written by lee garvin
published by west end games
96 pages
$15.00

West End Games is king of the movie tie-in. Star Wars, Men in Black, Species, and everybody's favorite tomb robber... er, heroic archaeologist, Indiana Jones, are all products of this company, and they try hard to give their source material the justice it deserves. Magic & Mysticism: The Dark Continent, a sourcebook for the Indiana Jones RPG, is no exception.

The book is packed with all sorts of sorcerous goodies, with game statistics for the Indy RPG, but also ready for insertion into any 30's pulp adventure game. Laid out as a scholarly text by British explorer Adrian Braidthwaite, the book switches regularly from academic discussion of primitive ritual magic to blurbs of game mechanics discussing how to apply African magic to a campaign.

Three different types of magic are discussed in the book. The first section deals with witchcraft, which the book defines as magic-users who have but one particular "gift", or power. Such witches are usually hermits, living on the outskirts of a village, the objects of concern and distrust. The book includes rules on witches powers, from the standard Evil Eye to my favorite, the Breath of Hate.

Each section is accompanied by running dialogue from the explorer Braidthwaite, who shares an eyewitness account of the Breath of Hate and it's effect on an angry group of warriors in the witchcraft section.

Within each section also lie details on the powers relevant to each type of spell-user. Each power is given an African name with an English translation. Then detailed are such things as casting time, range, duration, required components, and so forth. This section also includes details on how to fake the different powers, in case the players want to do a look impressive, or in case the GM just wants to freak his players out when they face a clever tribesman.

After the witch section comes a section on Shamanism, and shamanic magic. This is a widely accepted form of magic in Africa, and Shamans are often accorded the utmost respect. Where witches will be found living on the outskirts of a village (when they are tolerated at all), the shaman is often one of the chief's closest advisors. The shamanic magic discussed in M&M is of the ritual, pre-planned variety. Braidthwaite's narration relates his experience with a shaman who made an entire village invisible to invaders.

The variety of rituals and other spells available to Shamans is huge, running the gamut from "mundane" to grotesque. Gbongosso's Call, for example, allows the Shaman to find water in time of need, while Embracing the Honored Foe calls for the Shaman to eat the still-beating heart of a foe, after which time the Shaman gains the foe's strongest skill for life. The third and final brand of magic in the book is Sorcery, the "Black Magic" of Africa.

Sorcerers are universally feared and distrusted, but a chief is quick to find one to point at his enemies when the need arises. While they may live within a village, they exist outside any definable social order. Sorcery combines the potentially deadly witchcraft with the rituals of shamanism. These spells are deadly, period. Voodoo dolls, magic wasps that fly at 10 miles a second, and turning a target's liver to stone are all sorcerous possibilities. The sorcerer Braidthwaite describes meeting was luckily a charlatan (who would rely heavily on the fakery section of each spell description).

Does the book end there? Of course not. What would any good book like this be without a sample adventure following the source material? This way, the characters get to deal with the magic of the dark continent firsthand. The Wrath of the Yantai will take the characters from the well groomed halls of English society into the depths of the Angolan jungles, and played right will leave them gasping for breath when all is said and done.

Magic & Mysticism : The Dark Continent is a great book, that deals well with it's topic, and its application need not be limited to the Indiana Jones game. Indeed, like many of the sourcebooks produced for the Indy RPG, much of this information could easily find its way into a Call of Cthulhu or GURPS Cliffhangers campaign. A well written book, and one that finally begins to shed some light on the magic of the dark continent.

visit the dark continent with a new pair of eyes...