Being stalked by a Lion? Chased by an ornery water buffalo? No problem - just use the following rules and you can bag yourself a trophy in no time!

As everyone knows, when a wild animal attacks the explorer's party, the animal invariable heads straight for the explorer himself. This is because animals can smell management experience. Anyone who gets in the way is just grist for the mill. Usually one or two bearers will get killed but the explorer will eventually off the beast with a slug from his double-barreled .455 nitro-express elephant gun. Oh yes, if there is a woman with the party the beast will go for her instead of the explorer. She will get stuck in/on something, but the explorer will save her.

Simulating the thrills and chills of a wild animal attack is fairly simple as long as you stick to the basics. The basics are:

1) You never see it until it's too late
2) Normal weapons don't affect it
3) It can defy the laws of physics
4) It can make people forget things, like how to run away

First it must be determined whether the attack is at night or during the day. Cats attack at night. Water buffalo, giant apes and rhinos/hippos attack during the day (rhino by land, hippo by sea). Crocodiles and prehistoric things can go either way. Use your own judgement for other animals. If the attack is during the day, then the expedition is on the trail. If at night, then the expedition is in camp. Set up the figures in the center of the board and arrange terrain according to the area of the country and the animal type. For example, if this is a crocodile or hippo attack, then a body of water needs to be close by. Since this kind of animal is incredibly smart - usually smarter than the explorer - you can assume that it will only attack when there is sufficient cover around for it to approach surreptitiously. So, sprinkle trees, rocks and bushes liberally over the game board.

Phase 1: the scream

From out of nowhere, the animal appears and attacks a member of the expedition, usually a bearer. The explorer is never attacked first. A loud scream is heard. The animal disappears. Everyone rushes to see what happened. The mangled body of the victim is examined (roll on the "mangling" table below). Superstitious bearers get wide-eyed. The explorer sets his jaw and tells everyone to stay calm and keep a good lookout. The player arranges his figures as he wants.

Phase 2: the stalking

Now place 6 d6 on the table, equally spaced and roughly surrounding the party. Make sure each one shows a unique number (i.e. 1-6). The distance each die is from the party depends on several factors. Basically the lower the visibility, the closer the dice should be. So at night in the jungle, the dice should be about 6" away; during the day on the veldt, about 24" away.

Phase 3: the attack

Roll a d6. The beast suddenly appears at the same numbered die marker on the game board. Roll 2d6. The animal moves that number of inches towards the nearest expedition member. If there's any doubt, the animal moves in the direction that would put it closer to the explorer (or any woman in the party, of course). However, if the dice total is 8 or greater it vanishes back into the jungle (veldt, river, whatever). To put it another way, if the dice total is less than 8, the animal moves that number of inches. If the total is 8 or more, the animal appears fleetingly and then disappears. If the animal moves, expedition members have an opportunity to react. Roll a d6 for each expedition member except the explorer and any extra Europeans under another player's control. They can control their own reactions.

Roll in the following order:

Roll for and move (as required) all bearers and women
Roll for and move (as required) all guides/askari. Askari that remember their muskets may shoot or reload as necessary. If they have no target, they may move instead.
All explorers and extra Europeans may move or shoot.

Die Roll	Guides/Askari	Bearers/Women
1	Frozen in terror	Frozen in terror
2	Frozen in terror	Frozen in terror
3	Runs away	Frozen in terror
4	Runs away	Runs screaming
5	Remembers musket	Runs screaming
6	Remembers musket	Runs screaming
Veterans get a +1, while sterlings get a +2

Movement is d6 inches for everyone. There is no range limitation to shooting, but the line of sight must not be blocked. Guides/askari that have fired once may not fire again until they have reloaded. They may reload the next time they get a result of "remembers musket". Figures that run screaming will run directly away from the animal regardless of the direction that the animal is moving.

The animal continues to move until it reaches someone or 8 or more is rolled on its movement dice. Whenever the animal contacts any member of the party, roll on the mangling table for the victim. The beast then disappears into the jungle (or whatever). When 8 or more is rolled on the animal's movement dice, and after each time the animal contacts a member of the party, it disappears and reappears next turn at a different die marker, randomly determined. It doesn't matter how far away the new location is (defies physics, remember?)

Now this is key - each time the beast appears at one of the numbered markers, that marker is removed from play. In this manner the possible entry points for the animal are slowly whittled down, so eventually the player will know exactly where the beast will appear. If it ever does come to this, and the beast appears at the last die marker, normal rules are bypassed and the beast charges straight for the explorer, moving the total on two dice each turn, no disappearing. If the explorer is killed, the game is over. If the explorer survives a roll on the mangling table, consider it a draw. If the beast is killed, then the explorer wins (pyrrhic though it might be).

The end result of this game is should be a lot of people running in every direction (some of them right into the path of the beast, let's hope), with a valiant few attempting to track the beast and kill it.

Die Roll	Mangling	Askari shot	Explorer shot
1	Ugh. Not enough left to bury.	Miss	Miss
2	Looks fine, but where's the head?	Miss	Miss
3	I didn't know bodies had so much blood in them.	Miss	Miss
4	Now his nickname is "Lefty."	Miss	Miss
5	Nasty scars, but otherwise okay (if gangrene doesn't set in).	Miss	Hit
6	Not a scratch but fainted dead away.	Hit	Hit

Of course, the explorer should get a +1 on the mangling chart. Other modifiers are at the umpire's discretion. In most cases, we'll consider a hit on the beast as a kill. If for some reason the player wants to capture the beast, roll a d6 and on a 1-3, the animal is captured instead of killed. (Giant apes and prehistoric creatures do have some commercial value.)

With apologies to the Fox Network