Aesheba, Greek Africa - a review of a regional sourcebook for roleplaying games

This is a "generic" supplement designed to be used with any fantasy roleplaying game system. In this case, it covers a continent much like Africa, with some important differences.

Let me quote from the back cover:

"Take the largest ocean in your fantasy game campaign, and add one continent. Start with Africa, circa 300 B.C., and shrink it a bit. Remove the Nile, so the Egyptians remain a primitive culture, and redesign the terrain features while leaving the ecology and climate about the same. Now add Greek colonists along the north coast, and let the whole thing brew for three centuries."

The biggest part of this book details the city-states established by the Greek colonists, as well as a native kingdom with a robust civilization. There is a lost civilization feel to the Greek city-states, with a mix of Greek and native cultures. The text suggests that these colonies would make for good entry points for more traditional, Eurocentric adventuring parties. That's certainly one way to use the setting, though certainly not the only one. The main weakness of this book is the relative lack of detail about native cultures. One native kingdom, Gloriosus, is detailed, but I would like to have seen more about the history and cultures of this fantasy Africa. Some years back, a fantasy Africa setting called Nyambe was published, and it was to Africa as baseline D&D was to Europe. I could see Aesheba: Greek Africa being used in conjunction with Nyambe to add depth to both. But this is a review of Aesheba on its own.

There is a section on native magic. It's a decent discussion, but unsurprisingly the section is hampered by having to be generic, system-wise. This is also true of the various creatures discussed throughout the book. Wisely, the bulk of the material is more about the setting and characters, rather than game mechanics.

I was struck by the relative lack of monsters discussed in the book. There were some, but not nearly as many as I was expecting, given how diverse the animal life is in real-world Africa. I have to assume there are as many, or more, legendary monsters in African cultures as in their European (and Asian, and American, etc.) counterparts. This, along with the discussion of magic and lack of mention of magic items, gives the setting a "low magic" feel. That's not necessarily bad, though I would have liked to see a more mythic take on the source material. Still, the effect is something akin to a lot of swords & sorcery, with rare, dangerous magic and warrior-based cultures.

This is a distinct setting, one not often covered by roleplaying games. Though it is necessarily limited due to the nature of the product, it's still worth having as an adventuring site, though I think it would work better as a temporary diversion rather than the home of a long-term campaign. Africa is rich with potential for roleplaying games, but this specific product's design goal wasn't to fully tap that potential - see the aforementioned Nyambe for something more along those lines. Still, this is an interesting book, one that has stuck in my mind for almost 25 years(!) now.

Town of Baldemar - a review of a RPG town sourcebook

Town of Baldemar is a generic roleplaying game supplement. It details a town that can be used as a home base for adventurers, or as an adventure site itself. The town is small enough to be easily plugged into a campaign world without sticking out in some way, but is large enough to serve as the safe haven adventurers retreat to after delving in dangerous dungeons.

City quarters, businesses, and characters are meticulously detailed. Reading through the book will reveal that all of these things are interwoven and dynamic, creating the feel of a small but bustling town. There are some villains and a few heroes, but most of the non-player characters are varying shades of gray. As one might expect with a faux-medieval fantasy town, there are the usual organizations, from the government and town guards to merchant and thieves guilds. Though the town is written to be humanocentric, a number of characters could be swapped out for fantasy races like elves and dwarves with little trouble.

The amount of magic is pretty low, considering this is a fantasy RPG town. There are wizards and priests, but it's up the individual gamemaster as to just how much magic they wield; in some cases, such characters could be rationalized to not have any magical abilities at all. The writer seemed to take care not to make anything too explicit, except in a handful of cases. In so doing, it allows for Baldemar to be customized to the individual campaign world more than most such supplements.

Town of Baldemar may not be to everyone's taste. Some may see it as boring. It's not a flashy town. However, I see it as almost perfect for player characters to settle in and use as a jumping-off point to adventure, a place to regroup and resupply. And, if they so choose, they could become part of the town's culture, delving into the interwoven plots and intrigues of the town, becoming attached to it to the point that when it's threatened, the characters rise to the occasion to defend it as their home. Plus, some of those threats can come from within...

I included the back cover to show the "personal promise" Gary Gygax had imprinted on these New Infinities products. There's something charming about this. It seems to me that Gygax really did make a point of making sure these were quality products. The art was nothing to speak of; at best, it was average. The writing was generally bland. However, the content of the books in this line is uniformly good, though it tends to be on the bland side. The upside of that is that the content is very adaptable. Had it been on the wild, cutting edge end of the spectrum, it would have been too far out there to be easily plugged into a campaign world.