Spears of the Dawn RPG

There was some exciting news from Sine Nomine Publishing at the end of August: Sine Nomine, the publishers of the fine SF retrogame Stars Without Number, are planning to release an African-flavored RPG called Spears of the Dawn. I liked the Aztec-flavored worlds the author created for one of the sample sectors in Stars Without Number, so I am hopeful that we will soon see another great retrogame - and a non-European one no less, which is a very welcome development in retrofantasy RPGs!

http://www.atlas-games.com/nyambe/

It's been a while since there was a fantasy RPG setting set in a pastiche of ancient/medieval Africa that felt authentic, non-stereotypical, and respectful. Nyambe was a pretty good d20 version of a fantasy Africa. But no matter how authentic the version of dwarves was that was presented there, the inclusion of variants of standard D&D fantasy races was a bit jarring. I also wasn't a huge fan of the Nyambe map (although it wasn't that bad): I would have rather they had used a real map of Africa, and then Hyborian-aged or Opared it if necessary.

The Hyborian Age of Conan
http://bloggerdollar.hubpages.com/hub/
Age-of-Conan-Hyborian-Adventures

http://www.pjfarmer.com/khokarsa/map_1.jpg

At any rate, it is a new age, and I am looking forward to what Spears of the Dawn has in store for us. Here at The Everwayan, we have incorporated East African cultures and artifacts into our multiverse, as well as working with the diasporic elements of West African culture that made its way into Afro-Caribbean religions.

In celebration/anticipation of the release of Spears of the Dawn RPG, we're starting a mini-series this week using something that was just posted on the Sine Nomine website for Spears: a one-sheet template for an urban palace in an African city.

I am going to use that template over the next week or so to generate a series of posts on the clan houses of the major families of Everway. We'll start tomorrow by posting a Table of the major Everwayan families. Then we'll use the template to create interesting people, places and things in the various family clan houses of Everway.