African Dungeon Fantasy

[b-dog]

I am thinking that the current Black Lives Matter movement might inspire the Dungeon Fantasy authors to spend more time on African style monsters and treasures and adventure ideas. I mean we have many books dealing with European style fantasy why not some African ones? The Dungeon Fantasy line can make some unique monsters and treasures and magic that sort of fit with the times. Just a thought...

[johndallman]

The Nyambe product line for D&D has lots of this already, and should be reasonably easy to adapt.

[Raekai]

You may be interested in The Wagadu Chronicles (though, you'll find much more info on their Twitter). I've been watching the project for a while now, and it seems it'll be both a tabletop RPG (specifically, a supplement for D&D 5e) and an MMO. It seems ambitious, and I wish them the best of luck. I've always thought that African mythology was sorely underrepresented.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by johndallman

The Nyambe product line for D&D has lots of this already, and should be reasonably easy to adapt.

Yeah, porting that to GURPS/DF would be an entertaining project.

[Pragmatic]

What portion of Africa?

The West African area (e.g., Mansa Munsa, or whatever he's called; I only know of him because of one of the Civilization games)? The East African area (e.g., Aksum/Axum; I only know of them because of the Belisarius novels)? Sub-Saharan Africa?

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Yeah, porting that to GURPS/DF would be an entertaining project.

Yeah, and it would really awesome too.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by b-dog

Yeah, and it would really awesome too.

How about all the African articles in Dragon Magazine?

Link to DragonDex, an index of articles that were in Dragon Magazine.

Africa:
Armor "Arms & Armor of Africa" Michael J. Varhola 189(20) D&D2
Clerics of "Priests of Africa, The" Michael John Wybo II 209(16) D&D2
Creatures of "Gaming the Dark Continent" Roger E. Moore 122(27) D&D1
"Out of Africa" Charles R. Saunders 122(22) D&D1
Game adaptation "Dark Continent, The" David Howery 189(10) D&D2
Gods and religions "African Genesis, A" Brady English 191(32) D&D2
"Deities of Africa, The" Michael John Wybo II 215(48) D&D2
"Mythos of Africa in Dungeons & Dragons" Jerome Arkenberg 27(39) OD&D
Races, mythic "Mythic Races of Africa" Michael John Wybo II 202(46) D&D2
Warrior kits "Real Warriors Ride Elephants" Michael John Wybo II 195(26) D&D2
Weapons "Arms & Armor of Africa" Michael J. Varhola 189(20) D&D2
Wizard kits "Magic From the Gods" Michael John Wybo II 200(14) D&D2

I could have sworn there were more articles...

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

How about all the African articles in Dragon Magazine?

Link to DragonDex, an index of articles that were in Dragon Magazine.



I could have sworn there were more articles...

Thanks. If I had the time I would buy them and convert them to DF. But I would like it much better if I could just buy a DF supplement that is already ready to use.

[Black Leviathan]

There's a real danger in trying to take inspiration or to honor a culture in a Roleplaying game of misrepresentation or disrespect. RPGs tend to have settings in Olde Timey Europe because they've already beaten that horse. Often products that try to portray African or Asian fantasy cultures don't do the best job of adapting without commentary or fetishizing culture.

If you want to honor black people in your game the one very important thing you can do is represent them in the game. Have non-white, non-male NPCS throughout your game that represent a varied spectrum of interest and attitude. Be as realistic as you can about representing culture as something that is made of a lot of different types of people. Have your fantasy world peopled by lots of different colored humans, or elves or whatever. Stop yourself from representing race or culture as always something that divides or causes conflict. Skin color opens doors to a lot of misfortune in our world but then again, we have kind of lackluster dragons too, if you're going to have a fantasy why not have one where racism is less exciting that fire-breathing lizards.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by b-dog

Thanks. If I had the time I would buy them and convert them to DF. But I would like it much better if I could just buy a DF supplement that is already ready to use.

Note they're in the first 250 issues

Look for the Dragon Magazine Archives. It has the first 250 on a CD.

One of the best investments I made. :-)