Nyambe
This book might be a little difficult to track down. Do so. It's worth it. Nyambe is a 256-page sourcebook for African adventures. If you just read that and find yourself thinking "boooor-ring," then you should definitely give this book another look. It's actually a very exciting and interesting place to either start your characters out, or send your existing group to visit.

Nyambe is thorough in its presentation of a complete setting ready to use, with treatment of languages, trade, equipment, poison, and diseases, as well as the expected classes, gazetteer entries, and history. The layout is compelling, and much of the art is very nice.

One of the best things about this book is that it doesn't fall into the trap of so many other D&D/d20 "real-world-analog sourcebooks." It doesn't sacrifice game play for cultural or historical realism. D&D, after all, is only as historically accurate as makes for fun fantasy gaming. One should, in my opinion, expect no pseudohistorical sourcebook to be any more accurate about its subject matter than the Player's Handbook is accurate to medieval European life. Nyambe presents a wide range of races and interesting fantasy classes, magic items, monsters, and more. It isn't restrictive, slavishly keeping to African history or myth, but rather expansive, focusing on the feel and flavor of the setting without sacrificing any of the aspects of gameplay that we need.

You'll be surprised, for example, how well creatures like dragons and orcs fit into the setting. If you like to play wizards, you'll take to playing a Mchawi or a Sei quickly, and find them very flavorful and fun. The biggest change you'll have to get used to is the restrictions on armor. Natives don't wear much in the way of armor, because of the penalties involved in wearing it in the heat. This means that armor classes are never very good, and to make matters worse spells and items that confer an Armor Class bonus are also rare. (This latter ruling, I think, was an attempt at balance, but I think it was a mistake.)

Even if you don't need a location sourcebook at all, this book offers some interesting new spells, feats, items, classes, prestige classes, and monsters. For example, I think you'll find Dembe monster hunter prestige class easy to adapt for any campaign, and some of the cool monsters like the Lau (a huge snake with tentacles and a paralyzing gaze) or the Ngojama demon (a bestial outsider with mouths in the palms of its hands) good additions too. And that's just for starters. This is good stuff, and it's got a feel and flavor that's different from most of the material that's out there.

Monsternomicon
You would think that Privateer Press was writing something directly for my personal campaign when they published Monsternomicon. In my game, there are firearms, gear-driven clockwork machines, and other "steampunk" elements. Well, so too in the Iron Kingdoms, a Privateer Press setting. They have already published three adventures for it, and now this big compendium of monsters. Monsternomicon is 240 pages long and hardcover. It contains about 100 monsters, three prestige classes, and some information on the cosmology and the world.

Mostly, though, it's a monster book. And let me tell you, these monsters are KAH-OOL with a capital "KAH." Of course, part of what makes them so cool is the amazing illustration work. I'm not one to buy a book for the art, but in the case of this particular book, I'd consider plunking down 30 bucks for just the illustrations. Not only does each monster come with at least two cool pictures, but also a silhouette size diagram showing a comparison with a human to give you an idea of how big it is.

There are two kinds of monster books, in my estimation. You have something like the 3rd Edition Monster Manual, which simply presents as many monsters as possible in whatever space it has, and you have something like TSR's Planescape Monstrous Compendiums, which contain lots of flavor text, legends, and whatnot about the monster. Monsternomicon falls squarely into the latter category. If you're in the market for a new monster book, and you're just looking for sheer number of monsters, you'll be much better off buying Wizards of the Coast's Monster Manual II. Monsternomicon, for example, devotes two full pages to the Raevhan buffalo, which is basically a big mean bovine. The book gives lots of flavor text, fiction snippets, quotes, adventure hooks, and legends with each monster. If that doesn't rankle you -- or better yet, if that sounds good -- you'll like this book.

If I have any criticism beyond the occasional rules quibble, it would be that the monsters lack variety. There are lots of humanoids and monstrous humanoids in this book, which is something that d20 has no shortage of already. Of course, the book implicitly implies that, with its different trolls and goblins, you would use it instead of the Monster Manual or other sources. I don't know how true that really is, though.

As a personal bias, I also didn't care for the fact that rather than standard treasure entries, most monsters include a couple of paragraphs explaining how you can use their blood as a salve and their claws as weapons, and so on. Not only do I not particularly like this taxonomical approach to treasure, but the results of it will throw your characters out of whack regarding how much treasure one expects a PC of a given level to possess. A small point, but worth noting.

Let me stress, though, these are minor criticisms. Monsternomicon is a very cool book. I particularly like the iron lich, an undead spellcaster that relies on souls and necromantic fuel to power itself and its spells, and the totem hunter, who can draw strength from the stolen life energy of others. The sepulchral lurker is also a nasty new type of undead, and the tentacled thrullg absorbs magic from the victims it grabs.

You won't be disappointed with this book on your shelf, and if your campaign leans toward the steam-punkish . . . well, you pretty much have to have it.

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