Game Over, Time To Expand!

[ltlconf]

Hello Folks,

Having now finished our campaign, It is my humble turn to run a campaign. I have decided to run a Nyambe campaign. However I've decided to change a few aspects of the setting. Blame Saunders, as I just got done reading his new release of the Imaro books. So for all below, blame my love of sword and sorcery genre and Imaro.
We use a slightly modified version of the Conan OGL RPGs combat system already and it's proved a rousing sucess. Though pretty viscious it does allow creative use of the shield, dodges and gives light armor a real use, thus making the lightly armed Nyambe warriors real threats to heavier opponents. They can dodge much better then tack on a couple of good feats and a little smart tactics... Also a single blow can end a fight so a spear is deadly weapon!
I've also decided to monkey with the magic system using aspects of the Black Company system to make it a little less mechanical and more organic. Oracles I'll leave alone as that is sufficient and really overall it'll be a meld. As I'm putting the effort into the map and tribal changes (so the gals and guys can start working on character concepts now) I'll be getting to this later if ya'll have questions. Magic will no longer be "fire from the hip" and involve real preparation, but when mastered (and the PC has the strength) truly colorful, powerful and flexiable. Healing will be less powerful and involve contested rolls for diseases and infections, but this means that heroes must think about picking fights and disease is a even greater fear.
Think The Serpent and the Rainbow for how it all looks.
Yeah it was not particularly accurate concerning vodoun, but it's what the players think of, and the duel at the end was pretty cool you gotta admit!
Seeing that what I love is the setting I've decided to add to it rather than create a new one. Nyambe is big but now I want to fill in the empty spots with new folks. So I'm adding several new cultures both as both PC and NPC cultures. For this I'm using the Conan system again as it truly fleshes out the different nations with advantages and disadvantages, quirks, feats and cultureal predilictions (all the tribes will get such make-overs). Kinda like demihumans really, so to make these still unique they'll get some added features. Nothing particularly powerful but they will give them flavor.
I'm going to scale back some of the MM monsters in favor of wildlife being scaled up to be truly a threat as they should be (come on, would even Michael Clarke Duncan want to wrestle a grown lion?) so the players are worried about being in the bush alone. Also we'll be throwing in alot more magical critters such as African undead and were critters, but the natural critters will be the "everyday" threat. I shudder to think what a gang of a half hundred baboons could do if pointed in the right direction and royally pissed! Also added will be "Things Man Was Not Meant To Know." I love this aspect of the novels and Africa has always been a place for such stories so...
Also I've decided to also put it in a wider world that's a little better defined and bring more conflict to Nyambe.
For one, Imaro showed that slavery can be done in the setting without being cliche' or condenscending, and is best if handled matter-of-factly as Saunders did. Sure Imaro found it hateful and no punches pulled on what being a slave was like, but Imaro wasn't going to change the world and he knew it. To that end I'm again dipping into Black Company and Conan to bring in this distasteful aspect and help me handle it rules wise. However most tribes do not practice it, being limited mainly to the urban coastal cities and large kingdoms. I feel this is fairly rational as any large civilization needs a vast unskilled and skilled work force (everything is muscle power and handcraft). Sooner or later it's bound to happen so I went ahead and did it. How the players deal with it will depend on them. After all I'm also getting rid of alignments so they are on their own! I will use a system codes of honor and loyalties to reign them in somewhat however, so running amock will have repercussions in the end.
Next I've added more off-shore islands and a "European" outpost on one of these archipegelos to stir the pot. They are intersested only in trade as a Medieval European society has little need for slaves. The are also interested in not being out-manuevered by the competition of the Near East. By any means...
The orcish slave raids are still on, but I've also added that the Near Easterners are also buying slaves for use as mamluks. For the former I'm using the Orcs of Sovereign Stone RPG as these are a civilized maritime race that could pull these raids off and are ready made. I've created a loose world with lands arching around Nyambe and Nyambe now known to all. However Nyambans know little of this world and are unprepared to deal with it. Thus a "rush" has started to gain trade advantages by the foreigners. Fortunately the foreign lands are still too distant for colonization to be practical but explorers and diplomats have began to be sights in the coastal cities. When they go inland they often die like flies so colonization no matter what is far off.
Needless to say this is a conflict ridden place, and then I throw in evil sorcerors, "Things Man Was Not Meant To Know" and no alignments. So you can see I'm taking a Sword and Sorcery route. Yeup, blame Imaro.

