D&D Neep Dept.: Nyambe and the Scry Skill
Dec. 17th, 2004 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kent_allard_jrSomewhy I never bought Nyambe: African Adventures by Atlas Games, though I'm a sucker for that kind of product. Well, I just picked it up, and I think it was wonderfully well-done. I would've preferred a sourcebook on the "real" Africa, not the pseudo-Africa of Nyambe, but few people read anthropology textbooks for fun, so I may be a market of one here.
Anyway, Nyambe made several clever little tweaks to the D&D 3.0 rules. One was an expansion of the (now abandoned) Scry skill. In Nyambe, Scry wasn't only used for the Scrying spells, it was also used for reading omens. If the DM wished, he could throw out an omen (say a green gazelle) and if a PC made a successful Scry check, the DM would tell him what the omen revealed ("watch out for the plague"). While this application was specific to a pseudo-African setting, you could expand the idea to just about any culture. Most of the pre-scientific world was obsessed with astrology, for example, and one could use the Scry skill to make a proper horoscope. Yes, I'm sure one could use "Profession (Astrology)" instead, but it makes sense for a common skill like Scry to be used when divination is an integral part of everyday life.
Anyway, Nyambe made several clever little tweaks to the D&D 3.0 rules. One was an expansion of the (now abandoned) Scry skill. In Nyambe, Scry wasn't only used for the Scrying spells, it was also used for reading omens. If the DM wished, he could throw out an omen (say a green gazelle) and if a PC made a successful Scry check, the DM would tell him what the omen revealed ("watch out for the plague"). While this application was specific to a pseudo-African setting, you could expand the idea to just about any culture. Most of the pre-scientific world was obsessed with astrology, for example, and one could use the Scry skill to make a proper horoscope. Yes, I'm sure one could use "Profession (Astrology)" instead, but it makes sense for a common skill like Scry to be used when divination is an integral part of everyday life.
