Surveying the Rufiji River Delta

The Rufiji lies in current day Tanzania, just west of Zanzibar. The player's character should be English or German, but it really doesn't matter. The area eventually became German East Africa, but could just of easily been British. For our purposes, the player is young Lieutenant Reginald Pigsbottom, seconded from the Indian Army. The time is the 1860's. The goal is to map the delta of the Rufiji to see if it can be used for access to the interior of the continent. Lt. Pigsbottom gained experience in the late Indian Mutiny and deals fairly well with natives. He is fame = 1 and this is a level one mission. Reggie starts off in Zanzibar and recruits his party. Let's say it is of the composition described above (1 explorer, 1 extra European, 1 dubious guide, 4 askari and 8 bearers, all dubious. Hey, all the good guys went with Burton and Speke! The extra European is a down-on-his-luck American named Frederick Ward, who claims to have been in China. He convinces Reggie to take him along.

The party hires a dhow that carries them across the short passage to the mouth of the river. Now the umpire steps in. He determines that the party will have to explore two territories and fully survey them both for the expedition to be a success. He doesn't have to tell the player this, though. The deck of cards is placed on the table and the first card is bravely turned over. It is:

Interact with Natives. Just as you step ashore, a group of menacing yet curious natives approaches. A first contact roll is made. The umpire considers - "Hmm, these natives have certainly seen Europeans before, will that influence how they react? I say that so far, the European influence has been positive, what with all the trade goods and whatnot. The hatred and resentment will come later." So the umpire gives the player a +1 on the die roll. He rolls a 3, which becomes a 4, which is still neutral. No matter, the completion of the mission does not require the friendship of the natives.

The next card is drawn: Encounter Scary Wildlife (I love this card!) The umpire and the player can mutually decide whether to play this or roll the dice for a quick resolution. The umpire decides that since we're mapping a river, the beastie is automatically a crocodile. Or you could roll randon-dy and try to rationalize what a giant ape is doing in the delta of the RufiJi River. If you decide to play it out, you can use my rules "When Animals Attack," or any other set, I don't care. In this case, the player rolls the die. The umpire decides to give him a +1 since there is an extra European in the party who has a modem weapon and is a good shot. The end result is that Reggie's party loses a bearer, but kills the offending animal.

Next card: Survey the Territory. Finally Reggie gets some work done! He rolls a die to determine his progress. The umpire decides that although the terrain is heavy and jungly, the movement benefits bestowed by the river make up for it. No modifiers are made to the die roll. Reggie rolls a 3. He has the beginnings of a map, but still has lots of work to do.

Next card: End of Turn. Now the player rolls 1 or more dice, depending on where he is in Africa, to see how long all the proceeding actions took. The umpire can modify the number of dice if circumstances merit it. For instance, if a river is available for travel it might lower the time needed. In this case, although the river is present, the nature of the mission means that it doesn't decrease the time. The player rolls 1 die and rolls a 4. Now the cards are reshuffled and the process of drawing them starts over.

The first card drawn is: Encounter Warband./Slavers! First off, the umpire decides that since the party is so close to Zanzibar, the hostiles are automatically slavers. Secondly, the umpire decides (because he just happens to have some nice dhow models) that the encounter is a naval one, on the Rufiji River. The player rolls the die to determine the size of the slaver's force and gets a 3, which comes out to 5 muskets, 5 bows and 8 spears. The player has 2 rifles (explorer and extra European) and 5 muskets (guide plus 4 askari). The bearers don't count. The slavers are naturally cowardly, but decide they can defeat the expedition. They steer their dhow on a collision course for Reggie's! The dhow models only hold 10 figures, so the slaver puts his first 10 on deck and uses the remainder as replacements. On Reggie's side, at least he knows his askari and bearers can't run away! To fight the battle you can use my rules "Roll to your Rifle" or your own set. I think you should use mine, though.

That's all for the example. Assuming Reggie wins the fight he goes on and finishes mapping the territory. His bearers refuse to go any further up river, so he lets them go and bravely strikes out into the next territory. He spends several weeks living on the dhow while he negotiates with the next tribe for more bearers. That done, he starts mapping again, discovers a major geographical feature (which he names Mt. Pigsbottom), fights off a native warband and returns home a success. His fame goes up to 2. But then Ward tries to steal all the glory. Eventually the two duel, but both miss. Ward snaps and attacks Reggie at a cricket match. Reggie falls into a coma after taking a blow to the head from a cricket bat. Ward is committed to the Asylum. Unfortunately, not every story has a happy ending.

Game Notes

Knowledgeable readers will notice that this game makes no mention of "hongo", the term given to the bribes given to native chiefs for passage through their territory. This is because, again, this is a wargame not a roleplaying game. The negotiating process is long and boring, so I included it in other phases of the game. The umpire is free to expand on this, or any other aspect of the game.

References:

Africa Explored, by Christopher Hibbert
The Man who Presumed, by Byron Farwell
Through the Dark Continent, by H. M. Stanley
The Scramble for Africa, by Thomas Pakenham

More Campaigning

Campaigning in Darkest Africa: Introduction
Campaigning Phase 1: The Mission
Campaigning Phase 2: The Party
Campaigning Phase 3: The Adventure
Campaigning Sample Campaign
Campaigning Cards (very slow: 290K)