MotRD in South Africa

[Jennifer]

Hello everybody,
I have been watching this site for some time now, but today I take the big step of adding to it.

I have a question for all of you and I hope you can help me. I intend to run a short MotRD campaign in the South Africa of the 1890's on Gothic Earth. South Africa as we know it today does not exist yet. The 1890's are an exiting time for southern Africa and I can see many anglesfor a good campaign.

I want to know if there is some background material about Southern Africa on the Gothic Earth. I havethe boxed set and the book of s- information, but Africa seems to be the forgotten continent.

Jennifer

[Dr Bloodworth]

To be honest, I don't think there is too much on Africa in MotRD. I believe the write-up of Cape Town was in the 2e box, right? I know it's in the new book, but that may not do you any good. Aside from Imhotep and a few city write-ups, there's (AFAIK) nothing. Free DM reign, I guess.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Well, not completly. For one thing, the boers are a present threat to the power of the British empire. That's something to consider. As railroads criss-cross across Africa the white man encounters more and more of Africa's secrets. For example, in Uganda, in the Tsavo province there were the events that inspired one of my favoriote movies, The Ghost and the Darkness.
Africa has a rich history ripe for plundering by a good DM.
There were the watsu-simba, or werelions. This was an organization of shamans who kidnapped children and drugged and brainwashed them into subhuman killers - then unleashed them on their enemies.
Them there were the real-life wereleopards, a cannibal cult that streatched all over Africa. These cannibals lived in ordinary society, living as ordinarty people by day. By night, however, they gathered in packs, took narcotic druggs and donned leapard skin hoods. They used tiger-claw daggers to savage their prey, communicated with whistles and even wore sandels to mask their tacks as leopard prints.
The wereleaopard cult lasted for a very long time, until they were hunte into extinction by a band of witch-hunters who could allegedly "sniff" them out. The name of this group escaped me at the moment, but I believe it was something like Tam-Tam or Tonga - the word means to beat someone over the head with a club - something they were very good at.

There is also a lot of other things to consider. The legendary Lost Kingdom is located somewhere in Africa, and may very well be in South Africa. This kingdom, as you know, is the last refuge of untainted magic.

South Africa, I believe, encompasses many different tribal groups who warred with one another extensivly and would contintue to do so until the apartheid gave them a common enemy.

[Dr Bloodworth]

Or actually... let's talk cryptozoology. There's plenty of stuff for Africa here.

Read up on the 'Nandi bear'. Also known as chemosit, geteit, ingogo or any of a thousand other tribal names. It was some sort of mystery predator (possibly a giant baboon or hyena) native to the Uasin Gishu plains of Kenya. It was encountered by British railway workers - maybe relatives of the Tsavo lions? Or perhaps the Tsavo 'lions' weren't actually lions...

The Congo has a confusing jumble of monsters. Mokele-mbembe, chipekwe, dingonek, nguma-monene... you know, the dinosaurs. Southern Africa has supposed pterosaurs or flying serpents or something (kongamato).

And don't forget that killer lake in the Congo. If you can't do something with THAT plot...

[ScS of the Fraternity]

There's also the King Cheeta, a species that was often sighted but never actually proven to exist. Perhaps something could be done with it along the lines of Wolfen - a species of intelligent cats who see the white man as a dangerous savage and the railway as an invasion on their territory.

[maraudar]

Gothic Earth Gazetter had some good things in the time line for Africa. And like Orang said cryptozoology is the thing to do in the Congo. Plus searches for lost tribes and cities. Africa was gem waiting to be found in that period. Hell the Tsavo lions were real enough monters in themselves. Imagine them being controlled by the Red Death and sent there to feast on souols as well as flesh.

Maraudar

[Dr Bloodworth]

Apropos of nothing, I was once planning to do a Tsavo-type adventure in my 'normal' DnD game. Builders of a road through a moutain pass are massacred by two Bhaergala.

And nifty idea, ScS. I may do something with that.

[Jennifer]

Hi all,
Well, thanks for your quick response. The adventure I had in mind will deal mainly with the Afrikaner Boers who have only recently settled the area around Pretoria. The first Anglo Boer war is just past, but tensions between Boers and the Brittish still run high.
Mixing in some Zulu tribes with a grudge and wereleopards will give my players something to deal with.

Perhaps some secret alliance between the Brittish and the Zulu's remove the Afrikaner Boers from southern Africa. The Brittish expect that they can then move in and take control of the mineral rich mountains in the area claimed by the Boers. But the Zulu's have a bit more up their sleeve than their spears (enter shamans and wereleopards) and may be a bigger theat to the Brittish colonies in southern Africa then the Brittish expected.

