Okay. Here goes. As you might guess it is a game about exploring and adventuring in Africa. Comes in a nice sturdy box. This contains:
- Thick GM's Guide.
- Almost equally thick Players' Guide.
- Nice little Catalogue of Goods printed on beige-coloured paper and done in period style.
- "Gazeteer on the Principal PERSONALITIES and important PLACES of the Island of Zanzibar with helpful Advice and Notes on various Subjects & contributions from noted EXPLORERS and SCHOLARS of the region."
- Map of East Africa (roughly modern-day Kenya and Tanzania).
- Map of Abyssinia.
The Zanzibar gazeteer is pretty much what the title says it is. Nice little player hand-out really, has some pictures and a map of Zanzibar town. The two maps have detail around the edges but the interior is mostly blank, the players are left to fill in what they discover to be there.
The game has provision for lots of character types and nationalities, and the different nationalities bring different benefits, based on the stereotype image of each nation. You also gain benefits based on your background. There is a pretty comprehensive list of skills (or competences, as the game calls them).
As befits a game centred on exploration, your expedition has its own set of stats (and gets its own character sheet), such as STR (how many Askari you have), EMP (how the locals feel about having you tramping across their lands, this will change based on your actions in previous villages as word gets around), and others that decide such things as movement rate, endurance etc.
There is quite a detailed section on just getting the expedition from A to B, including navigation, interacting with locals, dwindling food supplies etc. When conducting strategic movement there are a number of actions that the expedition can perform, and each eat up different amounts of time: such as moving, trading, forced marches, drilling your askari, preparing a defensive position, looking for food, etc.
It's something I've never really experienced in a RPG much before, to have this kind of narrative stuff regimented by stats in the game quite like this. My role-playing has usually been of the more storytelling kind. I would say "You march for so-and-so many weeks. One day you come across..." Never much bothering with march rates and supply consumption unless it actually aided the plot. This bean-counting approach is new to me. Not sure if it's my thing or not, but I'm sure some people will like it.
In addition to your standard melee rules there is a mass combat system, so your expedition can chastise a whole village of Masai, if a Carl Peters mood takes you.
As to the Pulp-or-Historical question, well that's up to the GM. The GM's book has rules for African magic, creepy cults and all sorts of supernatural goings-on. But the GM decides whether these are "real" or mere superstition.
There are two quite large adventures included, one set in Abyssinia, one involving the Masai.
All in all you get quite a bit for your money, loads of background info, and pretty detailed rules (almost too detailed). I'll tell you how it actually plays once I've actually played it. Our RPG revival still hasn't got off the ground yet.
24 March 2025, 11:04:18 PM