Inspired by the popularity explosion in tabletop gaming - and further validated by the difficulties faced trying to bring together a party during the pandemic - The Wagadu Chronicles presets a strictly “role-play first” focus to create a welcoming space for role-players and those who are learning role-play by way of proactive, thought-through moderation.

The Wagadu Chronicles – the Role-Play-first Afrofantasy MMORPG brings back the “role-play” to the genre. A magnificent African-inspired RPG where NPC’s are actually other players, The Wagadu Chronicles invites players to immerse themselves in a unique fantasy setting where every character from sorcerer to sailor is invested in their character and acts accordingly to the lore of their people and craft. Explore and participate in an ever-changing world, where land and status will evolve and change over time. Adapt and develop alongside the world and its inhabitants in an MMORPG experience with uniquely developed skill trees, village management and craft systems built to create rich characters full of memories and quirks which can impact the world and ecosystem in little and large ways.

With its roots in the mythology, peoples and geology of the African continent, drawing references from many African nations including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Mali, Congo and Kenya the game sets out to not only create a safe-space away from the aggressive, combat focus of many player driven MMORPG worlds but also to address an imbalance the developers saw in a genre over-saturated with Euro and Asian-centric fantasy.

The Alpha-2 is fast approaching and developer Twin Drums is already gearing up to welcome you all back into Wagadu again for a 2 week trip at the end of Summer (12th September - 26th September).

"We have a ton of new features that we’re, of course, VERY excited for you to try out as well as some improvements to features that were already presented in Alpha-1."

All Kickstarter backers, who pledged at levels with Alpha-2 testing rewards needn’t worry about applying, you will automatically be contacted with the next steps for this run. If you do happen to know someone who would like to participate then please spread the word, the more the merrier as they say (application does not automatically assure participation)!

Fans interested in joining the Alpha test can sign up here.

These are some of the features we’ve added for Alpha-2:

• Farming of African-inspired crops
• Color-dyeing clothes and craftable items
• Revamped combat moves for all weapons
• And a fishing rhythm-game (yes, you dance so fish spirits reward you!)

Diversity and moving away from the ethnonationalism typical to many MMORPG titles is key to the philosophy behind The Wagadu Chronicles  - a player’s culture and, to a degree, their role-play priorities aren’t tied to their physical appearance. A horned “Swala” woman, rather than belonging to a stereotypical Herder culture, might belong to a death-worshiping Lunar culture -  the only way to know is to role-play and ask! Players can freely match any lineage with any culture, coming up with a vast array of interesting role-playing combinations.

This high degree of customisation also gives the freedom for characters to not be strictly divided in classes but rather created from a variety of skills that can be leveled up individually. Do you want to be a swashbuckling fisher or a wizard-smith-farmer? You got it!

The Wagadu Chronicles was successfully funded on Kickstarter back in 2019 as well as attracting attention, and investment, from Riot Games as part of their Underrepresented Founders Program.

The Wagadu Chronicles is coming to PC in 2023.