Perhaps a Wu Jen can be adapted.

Xyk
2007-11-26, 06:06 PM
This is gonna get play-tested pretty soon so any other comments are totally welcome. Additions?

DracoDei
2007-11-26, 06:39 PM
If a Monkey familiar increases the MASTERS Int by 4 that is pretty darn boss...

Xyk
2007-11-26, 07:02 PM
If a Monkey familiar increases the MASTERS Int by 4 that is pretty darn boss...

naw, that would be ridiculous. it only increases the monkey int by 4. like instead of +2 reflex or skills or nonsense, it can be a genius monkey.

Yakk
2007-11-27, 01:14 PM
Africa is large and has a huge history.

Are we talking savanah? Rain forest? Sahara? Egypt? Carthage? Madagascar?

What era? What is outside? How do they interact?

Saithis Bladewing
2007-11-27, 01:38 PM
Heh... satire.

No dear, this is an African campaign, not a greek.

Oh, SATIRE, I thought you meant...nevermind...

Shishnarfne
2007-11-27, 03:15 PM
Actually, Atlas Games had a 3.0 Campaign setting based on a mythological Africa. If I recall correctly (I'm away from my copy), they called it Nyambe. If you can find a copy, it might give you a couple ideas.

One particular feature I remember was that heavier armors were bad for you in the heat, so magic items which increased AC were about 25% more expensive. DMG may have enough heat exhaustion rules to include.

EDIT to TPBM: That's fine. I just mention it because I got a free copy as a convention door prize... I still think I need to use it more.

Xyk
2007-11-27, 05:45 PM
africa is a vast wonderland. I thought i had implied it is based around the savannah.Nyambe looks interesting, but i dont want to put out the effort into obtaining it.

Triaxx
2007-11-27, 06:33 PM
This sounds like fun. Had you considered replacing Clerics outright with Shamans? Clerics to me are the sort of thing to gather together and burn at the stake, where you might go to the local shaman instead.

Xyk
2007-11-27, 08:27 PM
This sounds like fun. Had you considered replacing Clerics outright with Shamans? Clerics to me are the sort of thing to gather together and burn at the stake, where you might go to the local shaman instead.

interesting, i thought about it. which book are shamans in?

Triaxx
2007-11-28, 09:21 AM
Shaman's are in... :smallfrown: :smalleek: :smallfurious:

I can't remember. I'll dig into my pile and see if I can find it.

Xuincherguixe
2007-11-28, 09:34 AM
Spirit Shamans are in Complete Divine.

There's a Shamans Handbook by Green Ronin which is much better though. They're similar, but the Shaman has better flavor than the Spirit Shaman.


The thing is though, Druids make pretty good Shamans on their own already, so a Shaman class may not be necessary.

Triaxx
2007-11-28, 11:44 AM
The trouble with Druids as Shaman's is that they come off more as nature lovers than truly spiritual. I prefer my Shaman's more mystical, closer to a cross between Driuds and Necromancers. Making deals with spirits to do the magic.

Xuincherguixe
2007-11-28, 12:02 PM
Well, how I do it is I just use the Druid abilities, but a different flavor. There is nothing on the Druid set of abilities that is totally inappropriate for a Shaman. It could use the ability to enter the spirit world, but this doesn't need to be a "class ability" per say. Turning spirits makes sense. But if there's going to be a lot of variation, may as well just use one of the actual Shaman classes.


The archetypes are very close, Druid and Shaman.

Triaxx
2007-11-28, 01:42 PM
Maybe just dump wild shape for something like Ethereal Jaunt, or commune with the dead, or something of that nature. After thinking on it, I'm still stuck on the 2E druids. You would have to make them a primary healer though.

Xyk
2007-11-28, 06:06 PM
After looking at the spirit shaman, either that or the druid present right now would make perfect tribe shamans. The spirit shaman being more mystical and the druid being like the protective mage. Actually, I think i'm going to eliminate arcane magic entirely, unless they are foreign. I do have 1 player who is my most experienced and would play a foreign gray elf wizard really well. Spirit shamans could easily be the equivalent of clerics, and druids of mages.

I think i'm gonna go that way with this campaign. Any comments? Complaints? Point out the obvious?

My reasoning behind taking out arcane magic is that u never hear of it in any african folklore. No magicians, just shamans and seers. You do, however, hear of it in europe where dnd is really supposed to be based. Medieval europe. That's why oriental adventures is in existence. Thething about dnd, though, is that it can be easily expanded to fit more and more things.

Shishnarfne
2007-11-28, 06:47 PM
That seems like a reasonable possibility, eliminating native arcane magic. You might also consider eliminating some classically European monsters (e.g. goblinoids), if you consider these inappropriate.

One warning: Spirit shamans and druids cast off of the same list, IIRC, so there's less distinction here. That being said, having them both work off the same list isn't a problem: it's only a problem if you feel one will overshadow the other and limit variety too much.

You might consider keeping Bards (maybe re-fluff as divine instead of arcane), as music might play a decent role in the fantasy Africa that you imagine.
Spirit shaman does have great fluff for this, though, I'd keep it.

Xyk
2007-11-28, 08:56 PM
I think divine bards are even a variant on d20srd and unearthed arcana. After checking, yes it is. Bard will be kept. The same list...After skimming through the oriental shaman spell list,that will work splendidly. I think it'll be the spirit shaman with oriental shaman spell list. from oriental adventures if you couldn't tell.

Triaxx
2007-11-28, 09:34 PM
I like it. It's very fitting. And adventurers from strange foreign lands are a DnD staple.

Debihuman
2007-12-01, 11:08 AM
If you are still interested in an African Campaign, you should probably take a look at Nyambe: http://www.nyambe.com/


There are a few freebies available on this site as well.

Debby

Hawriel
2007-12-01, 06:14 PM
Elves and Dwarves are European myth of you want to do an African setting go to the library and read afew books on African myth and build races from them.