Any news on Congo 2??

[Sir Rodney Ffing]

Kommando -  I have thought about having a go too, but hoped that the Congo campaign would spare me the effort, as well as likely being better than anything I could come up with myself. 

Last year I managed to obtain a copy of an out of print RPG, Dark Continent, which has plenty of good background, some usable ideas and even blank maps that can be filled in as you explore east Africa.  It is intended to be GM driven around scripted adventures though, so isn't set up for what I want and needs mechanisms to generate random but plausible events.  One day.....

But with your master's thesis behind you, you sound very well placed to produce something on those lines.  And if you key it into Sharp Practice, I bet Lardy Rich would be interested in publishing it!   

[Plynkes]

Sir Rodney, there is a game called "Adventures in Jimland" that does this type of thing. You explore a grid and encounters, discoveries, events and terrain are randomly generated as you go. It might be possible to use only the campaign aspect of these rules, ditching the combat system and substituting your own, such as Congo. The idea is that each player has an expedition (that has to be outfitted at the beginning, and you need porters, trade goods for gifts and such), but also plays the natives when their rival gets into a fight.

It would probably be a bit of work converting it to work with Congo, but less work than starting from nothing. Note, I haven't actually played the game myself, so cannot exactly vouch for it. But it might be worth checking out. As you might suspect if you see the cover, you would have to remove dinosaurs from the animal encounter table, as it does have a slightly VSF "Lost World"  thing going on there. But with that removed it could be played entirely as a non-fantastic game.

Dark Continent is a really nice product. I have a copy myself. Never actually played it, but I'm glad I got it just for the read.

[Kommando_J]

We think alike Plynkes, I bought Congo hoping it would give me my explorer 'fix', wasn't quite what I had hoped tbh.

I also have a copy of the Dark Continent rpg for the same purpose...and two months of fuck all to do, it would seem fate has spoken!

[Sir Rodney Ffing]

Plynkes - thanks for the great tip.  I hadn't heard of "Adventures in Jimland" before, but found it easily with Google and it seems to be the kind of thing I am aiming for.  Some work to do certainly, but a time saver and a good start.

Kommando - go on, you know you want to!

[SteveBurt]

There's a nice (free) map campaign for 'Death in the Dark Continent' which would probably work with Congo. Each faction gets its own track on the map.

[TWD]

Plynkes - thanks for the great tip.  I hadn't heard of "Adventures in Jimland" before, but found it easily with Google and it seems to be the kind of thing I am aiming for.  Some work to do certainly, but a time saver and a good start.

Jimland is good fun. I think it ought to be relatively easy to substitute different units from the Congo rules for the various randomly encountered tribesmen from Jimland. I say I think because although I've played Congo I don't own the rules.
And as Plynkes says if you just leave out the dinosaurs (and lizardmen, skeletons, yetis...) from the encounters list you can play perfectly "normal" Darkest Africa type games.
There's two or three Jimland (or in my case Tombogo) AAR's over on my blog if that helps
http://tomstoysoldiers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Tombogo

[Infman]

Up on pre order on the Foundry site!

[SteveBurt]

My copy arrived today, along with the miniatures. Looks very nice. More when I've had a chance to read it

[SteveBurt]

A quick review after a read through.
First, the miniatures are very nice. I got the box with the animals and extra characters at vast expense from Foundry, and the supplement also comes with two figures for Mary and the sorcerer.
The supplement itself I found a little underwhelming, although I'm not entirely sure why.
It has a nice campaign system with a series of linked scenarios, plus the ability to advance you main character and gather extra reinforcements for your column. There's a time constraint as well (which can be mitigated by using bearers).
Between scenarios you decide what route to take and roll on different tables - higher risk routes are faster.
There's a bunch of extra rules for the new animals, all fun, and the new characters.
There are new encounter tables which can be used instead of (or as well as) the existing ones.
There are some new terrain types (quicksand and such like)
At the end of the series of scenarios there's a sort of mini-game involving the two main characters who are trying to climb Mt Cameroon (Mary) or complete a ritual (the Sorcerer). That can add campaign VPs.
The scenarios are mostly symmetrical - both sides have the same objectives, and I think that's why I was a bit underwhelmed.
The nice thing about the scenarios with the main book is that most of them are asymmetrical (a couple are not).
I was expecting the campaign to be a contest between the two main characters with Mary confronting the sorcerer at the end, and either converting him to Christianity of she wins, or 'going native' if she loses, but it's not like that at all. The characters compete for resources in the scenarios, but they don't directly fight at the end.
I can't help feeling they missed a trick here - a 'ladder campaign' like Chain of Command would have been fun, with two sides (say White men and Zanzibaris) trying to reach and destroy the other's base through a series of asymmetrical scenarios.
So in conclusion, I don't feel the supplement is a waste of money, and some of the new scenarios look interesting, but I feel it could have been a lot better and indeed more generic than it is.

[Kommando_J]

Is the advance system just for the two characters?

[SteveBurt]

You can advance the other characters in your column as well, but most of the advances are reserved for the two principal actors in the drama (the game comes with 3 cards for each as they get more powerful)
There are some nice new characters (the doctor, the archeologist, the diviner and umm, forget what the other native character is)

[Drunkendwarf]

..............(the doctor, the archeologist, the diviner and umm, forget what the other native character is)

The wiseman  

DJ