[Nyambefan]

Let me know if you want a board in the Campaigns area like the Oryx Campaign has.

[ltlconf]

Hello Folks,

James has been merciful and decided to run a Serenity campaign until I can get all the work done.
I have decided to create a series of chieftenships and small city-states in the Bida Forest, primarily made up of Mbanta and Tembu with a few Azzazza towns. This creates a "middle ground," a political, geographical and social "frontier" zone with it's own petty players. Calabar (yeah, a real place, but the name I'm working with for now) is only 7000 in total permanent residents. And this is one the larger of these petty states. Its one of the more unique Nyamban towns as it has all multi-story buildings, is built on a series of islands and thus has canals. It is built in a mangrove swamp in the delta of one of the many rivers that drain the forest and thus has a good trade going through its port for palm nut products, wood and slaves.
It's also known for being quite rowdy and thus a good port of call for captains looking for a "looser" port than Zamaran controled Dutama to the north, even if smaller. Besides, a good Calabari guide should enable a riverboat to navigate the maze of interconnecting rivers and reach the Jolo River if need be. especially during the immediate aftermath of the rainy season. Needless to say, the Zamarans are less than happy over the steady if still small, loss of trade to Calabar.
As you can see this is intended to be a PC urban HQ for exploring the Bida Forest as well as those wishing to do a little piracy (done some research into Swahili ships).

As for the rules, I've decided to give bonuses to hide, track, move silently, survival and other skills used in a outdoor enviroment if used in terrain familar to some of the characters' ethnic groups. Thus the Shombe will gain a +3 to such roles while on the grass savannah. On the other hand he'll get a negative when in the opposite extreme concerning enviroments. Thus to represent a Shombe's nervousness, claustrophobia and sheer unease and unfamiliarity of a rain forest he'll get a -3. Desert and light forests gain a flat role while any grassy and/or lightly forested terrain (such as thorn scrub plains) gain only a +1. Mangrove swamp would count as a -3. As a native rural Floridan I find mangrove swamp hostile and frightning without a life-times thorough knowledge of the enviroment! Frankly I'll take a cypress swamp, wetland, desert or rain forest anyday! And I've seen them all.
This is one example and each ethnic group will gain a few bonuses, a feat maybe (one or tow being unique) and some stat bonuses on a couple of tribes. All this to make them truly unique to each other. Also after some beers and discussion we decided to make the wakyambi, unthlatu, ngoloko and agogwe all NPC races to keep any new players from doing the "I wanna play the kewl race with the kewl powers" syndrome. Besides none of the present players wanted to play them at this time, it saved me time as I could concentrate on other races and tribes, they were indeed proving too powerful as PCs as I converted things over (fine as NPCs though and really, and I liked them that way), and I found the dwarfs and gnomes fascinating. Besides, aren't the Bushmen, Pygmies and pure-blooded Tutsi practically demihumans by game standards anyway? Not my question, but a couple of the players asked it.
I'm adding a few skills and feats from CONAN OGL and a few other games to add a further "wild and wooly" feel. You know, to give Nyambe an even more wilderness feel while giving the urban characters some edges to balance out the rural types. I've decided to make sure they're not the over the top ones so common to the WOTC products since the inception of 3rdEd and thus create characters even a Imaro would avoid!
As for putting it on the "Oryx" site. Let me ask later, as we aren't even thinking about launching this baby until after Christmas at the earliest and more likely after Epiphany.

[nyamakalaw]

Jstor has a pretty good article on warfare between Medievalish Europeans (the Portuguese and Dutch) and West-Central African kingdoms (Kongo, Ndongo, and Matamba). www.jstor.org/view/00104175/ap010118/01a00090/0 I don't know if you can access jstor from your location, I get into it because I'm at a university. I also have the pdf, but I'm not sure how to link it in a forum.

Anyways, the article just talks about the fact that European armies and African armies were pretty equal from the 16th thru 17th centuries. Also, the article just has some pretty cool information about how African armies were organized, how they communicated, what weapons were used, etc. In contrast to Europeans they favored mobility, being more like medieval Chinese armies in that they had large spread-out forces and regiments that almost acted independent of each other. The regiments would communicate through trumpets and drums, with units in generally loose formations to allow for more individual combat. Many trained in the art of "sanguar," which we know from Nyambe is the almost supernatural ability to twist and dodge incoming arrows and spears. One master of Sanguar, Queen Nzinga, claimed in her youth she would have no trouble taking on 25 men armed with spears, broadswords, and bows and arrows. Though not a musket, since she could not see the projectile.