Anyway, thanks for your idea's

Jennifer

[William Blackmoor]

A south african vampire you might like:

Impundulu
Native region:
The impundulu are found primarily in the southern region of Africa.
Creation:
He is summoned by a witch (Baloi?).
Appearance:
When appearing to his mistress, the impundulu seems to be a very handsome man, easily capable of seduction. However, when he appears to his victims, the impundulu takes on the appearance of a large white bird with red legs and beak. In this guise he is called the "bird of heaven."
Abilities:
He causes death in many different ways. It may come quickly, or it may come slowly by means of a wasting disease. He also afflicts his victims with coughing and an inability to breed.
Behavior:
He belongs solely to the witch who summoned him. When she dies, he is passed on to her daughter. His hunger is so great, that she must send him to torment his victims or he will destroy her instead.
Feeding:
He drinks the blood of either humans or animals. He is sometimes known to destroy entire families.
Weaknesses:
He is possessed of an insatiable hunger, and must feed frequently.
Destruction:
Methods of killing this creature are currently unknown.

[Jennifer]

Hi everybody,
Tuesday I started the first session of my MotRD campaign in South Africa. I have a group of four players and I will shortly detail their Characters here.

Sybrandt Rouvoet; (mystic spiritualist) a very strict reverend (not sure of exact english title, he is a priest for the Dutch Reformed Church, very very strict calvinists). This middle aged man is going to the South African Republic to come into contact with the Afrikaners, who are also Calvinists and check up on them, to see if they still follow the straight path. He also wants to check up in the missionaries his church sent to Africa, to see if they spend the church money wisely.

Gerrit van Zijpestein; (soldier big game hunter) a young man, perhaps one of the bastard sons of King Willem III. After shooting everything that tweeted in the Dutch bushes he wanted to hunt bigger game, so he went to Africa. His secret desire is to find an unknown animal and be the first to kill it.

Viktor; (tradesman journalist) (this player Joost also plays Accian in my ravenloft campaign.) a very young man who works for the humanist magazine 'De Gedachte' (the thought). he wants to write a series of articles on the savage natives of Southern Africa, the struggle of the Afrikaners and anything interesting he might find for his readers.

Fleur Nagtegaal; (tradesman physician) one of the first young women in the Netherlands to go to the university, she has a degree in medicine and has specialised in tropical diseases and medicines. She goes to Africa to do more research on diseases like malaria, bilharzia and tseetsee. She hopes to study plant life there to find new cures.
As a liberated woman, she strives for equal rights for women and is a sort of suffragette.

The date is 31 march in the year 1896 when the party has breakfast together for the first time in the capital Pretoria of the South African Republic. The party has heard of several troubles plaguing the republic and they go out to investigate them, as the resolution of these troubles will help their own goals.

The first session was somewhat short but enjoyable. The party got to know each other and the setting and met some of the important NPCs of this campaign, such as the seer Nikolaas van Rensburg, who prophesied trouble and president Paul Kruger.
This campaign will be only six sessions long. If enough people are interested, I will write them up and ask to have them displayed in the smoking room.

Jennifer

[Coan]

I'd be interested in a write up.

[Gemathustra]

Or actually... let's talk cryptozoology. There's plenty of stuff for Africa here.

Read up on the 'Nandi bear'. Also known as chemosit, geteit, ingogo or any of a thousand other tribal names. It was some sort of mystery predator (possibly a giant baboon or hyena) native to the Uasin Gishu plains of Kenya. It was encountered by British railway workers - maybe relatives of the Tsavo lions? Or perhaps the Tsavo 'lions' weren't actually lions...

According to most descriptions, the Nandi Bear may or may not have been an easterly relative of the now-extinct Atlas bear. The Chemosit is said to resemble a baboon/hyena hybrid, whereas the Nandi bear was a donkey-sized beast with black, shaggy fur, and very long claws, and could climb trees.

And don't forget that killer lake in the Congo. If you can't do something with THAT plot...

The "killer lake" is to the north of the Congo, in Chad. It's Lake Chad, I think, or very near it, in a volcano's caldera. Once in a while, it emits an invisible cloud of carbon dioxide that suffocates any life nearby.

There's also the King Cheeta, a species that was often sighted but never actually proven to exist. Perhaps something could be done with it along the lines of Wolfen - a species of intelligent cats who see the white man as a dangerous savage and the railway as an invasion on their territory.

The "king cheetah" is a color variant of the African cheetah, with a beautiful splotched pattern instead of spots.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Sheer coincidence, but I just wrote up a Gothic Earth magic-item idea in another thread. It's not based on African mythology -- heck, it's based on a 19th century tabloid-journalism hoax! -- but it does have a bit of a connection to South Africa, if you'd accept a more European-oriented adventure idea for your campaign. Check out my "Hershel-Desanges Hydro-Oxygen Refrangible Lenses", which were last seen in a building that burned down in 1835, about 35 miles northeast of Capetown.

[Jennifer]

Hi Rotipher,
I read your article on the strange lenses. Very interesting to read, but I don not think I will be using it in my campaign, the party is very far from Cape Town and this short running campaign will focus more on political conflict between the Afrikaners and the British, spiced up by some powerful magic users.

Thanks anyway for your input.

Jennifer

[Jennifer]

Hi all,
The south Africa campaign is finished and it all went rather well. The party enjoyed themselves, although they did not manage to accomplish the campaign goal. I got some experience with running a campaign in a real place, which was a first for me. So this will defenitely be a setting to comeback to.

I will spend some time to rewrite my notes a bit and if you are interested I might post them here in the smoking room.

a big thank you to those who gave me some tips here.

jennifer