Jungles of Zerzua

Jungles of Zerzua is a sword and sorcery fantasy RPG. The aim is for it be centered in some African fantasy, because it seems like it could be cool and is also an underserved niche. Really anything that seems cool would be pulled in, regardless of how anachronistic. For example, Nubian history runs back to at least 2000 BC, some of the interesting things from Zulu history are from the 1820s. Cool West African Kingdoms... etc. I would prefer to keep the setting broadly pre-Muslim/pre-Christian, in so much as history is paid attention to at all. There is also the question of the Mediterranean and interactions that all happened around there, be it Roman, Greek, or the Egyptians and groups like the Hittites, etc. I guess, remember that it is fantasy and sword and sorcery pulling from cool African stuff more than the usual stuff, and its not trying to be historical, it's just that there are a lot of cool things from history that could be used as inspiration.

The Sword & Sorcery vibes inform the background choices. It is a world where a single strong person can make significant impact. Civilization is a thin veneer. There may be hints of previous, now fallen grand civilization, but for the most part things are now on a smaller scale. Old previously exalted things may now just be decadent shadows of their former glory. Most leaders are little more than warlords.

Possible historical empires of interest

• Kingdom of Kush: South of Egypt, had pyramids and a ton of history. Was a major power from about 1070 BCE to 350 CE!
• Axum Empire: Northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, ran from about 100 to 940 CE. Had obelisks, which is always a plus! King converted to Christianity in the early 4th century. Had ties to the Arabian penninsula.
• Kingdom of Ghana: Also known as the Wagadou, thrived from around the 6th to 13th century. Had gold, dealt with trade between the Sahara and deeper into Africa. Cool myths.
• Kingdom of Zimbabwe: Had some cool stone structures. Flourished from about the 11th to 15th centuries. Had some connections with the Indian Ocean trade network.
• Benin Empire: In modern day Nigeria, cool art and bronzework. Flourished from 11th century until the Brits showed up in the late 19th century.
• Pre-Islamic Berbers? They had a lot of contacts over time, from the Romans to the later spread of Islam. Some unique architecture bits.
• Zulus and various other pre-colonial tribes of southern Africa: Interesting stuff in this whole mix.
• No way at all to do any kind of historical justice to these influences. In fact, I'm just trying to find influences outside of generic Euro Medieval-esque mish-mash. Wanting to lean into the Sword and Sorcery, strong central authorities will generally not be a focus. Phoneicians, for example, are cool, and Greeks in city-state form are cool. Roman empire is too centralized. Maybe Hittites and Egyptians can get in the mix, if we imagine them in weakened form due to a fictionalized take on the late bronze age collapse.

Rules Ruminations

My current rules inclination is inspired by my d6 "Excelsior Endeavor" implementation, which is basically a way of doing TSR Marvel Super Heroes using a d6 mechanic. But also, there is a new retro-clone coming out called "Heroic" that uses some ideas that are also reminiscient of the TSR Conan RPG I'm also liking. Basically, that you roll based relative to the difficulty of the task you are facing, instead of just rolling straight up on a chart based on your absolute Attribute rating. This is a very bare beginning that needs a lot of fleshing out.

• Let's start with that MSH/Excelsior Endeavor style of Attribute layout: Fighting, Reflexes, Strength, Conditioning, Instincts, Reasoning, Will. Normal folks have ratings from 1 to 5 for the most part. They can conceptually be thought of as Fighting, then Physical Finesse, Power and Resistance, then Mental Finesse, Power and Resistance. MSH Combat is the base, as far as Attribute use assumptions.
• To remind, the die mechanic is thus: A base roll is 1 Null Die + 3 Dice (d6). Compare your Attribute (plus any modifications due to Talents or whatever) to the difficulty or resistance, and modify your pool based on the difference, adding or subtracting dice. No matter how difficult, you always get to roll the null die. Each die that rolls a 6 scores. If the null die scores, it is rolled again to see if it rolls another 6, and scores again if it does so, so long as 6s continue to be rolled. If no 6s are rolled on a test and the Null die is a one, a fumble occurs. Otherwise, a score of 1 is like a Green Result, a score of 2 a Yellow Result, a score of 3 a Red Result and a score of 4 or more shifts the effect up 1 rank per score above 3. These results are inspired by the old TSR Marvel Super Heroes to start, but will be tweaked to fit the genre. Also, results for other tests outside of combat may be specified by color level, just to give guidance.
• Seeing as the game uses just d6, maybe something can be done with Bravery, reputation and reaction tables akin to Boot Hill as described here: Reputation. Will seems like the attribute most like Bravery in Boot Hill. Also... where MSH has Karma, a sword and sorcery game demands something different.
• Magic inspirations are: Stormbringer (Demon Summoning, petitioning of other powers), Sorcerer (Demon stuff), MSH Basic (use of attributes, Personal, Universal & Dimensional powers), Talislanta 4e (the various schools and their trappings, etc.), TSR Conan (it's dangerous and costly, the variety of magics covered), Mythras (systems for a variety of magics), and maybe just a small touch of Palladium Fantasy (variety of casters), or TFT (Illusions, costly magic).