The author of the article, John Thornton, has a whole book called "Warfare in Atlantic Africa" which describes what West African warfare and armies were like, and how they changed tremendously as were their European counterparts during the 15th-18th centuries. Anyways, I encourage reading it.

[NGadaoh]

Sawubona ltlconf

I just love the ideas and expansion you are making... so if the time has come I will be more than interested in getting as much information, plans etc. from your campaign as you are willing to share and give away.

If I can be of any help to flesh out some parts, just drop me a note and we can find a way to do so.


Sawubona ltlconf nyamakalaw

The paper you are hinting at is very interestint, but unfortunately I didn't neither find a way to upload a file... so I thik you will have to send them to the interested through normal e-mail.

As I am interested and as sort of a test (at least for me) I kindly ask you to send me this pdf you are offering, as we "outsiders" have no access to the site you linked (I tried it a moment before).

My direct e-mail is [e-mail]

Thanks and till soon.

salani kahle!
NGadaoh

[ltlconf]

Hello Folks,


I will be glad to share any info that comes up. At this time two of our players are involved in a legal matter that has sucked me in while the Serenity game has gone into overtime. Similar to the zeal of any convert the group has plunged into this particulr 'verse with fanatical fervor. Thus the game will likely go well into March. Oh well, gives me time to juggle my two projects and one active game I do on the side: the Nyambe conversion, the Wilderlands conversion and the Conan game on Sunday. Somewhere inbetween I find time to work, raise my dogs, get my hunting in and do a couple of reenactments. Yeesh.

As for warfare, thanks for the info Nyamakalaw. I was going with the idea that similar needs and weaponry breeds similar tactics. Besides the Chinese armies were never highly regarded by any of their opponents except in the case of a few dynasties (and then only during portions of those eras) such as the Chin, T'ang, and Ming (Manchu never fully trusted their non-Manchu troops) hence why close, mobile, dense formations were rarely practiced. As the Macedonians, Romans, Swiss, Japanese and indeed the Zulus a well trained group of densely packed, heavily trained men are every bit as mobile as a looser group of men, and have a much heavier impact. True some were more mobile than others (Romans, Zulus and Japanese) but the exception proves the rule. Even if only trained in close formation movement and one or two simple tactics (think Zulus) the speed of manuever and shock value of the mass of men (VERY intimidating) combined with a imaginative officer corps can make them a deadly weapon. Or a disaster waiting to happen (think Insandwhana and then Roarke's Drift).
On the other hand looser formations can be highly effective if the men are very well trained and well officered combining with good communications. However the usual reason for this tactic was poorly trained but eager men with a simple set of tactics spread out so no-one gets in anyone elses' way. Surprisingly these tactics work as so long as you have good morale, decent officers able to think for themselves and lots of men (except for the first these were rarely trouble for the Chinese).
However the Idea that West African armies were as good as their European counterparts is not surprising. Up well into the 18th century bayonets and other sharp pointies decided matters and here the African was more than a match. Plus many African kingdoms had long martial histories of wars with each other and with Arabs, Moors and Ethiopians and thus the Europeans brought little that was new, excepting guns of course. Add in the climate...
As for Sanguar I look at as I look at Eastern Martial Arts: Claims are often far bigger than accomplishments and the number of casual practitioners is far larger than true ones. There are exceptions of course, hence "often" though after plenty of bar fights around the world I find my good ol fashioned Western wrestiling and boxing (not the TV and sports junk) combined with the dirty fighting from the Marines proved equal to anything encountered ( and still does).
Most soldiers and warriors are in the end trained in the good 'ol fashioned art of killing the other guy in the most expedient way possible. This is the yard stick I've used: all know some sanguar but few are masters and many supplement it with good 'ol fashioned "street fighting" to flesh out their knowledge. The wrestling practiced by the Nuba is a second martial art unto itself though more offensive and deadly. Again true masters are rare though more common as Wrestling is a national sport for the Caliphate while sanguar is something you learn as a warrior. Thus many only get as good as they feel comfortable while the wrestler is fighting for a rich prize. This is based on my experience in the Marines where we concetrated on our weapon skills as we wanted to avoid the neccessity of tussling with the foe. From all accounts this has always been so.